Brunswick, Georgia

On the road Cheyenne gets her own bowl on a shop towel to stop the bowl sliding around. Travel in my family is a finely honed affair. I drive my wife navigates and Cheyenne lies across her bed on the back and snores. Then she walks then she snores then she eats.

A couple of weeks ago I was nearby on my motorcycle or a family gathering to see my nephew graduate the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. However my sister in law had a room at nearby St Simon's island and my nephew was not interested in showing us Brunswick, a order Navy town fallen on hard times since the Navy left in the 1970s.

I wanted to check Brunswick out and my wife the explorer was nothing loathe so we stopped off on our way to our vacation in the Outer Banks. The Federal Building, modern block ugliness:

 

City Hall was classically elegant which suited me:

Brunswick is an island of grid pattern streets laid out in the middle of low Country marshes so we were lunch to some strong little no see um biters.

I loved the details on the buildings, classical touches with elaborate cornices and... Pompeii style sidewalks? Amazing and lovely.

The old theater was still there, no longer showing movies, a monument to the fallen glory of old down owns. I curse the mall.

Kress Department Store, a southern monument, is fallen. In Key West it was Fast Buck Freddie's for years but here it is home o Wells Fargo Bank. Ugh!

Brunswick lives, against the odds and it's too bad my hip young nephew didn't notice it when he was training in Glynco next door. I like this town a lot more than the Stepford quality of St Simon's Island next door, a gated golfing community of no visible vibe.

I will be back. On a bright, hot sunny day, in the shade of huge spreading oaks. Hmm, Faulkner, Capote, Welty, Hurston, alive in modest little Brunswick.

 

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Angels and Horses

As great as it is to go on a road trip and explore the Outer Banks for the first time I am missing a rather decent event filled weekend in Key West on my weekend off! The Blue Angels are flying this weekend and their arrival was celebrated by a bunch of Clydesdales towing beer. I read that they were at Daytona Bike Week so it make sense for them to put in an appearance here. Everyone likes to have a reason to be paid to be in Key West in winter...my colleague Robert came across them in the Overseas Market in New Town and sent me this picture from his rather poor quality (!) cell phone camera...

Makes me miss Key West already!

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