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viewsAn Okefenokee Adventure Begins
By shetravelsnearandfar, Sunday, June 13, 2010A city girl likes to get out into nature once in a while, so when my British sister-in-law said she and her family wanted to visit the Okefenokee Swamp during their trip to the US, I set straight to work making sure the journey would be a great one. Nobody in our family are campers or hard-core adventurers, and we’d have a 5 and 3 year old with us, so my goal was to give everyone a metaphorical rather than literal taste of the swamp.
The Okefenokee is one of the largest peat-based swamps in the world, covering 600 square miles along the Georgia/Florida border. Named after the Indian word meaning “land of the trembling earth,” the swamp’s decomposed organic material becomes peat, floating on the surface of the water. Over time, the peat forms islands large enough to support the weight of a walking human- though it feels wobbly or “trembling” with each step. Our plans did not include such cavalier actions as actually walking in the swamp, but would instead have us sticking to boardwalks and boats.
We knew we wanted to begin our adventure early in the morning, so we made the six hour drive from Atlanta the day before. It wasn’t until later that we realized we’d be travelling Easter Sunday. If you’re from the South, you know this is not good news in terms of restaurants being open. We called the B&B we’d chosen, The Inn at Folkston, to ask about our options www.innatfolkston.com/. The innkeeper gave us the name of one restaurant she thought might work, but asked us let to her know if they were closed so she could make us a ham. How’s that for Southern hospitality? I called the restaurant and they confirmed they’d be open for business, so all was well.
On the drive down, we called the restaurant again to check their hours so we wouldn’t get there too late; small-town restaurants tend to close early. We kept our expectations moderated and planned to stick with whatever was fried. Personally, I was hoping for a little catfish and hush puppies. When we finally arrived, our hearts sank. This was less because the place was a lonely cinderblock building in a deserted strip mall by the side of the road, and more because it appeared to be, um, closed. I knocked on the locked door and asked the waitress who finally answered what was going on. She said the manager had decided to close early. She didn’t have any suggestions of where else to go.
We had hungry kids in the car, and all of us were tired from the long drive. We went up and down the freeway looking for other choices, and finding none, opted for the only open establishment we’d seen: Wendy’s. You can’t imagine how depressing the thought of eating Easter dinner at a fast food joint is to a Southerner, let alone anyone, especially when it wasn’t expected.
As it turned out, the kids were absolutely thrilled. My 3-year-old nephew, the slowest eater on the planet, consumed his chicken nuggets, fries and frosty with uncharacteristic gusto. His sister happily munched on her burger, and asked for seconds of fries. The adults all topped off our meals with blended frosty treats, and did the only thing you can do in these situations- laugh and make the best of it. I could almost hear the soundtrack for the “overcoming adversity/family bonding” segment of the movie begin to play over the restaurant speakers.
This Easter meal had a profound and lasting affect on my nephew. Keep in mind, the kid is three and can’t yet read. This point notwithstanding, for the rest of our trip, every time we passed a sign for this dining establishment, he would cry out, unprompted, in his precious British accent: “WENDY’S!” God bless America.
Join me next time as we visit the swamp, and get tips for making your own trip to the Okefenokee wonderful….skirt.com/shetravelsnearandfar/blog/real-slice-america-okefenokee-swamp
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