2003 Dressage at Devon

Pre-Devon Diary

Saturday September 20, 2003: The road

Mary's best working hours are from 3 or 4 AM till noon. Her brain is then awake, focused, stimulated and most centered on working. Undisrupted by phone calls so early, she gets large amounts of work done for her business and the sites. I was sleeping on the coach in the living room. Very early, I can't remember when, I was woken by the grinding of coffee beans. An hour later again, and one hour later again. "Hey Astrid, it's time to get up. We need to go on the road soon," Mary hollered from her office round 7 AM. It took my five minutes to get out of slumber land and jump out of the bed heading towards the shower.

From 7 to 9 AM, I answered my mail, uploaded some more photos and helped JJ pack the camper. By 9.30 am, we were leaving Mary's house for a three-day haul to Devon, PA. Although there is not always time to visit cities and do fun cultural stuff, Mary asked me beforehand which cities I wanted to visit on our way to Devon. I immediately knew the answer to that one: Charleston and Savannah. As we didn't have enough time to do both, we agreed upon Savannah.

Passing Jacksonville, FL, on our way to Georgia, we were having a very relaxed day on the road listening to the radio show Car Talk. The corgi puppy Trooper was experiencing his first day ever in the truck as part of the Phelpsphoto road team. He was a good boy sleeping all the way and waiting to go pee pee when we let him out of the car during our lunch stop at the Cracker Barrel in Brunswick.

JJ booked a spot on camp ground Rivers End on Tybee Island. To reach it, you have to pass Savannah, drive over the Island Expressway crossing large patches of pure Savannah land (reeds, low water, birds - green and purple colors mixed like on a water color painting). We parked the camper on the camp ground and took off for our visit in Savannah.

Charmed by the towns historical architecture, garden squares and beautiful oak trees, I was first introduced to the town through the movies "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and "Forrest Gump" (by the way, the bench is not there. Hollywood was so kind to remove the bench when they left the set in Savannah. The bench is now a flower bed).

We first walked a bit across the town, and had a delicious lunch at "Bistro Savannah". Drinking a nice bottle of 2001 Trimbach Pinot Gris (it needs to lay a little bit longer), I had a caesar salad as a starter and pecan crusted chicken breast in a blackberry bourbon sauce as main dish. JJ chose the pork tenderloin and Mary had the lobster salad. For dessert we split an incredible creme brulée. After dinner, we went to the buggy stand where we had booked tickets for a buggy ride.

Our tour guide was Nathanial Kirkland, a SCAD graduate student, and Belgian x Percheron cross Hank as the cart-puller. The buggy ride (Plantation Buggy Corporation) is an excellent way to discover the nicest parts of the historical town center. You learn about the local history, architecture and garden squares on this personalized tour. The buggy ride of course adds to the charm of the town, which is partly lost when you take a motorized trolley ride. The tour took 50 minutes, which was perfect timing because my butt began to hurt.

By 10 PM we were back in the camper and watched a tv show on female body builders.

by Astrid Appels