So, funny story…

A few weeks ago there was an email from someone at the Fellowship (Karen Solheim). It went to the Social Action Committee. I don’t go to meetings usually, but I like to stay in the loop and help when I can…going downtown to protests, maybe. This one was looking for someone willing and able to go with a group from Atlanta to visit detainees (immigrants) at Ft. Stewart, near Savannah. I said I thought I could go. Of course, it’s a long drive down and back in one day. At first, Gini said she would go with me, then she changed her mind. Ray had no interest, of course. I was pretty excited and told lots of people what I was doing. I even got a couple of bags of clothing to take with me. 

Then I convinced him that we should just go to Tybee and stay for the Labor Day weekend, kind of a last gasp of summer thing. I called Tybee on Wednesday to find a place to stay. The first three places I tried were all sold out, but I finally found a condo…for a fairly large sum of money…John and Gini decided to join us and were pretty excited too. 

As we were driving here on Friday, I checked my emails and the address of the place I was supposed to meet the group from Atlanta Saturday morning. It was in Lumpkin, Georgia, many miles from Savannah. As I corresponded with the organizer by email on my phone, it turned out the detainees are not at Ft. Stewart. Stewart Detention Center is in Stewart County…over near Columbus, Georgia, even farther from Savannah than Athens! I just couldn’t get up at the crack of dawn, after riding all day Friday, and drive to Lumpkin, Georgia and back. So I apologetically bowed out…and I have a bunch of men’s clothing in my car…and a pretty good helping of guilt. 

John and Gini are “new” friends…we’ve known them a year or two, and it’s great. We have a lot in common and enjoy each other’s company. Traveling together is an interesting test of friendship and a way to really get to know someone. Neither of them seems particularly driven or even organized. I thought they were leaving early and would be here before us. They could pick up the keys and get settled in. We weren’t leaving until Ray was done teaching and would stop to eat on the way down, arriving about 9. 

She called me a couple times Friday."We’re leaving now…what’s the best way to get there?” Gini grew up in Georgia. I would think she would know better than we would. But we have been down here many times. Ray could tell her directions off the top of his head, but I would just look on my phone or GPS. She and John both have new iPhones, so they could theoretically do that, too. Anyway, I told her we usually go through Sandersville and I would have Ray call when I picked him up.

I drove through campus to get there about 2:30, but the traffic was really bad. Friday afternoon is bad anyway, but the day before the first home football game was really bad. We did get away before 3, though, and I was pleased. We called them and they were in Watkinsville. “We’re only about 10 miles behind you. We’ll meet in Sandersville.” We got there first…they had to make a bathroom stop. We fooled around some, trying to find a restaurant we wanted to eat at, even though it was 4:30 in the afternoon. There was not much else before Savannah. We had a pleasant dinner at Maricela’s Mexican restaurant, although the service wasn’t great, and got back in our cars. Many hours later, we found the rental company and picked up the keys. 

Our condo was on the third floor, quite a challenge carrying stuff up. In the morning, though, we realized what a great view we have. We are on Lighthouse Point, with a view across the mouth of the Savannah river. Ships go in and out, giant cargo ships, plus sightseeing boats and fishing boats and kayakers and even paddle boarders. We can see the people on the beach and lots of birds, especially with the binoculars. It is hot and humid, though, and the air conditioning is on 24/7, with the windows shut tight. 

The condo is really well laid out, for our purposes, with two bedrooms, each with a private bath, off the main room…living room at one end, with sliding doors and balcony and view, dining room, and kitchen with a small window overlooking pool and parking lot. The two bedrooms have windows, with the bathrooms in between, providing a sound buffer. Gini had requested a queen-sized bed. She is very tall and has back problems. Ray and I are sleeping in twin beds, which is not a huge deal for three nights. 

As with any group, we spend a lot of time discussing what we’re going to do. They aren’t worried about spending money and would probably eat in a restaurant for every meal. I, naturally, brought enough food to eat some meals in the condo. 

I’m not sure why all our friends are older than we are…some not by much. John Olive is 10 years older than I am. John Z is 72. Not sure how old Gini is. They have some health issues. I am not totally clear on the details, partly because I don’t want to know. They also have some psychological trauma scars. John has an ex-wife and a daughter, with a 2-year-old granddaughter. His daughter is not speaking to him, for unknown reasons…he is very sad about this, naturally, and has tried to reconcile with her unsuccessfully. Gini has no children. Her mother died recently. They met in California and Gini came back to Georgia (Hoschton) because her mother needed some help as she got older. She died recently and Gini has been sorting out her estate for a while. Gini’s sister died of cancer some time back and she has two nieces she is fond of. Apparently, they have been arguing about the estate, sadly. Anyway, all this leaves them with demons and sleep problems. We laugh and have fun, but they are, perhaps, basically troubled and unhappy. 

Perhaps that is one of the many challenges of aging. We all have experiences that become part of who we are and makes us sadder and wiser, instead of the happy-go-lucky young people we once were. Not to say we sat around all weekend sharing our personal tragedies. Au contraire, we tried to exorcise those demons and have fun. 

Two things we forgot (at least). There is a bag with towels and bathing suits that we keep in the car. This means we didn’t have to pack bathing suits…unfortunately, it is still in the other car…we didn’t grab it from the Leaf and move it to the Prius. The other thing is my knitting. This is not a big thing, it is not integral to our vacation experience. I like to knit in the car, though. It makes the time go faster. And sometimes, when I’m sitting around talking to people, I like to have it. I am on the second sleeve of a sweater for Molli. I am quite proud of it. It is red (of course) and this is one of the first summers I’ve knit. I often put away my projects until cold weather. 

So, Saturday morning after breakfast (yogurt with pear, homemade bread toasted, peanut butter—I was roughing it by skipping the cinnamon), Ray and I walked to the closest tourist store where I bought a bathing suit and towel. He bought flip flops. I also bought a pair of shorts—very short shorts was what they had. It was kind of funny and annoying to be in that store, to be those tourists, caught unprepared. I tried on 10 bathing suits. Surprisingly, I could have bought any of them…the one I got was not too bad. I might grow to like it. It is a Speedo so not crappy. And I am probably entitled to buy a bathing suit every 5 years or so. This one was 30% off, so only about $50…Ray was pretty horrified, but that’s what they cost most of the time. 

We met John and Gini at the rental office and they signed the contract and got another key. We mentioned that we needed bulbs in a couple of the lamps and they had sent someone by the time we got back there. We thought about lunch. The first couple of places we considered were not open yet, but eventually we parked near the main large rapidly-getting-crowded public beach and waited for Fannies to open. We climbed up to their deck and drank tropical rum drinks before noon. We ate steamed shrimp and pizza and admired the view and enjoyed life. After a couple of hours, we dragged ourselves away and went back to our condo. We thought about renting kayaks, but didn’t get up the energy. We went to the beach, the one we could see from our window. We went in the ocean. It was not very crowded compared to the main beach. Ray walked. I read. John went to the grocery store and bought vegetables for us to eat with our steaks. Gini cooked brown rice and made a salad and Ray prepped the asparagus and John cooked the steaks. I played two games of Spider, but neither one came out. 

One of my favorite things at the beach is a view of the day breaking over the water. It is pitch black, with some blinking lights for bouys and maybe some lights on the far shore. It gradually lightens and the darkness resolves itself into gray skay, darker land across the water, blue gray ocean and then the foreground of green brown grasses and sand. There is a pinkness to the east and some clouds can be dined. there is the hum of a mother, a steady grabbing of a boat engine, and a light moving over the suface. Some done is heading out for fishing. That gray square (divined into two rectangles because it’s sliding doors…and diving again by the railing…gradually comes brighter and the focus of the room. Thins inside begin to have definition…an lamp a coffee table, a couch, a TV some chairs…there are walls and a ceiling fan…the lamp casts a shadow on the wall…but the colors are outside…I can see a bathing suit draped not he railing and the outline of a chair, with maybe a towel draped over the back…

The sound travels in an interesting way, so that I can hear the boat’s engine very clearly, and the sound of the waves slapping agains the shore, irregularly but continually. There is a breeze and it is almost cooler out than in, for a brief time before the sun begins its inexorable heating. I might open the door and let the sea air in, but it is so damp. Today it is overcast and maybe even more humid than yesterday. 

I get up from the table where I am typing and go to the window every 15 minutes or so, to see how it has changed since my last look. I have to go closer. Just admiring it from my seat is not enough