Just outside Memphis I went to visit the Davie House Plantation. What a great museum with the most knowledgeable curator Kat. I arrived to find a sign on the door saying walk-in tours Friday to Sunday, Tuesday to Thursday by appointment please call, with a number.  I was so disappointed as I had checked that they were open. So, I called the number to see if I might be able to book a tour for later. Well Kat answered the phone and said give me 1 min to open the door I’m just in the back, and then proceeded to give me a 2-hour private tour. It was fascinating she knew so much and I asked a hundred questions.

The first thing she explained was that the big plantations we see in movies like Django and Gone with the Wind only comprised about 10% of the plantations at that time and belong to the wealthy upper-class. Then there were about 60% of the plantations that were like the Davies House plantation and considered middle class. They did grow cotton and the people owned slave, about 15 to 22 at one time, whereas the large plantations would have up to 100 or hundreds.

It was so interesting to learn how the house built in 1807 is still standing due to the way it was built and the materials used. It stated as a 1 room cabin built by the family and grew into the house there is today. I find it fascinating to see how people lived in the past, and am also super grateful that I live now and not back in those times. For example, when women prepared to give birth they prepared for death as well, because of the high rate of deaths in childbirth.

One of the many interesting stories Kat told me was that Ellen Davies wrote a lot of books and in one explained how her sharecropper Moses, who she often used as a Butler, was an amicable trustworthy man that she was fond of. However, from interviews with Moses daughter you hear the other side of the story about hose Moses was terrified of Ellen Davies. He did everything in his power to please her to keep on her good side and keep his family employed as share croppers on the property. Basically, sharecropping is like indentured work, so legal slavery without the cruelty. As it was explained to me.

The property itself is stunning and I got pretty close to some deer.

Tuesday, 31 May

I left Savannah this morning after having a small meet and greet with a homeless guy. He was really sweet he stopped outside the hotel when I was packing the bike and told me my bike was really nice. He asked how I could carry so much luggage, that he would struggle to carry even though he’s really strong. He then proceeded to show me how strong his arms were. He said he’s so strong because he’s a vet. He then said and with arms like these can I guess how old he is.

I didn’t want to guess as he looked about 70 but I was guessing by what he was saying that he probably wasn’t. He told me was 57 ”can you believe that”. Well I couldn’t but just said wow that’s impressive.

I’m pretty sure that he was homeless which is just very sad. He wished me a safe journey and all gods blessings and I rode out of Savannah.

I did ballpark about 450 km today about 400 on the interstate and then about the last 50 year off the interstate. The interstates are really great roads; huge, easy, good quality and hardly any traffic. So really easy to cruise along and no one sticks to the speed limit. Plus there are no speed cameras so I just cruise along at 75 to 80 miles/hour (113 to 120 km/h) I never really been a fan of the bigger Harleys style cruiser bikes as that is not my style, but I really do see the appeal on these big motorways. They must be really fun and would get you to places quickly.

When not riding off the interstate I found a mixture of some sweet towns like Newman and some very squirrelly looking one, very run down. Also a huge variety of houses from run down dumps to lovely looking family hones, to huge mansions. I especially love the South fork style mansion set well back on massive farms.

On Wednesday, 01 June. I carried on spending some time exploring roads off the interstate and also hopping on the interstate to just put some miles behind me. As usual when riding I spend a lot time thinking in my helmet and this trip is no different.

My thoughts on the USA so far: Not political as I don’t live in the US so have no interest in discussing US politics. Although I don’t want to say anything negative but I’ll start with a negative of which there is really only one thing… the food, the portions are ridiculous I know this from every trip I’ve made here but it still slaps me in the face and kind of gets to me as I end up wasting so much food. It’s also not the healthiest food by far. No vegetables and I love my vegetables. I’m not vegetarian but eat a lot of vegetarian food and have radically reduced the amount of meat I eat, but I do love my vegies.  Some of the food is really cheap not just in price but in quality. I went to the waffle House for example, and you know you have to tip 20% here, with tip  it cost me six dollars for waffle and it was awful so I won’t make a mistake again. When I arrived in Savannah I wanted to have a really good meal so I found a great restaurant and had one of the best meals I’ve ever had in this country. Scallops on couscous with broccoli and was the right portion and it was just absolutely fantastically cooked and cost me 36 bucks so with a tip we talking 50 bucks for a meal in America that is exorbitant and it’s yeah well it’s a… Swiss prices so that’s crazy. But I’d say on average for a ‘’good’’ meal I’m paying 15-30 bucks

 The other thing that’s really expensive as accommodation when I came to the state before, in 2016, I was paying on average $35-$55 and I think before the most I paid was $75. These are for the hotel just off the interstate for comparison.  Now I’m paying between $100 and $150, my average is $129. It’s just too ludicrous how expensive things are. Gas is a lot more expensive at $4.50 a gallon but still a lot cheaper than Switzerland which I think will work out to about $8 or $9 a gallon. But back to the food that’s again the negative thing is the quality and the sizes and trying to find healthy food. The hotel breakfasts are yeah hmm lots of cereal one of them had oat porridge which was cool that was good. They all have bananas and which is great. Every hotel so far has also served scones which are called biscuits here. So that I like to have coffee and scones and a banana. I had tried the yoghurt once (and I know you can get good yoghurt here as I had some at Matt and Mayas place) But in the hotel it was like strawberry jelly mixed with milk powder…. Hmm maybe that is how they made it yuck. I had a boiled egg in one hotel that the yoke was so pale it was almost white. It was a proper fresh boiled egg I de-shelled myself but completely tasteless. Every hotel also serves the food with paper plates and plastic cutlery. There is plastic everything everywhere, and almost zero recycling. I’m not sure where the environmental movements are I see on the news but they sure are not driving around this country.

There are pockets of places where I have seen a lot of garbage on the interstates, but mostly the countryside is very clean. I often see people walking along the roads cleaning up, and there are notices indicating who sponsors the roads, so I guess they keep them clean. Not sure why that is needed I mean just throw your trash in a bin people.

Right to the other side of what I noticed here. People are friendly, really friendly, and polite. It’s not just the homeless guy who chatted to me but I’ve met soooooo many nice friendly people just in gas stations. It’s cool 😊

There is also soooooo much space here. I just love riding along and seeing these huge wide open spaces, it really does the heart good and puts me in a great mood every day. It’s a beautiful place and green as anything. I have seen some stunning birds and deer. I saw a few racoons at Ants place and many many squirrels everywhere. I just love it.

Riding to Memphis I crossed from Georgia to Alabama and eve a tiny bit of Mississippi before entering Tennessee. I think I’m going to get to see a lot of the US and the North, mid, South , East and West are very very different.

Just outside Memphis in the suburb of Bartlett I did some more house exploring.

 

Leaving fort Myers in the heat I opted to stick to the Interstate at I had about 750kms to Savannah Georgia, which I’d do in 2 days. It was hot but the US interstates are fantastic so little traffic, no one sticks to the speed limit, just easy cruising along and the kms zip by. Being on the interstate I didn’t see much except a lot of bikers on big Harley cruisers and BIG trucks. I did howe er see a couple of dead armadillos 😦 and one very live deer running in a filed.

After about 400kms I stopped for the night in Gainesville.

I did get to thinking how things have changed over the years in my travels. When I was at uni and travel and one summer worked in a game park my folks & boyfriend had to live with snail mail and the odd phone call. Now you think my typing, spelling and grammar are bad… You ain’t seen my spider crawl handwriting.

My first big trip was my gap year in 1991 when I worked on a ski resort in Vermont and then backpacked around the states and Canada for a year. There was no social media and my parents had to be happy with a weekly, sometimes monthly phone call and a few post cards. Same thing a few years later when I backpacked SE Asia. Then we at least had internet cafes and I could send a few friends and family emails.

Last night I FaceTimed with my hubby. It was awesome and I miss him, but thanks to the net we get to stay in touch. Other than keeping in touch with Joern, all this connectedness can be as much a curse as a blessing.

Yesterday while taking a break I got a text from Joern saying “I saw that, Dunkin Donuts. Big brother is watching” …why did I give him a location link to my phone

This is my seventh trip to the United States in my entire life and as far as cities or towns go savannah in  Georgia is the best I’ve seen so far. it’s stunning, it’s really interesting and it’s also fun.

Today I took one of those old town Trolley sightseeing trips. The hop on hop off ones. I also did an unbelievable amount of walking. so I think I’ve seen Savannah left, right and centre. I went into a couple of the old historic houses, and an art museum.  It’s absolutely beautiful, Savannah has an incredible history, both good and bad. You need to see the bad because we need to learn from it,  good and bad, and it’s part of history so you can’t pretend it didn’t exist. I’m talking about the whole history of slavery.  It’s an incredibly interesting town and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing these the old houses which are just so so stunning.

I also went to the small military museum. It’s a private collection and very impressive.

And then I found the candy store 🙂

One of the best parts of this particular trip is that I’m re-connecting with friends and family.

Today I headed over to Fort Myers to stay with my nephew Matt and his wife Maya and get to meet my grand nephew Ethan for the first time. Ethan is 3 and the cutest little kid, also the splitting image of Matt.

I’ve always wanted to go flying with my nephews and today I got the chance. Matt took me flying in his Giles 202, aerobatic plane, it was totally AWESOME. I wish I had a stronger stomach and could have flown for longer and done more aerobatics, but Matt took care of me. We did a bit of sight seeing plus a couple of 360s, a loop and 6 barrel rolls, too friggin fantastic.

Now the funny part. Matt starts of saying “ok ready to go… I’m just going to put this parachute on you. If anything happens open the seatbelt, I’ll blow the canopy and just push out, and pull this cord immediately” Alrightity erm. So I get in and no, not one seatbelt but an over the shoulder and round the waist strap in seatbelt and then a 2nd one across the waist. Then I look in front of me and there is a sign saying ” Passenger warning. The aircraft is amature built and does not comply with the federal safety requirements for standard aircraft…..WTHECK have I agreed too

But no in all seriousness my nephew is a damn good pilot and I loved every minute. I didn’t think the pictures I took would come out, but some did. I unfortunately didn’t take any video footage of the roll as I was enjoying the experience too much.

Matt lives in an airpark, which was a totally new concept to me, but pretty cool. Basically a small suburb where the residence are all pilots or aircraft mechanics etc. The suburb sits directly alongside an airport. The houses all have hangers and access either direct or near to the runway. I asked Matt how the people without direct access to the runway get their plane there and he explained that the roads are basically all legal taxiways so they just drive their airplanes along the road to the runway. For this reason the stop signs are all low so as not to be any obstruction / danger to the planes.

My accommodation which I loved and has a really comfy bed so I slept very well.

I wish I could have stayed with Matt and Maya for longer, however I need to head up north and ensure I get to Memphis to see my brother. I’m going via Savannah as I’ve always wanted to go there and will take a 2 day break there. I started the trip thinking I’d keep off the major toll roads as the secondary roads are often more interesting. However it soon became apparent that in this huge country this would not work as it’s just slow going. I must say though the American interstates are awesome. There is no traffic and often up to 5 lanes. so I’m just cruising along on Vince and enjoying the ride. It is super hot though, another reason to stick to the interstate as it’s not so bad when you keep moving at 115/125km/hr (75miles) And as Paul pointed out I dress for the slide not the ride (meaning I wear a bikers jacket and full face helmet. I just cannot bring myself to do the American short sleeves and open face helmet…freaks me out)

One of my first touristy stops. DAMN these rocks are big. What a fascinating day. I learned so much today, including the fact that NASA plans of going back to the moon in 2024 on the Artemis 2 mission.

The best thing for me was the Saturn v rocket, the size has to be seen to be believed. I also really enjoyed seeing the shuttle Atlantis. The photos also don’t do justice to the size of the the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

I’ve been in two minds about blogging during this trip. It can be very time consuming and I have terrible grammar and can’t spell, so it can be a bit stressful for me. However it is something I do more for myself, for my memories, so have decided that I will blog again this time. They may not be regular, just once or twice a week, and will possibly consist of more photographs than text.

I started my trip flying into Orlando and then visiting my friends Paul and his wife Kim in Lake Mary. I’ve known Paul for about 25 years, since I lived in London, and haven’t seen him since 2016. So it was truly fantastic to spend time with them and I just wish it could have been longer.

I had Vince the v-strom delivered to Pauls place so he was ready and waiting on my arrival.

While in Lake Mary I got to spend a bit of time getting some dog cuddles from Bella and Coco. These two little girls are so sweet and made me miss my little Ozzie man.