CRACKED REAR VIEW

The next goal in our wondrous road trip adventures is to get to Florida and meet Betty’s brother for some family time. To get there, we’re pulling the beast through South Carolina and Georgia. We made a stops in Fort Mill, West Columbia, Savannah, and then Jacksonville.

We’ve been through Fort Mill before. It’s a nice area that is growing along with Charlotte, which is bursting at the seams. The locals tell us that Charlotte is in line to become like Atlanta, which in our opinion is not the reputation a city wants. Too big, high prices for housing, not enough infrastructure to handle the population, and grumpy, cranky people in cars trying to get where they are going in the fastest, rudest way possible. Ugh.

Next, we stopped in West Columbia, which is accurately named. We took some time to explore downtown Columbia. We saw the State Capitol and the downtown shopping district. We stopped in and had lunch at Sound Bites. Great fresh food and great service. We made sure to drive around Brice Finley Stadium, where the South Carolina Gamecocks play football. Columbia seems like a fun town.

During our tour of the downtown area, we happened across a sister store of our favorite beverage store in Atlanta - Green’s Beverage Warehouse sells some of our favorite adult beverages for some of the best prices we’ve seen. Betty and I looked at each other and - boom! We whipped the big truck around, made the stop, and stocked up.

Cracked Rear View was the big hit record for Hootie and the Blowfish. In fact, it was the band's debut album in 1994 and is the 19th-best-selling album of all time in the United States and was certified platinum 21 times. What? The band is known for its three top 10 singles: "Hold My Hand" (1994), "Let Her Cry" (1994), and "Only Wanna Be with You" (1995). “Time” was also a big hit. Here’s today’s edition of “Did You Know?” Did you know that Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. Two of the band’s members, Darius Rucker and Mark Bryan, met in Columbia, South Carolina, in the mid-1980s when they were both freshmen at the University of South Carolina. Bryan, a guitar player, heard Rucker singing in the showers of the dorm they shared and was impressed by his vocal ability. The pair began playing cover tunes as the Wolf Brothers. Eventually, they collaborated with bassist Dean Felber, a former high school bandmate of Bryan's, and Brantley Smith, a drummer. In 1986, they adopted the name Hootie & the Blowfish, a conjunction of the nicknames of two of their college friends. The band is routinely featured in articles and polls about badly-named bands.

If you ever have the occasion to drive from Columbia to Savannah using the interstate system, I hope you will avoid it. Those roads have to be some of the worst-maintained roads we’ve traveled during our whole trip. Have you ever had someone beat on you for about three hours straight? I hope not, but the roads beat the hell out of us.

We stopped in Savannah, or, Richmond Hill to be exact. We relaxed for a bit just to rest up. After that, we made our way on down the Georgia coast on I-95 and stopped outside of Brunswick. Brunswick is the town on the mainland which is close to one of our favorite places in the whole world - Saint Simons Island. SSI is one of the Emerald Isles along the Georgia coast. Betty and I have been visiting there just about every summer for the last twenty years. Betty has been going there longer that that!!! The powers that be on the island have restricted big-time development so it has a nice laid-back vibe. Lots of residential areas and small businesses. The biggest chain you will find there is Harris Teeter and Bi-Lo. The King and Prince Hotel has been there forever and has a nice little bar and music performance area. We’ve enjoyed taking the grandkids dancing there several times over the years. Anyway, it was nice to visit the island and reminisce.

By the way, here’s your history minute - there’s a U.S. Coast Guard station on Saint Simons Island.

One of the problems while traveling along the coast is that it seems like severe weather can happen (snap your fingers) just like that. We were enjoying a nice meal when we learned that we were under a tornado warning - not just a watch but a warning. When you’re in a trailer, tornado warnings are scary - especially for normal scardey-cats. We learned that a tornado passed within a few miles of our location. Meowwww.

We drove on down the highway to our next spot in Jacksonville. Florida, that is. Swimming pools, movie stars. We toured downtown Jacksonville and I have to say - not impressed. Just another big city with government buildings built in the 60s. We drove by the stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play, but more importantly, the Georgia - Florida game happens every football season. The creme de la creme of Jacksonville for us was that Betty got a cut with a talented stylist and we had lunch at a happening little spot called B.b.’s. B.b.’s tag line is “a groovy place to b.” Good food and lots of action. We could tell that a lot of expense accounts got a workout there.

Okay. Enough for now. Time for a nap.

Betty and Buster

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