May 1-7: St. Augustine

I was so excited to see my beloved friends in St. Augustine. So, of course: en route from Savannah our tire exploded. While I was driving. Always a thrill. As we had feared from the looks of them once we were on the road, the tires we bought in Chicago had dry rot. We replaced the original tires back tires because they were worn down, but dry rot tires are obviously no better. We have since replaced the other back tire they supplied as well. What a waste of money, and what rotten (literally) service.

 I'd like to raise a fuss when we return to Chicago and see what we can get out of it. We couldn't get down our spare tire, so called trusty AAA (never travel without it). After 45 minutes, a Georgia boy ("youngest in the field in the county... just turned 20 years old") came to our rescue. He was chewin' tobaccy, which stuck out his lower lip. When Kevin explained he couldn't get down the spare, he replied "You're holdin' yer tongue wrong." Kevin looked at his bulged out lower lip inquisitively, and began to push his tongue against his... it was quite a sight, his confused tongue bulging out different areas of his cheeks and lips. "You never heard that expression before? It's a sayin' down here. Whenever I couldn't catch a fish my Granpaw would tell me I'z jes' holdin' my tongue wrong." Oh. Now we get it. It had nothing to do with the position the tobaccy put his lip in, of course. Thanks to our new Georgian pal who tought us about tongue holdin', we were once again on our way and arrived before sunset... just as the angry storm clouds set in.

The "funniest" thing about St. Augustine was that we opted out of going to the beach in Charleston & Savannah, because we know and were even told on the trip that St. Augustine beaches are great. Plus, we knew we could leave Yoshi at my friend RDB's house and would have plenty of opportunity. It had been pretty hot in Savannah. When we arrived, the storm clouds were rolling in (ah, spring travel).. and the monsoon rains kept on pouring down for more than three full days and nights. When trekking through the yard to the van in the morning or night for various items, you'd find yourself up to your shins in wet sorrow. It was quite a shame. So we holed up with the critters (of dog, mouse and roach varieties respectively) and waited it out. What made this all alright, was that I love my dear friend so... and am lucky enough to call myself Auntie Claire/godmother to his beautiful wonderful daughter. We got in some great stuck-at-home-together time.

Then we finally made it out of the house the fourth day, wandered with our dear pseudo niece and went over to visit the rest of her family/our dear friends.

We all went out for a meal before bringing the little one back to sleep.

The next day, her mother picked her up and we sadly had to say our goodbyes. But before that, more bonding with adorable bath baby! ->

 She was a joy every minute we were with her.





We went downtown with our friend KM and wandered the charm filled streets.

Our friend KM is full of perks, so we got to enjoy a sunset boat tour and even saw some dolphin fins poppin up around us! My first ever wild ocean dolphin viewing experience... boy was I tickled.

The following day we were going to part ways with RDB when we dropped him at work in the afternoon, and after some touristing with KM we were planning to hit the road. BUT! RDB called after we said our goodbyes, not needed at work after all. So the plans changed, and we stuck around. The perks continued with a tour of the old jail and the original Ripley's Believe it or Not. We were also joined by a couple more St. Augustine pals.

He talked and moved. It was freaky.

After a meal (classic American choice, Chili's) and some more socialization, we "hit the hay" as they say, and said our goodbyes once again ("for real" this time) the next day. Drove through the monsoon's creations of house sized potholes down the dirt road (and past the armadillo roadkill) for the last time and headed to The Big Easy.