Likely this home belonged to someone who was going to have an enjoyable 4th!
We tried…
We started off on the wrong foot this morning. Kids were tired, I wanted pictures that we took extra time to get, we drove into downtown Chattanooga to find something for lunch…everything was closed. We actually went back an exit just to find a Subway. (A note: this is an interesting route on the hwy. We left Tennessee, entered Georgia, went back into Tennessee territory, and finally into Georgia again–not that that added time, but interesting how the hwy. is routed.)
Trying to keep the spirit by having the kids buy red, white, or blue goodies along the way.
We booked a hotel in Port Wentworth, a suburb of Savannah, thinking maybe we’d have an easier time finding a fireworks display, maybe even some fireworks for the boys to buy, and then get to see a bit of Savannah in the morning. But when we got into Port Wentworth we found out there were no fireworks to see. And, the only fireworks we could find to watch were down by the River in downtown Savannah. There was “discrepancy” over whether we should go back to the hotel and call it a night, or venture out to see what we could still salvage. Guess what? We made a wrong turn only to meet the traffic of the lucky ones who did see fireworks. Not a little traffic, hoards of cars–we weren’t moving! Guess what else? We had kids who needed a bathroom…NOW. Our car was the last place any of you would have wanted to have been at that moment. It’s not that we were yelling, it was just really tense and really uncomfortable–more for those who needed bathrooms, of course. And we were in traffic, for two hours!! At one point we found a Thai restaurant, closed, of course, but they still had customers. I offered to buy a cup of coffee or..anything! But our hostess must have been a mother; she didn’t hesitate to let our two kids (the ones who needed it) use the bathroom, free of charge.
If you stare for 2 hours at this, the constant braking eventually kind of looks like flashing fireworks.
To top it off, we finally arrived at our hotel, not having seen any fireworks except the last spurts of the one show, from a distance; not having bought or lit any fireworks of our own; and not having had any meals fit for drowning sorrows. Our hotel left something to be desired…it was…dark, worn, and nothing like home. The wallpaper was peeling, the shower was cracked, and the toilet didn’t flush, much.
Goodness, we tried. But today we felt the strangeness of being in a new city, on a holiday, away from the rest of our family and friends, and feeling our most road weary. Thank goodness for another day.
The Epic Journey 