Goodbye Confederacy

Hey everybody,

This is racist

This is badass

I was driving along a scenic two-lane road in rural central Georgia, zooming by ranches and farms, when from a distance on the right side of the road I saw a really tall flagpole with a humongous Confederate flag waving in the wind.  As I got closer there was a sign that said "Sons of Confederate Veterans now recruiting" with a phone number.  In Charleston in front of the central market there was a sign on a building commemorating the Daughters of the Confederacy.  Almost every market or general store I went into across the south had some sort of Confederate flag paraphenalia... license plate frames, hats, t-shirts, pendants, etc.  Before I go any further, I'd like to make sure we undersand each other.  The Confederate flag was the symbol of the short-lived (less than 4 years) Confederate States of America.  One of the primary causes of secession, if not THE primary cause, was the desire for the Confederate States to protect the institution of slavery.  In the constitution of the Confederate States of America there are several articles which not only define but protect the ownership of slaves across state lines and for future states which may enter the Confederacy.  That flag symbolizes a union that was largely formed based on something ugly, shameful and immoral, and I think I'm being kind.  So if you are a racist and/or an advocate of slavery then well done, you selected the right symbol to represent you, asshole.  On the other hand if you support Southern pride, or freedom, or states' rights, or just want to be a "rebel," all of which are cool, then can you come up with something else?  Look at all the other sweet flags and slogans that are around.  At first I was going to suggest the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag but then I found out that the Tea Party idiots took that one.  Think about New Hampshire for inspiration... their state motto is "Live Free or Die!"  Or how about something along the lines of the California state flag... it's got a bear on it!  Or maybe design something with an eagle, because as everyone knows an eagle screeches freedom.  If you want further inspiration how about the Welsh flag?  It has a FREAKIN' DRAGON!  Now that is unquestionably badass.  So please, use your creative rebel powers to find another symbol.  The Confederate flag is racist.  Thank you.

Not being a native of the United States, Mark asked me if I could somehow include a map of the places I've  hit so far, so here you go buddy:

View Where the f*** is Dave? in a larger map

I have to admit that it was a huge relief to finally arrive on the east coast and I couldn't have asked for a prettier destination than Savannah.  When I got there it was in the midst of some kind of tropical rainstorm which revealed Savannah's Achilles heel... drainage.  The city center is laid out in a grid with dozens of small parks intersecting the main streets.  There are many cobblestone streets and there is liberal use of wrought iron on the well-preserved older buildings.  It reminded me a lot of London except hotter and with less kebabs.  I think I would use the word "haunting" in a brochure description of Savannah, and I mean that in the best possible way.

After a pleasant walking tour I continued east about 15 miles because I wanted to see the ocean and complete the coast-to-coast experience.  I ended up spending the night on Tybee Island because it's a cool little beach town and because I could smell the sea.  I found a cheap hotel with an old Indian man at the desk who immediately started telling me about how he's 82 years old and has never been to the doctor and never had health insurance because he adheres to some strict diet with no meat, no coffee, no alcohol (this all sounds terrible), raw vegetables, very little water, and a litany of other rules.  He had me trapped for at least 10 minutes, like some kind of religious zealot.  Then he goes to the back room and returns with a photocopy of an article about him in a local Savannah paper talking about his diet and regimen.  I thanked him for the article and he said, "That'll be 25 cents for the photocopy."

From there it was north to Charleston in South Carolina, another really pretty town.  Charleston has a lot fewer parks than Savannah and a lot more shops.  You get the idea it takes some money to live in the center of this town.  It's easily walkable, it has a really nice waterfront, and one of the best craft beer shops I've seen since leaving SF at The Charleston Beer Exchange.  Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, is in the Charleston harbor and accessible by ferry but I didn't have time for it.  At the center of town is the city market which back in the day used to be the slave market but now is filled with small shops selling all manner of trinkets.  Personally, I would've burned that shit down and started over but I wasn't in charge of Reconstruction.  I also have to say that Charleston has by far the best looking women I've seen in the South.

The next day it was up the coast and through Myrtle Beach, a 15-mile long strip mall on the water consisting of fireworks stores, beachware and souvenir stores, miniature golf courses, and the most hotels I've seen outside of Vegas.  It's low season which means it's almost sadly empty, but I can only imagine the sweaty, claustrophobic mess that this place becomes in the middle of summer.  Legions of mouth breathers descending on this short strip of land, playing miniature golf in 110-degree heat wearing $5.99 or less tie-dyed "Booty Inspector" souvenir shirts and blowing up M-80s.  The mere thought of it chills me to the bone.

North Carolina was next on the agenda where the plan was to take the ferry to the islands on the Cape Hatteras national seashore.  The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is 12 stories high so I was really looking forward to climbing up and having a view of the island chain and the Atlantic.  After a 2-hour drive to the Cedar Island ferry I come to find out that the ferry to Ocracoke was running ok, but once you got to Ocracoke Island you'd be stuck.  The ferry between Ocracoke and Hatteras wouldn't be running for at least two days because of low tides.  So I had to drive all the way around and up north, skip the national seashore and take the bridge directly to Nags Head and north to Kill Devil Hills, the site of the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight.  The upshot of that is that I didn't end up driving through Rodanthe, which would've violated my personal vow to never again come into contact with anything having to do with Nicholas Sparks.  My consolation was a softshell crab BLT in Nags Head, which was fantastic.  The Wright Brothers' memorial was very cool, don't get me wrong, but that sandwich... man.  Anyhow, the field where the Wright Bros conducted their first four flights has been preserved along with markers showing the distance of each flight.  I really like it when you get to see the actual location of a momentous event in person rather than some sort of museum abstraction, it's much more powerful that way.  The Wright Bros were mechanical genius bachelors from Dayton, Ohio who still lived with their mom and sister, which probably more than anything explains why they fled to Kitty Hawk for two years to conduct their flight experiments.

That night I stayed at the KOA in Virginia Beach which I would recommend avoiding.  Nothing against the place itself, but it happens to be a couple of miles from a naval air base.  There's nothing like the "sound of freedom" waking you up at 5:30 in the morning.  Also, they charged $40 for a tent site, which is twice as much as everywhere else, and when I expressed my surprise the girl said "Well this is Virginia Beach" like we were in Cannes during the film festival or something.

FDR and his mansion

From there it was directly to DC, or Alexandria to be precise, to spend the evening with FDR (Fuckin' Dave Ryan) whom I hadn't seen in three or four years.  Our initial text conversation went something like this:
FDR:  Do you want to go see the Avett Bros concert tonight?
Me:  I don't know who they are.
FDR:  They're kind of like Mumford and Sons.
Me:  That's not helping me.  At all.
We did end up going to see the Avett Bros show and they were great.  Kind of a soulful alt-country hard to describe band but definitely worth listening to.  And they have a rabid cult following, especially at George Mason university.  You know, the kind where someone is bragging about having seen them 60 times and have you heard this one song that used to be called something else but they just changed the title and you may not know that but I know that because I've seen them 60 times.  This is an actual conversation that we heard.

Then it was on to Washington DC.  I've never been to DC and I was really looking forward to it but I've got to be honest... as soon as I arrived I just got a weird vibe.  I was driving around the city and all the buildings seemed thick and oppressive to me.  I don't know how to describe it other than to say you know how sometimes you get to a place and you instantly like it and can't necessarily put your finger on why?  Well this was the opposite... I don't feel like I'm friends with Washington DC.  There's some sort of dissonance between me and this city.  Still, I wanted to see the sites so I spent the first day walking all around the White House, Capitol, and all the various memorials spread through the center of town.  I knew the Vietnam veterans' memorial would be touching and in fact it was.  There were many people there searching for specific names on the wall, taking pictures, and even tracing the names with pencil.  It was cool to stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and picture Martin Luther King giving a speech.  Personally, the memorial I found the most moving was the FDR memorial (not Dave Ryan, FDR the president).  It's not so much that it was beautiful in any way, but the quotes that were scattered around the memorial really resonated with me.  For my money, in spite of several brutal mistakes (such as Japanese internment), he was still the greatest president.

Mae happened to be in town for a family event so we met up at a club where her sister was playing in a cover band.  It's really nice to be able to catch up with friends and break up the solitude of the road trip.  After the show I drove through the center of town to see all the buildings by night, which are actually quite striking.  Sometimes you don't really get the chance to know a city unless you spend some alone time with it, and that is usually best done by night.  I was driving by the Smithsonian when I heard "I Only Have Eyes for You" being played over a loudspeaker.  I had to stop because that is one of the all-time great songs.  It turns out that they were projecting a series of intertwined short film clips featuring different versions of that song onto the outer wall of one of the Smithsonian buildings.  There were a bunch of people sitting on the lawn watching the film and relaxing.  I sat down as well and just relaxed and enjoyed it.  It was a really nice moment, one of those times where you're glad to be exactly where you are.  I think that's when I made my peace with DC.

Sunday was very chill... I went to the Air and Space Museum, snuck into two movies then had a couple of beers.  I know that doesn't sound like the most exciting way to spend your birthday, but my real gift to myself is coming Monday.  Monday is the first day of Craft Beer Week.  Monday I'm driving to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  Rehoboth Beach is the home of Dogfish Head Brewing company.  I'll let you figure out the rest for yourself.

Well, I hope you're all happy, healthy and well.  Without further ado, here are the pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nB8QiNDpnvmjH4dG8

Take 'er easy,

Dave