Did someone say Field Trip

At our June 1997 book club meeting for “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt some one said we should go to Savannah, GA.

Great idea! At that time only 1 of our 20 members didn’t work for WTS and 2 of them were VP’s of the company. And at the time there were 27 employees on the ocean freight side. Oops a trip might leave WTS a little short handed. hmmm...   Not everyone could go so it worked out and 8 of us took off for Savannah. The author John Berendt went to Savannah to write about restaurants but became entwined with the locals, their hospitality, and a murder.

We visited all the places in the book we could;

like the cemetery but we forgot to bring the martinis;

 

Oh and by the way That's not an orb in my picture
I had take a picture of the scrapbook page and
my flash created a glare on the one




Clary’s Café with good food and reasonable prices; Churchhills Pub where I drank my first Woodchuck beer, oh yeah; and we stayed on Tybee Island. In the book there was a part where one of the characters said if he drove fast enough across  the Tybee Island Bridge he could get all 4 wheels off the ground. Now I was the driver of one of the two vans since I get car sick when riding.. Anyway we were driving across the bridge when Suzanne yells “FLOOR IT CARLA”   What!!?? For God’s Sake Woman we’re in a mini-van. LOL All 4 wheels stayed on the ground needless to say. We got to see the Lady Chablis in person at Club One and what a hoot that was. They were turning the book into a movie and it was going to start filming the week after we left. Tourism increased after the movie came out so we picked the perfect time to go. 

At 10 pm our last night everyone decided it would be fun to walk the beach to a bar just down the way. There was a short seawall and that we had to jump off of. I thought I had surveyed my jumping off spot well…Not! ....I jumped down, hit the edge of a rock which twisted my ankle and sent me flying into the sand…right knee hit first. Of course my knee found the rock under the sand.The Pain!  They half drug me (obviously they couldn't carry my butt) down the beach to the bar. When we got there the outside bar had been shut down because of a fight an hour earlier.  Great! We had the outside bar all to ourselves but had to go inside to get anything to drink.



The next day we raced to the airport to catch my plane only to find they’d made the last call and the gate would close shortly but I can’t run because my knee is now twice its size. So my friend Suzanne takes off to catch the gate as I hobble behind. She made it just in time.

I get on a FULL plane and cram myself into a seat with no relief in sight. My knee is killing me and it wants to be straight but not gonna happen in the middle seat. As we begin our descent into DFW the young lady next to me holding her 1 year old looks at me and goes “did you hear that”…? It's her first time to fly and she’s very nervous and now she’s starting to scare me because what she heard was the landing gear going down and back up. All of a sudden the plane literally shoots straight up into the air. Oh my God I’m having an Airframe experience and I don’t want to die. If

you haven’t read Michael Crighton’s book Airframe you need too.  Our Pilot comes on the speaker and apologized but there were wind shears and he had to abort landing. We circled for over 40 minutes. Now I’m looking at my watch and my connection to Houston takes off in 20 minutes and DFW is not a small airport. I’m getting a feeling of deja-vu. Remember the bum knee I can’t run. When we finally land I have barely 10 minutes to catch my connection to Houston and the moving tram to take you to another gate was broke. To my relief I caught one of those golf cart rides and made it right before again they close the gate. That’s how I ended my wonderful trip.



In 2005 we read “Isaac’s Storm” by Erik Larson which prompted another field trip. “Isaac’s Storm” was about the hurricane of the 1900’s that hit Galveston.  It’s hard to imagine the devastation and havoc during that time. Reporting the weather back then depended on the relay of messages from outer area like Cuba. The communication was lacking between America and Cuba.  I can’t share any good stories from this trip because I stayed home for my daughter’s senior prom and I felt being here for her was more important and I had volunteered to help with Senior Night After Prom. That's another story entirely.

Aren't they cute. Richard Allan Harper was her date.

We’d like to take more trips but time and money seem to stand in our way. One trip that is on the plannning board still is to go to Charleston. After we read the ” The South of Broad” by Pat Conroy we decided that was a field trip we need to take One day!

Okay enough about books and reading. I'll find a new topic or at least until our next book club meeting sometime in April. Books are a big part of my life so I can't help but write about them.

Until next blog………..….  Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”  ~Mary Schmich~      

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   ((¸¸.·´ Carla..·´-:¦:-

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