Evans, GA, U.S.A.

Janne enjoying a walk with Bailey on "our" 8 acres.

After 3 months in Panamá we headed back to the States on Feb 24, 2019. Our next sit was scheduled to start on Feb 27 in the thriving metropolis of Evans, GA. Why Evans, GA? Good question.

Our original intent was to stay in Panamá until May 20. This plan changed, however, due to some unforeseen circumstances. Long story short, we were unable to secure additional house sits in Panamá or neighboring countries, that would fit with our schedule/budget and, after three months, we felt we had seen enough of Panamá to be ready to move on. So, we found ourselves in Panamá with an open calendar in front of us. While still in Panamá, we were contacted by a couple in New Mexico that we sat for back in Sep 2018. They were needing a sitter again in March, and hoped we could return. Also while still in Panamá, we locked down a sit in Spain. The dates for these two sits lined up well: NM Mar 22-Apr 20 and Spain Apr 26-Jun 19.

With these two sits confirmed, we found ourselves with nowhere to live between Feb 24 and Mar 22. Filling this gap is how we ended up in Evans, GA. Due to a combination of cheap flights and the fact that we were unable to find a good sit in AZ or SoCal, we ended up taking a sit in Evans scheduled for Feb 27-Mar 14. This, we reasoned, would fill most of the gap in our calendar, but leave us with time to visit family and friends in SoCal and AZ. Plus, Janne, the newly minted American Citizen, had never been to GA before. Reviews from previous sitters were all positive and the dates worked for us, so, why not? Plus, besides the two dogs and fish, they had chickens! So our next few months were now set up:

- Evans, GA: Feb 28 - Mar 14 (followed by a visit to Manhattan Beach & Phoenix)

- Cedar Crest, NM: Mar 22 - Apr 20 (followed by a quick visit to Phoenix for Easter)

- Ojén, Spain: Apr 26 - June 18 (preceded by a 3 day visit to Barcelona)

The Georgia Aquarium

We flew out of Panama City on Feb 24 and spent 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We then caught a flight to Atlanta where we spent one night. While in Atlanta, we visited the Georgia Aquarium which is really something to see. I mean, what more do you have to say then it is the largest aquarium in the world (at an amazing 6.3 million gallons!) and it is the only aquarium outside of Asia that can boast to have whale sharks - 4 of 'em! In addition, it is a non-profit organization that conducts critical research and provides for conservation.

We had hoped to visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library after the aquarium but we did not have enough time. So we had an early dinner in downtown Atlanta at "Pittypat's Porch", a restaurant named after Aunt Pittypat who is a character in Gone With The Wind. Pittypat's Porch is known for it's GWTW theme and good southern cooking. Among other things, we enjoyed some mint julips, shrimp and grits, fried chicken, ribs and collared greens. Thanks to my Dad for the tip!

Evans, Georgia

After our 24 hour visit to Atlanta, we caught a shuttle to Evans. Evans, GA is located about 140 miles (225 km) east of Atlanta. It is a small town of around 29,000 people and is a suburb of Augusta, GA. Much of the economy is driven by nearby Fort Gordon. The thing that attracted us to the sit in Evans was the home itself. It is a single family home on 8 acres. They basically have their own little forest and pond. They can enjoy the quiet and solitude of the “country life” and still not be too far away from the “city life” (the Augusta metropolitan area has a population of around 600,000).

There is not a lot to do in Evans. There is not even a downtown. We spent most of our time relaxing in the house and enjoying the dogs and the large forested property (when weather allowed). We did make two trips to Augusta. On the first trip, we met up with our good friend Bill Cunningham, who lives in the Seattle area, and his girlfriend, Virginia, who lives in Atlanta. They picked us up in Evans and we drove into Augusta for a nice dinner, a few drinks and a walk along the Savannah River. The weather was just about perfect.

Another day, about a week later, Janne and I did a day trip into Augusta. First we went to AAA to get an international driver's license for our upcoming travels in Europe. At the AAA, I asked "Where can we get some good southern cooking?", to which the large African American woman responded "You mean some soul food?". To which I smiled with delight and said "Yes, we want some soulfood.", and after some interoffice debate with some of her colleagues, she told us we needed to go to "Honey From The Rock" but we needed to hurry because they are only open for lunch and would be closing soon.

So we headed off to the Honey From The Rock Café with watering mouths and thoughts of fried food. We were not disappointed. For you golf fans, the café was located directly across the street from Augusta National. The café was set up buffet style with a long counter full of food behind a glass partition. You point to what you want and the servers load up your plate. Then, at the end of the buffet line, a lady with a bouffant hairdo (I kid you not) rings you up. The food was really good. Among other things, we had sweet tea, meat loaf, corn bread, cream corn and fried okra. While eating, there was no doubt we were in the South. There were bible verses painted above the doors and a bible in each booth. When we left, we felt fortunate to find a place with such good food and to be able to complete our meal and depart without getting hit by lightning.

Out of view in this picture was a ministry and a Christian book store that all appeared to have the same owners.

After our lunch we headed to downtown Augusta. We enjoyed walking the main downtown street - Broad Street. To me, the downtown area seemed to be a bit contradictory or, perhaps, incongruous is a better word. The popular portion of Broad Street runs around 10 blocks. As you walk down the street, you pass by many buildings with beautiful 19th century architecture. There are cool stores like music stores selling vinyl LP's, local artisan shops, tradesman stores ( jewelers, watch/clock repair, etc.) and, of course local restaurants and bars full of character and characters. But interspersed among all of this are vacant buildings and "antiseptic" stores like mobile phone suppliers, banks, etc.. To me, the most glaring inconsistency was, unfortunately, race related.

Broad street runs NW/SE. There is a green belt dividing the two sides of traffic with beautiful trees, a paved walkway and numerous benches to enjoy a rest and take in the sights. Within this green belt, separated by a mere two or three blocks are two interesting items that it would appear the people of Augusta are quite proud of but, to me, seem completely at odds to each other. The first item is a monument “In honor of the men of Richmond County who died in the cause of the Confederate States.”. The second item is a life-size statue of James Brown.

As many of you are aware, the subject of civil war related monuments in the U.S. is a very controversial subject of late. I won't go in to my opinion on the subject here, but I did want to share my reaction to viewing the Confederate Monument. The monument is impressive. It is made of white granite and stands 76 feet (23 meters). Around the base of the monument are the life size statues of four Southern generals: Cobb, Jackson, Lee and Walker. At the very top of the monument, there is a statue of the war hero Sergeant Berry Benson, known, among other things, as never having surrendered his weapon at Appomattox with General Lee.

There are inscriptions on all four sides of the base of the monument. The one that caused me to do a double take, and say "wow" out loud, was the following:

"No nation rose so white and fair: None fell so pure of crime."

Now, this monument was dedicated in 1878 and I realize that people spoke differently back then and some words had different meaning than they do now. But surely ,any person of color, or racially sensitive individual, reading this today, would have to think to themselves "WTF?!".

James Brown was born in Barnwell, SC just 40 miles (64 km) from Augusta. He moved to Augusta when he was 4 or 5 years old and it seems Augusta has adopted him as their own. There is the life size statue of him in the center of Broad Street, Broad Street is crossed by James Brown Blvd. and you will see his likeness all around the city. To think that I could stand at the base of the Confederate Monument and almost throw a stone to hit the James Brown statue is mind boggling to me.

Side story: Back in the early 2000's, I practically begged some of my friends in Phoenix to go see James Brown with me. I told them that they could not miss out on this opportunity to see, truly, one of the greatest entertainers of all time. I told them he would soon be dead and if they didn't go with me they would regret it forever. Well, I ended up going to the show alone and, sure enough, it kicked ass and a couple years later the "The Godfather Of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" passed away. Since then, I'm pretty sure all of my friends in Phoenix have told me that they wish they had gone to the show with me.

Although we had our reservations about accepting a sit in somewhat rural Georgia, we have no regrets about our decision to do the sit in Evans. The home owners, Guy and Tracey, were very nice, genuine people who were quite welcoming and we enjoyed spending a little time with them on the front and back end of the sit. We enjoyed the solitude of their property, the deer and many colorful birds that visited (see photos in the "Gallery" section). And, of course, we enjoyed the two dogs we were looking after – Bailey (16 year old lab) and Gidget (11 year old mix).

Thank you for visiting our blog. For more pictures and details of our time in GA, see the "Gallery" section of this website. If this is your first time visiting the site, you can scroll to the bottom of the "Home" page and subscribe to be notified when we upload new posts.

Next stop: Cedar Crest, N.M., U.S.A.