We flew out from Bismarck, ND on October 22, but the flight certainly wasn’t direct.  First to Minneapolis, then to New York, and finally to Savannah, GA.  Why Savannah?  For our annual visit to relatives, friends and doctors.  Initially we focused on daughter Danielle and grandkids Abbie and Kristen, using a rental car to move back and forth from Savannah to Rincon, GA.  Later, we succumbed to Iris Dayoub’s offer and used her auto, and yet later caved to her insistence that we stay with her and Mike out at their lovely home on Modena Island, just north of the famous Landings development on Skidaway Island.

We had lunch one day with Chuck’s former colleague Joy Reed, who had just retired from the Department of Computer Science at Armstrong Atlantic State University.  And on another day lunch with Dick Munson (and his wife Karen) who retired from the Mathematics department a few years before I retired from the CS department in 2005.

Savannah College of Art & Design was hosting another of it’s annual film festivals during our visit.  Some of our doctor appointments got in the way, but we still managed to see five different films.  SCAD’s presence in Savannah has been a tremendous boon for the city; the downtown is now vital and bustling.

With our doctor visits out of the way, we had a second round of socializing with Danielle and the girls, who suggested that we spend some time poking around our former neighborhood south of Savannah near Richmond Hill.  We drove by our old home and were pleased to see that it looked in better shape than on former quick visits.  So we stopped and asked for permission to visit the back yard where our dock gave deepwater access to the Ogeechee River.  The couple we had sold our house to had never moved in; a divorce and the collapse of the real estate market which prevented them from selling their other homes was the cause.  So the house was sometimes rented, and a subsequent lack of TLC now had us visiting with some apprehension.  We learned from the current tenants that the house was recently sold, but the current owners live elsewhere and plan on moving in later upon retirement.  Meanwhile the combination of new owners and enthusiastic renters has spiffed the place up a bit.

We also revisited historic Fort McAllister, situated just a mile and a half from our former home.  The earthen fort held for almost all of the Civil War but finally fell to Sherman’s forces attacking from the land side.

We have been using a storage facility for all of the ten years since selling the house.  Long ago we could have already re-purchased its entire contents for less than the storage rental has cummulatively cost.  So we have finally resolved to stop the madness.  I sold my “like new” road bike.  We gave lingering lawn furniture to friends, and gave Danielle and Kristen the china, bunches of kitchen stuff and many prints and paintings.  But we ran out of time after this modest beginning.  Maybe next year we can free ourselves from this silly expense.  (Implicit in this discussion is the fact that neither Barb nor I have any intention of ceasing to cruise in the Caribbean any time soon.  Sorry Mom.)