On the way from Jeckyl Island to Savannah we spent a lot of time visiting barrier islands, museums, old towns and forts in various stages of ruin, restoration, and replication.  We biked past miles and miles of golden grassy salt marsh stretching at times as far as the eye could see but at other times bordered by distant tree lines, hazy and indistinct. These idyllic scenes gave us brief escapes from the heavy bombardment of world affairs.

Most impressive was the site of Frederica on St. Simon’s Island.  Archaeologists have uncovered the foundations, fireplaces, and chimneys of houses for a town that was in operation between 1725 and 1748.  These magnificent ruins have placards describing the families that lived in them.  Most people were craftsmen and storekeepers providing services for British soldiers and their families stationed at the fort, which briefly served as a place holder to keep Spain from expanding its dominion northward out of Florida.  The impermanence of this settlement should be a lesson to places like Kitsap County, Washington, whose economy is based almost entirely on the military.

Later we stopped in Darien, a small town which has an exact replica of Fort King George, a massive wooden structure which existed not only to deter Spanish expansion from the South but also to keep the French from encroaching out of their strongholds to the west along the Mississippi.

Fort McAllister State Park, where we camped one night, was the site of a fully restored Civil War fort over looking the Ogeechee River.  I suppose restoring that was feasible because the whole thing consisted of large mounds of earth with bunkers and barracks dug in underneath.  This inexpensive solution proved more impregnable than the thick brick structures at Fort Pulaski.  It withstood seven major sea-based attacks and didn’t fall to the north until late in the War when Sherman’s troops marched across the land burning everything in sight.  Come to think of it, Sherman’s march to the sea had much in common with George Bush’s inexorable march to Baghdad except that Sherman was physically closer to the vicinity of the battle most of the time.  Actually, he viewed the siege of Fort McAllister from a safe perch away across the water in Savannah.  I suppose it’s usually that way with war.  The guy giving the orders to have young soldiers killed is not himself much in harm’s way.

It was chilling to visit so many historical military sites while catching little snatches of current war news via National Public Radio on Mona’s Walkman and headlines viewed through the windows of newspaper boxes in front of grocery stores.

The crowning jewel of our trip so far has been Savannah where we stayed in a beautiful 150 year old brick row house, the home of a dear Unitarian soul named Ken Matthews.  Old Savannah’s original layout prescribed by its founder, James Ogelthorpe, has served it well for nearly three centuries, even to this day.  It was built in 1733 around several major town squares.  The effect is of a very pedestrian friendly place with many fountains, statues, and park benches.  Porches and balconies line the sidewalks, creating intimate social space under canopies of live oak trees whose branches sprawl out over the streets, allowing sunlight to fall on brick and cobble stone.  Friday evening Ken took us on a lamplight tour of his neighborhood, Savannah’s historic district, and on Saturday morning we were given a professional tour by the Victorian Lady, Ardis Wood, in full costume.

Savannah was also a high spot with respect to fulfilling the mission of our journey, which is to spread the word of Global Democracy and the Earth Charter.  Thanks to a great UU gentleman, Ray Wood, Ardis’ husband, we were invited to speak at the downtown Rotary Club luncheon.  The Rotarians were good, earnest folks, but, as Ray put it, some of them have world views very different from ours.  Someone got up and walked out when Mona mentioned in passing that Bush’s invasion of Iraq was in violation of the United Nations Charter.  On Saturday afternoon Mona found our message very well received during her successful book signing at Barnes and Noble.  On Sunday we delivered the sermon and readings at the grand old UU Church in downtown Savannah.  

While we were in Savannah, two newspapers, the Savannah Morning News and the weekly Connect, featured us in articles that did great justice to our message.  (Click here for the Morning News article.)  One headline read, “Pedaling for People Power.”  Mona almost wishes we had originally thought of that for our logo instead of “Bike for Global Democracy.”  The other headline read “Banned in Williamsburg”, since a bookstore in Williamsburg, Virginia, withdrew its offer of a book signing upon learning that Mona is not very happy with Bush’s Middle East policy. A sequel to these exciting opportunities came on the Monday night after Savannah when we met with another very intelligent group of people and had a lively and challenging discussion at the home of Ruth and Louis King on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. 

Bicycling has also become quite challenging since we crossed the Savannah River into South Carolina.  Since then, there have been no bike paths and very few bike lanes or paved shoulders on the roads.  Many of the roads consist of only two narrow lanes, heavily traveled in both directions with monstrous trucks barreling along like US tanks hell bent for Baghdad, only faster.  Sometimes these trucks actually slow down behind us and wait for a slight break in the fast moving oncoming traffic.  Then at the slightest opportunity, they play a game of Russian roulette to see whether they can race around us before colliding with another oncoming truck.  However, one of these trucks decided to play a different game.  Apparently, he thought it would be more fun to simply run us off the road by charging on through beside us in the narrow crowded space.  I cannot describe how frightening it was to feel its great tonnage ramming through only a few inches from my face.  Fortunately, Dick is a very good driver and miraculously steered the tandem and our little trailer off onto the muddy shoulder while all the while remaining upright.

On the way into Beaufort, South Carolina, we had an equally terrifying experience.  We had to cross a two-lane 1.5 mile long bridge in the rain with extremely heavy traffic.  At the apex of this bridge, there was a slippery grating with very wide gaps between the metal crosspieces.  The bike began wobbling and sliding back and forth so that we felt almost certain to topple headlong into the traffic.  I did not breathe once until we were off that grating.  Again, because of Dick’s skill and prowess we managed to stay upright through this ordeal. 

In Beaufort we stayed at the home of Dave and Nancy Stroupe, who live in a very beautiful non-gated community of modest sized homes.  The houses are quite new but biking into this neighborhood gave us the sense of entering an old New England village. Every house is unique but they are of varying turn of the century styles.  Most have picket fences and none have garage doors or driveways in front.  Mona would like to live in such a place, except that there is no store.  Still for us it was a fairly easy bike ride into the main part of Beaufort, which is another beautiful, historic place.  We stopped on the way into town to be interviewed for an hour by the life styles editor of the Beaufort Gazette.  We don’t know whether there was ever an article in the paper.

We are now in Charleston, staying at the home of Janet and John Stevens.  We facilitated a lively 1 ½ hour workshop entitled “Membership in an Era of Emerging Earth Community” yesterday at the very old gothic UU Church of Charleston.  Mona assigned the group the task of finding specific parallels between the Earth Charter and the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism.  One woman remarked that there almost seemed to be some plagiarism going on, but everyone agreed that the most appropriate thing to do with the UU principles is to put them in an Earth Charter and spread them around the world. Then Janet led us on a walking tour of historic downtown Charleston, which seems to be in a friendly competition with Savannah. At the same time we heard of the looting of priceless antiquities from Iraq’s National Museum in Bhagdad, with US soldiers ignoring pleas for help.

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 Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity
– Earth Charter principle I.1.b.

 As citizens of planet earth, we affirm that - we are temporary trustees, not owners, of the marvels of the earth.
– Preamble of the Charter of the Global Peoples Assembly Movement.