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May 14, 2005
Make do with whatcha got
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC -- May 14
North Charleston. Drat. It wasn't supposed to be this way, but getting around bad timing is one of the adventures that comes with the terroritory on trips like this. I knew I was in trouble when I made some cursory calls from a Savannah wireless-enabled coffee shop to all of the viable Bed and Breakfasts listed online in the downtown area and found they were all booked solid. As, too, were all the chain hotels downtown. My only solace c/o the venerable Hotels.com was an old Ramada Inn by the airport a good 15 miles from the nice part of downtown on the waterfront. It would have to do.
But let's start from the beginning, shall we? The Noisette-Lopez axis rose promptly at 8 and we were off to breakfast at the Metro Diner in the San Marco district by 9. With Agnes off to do some photo shoots she booked for the day, I said my goodbyes over a hearty french toast with a side of country ham. Damon was busy extolling the virtues of grits while we all agreed that a good hot breakfast is one of the best secrets of American culture. Too bad this place wasn't around when I was growing up here, though I would hardly know given how seldom I went to San Marco.
Damon and I returned in his car back to the house and he proceeded to get some of the high-res shots I'd need for my Just Ride Magazine article with his digital camera (which has roughly 5x the mexapixelage of my dinky-yet-reliable old Kodak DX). I left downtown Jacksonville by way of the depressed Northside slums around 10:30 am, passing within 2 blocks of where I went to high school. It being a Saturday, I didn't even have to wrestle with the dubious thought of stopping in and looking for the few teachers I liked. It only now occurred to me that if my graduating class of '95 were having a 10 year reunion, it would likely be some weekend night this month. Not having gotten any mailing about it, and not likely to go even if I had, I still was vaguely curious if and when it were being held before the last vestiges of Jacksonville blew by.
Around 11:30 I finally crossed the St. Mary's River and shed the state of Florida once and for all after 6 days, many interesting visits, and nary a drop of rain along the way. This part of Southest Georgia is pretty uneventful bar a spectacular cable-stayed bridge connecting US 17 to Brunswick. This bridge has an identical sister in Savannah that connects US 17 to South Carolina.
The only noteworthy thing that occured en route to Savannah was a curious conga line of cars that developed in my northbound lane, complemented by noticing every car headed southbound I passed was pulled off the road. Because paranoia thrives naturally when on the road, I was already concocting disastrous explanations for this odd condition including some sort of national disaster everyone was pulling off the road to hear the radio details of (which would not explain the indifference of all northbound traffic) before realizing it must have been some sort of extremely wide load at the front of my northbound queue. I never did see the culprit, but it made a good 100 cars pull off the road with us in its wake.
A few bad turns into the worst neighborhoods Savannah has to offer and I was soon headed for the historic downtown. With urban renewal on the rise in most Northern cities and clearly happening even in Southern places like Jacksonville with my friend Damon's area as prime example, it would be nice to see something nice happen to the many blocks of beautiful but decaying homes that comprise Savannah's ghetto.
Any vague notion I had of a pilgrimage to Paula Deen's "The Lady and Sons" Cafe was soon quelched when I saw the unmistakably huge line outside her establishment. The fellow in the far rear of the queue claimed he had been waiting for 2 hours.
On a Saturday at 3 pm no less. No matter, I soon settled into the nearest wi-fi coffee spot, had a sandwich, and began the aforementioned despair of confirming a place to stay tonight "near" Charleston.
I had a nice vantage point at the window seat of the coffee shop from which to keep tabs on Diana, but after burying myself in declined Charleston vacancy queries and beginning to actually worry about my prospects for a warm bath and bed that evening, I looked up -- and discovered Diana had been replaced by a BMW K1200 GT, one of my dream bikes! Wait, was I towed away? Sure the sign said 30 minutes only and it had been an hour, but it was Saturday and the clunky Cadillac behind where I had been parked was still there. A quick panic-stricken run outside the shop soon confirmed that I had fallen victim to the old trick of perspective. The Beamer had cozied up diagonally with Diana to share the spot at such an angle as to completely block my view from where I was sitting.
That was as sure a sign as any that it was time to leave Savannah once and for all, and make for Charleston post-haste. That required maneuvering around a dark cloud that shed a few drizzles on me as I compromised some of my goals for the trip by chartering 15 miles of I-95 (about 7 of which US 17 is forced to share anyway) to save time before exiting onto the stretch of 17 that heads directly to Charleston. By the time I was in the city vicinity, the rain had disappeared and I was a simple roughshod jaunt down I-526 from the airport moorings of the Ramada.
When I arrived, I was treated to an endless line of disgruntled customers who had almost booked the place to capacity already. Hence, I did my best to not aggravate the front desk any more than was necessary to get a room, a room card, and proceed directly to my lodging for the night. It wasn't bad, and could indeed have been a lot worse.
In my ongoing series of helpful hotel tips, here's one to add to the previous hints at opening beer bottles and the like. When your lame hotel room bathroom has no drain plug to speak of and is missing a stopper, you can always use the waterproof "shower cap" covers that came with your tank/saddle bags to jam into the drain hole:
With enough diligence and cramming skills, I was able to procure a much-needed 25 minute bath before pulling out the plastic. Then it was time to grab a cab into downtown Charleston to salvage what I could of the picturesque city. And honestly, even if I had gotten a room right downtown, a good 3 hour tour of the beautiful houses (with many "for sale" signs to boot) along with scoring some dinner and wireless access was probably all I would have done anyway.
Putting on my best Rachael Ray impression, I stopped at a surprisingly nifty record store to inquire about bars or restaurants that had free wi-fi. The friendly owner recommended a place called the Majestic Grill just down the block. It sounded promising enough, but I couldn't have been prepared for what awaited me at the end of said block. Here was a place almost built with idiosynchratic goofs like me in mind: an eclectic made-to-order sandwich menu with each item named after a famous film, overall classic cinema theme including DVD viewing area upstairs with one row of genuine folding theater seats in front of the big screen TV amidst the normal cafe table and chairs, open until 3 am, and free unlimited wi-fi.
I happily ordered the "French Connection" which featured ham, minced chicken, and swiss, and made camp upstairs to catch up on world affairs and make some pretense of catching up on this blog. This place had quirk in spades for me, though. For a joint espousing classic cinema right up through iconic posters of Orson Welles and Marlon Brando in its spacious mezzanine, they decided that night to show the recent quirky kid-friendly cinematic flop "Racing Stripes", which I got to sit through the first half of twice due to a DVD player malfunction. It was honestly cute enough to distract me in spots, and manipulative as all get-out, but it's like having to be sucked into American Idol and Law & Order on this trip. 24 serves this purpose of addictive and indefensible boob-tube freebase in my life, and I do my best not to add to the gluttony.
Nonetheless, I give this place high marks for originality and sincerety. I talked to the owner at length, and it seems they have been open for 18 months. Hopefully they can clear the 3 year hurdle in a competitive Charleston touristy market. For my part, it was time to hail a cab back to my wasteland of a motel and plan the next day's excursions into the other Carolina.
Here's the gallery for today:
... and the playlist:
| Title | Artist | CD |
|---|---|---|
| Elysium | Portishead | Portishead |
| Propadada | The Ex & Tom Cora | Scrabbling at the Lock |
| Lies Up The Niger | Sun City Girls | 330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda (1) |
| Memo From Turner | The Rolling Stones | Singles Collection: The London Years [Disc 3] |
| Tthinitthedalen: Part 1 | The Art Ensemble Of Chicago | Tutankhamun |
| New York Girl | Miles Davis | On The Corner (Remaster) |
| In Shades | Tom Waits | Heartattack And Vine |
| Mary Jo | Belle And Sebastian | Tigermilk |
| The Dark Of The Matinée | Franz Ferdinand | Franz Ferdinand |
| Trimmed and Burning | Built To Spill | Ancient Melodies Of The Future |
| The Stagnant Pool | Felt | Absolute Classic Masterpieces |
| Rock The Planet | Megatrons, The | Street Jams: Electric Funk - Part 4 |
| Gigantic | Pixies | Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim |
| I Love You This Much | Swans | Soundtracks For The Blind (Copper Disc) |
| Depot Blues | Son House | Delta Blues |
| Felicity | Orange Juice | You Can't Hide Your Love Forever |
| China Pig | Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band | Trout Mask Replica |
| Oceans And Blue Skies | Swallow | Blow |
| Cherry And Raquel | O.S.T. | It's A Soft Rock World Vol.3 (Sr9605) |
| Upside Down | The Jesus and Mary Chain | Barbed Wire Kisses |
| Wipeout | The Saints | The Joe Meek Story-The PYE Years |
| Rasa | Organum | Volume One |
| Bryter Layter | Nick Drake | Bryter Layter |
| Texas | Swell Maps | Train Out Of It |
| Honey Please Can't Ya See | Barry White | Just For You - Volume 1 |
| So Easy (So Far) | Low & Spring Heel Jack | Bombscare |
| Feel So Sad (Glides and Chimes) | Spiritualized | The Complete Works, Vol. 1 |
| Cancel Your Order | DoMe | Dome 12 |
| N. Mamedova (Azerbaijan) | Shushe Dzheirany | The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 6: Central Asia: Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-1948 |
| Angel | Current 93 | Swastikas For Noddy |
| It's Only A Reprise | Herbert | Bodily Functions |
| The Amorous Humphrey Plugg | Scott Walker | Scott 2 |
| Until death (us do part) | Front 242 | Front by Front |
| Helter Skelter | Beatles | |
| Real Summer | Future Bible Heroes | Memories Of Love |
| Don't Tell It | James Brown | Make It Funky (Disc 1) |
| She's Lost Control | Joy Division | Unknown Pleasures |
| Junkyard | The Birthday Party | Junkyard |
| Leid Und Elend (Live) | Einstürzende Neubauten | Strategies Against Architecture II |
| Dirt Off Your Shoulder | Jay-Z | The Black Album |
| Rasputina - Dwarfstar | Rasputina | How We Quit the Forest |
| My Little Red Book | Love | Love |
| Tschik-Mo | Liliput | LiLiPUT (Disc 2) |
| Mesh | New Order | Substance (Disc 2) |
| Space funk with springs | Nurse With Wound | Who Can I Turn To Stereo (Two Golden Microphones) |
| I Love Paris | Screamin' Jay Hawkins | Cow Fingers And Mosquito Pie |
| Willie & Laura Mae Jones | Dusty Springfield | Dusty In Memphis |
| Devil Got My Woman | Skip James | Complete Recorded Works (1931) |
| Life In Tokyo (12'') | Japan | In Vogue |
| Smoke Signals | The Magnetic Fields | The Wayward Bus / Distant Plastic Trees |
| Dream Dream | Jarboe | A Mystery Of Faith (Disc 2) |
| Like Dylan In The Movies | Belle & Sebastian | If You're Feeling Sinister |
| Tell Me Now | Mazzy Star | The Other Side |
| Golden Lights | The Smiths | Louder Than Bombs |
| I Reather Be With You | Boosty Collins | |
| Warm Leatherette | The Normal | New Wave Hits Of The 80's |
| Kardamom | Oval | Wohnton |
| Pale And Skinny Girl | American Music Club | United Kingdom/California |
| Public Embarassment Blues | The Angels Of Light | How I Loved You |
| Stitch | Swell Maps | Train Out Of It |
| Floy Joy | The Supremes featuring The Four Tops | The Best of (Disc 2) |
| Sadie's Anniversary | Saint Etienne | Places To Visit |
| When The Cat's Away | Liliput | LiLiPUT/Kleenex (Disc 1) |
| Underground | Tom Waits | Swordfishtrombones |
| Haunted House of Rock [Westbam Mix] | Whodini | Old School Vs. New School |
| Secret Girls | Sonic Youth | Evol |
| As Tears Go By | The Rolling Stones | Singles Collection: The London Years (Disc 1) |
| I'm Free | The Rolling Stones | Singles Collection: The London Years (Disc 1) |
| Adrenaline | The Roots | Things Fall Apart |
| Unhappy Girl | The Doors | Strange Days |
| Time Is Money (Bastard) | Swans | Greed / Holy Money |
| Helpless Child | Swans | Soundtracks For The Blind |
| Seele Brennt | Einstürzende Neubauten | Strategies Against Architecture II (Disc 1) |
| Letter To Memphis | Pixies | At The BBC |
| Johnny | Suicide | Suicide |
| Jets | Blur | Think Tank |
| A Handful Of Dust / The Kaballah Of The Horse Pegasus | A Handful Of Dust | Le Jazz Non |
| Thoughts And Words | The Byrds | Younger Than Yesterday |
| Ooon Ong | Alva | Slattery For Ungdom |
| Get Back Baby | Al Green | The Hi Singles As and Bs CD1 |
| Homeward Bound | Simon & Garfunkel | Simon & Garfunkel Greatest Hits |
| Long, Long While | The Rolling Stones | Singles Collection: The London Years (Disc 2) |
| Suburban Berlin | Japan | In Vogue |
| Before We Begin | Broadcast | Haha Sound |
Posted by Todd at May 14, 2005 12:29 AM