chasing rabbits stateside

Sunday 8th May I set off from Atlanta on the ever interesting Greyhound, my first day time drive and I thought it would be nice to actually see something through the window. I saw plenty but mainly from of location. The bus broke down between Twin City and Statesborough, Georgia, in a small town called Portal 'The Turpentine City' to quote the poster, but if you can call a gas station, a grocery store and about 5 houses a city then someone somewhere has redefined things !!! We were there for 5 hours ! Fortunately there were only about 12 of us and everyone was nice enough. Two elderly ladies discussed the fashion of two lads on the bus.

-I don't understand why those boys wear their pants so low
-they look so bad, so bad
-they walk like they got shackles on their legs so they can keep them up
-disgusting
-dreadful
-I'm glad my son is a man and he don't do that

They were lovely women who chatted away about everything from heroin to bus engines (about which they knew a surprising amount!). When we got to Savannah one of the elderly women (she must have been about 80 years old) was met by members of her family, only to be told that her daughter had died that morning. It quickly put a lot of things into perspective.

I finally arrived in Brunswick at midnight and was met by the manager of the Hostel in the forest , Matthew. When we got out of the truck I was led in the darknessalong a path in the forest. I could barely see in order to follow him. My room was in the lower half of a two story tree house. The cockroaches the size of my thumb that I had seen running all over the laundry room freaked me out but I was soon asleep. The next morning I woke with sunlight streaming in through the mesh that replaced walls and a full view of the forest at the end of the bed. The sounds of birds, various other critters and a bongo drum had woken me at about 9am.

It really was a magical place, tree houses, wooden domes, a beautiful lake filled with fish, a wooden and glass meditation/yoga dome by a smaller lake, a meditation maze, a pool, sweat dome, vegetable garden. I had become so used to cities that the lack of traffic and the general hub-bub of urban life took some getting used to.

Monday afternoon I showered in the open, on a small decking surrounded by forest and swamps on all sides. It was the best shower I have ever taken. There was no need to towel off, the incredible heat dried you almost immediately.

I found myself pulling Madison, a 33 year old man, along on a small truck in order to save the strain on his knees that had been damaged in a motorcycle accident. We fectched apples from his car and then ate them dipped in caramel sauce and listened to Neil Young tracks.

Its a beautiful place (although I'm not a fan of the snakes and lizards) and I took plenty of photos, the only other thing I took with me when I left was hundreds of mosquito bites, I'm covered in the damn things and it looks horrendous. Poeple are going to start crssing the road. Ah well, had to happen at some point.

Will tell you all about New Orleans next time.

Hugs to all xxx

its not uncommon for people to go to the hostel and not leave for several months, I can understand how that can happen.

posted by KP @ 11:34 AM