When Mr. Marvelous' boss asked him to make a trip to South Georgia in late January, I was quite happy to go with him. He kept reminding me that it would be boring, that I would be stuck in a hotel room, that there would not be anything for me to do but hang out in the room. I was hearing, "You won't have to cook. You won't have to clean. You won't have anything to do except read and work on your cross stitch." Oh bliss!!
After making sure that my very good friend would be willing to handle the animal needs for the week, we got up early one Monday morning, packed the car, and took off. When I woke up from a nap (!), we were back in middle Georgia driving on roads we had known as newly-weds. I-16 from Macon to Statesboro is a long, lonely stretch, but the scenery was beautifully familiar (or familiarly beautiful?)
When we got to the hotel we discovered two things. First, the office where Mr. Marvelous would be working was within walking distance (so I could perhaps have the car for a day). Second, we had a couple of stowaways! Jack and Sam had managed to tumble into a bag and were smugly grinning at their success.
Mr. Marvelous worked and I rested for the first couple of days. Then one morning Mr. Marvelous offered to let me have the car for the day. Oh joy! Then he asked that I not travel as far as Savannah (an hour away). Oh well. An explorer can always find something to discover. I decided to go spend the day wandering around the campus of Georgia Southern University.
Here is a tip. If you want to wander around a college campus, do not go first to the Administration or even the Visitors' Welcome Center. No, go first to the campus traffic and parking office. Those are the ladies who are really in charge of things. Introduce yourself and ask the question, "Where would you like for me to park on your campus?" Before I knew it, those ladies had given me a free 2 day parking pass and told me I could park anywhere except a spot that said, "Reserved for the President". When I asked them what things I should not miss seeing on their campus, they were a wealth of information. They were happy to meet Jack and Sam, and sent us on our way with campus maps, brochures, and a few grins and giggles.
Off we went through the melee of students (none of whom seemed particularly happy that day), and to the Science building. Georgia Southern has a Planetarium and an observatory. Sadly, we were not able to take advantage of these things while we were there. However we did enjoy the benches in the garden after the hike.
The guys appreciated the view.
AND the rest!
After that we wandered toward the Sweetheart Circle and found the Museum.
The boys were eager to go in and explore, never having been to a Museum before.
However they agreed to pose for you first.
It is a small Museum with a focus for both the geology and the archaeology students.
The young ladies who were in charge that day were very friendly and helpful.
Most importantly, they seemed to appreciate Jack and Sam.
They have an interesting set-up.
They are geared for school-children to come through and do some hands-on learning.
Or gnomes.
The other room (there are three but one of them was closed that day) show-cased some things found at the little-known Civil War Prison Camp in near-by Millen, Georgia, Camp Lawton.
They use this site to train the archaeology students and let them get practice at a dig. Then they bring what they find back to the University to display at the museum. One of the graduate students walked me through the room and answered my many questions. I did wish that Junior had been with me; with his love of history he would have been fascinated.
After that we went back outside to enjoy a ramble around the Sweethearts' Circle.
From there we wandered down to the Raptor Center. It is an amazing facility, staffed by very friendly and helpful students (the only students I saw that day who did not seem utterly miserable were the ones working at the Museum and the Raptor Center).
And their birds....!
Since their mascot is a Golden Eagle, this guy gets star billing
The Peregrine Falcon is quite the ham
I had trouble choosing which picture to show.
The Red-Tailed Hawk.
I love this little guy!
And this BIG guy.
Jack and Sam were a little disappointed that there were no shows that day.
They wanted to see if that Great Horned Owl was really strong enough to pick them up.
Just before we left, we had one breath-taking moment. We were walking around looking at the birds, when we happened to glance back and up.
I wish I had the words to express the emotion of that moment.
This lady is an amazing beauty.
It was certainly an "Oh, look what God did!!" kind of moment.
We had a nice, leisurely walk back to the car and saw a few more sights.
I like the wings sculpture
The guys made a new friend. They now correspond regularly.
This was another, "Oh, Look what God did!" moment.
I do love live oaks.
It was a lot of walking that day.
The next day all three of us were quite happy to let Mr. Marvelous have the car
while we "chilled" at the hotel.
Sorry. I didn't have the capacitor to resist that pun.
So that was our latest trip. We have now gone back to being a two-car family again, so there will be more trips in the not-too-distant future. Jack has already made a few suggestions
You just never know!
No comments:
Post a Comment