Saturday, 19 August, Tallahassee to Greenville, SC

Written 7 July 2017 (planning ahead)

Ev Sinnett's older brother Jay lives in Greenville, SC, which is right on the path of the upcoming total solar eclipse. So they're driving down from Rockvile, and we're driving up from Tallahassee to meet there and witness the event. Needless to say, Ev lined up everybody's motel reservations months ago.

The eclipse is billed as happening only every hundred years and as being a once-in-a-lifetime event, but that's only if you stay in the same place your whole life. This will be my second, as one passed over Chapel Hill when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was—I was under 12 (we were still living in Dogwood Acres) but old enough to construct my own cardboard pinhole camera with which to view an image of it safely (and to admire the similar effect produced by the dappled shade of the tree I was near, which projected slightly larger but not so well focused images of it all over the ground underneath.

Ev and Rachel's number-one son Henry is also a veteran. He saved his pennies, and a few years ago traveled to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to view a total eclipse there. Don't know as of this writing whether he or any of his siblings will be joining the group.

Written 16 October 2017

Come the day, we rose early and got a fairly crisp start, planning to drive the scenic route diagonally across Georgia, rather than taking the interstate highways.

The drive was, indeed scenic—the cotton was in bloom most of the way—and just before we arrived in Gray, Georgia (a few miles north-north-east of Macon), on US 129, we came across just the sort of place we had hoped to have lunch, The Old clinton Barbecue House. The parking lot was well occupied by pick-up trucks, so we chose a tree-shaded parking spot and went on in.

The barbecue was excellent. As usual, David ordered a pulled-pork sandwich, properly served on a large hamburger bun, and I went for the ribs. Both came with coleslaw and chips, and the only condiments offered were salt and pepper, hot sauce, ketchup, and the house barbecue sauce. The barbecue sauce comes in just one flavor and is of the thin, vinegar-based sort. It was perfect as is on David's pulled pork, but for the ribs, I got the flavor I wanted by mixing it about 50-50 with ketchup. Terrific lunch!

We got to the Comfort Inn and Suites, near the intersection of I-385 and Roper Mountain Rd., right on schedule in late afternoon, but the Sinnetts are not as inter crisp starts as we are, so they wouldn't be there until well after dinner time. We looked around at the options and discovered that the rather more upscale hostelry next door had a Ruth's Chris Steak House. I'd never been to one before, so we strolled over there.

I started with a salad of frisé lettuce with roasted red and golden beets. David chose the house salad.

For the main course, we again ran true to form. I went for the ribeye with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. The menu said "with a hint of garlic," but I'd say they were about 1/3 garlic by weight. Delicious!

David ordered the filet steak, with a side of mac and cheese, both of which he pronounced delicious. Note, in the background, the electronic wine list.

For dessert, I had the daily special, some sort of fruit pastry (I've forgotten what was actually inside; guava maybe?), which turned out to be rather tough.

David had the bread pudding, which looked better.