Day #3: Charleston and Myrtle Beach

We left Savannah in the early afternoon. Before leaving we stopped by a daiquiri shop for some cool refreshing drinks during the drive up to Charleston. Unlike on the last trip Susan decided to skip the daiquiri for fear that we didn't have a Jesuit Retreat with therapeutic giant oak trees on our route.  Probably a good idea as we only made two stops between Savannah and Charleston.

The first of these was at Southern Soul BBQ. Unfortunately we were too full from breakfast to slip into a complete Smokey and saucy debauchery of BBQ'ed beef and brisket, instead we proceeded to make short work of a 1 lbs sampler plate.

The next stop was to put some gas into our rental car. Now usually I wouldn't bother mentioning this but in this case I feel I really need to do our rookie member justice.  As you may have read in the first post the rookie's sole responsibility is to fuel the car. Ola has embraced this responsibility fully, even to the point of practicing pumping her own gas back at home rather than going to a full-serve station.  Trusting that she would be able handle the task we headed inside the convenience store to grab some Snapples.

After about 5 minutes I had a hunch that something wasn't going according to plan so I decided to check up on our rookie pump jockey.  And just as luck would have our darling Ola was standing there, looking at the pump, perplexed as to why fuel wasn't flowing. In her most innocent voice she asked for help. Surveying the situation briefly I quickly realized that the fuel pump flow lever was not in the on position. A simple problem but I think the stress and pressure to perform may have gotten the better of Ola in this instance.

By the time we got close to Charleston it was already getting pretty late so we stopped in to the Tattooed Moose to resume our decline into the pits of gluttony. The food really was very good, the brisket sandwich, the pork belly sandwich, the duck fat fries and the thanksgiving sandwich all put smiles on our faces and stressed the buttons on our shorts all the more.

We just pulled in to Myrtle Beach and will be spending most of tomorrow here beaching our distended bellies and swollen cankles in the hot Carolina sun.

(I'll post more pics once I get home)

Day #2: Savannah

Continuing with the common theme of getting woken up by the cleaning staff at 11AM we scrambled to get ready and out of the room in 30 mins; which is quite the feat considering we now have 2 members of the fairer sex.

The place we wanted to eat at originally had already stopped serving breakfast so we headed over to Carolyn's in Fernandina Beach instead. Of course, they had stopped serving breakfast by this time too but we made do with fish tacos, a crab burger, breaded flounder with grits, a Polish sausage, chicken and rice stir fry and a turkey cheese sandwich.  The food wasn't incredible but we didnt have too many issues wolfing it down.

Next we hit the road bound for Savannah. We decided to stay off the interstate and keep to the side roads. Good thing we did too as the girls were able to get some much needed wood (see pic below).

After the girls finished their quick prayer we hopped back in the car and made it to Savannah in no time. Spending Saturday night in Savannah proved to be a nice surprise. On our way back from a club where we met some locals that reaffirmed our restaurant choices for Savannah and Charleston we stumbled upon a live jazz show by Bottles and Cans. The lead singer/guitarist has an incredible voice and his supporting percussionist, sax player and harmonica player but on a show we won't soon forget. As soon as I get home I'll be picking up a few CDs off their site.

After that we had some late night zza and headed back to the hotel. The next day we were again woken by the cleaning staff at 11AM but we were able to find a place that still served breakfast. Good thing too because even though the croissant eggs benny at Goose Feathers weren't anything special the sticky buns that we had for breakfast dessert made our knees weak. Imagine if the most delicious bread pudding you've ever tasted made sweet sticky passionate luvin' to a very gooey, warm and tasty cinnamon bun; the resulting bastard child of that unlikely coitus session would be this Sticky Bun. I will have sweet delicious sticky dreams about those buns for a long time to come.

Off to the beach for a bit now Before we head out to Charleston.

Road Trip Round 2: East Coast Edition

After the amazing success of our 2011 Deep South Road Trip we decided that we needed to continue where we left off 2 years ago. As a result of this we found ourselves at Jacksonville airport late on a Friday night picking up the rental car that would be subject to the punishment and abuse that is certain over the next 10 days.

This time the route starts in Jacksonville and finishes up in NYC ten days later. The loosely laid plan includes stops in Savannah, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., Atlantic City and finally a visit with one of the founding members from our 2011 trip (Jeb) in NYC.

Just like last time, along the way we will be stopping at various fine, and far from fine if past experiences are anything to go on, eating establishments from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives as well as Man vs. Food.  One thing that is different this time though is that our company is slightly changed. Due to prior commitments with Uncle Sam Jeb won't be able to join us. This vacancy didn't last long, the position was posted, many eager would-be participants applied, auditions were held and finally a very lucky winner was named (actually, we just invited her, albeit witha few rules and stipulations). The rookie's name is Ola and she will be taking over gas pumping duties from dLo.

Just as last time we did a weigh-in. The results are below. And if you read the 2011 blog you should have a good idea of who is who. And just in case you need a hint, Seb is still at the top of the scale, although now he is very closely followed by dLo and Susan is still at the bottom. That leaves Ola and I, and if you can't figure those two pics out then either you have a grossly misrepresented view of male/female body weight or for some odd reason you think my tapeworm has chewed away 30 lbs of my insides.

We're spending the first night just outside of Jacksonville and then heading up to Savannah. I'll post the next blog entry once we get there.