SOUTHERN COMFORT

2-4 June 2013: Days 19 to 21 of 43 – Montgomery ALABAMA (State 9), Savannah GEORGIA (State 10), Charleston SOUTH CAROLINA (State 11).

Overnight in each city above.

Period 1,402km, Total 7,941km. 

2 June 2013 was a Sunday and we did what any God-fearing Southerner would do – we went to church! But not just any church. This one was a Baptist Church as big as half a football stadium! It looks like a giant UFO from the outside complete with a 30m high Statue of Liberty holding the words “America, Return to Christ”. The name of the church (or should I say “venue”) is “The World Overcomers” and we have nothing like it in Australia and probably the world! Several superbly dressed “ushers” meet you at the many entrances, greet you excessively but beautifully and then hand

you what looks like one of those small UHT milk containers except this one has a bread wafer on top and wine underneath. Yes, it is Holy Communion, ready to go, as soon as the Reverend gives the blessing, everyone breaks the seal and self-communes. Very efficient and necessary since this place holds up to 5,000 people!!! Inside people were immaculately dressed so we sat in the back with our shorts and sandals.  Everyone was Black American, standing up and waving their arms, clapping and singing to a full-on choir of 30 doing the same on a huge stage with a full 9 person orchestra including piano and sax.

Two huge overhead screens ran lyrics for the hymns. We did the same – it is infectious. What made this place great was simply the scale – it was like a concert. The South has the most spectacular display of clouds that we have ever seen so far. Combine this with a deep blue sky and a variety of greenery and you have the perfect setting for photos and film and an engaging drive. We got this all through the south driving around 5.5hrs between Memphis, Montgomery and Savannah. Charleston was only 2hrs up the Atlantic coast. Just 90 miles (145km) south-east of Memphis is

the little town of Tupelo MISSISSIPPI. On 6 January 1935, twin boys were born in a tiny fibro-cladded house measuring just five by ten metres. One of the twins was Elvis Aaron Presley. Sadly the other baby died shortly after birth. Vernon Elvis Presley was only 19 and Gladys Love Smith Presley 23 years old. Elvis was given his dad’s middle name and very early in life, every Sunday, his father took him to a small fibro-clad Baptist church, not much bigger than his childhood home and only 50 metres away. It is in this small church that the Elvis ear and voice was shaped around

the rich, harmonic Gospel music that took place – thank goodness the choir of the time sang in key as this was evidenced later in the marvellous Elvis style.   Vernon struggled to maintain a steady job in Tupelo, doing all sorts of odd jobs here and there and for many years the family lived on only corn bread, some veggies and water. Vernon and Gladys may have been very poor but they adored Elvis and were determined to see him have a good education. Elvis was determined to see that his parents had a better life in retirement. The family could not make ends meet in Tupelo  

because of the lack of work, so Vernon was forced to hand the house back to the bank and use whatever he had left over to move to Memphis in 1951 to get steady work. Elvis finished high school in Memphis in 1952 and took up a job delivering electronic components to local manufacturers around Memphis until the day Sam Phillips handed him that 3 year contract in 1954. The rest you know about. Thelma had purchased a double-CD of Elvis hits at Graceland that we played continuously throughout our Elvis pilgrimage so it was a sad moment turning it off after leaving Tupelo… Our last stop in Mississippi was in the historic town of Columbus (yes, there are 6 of them in the USA) where Tennessee Williams was born.

A tiny town with one main road and all wooden buildings. After seeing TW’s birth house it was across the border into Alabama. You can tell you are in Alabama. The accents here are very heavy and the pace much slower. Local farmers sell their produce at the roadside with peaches being the most common – a very orange flesh and sweet as. At one stage as we drove, I looked up and saw a Sherriff’s car just ahead and a landscape in front of it that looked exactly like a scene out of the comic movie “My Cousin Vinnie” starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomai.

I instantly filmed it for the many fans of this movie back home. I also made sure that Bubba did not accidently pick up something without paying for it in the run-down gas stations we stopped at – ba hah for those who know the movie. Montgomery (pop 224,119) was hot (100F or 38C), steamy but still the capital of Alabama. My run here was another sweatfest – I must have lost 2 litres of water. Downtown Montgomery was a real surprise. Huge, Greek-style, white marble Capital and State Government buildings surrounded by a red-brick old town. Tonight it was “Smoky Pit Ribs”, a specialty of Alabama. Our lovely waitress Montrella Young, pointed out the

huge cast iron oven or “pit”, fired by hickory wood, in which sit thick pork ribs cooked nice and slow. They are served with a wonderfully light and spicy sauce (on the side) so not as messy to eat. We loved it. The night was so warm we decided to drive around the Capital with the top down filming the city to the sounds of the New Orleans Blues CD that Thelma bought at club Maison. A great way to end day 19 on 2 June. Our 5.5hr drive from Montgomery ALABAMA to Savannah GEORGIA was under grey sky, 90F (32C) and jungle humidity and it is only spring. I hate to imagine what

summer is like – no thanks! Georgia is full of peaches, strawberries and some sugar cane. Green everywhere. Today was the only day so far on our trip that we did not have anything scheduled to see along the way. After arriving at our Savannah hotel we decided to wash up and head downtown. Savannah (pop 300,000) was established in 1733 by the Spanish as an alternative port to New Orleans which was occupied by the French. The Spanish ran rice from the port and imported many African Slaves to work the fields. Today almost half the residents are Black Americans and the port is the third largest in the USA. Our trolley driver, “Hollywood” was both informative and a scream, shouting at many locals in his deep southern accent and finishing most sentences with “Yes Um, Yes Sir”. Savannah is simply gorgeous. It is full of antebellum (this word means “before the Civil War”) mansions and full of stories.

Dr Martin Luther King started his preaching here and first read his famous “I have a Dream…” sermon at the Second African Baptist Church in the historic centre – he actually wrote it for his mum. Another nugget of a fact is the Christmas song “Jingle Bells” was written in this town – how ironic in a place that is like a sauna for nearly 11 months of the year!!! The trolley tour is mandatory since the historic town is huge and it is simply too steamy to walk it. Savannah is actually on a river of the same name and 18 miles (29km) from the Atlantic Ocean.What makes Savannah look especially good and unique are the many oak trees draped with Spanish Moss which when combined with the mansions, gives it a haunted, classic look, so much so that the movie “Forest Gump” was filmed here. Even though the town is timeless it has many bars and naughty places giving it the nickname of “a beautiful lady with a dirty face”.

It is also a city of many squares of oaks and flowers. No wonder – it is so hot that people use these to cool down. After 90 minutes of touring we needed to cool down but no park was going to do it – we needed cocktails! So we drove down to the cobbled street port and sipped on

cocktails as the sun set and massive container ships slipped by… 3 June ended with a Blackened Flounder covered in an apricot reduction and rice shaped pasta – sweet and spicy and the fish is much thicker than Ozzie flounder (sole). This is a characteristic dish of the area along with “She-Crab Soup” (crab, cream and sherry) and “Frogmore Stew” (pot boiled crab, shrimp, oyster with corn & potatoes). We capped off an excellent fish with the best ice-cream I have ever tasted in the USA – Leopolds, an institution in this city, established 1912 and considered in the top ten of ice-creameries in the world! 

The classic flavours are “Tooty Fruity” (tastes like Christmas Pudding) and “Butter Pecan”. What a cool way to end a steamy day… The next day we all woke up late because we were on Eastern Time (New York) and none of us had changed our alarm clocks. After a mad rush, day 21 started with a visit to Beaufort, half-way between Savannah and Charleston. It is a cute colonial town on an island surrounded by broad open marshland. It is like a mini-Savannah, complete with antebellum mansions, oaks with Spanish moss and high-class clothing shops, antiques and harbourside cafes. 

This place is obviously a holiday spot for the well-heeled from Savannah and Charleston (both only 1.5 hrs away). The “Gullah” culture is to Charleston what the “Creole” culture is to New Orleans. Gullah refers to the generations of mixed White European and Black African unions following the forceful introduction of many thousands of Black Africans from Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia and Angola (known as the African Rice Coast) who were brought here to work the rice fields that resembled their original fields in Africa. 

You might say that South Carolina and Georgia in the late 1700s became the USA Rice Coast. Gullah is also known as “Geechee” and has its own cooking and English-based Creole style language – sounds like Bislama but very high pitched and with a southern accent. Charleston (pop 120,000) has an old town that dates back to 1690 with numerous antebellum homes done in the French provincial style. Most have Cyprus pine cladding and others are rendered with scoring (lines) to simulate stone. 

Most have wrought iron balconies and gates. The bigger ones are actually built of stone and have courtyards complete with stables. Charleston was first founded and occupied by French Protestants (Huggenots), escaping the persecution of the French Catholics back in France. In then became the Washington DC (Capital) of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Since it is on the Atlantic coast it boasts a large naval base with aircraft carriers and even Bubba served here for 4 months back in 1975 when he was in the navy! Charleston was named after French Monarch Charles II.

The best way to see the old town is horse and carriage and our 60min ride took place in a typical tropical rain shower as is common in this part of the USA. Even so, we were able to take many photos under the carriage canopy. Following the tour, Bubba & Gump headed for the 2.5hrs ferry visit to Fort Sumter while Thelma and Louise opted for hotel and shopping thinking it would rain again. Fort Sumter is a 300m by 200m fortified island at the mouth of the Charleston Harbour where the American Civil War started at 4:30am on 12 April 1861.

The event is summarised at the end of the blog. The visit was well worth it, very informative and we were lucky there was no more rain. Thelma picked us up at 5pm and we headed to the hotel only 4 miles (6km) away across the huge Charleston Bridge. When I saw how close our hotel was to this huge 3km long and 120m high bridge I could not help myself but run across it. Only problem is that I ended up on the wrong side – one side had a walkway fenced off from traffic and the edge but my side was on the road with an edge barrier only waist high – the view was terrific.
 

As I made my way down the ramp on the other side, a noticed flashing lights out of the corner of my eye. It was the po-leece!!! Here I go again. Officer Russell pulled me up and informed me that I was using the wrong side of the bridge in the nicest possible southern accent. I told him I was from Australia and that I did not realise that there was a walkway until I saw it near the top of the bridge. He said this was a common mistake with visitors (he has ferried some 60 people a year to the other side) and asked me to “step inside the vehicle” so he could take me to the start of the walk-way on the opposite side. Before I

stepped into the police car he told me that he needed to ask me a protocol question: “Before I let you into the police car, do you have any guns, knives, explosives or any other weapons”. I was wearing cozzies only. I smiled and said “no but if I did where would I put them?” as I pointed to my cozzies. I climbed inside and we raced across the bridge. That car was powerful. A souped up Chevy V8. Once I stepped out, Officer Russell wished me a pleasant stay and I ran off back over the bridge – A nice encounter. When I got back to the hotel I entered another drama. Bubba had visited the loo and it flooded! They cleaned up and gave us keys to a free room next door. But that’s not all. Bubba decided to sleep in the spare room and at 1am, two guys enter the room (with keys) and they freak each other out. Turns out that the staff gave us the keys thinking that these guys were going to be a no-show. Bubba will not stop talking about it. Tonight was dinner-free night so Bubba and I drove off to Wal-Mart to pick up some lighter, healthier food options and return to the room to watch “Die Another Day”. Today, I had lived to run another day!  
THE FIRST SHOT (Summary of the start of the American Civil War): 

As y’all know, the American Civil War happened because the southern US states that used thousands of Black African Slaves to get rich on sugar, cotton and rice felt that newly elected Abraham Lincoln was going to abolish slavery and destroy their incomes. The South also felt that the North was hypocritical – taking a stance against slavery but happy to collect the taxes that they generated. As a result, Senator Jefferson Davis of that state announced in 1860 that they would leave the union (secede). Five other states followed.

Lincoln refused the secession and sent additional arms to Charleston fearing an uprising. At 4:30am on 12 April 1861, a canon shot was fired at the order of Confederate Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard from mainland Fort Louis towards the heavily fortified rocky outcrop of the Union held Fort Sumter, making a direct hit. This was later to be declared the first official act of the Civil War. Another 3,000 shots were fired over the next 34hrs and Beauregard then went on to surround Fort Sumter forcing Union Leader, Major Robert Anderson to surrender Sumter and Charleston to the Confederates on 14 April 1861.

By the way, Bubba’s name all through childhood and school was “Robert Anderson” (from Paris Robert Anderson) since the kids would say “Pear-Ass” instead of “Paris”. When Bubba told the museum attendant his name, she cried smiling: “Oh, you coward!” For the record the real Robert Anderson was not considered a coward and retired from the Union Navy with honour. On 7 November 1861, Lincoln made the difficult decision to officially declare the secession as treason and retaliate, thereby kicking off the Civil War on a grand scale. A total of 11 southern states formed the “Confederate States of America” and their first President was none other than Jefferson Davis who had spurred the whole thing on in the first place – he became President on 18 February 1861. It was not until 14 April 1863 that the Union would win back Fort Sumter and the city of Charleston under heavy bombardment which practically destroyed the city and killed many civilians – an act that many historians criticise siting that it was a deliberate act of revenge given the city’s past sin of leaving the Union.