BTW, when I say "Day 2," I'm not counting our first travel day. Deal with it, or do some mental math. On-the-fly. Your choice.
Thought I should say something.
Day TWO begins with another neighbourhood walk. This time through Historic Edgefield.
It's a pretty amazing place. Large yards, grand pillars and chimneys everywhere. We tried to go to the highly rated Sky Blue Cafe but, on a Sunday morning with 20 churches within a 5 block radius (I'm not joking), people were bursting out the doors, the wait list was huge and I couldn't even find an employee to talk to.
I was disappointed. Then, a botched google search for "pancakes" lead me to Bagel Face Bakery. I was worried as Wendy and I approached the door. It looked like, possibly, an old laundromat had been converted to a dining room, or something. Walking in, I could hear a groovy bass-line that I recognized. A good sign...
Bizarre Bagel Face Bakery Mascotts
Inside, 20kg bags of flour stacked on randomly placed pallets, table tops made from cabinet doors and a sorry looking bunch of misfits having breakfast. From tattoo'd bikers to soccer moms to post-church grandmothers. What they lacked in numbers was made up for in diversity. The friendly staff in the kitchen looked like juvenile detention rescue cases with dreadlocks, shavings, piercings, bling and make-up in a rastafarian/punk/goth mashup. I was in heaven!
Just enough of a good thing
Wendy got a bagel with cream cheese. Sure. I was a little more adventurous and had peanut-butter, banana and honey on a pumpkin/cranberry bagel. The peanut butter was as thick as the thickest thick thing you could fail to come up with a simile to describe. Maybe thicker.
After two nights, it was time to check out of our house and into the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. More on that in a bit. Shortly after Ubering our way to the hotel through heavy football induced traffic (Titans vs Giants) Brad and his $9 car came to our rescue for a little more city exploration.
Our Uber driver, Misty, was a talker. She insisted we go to a cupcake store in German Town(map). We decided to have lunch first. Monell's was another odd eating experience. We were ushered into a large, dark, dining hall with tables seating 10-12 and told by our matronly hostess to put away our cell phones. Brad, Wendy and I were seated with 6 strangers and brought dish after dish of southern comfort food and told "pass to the left!"
scones
corn bread
some sort of white gravy
green beans and lard
corn pudding
asparagus casserole
mashed potatoes
pulled pork
fried catfish
fried chicken
meat loaf
pecan pie
3 kinds of iced tea
Obviously, I could only eat half the items they brought, but I was stuffed, none-the-less. Don't know how Wendy or Brad managed it. As you might imagine, we thought we'd let dinner settle before ordering the cupcakes that we had come across town to try.
We went for a long walk in Bicentennial Mall State Park. Google reminds me that "this 19-acre plaza tells the story of the state's history through plaques, tours & water fountains." It really did. More importantly, it contained a giant granite globe for me to climb on.
After a couple of hours of walking, climbing steps, sliding on bannisters and rolling down hills, I was really ready for cupcakes. 4pm. Naturally, the store had just closed :(
So I did what I do best; I smiled at the girl mopping the floor and made a puppy-dog face as I pressed my nose into the glass of the door. Suddenly, the Cupcake Collection was no longer closed. Wendy was more than a little irritated by the success of this transparent manoeuvre. But, hey, CUPCAKES!
Delta Island
Back to the hotel. I don't know what to say about the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Hotel. I've never been to anything quite like it. Huge. Beautiful. Opulent. Excessive. Captive. I don't know... There is a map of it here.
Besides People and Plants, this was the only other life
Whoa, Christmas Tree. Whoa, Christmas Tree...
Elevator Action
I expect there will be more photos of the hotel tomorrow. I may not be able to escape.
Anwyn and I are back from getting this year's Christmas tree. It was hard to find the time to travel 2 hrs to St. Brieux and then back, given how trying the last month has been, but I'm glad I did. The Road about 2/3 of our trip was on a pretty good one lane highway. The remainder was a hodgepodge of gravel of varying widths. With the recent snow and ice, some of those parts were treacherous (icy, bumpy, narrow). The Rescue On one of the gravel bits, at a 'T' intersection, we found a pickup truck who missed the 'T' all the way off the road in the ditch at about a 30 degree inclination. I can't believe I neglected to take a picture. The occupant was fine and I was going to take him to a nearby farm and see if we could get some help. We decided to first try the tiny ratchet straps that he had in his glove box. Miraculously, they survived just long enough to drag him up and out of the ditch. One of them snapped just as he got back onto the road. Wildlife - Down...
Caves Were Promised! stovetop espresso (of course) brad brought the tiny camping espresso maker that we gave him more than 20 years ago. We have used it on various hikes including in Italy. Now, in Greece :) Attempted Breakfast We tried and failed to get breakfast in Stoupa. There was only one place open (VERY local) and there was only toast on offer. Could also have been a language barrier? We got coffee and set off on an exploratory hike at the beach. Shoreside cave we spent a bunch of time carefully climbing our way out through razor sharp rock formations to the entrance of a cave. It is too cold to swim in at this time of year (without wetsuits) so we had to settle for a few photos from the outside . I amused myself by utterly exhausting my arms and shredding my hands while carefully climbing the rock formations. Another Cave? After searching for over an hour, through even more dangerous rock than this morning, and based only on a single google maps post, we managed to find a beaut...
Wendy had a conference in Calgary in early March and, as is my wont, I tagged along for a mini vacation. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dave ahead of Quest New Year. He toured me around some of his favourite trees. Dave loves trees, so that doesn't narrow it down much, but in this case it meant Douglas Fir. They were majestic in a very classical sense. Broad, straight, and tall. Calgary has number of them along the banks of the winding Bow River. We talked about trees a lot during the visit, and at one point he told me of a tree that he had seen, where the North Saskatchewan River exits the Rock Mountains, known as The Whirlpool Point Pine. This tree is thought to be one of the oldest trees in Canada. The actual age is not known with precision (the reasons are various and I'll avoid trying to sound like an authority), but 2000 years is a modest estimate. Dave dropped a pin on my map and told me, if I had a chance, to go walk around. He let me know that the locaiton ...
It's a pretty amazing place. Large yards, grand pillars and chimneys everywhere. We tried to go to the highly rated Sky Blue Cafe but, on a Sunday morning with 20 churches within a 5 block radius (I'm not joking), people were bursting out the doors, the wait list was huge and I couldn't even find an employee to talk to.
We went for a long walk in Bicentennial Mall State Park. Google reminds me that "this 19-acre plaza tells the story of the state's history through plaques, tours & water fountains." It really did. More importantly, it contained a giant granite globe for me to climb on.
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