The Savannah River marks the Southwestern boundary of South Carolina and Georgia. South Carolina has the shape of a piece of potato pie (sweet potato for those uninformed), the upper crusty part being the boundary with North Carolina. The eastern sliced angle being shared with the Atlantic Ocean and the Southwestern angle being shared with the State of Georgia. At the pointed tip, the Savannah River flows into the Atlantic. Above the tip is Hilton Head in South Carolina and below the tip, is the city of Savannah in Georgia. The upwaters of the Savannah pour out of Lake Hartwell in the Northwest. The Tugaloo River is part of that watershed.
I drive down I-85 today along the frontage of the mountains towards Atlanta and Decatur. The rain comes up from Georgia along the mountains just this route, the rain or the snow or the wind. Today it is cool and misty. Finally winter has gone. The forests lining the route are Technicolor/Blu-Ray: Purple Wisteria dripping from the tall trees, white dogwoods, pink plums, fushia red buds and yellow jasmine wrapped around everywhere. The yellow jasmine is the State Flower of South Carolina. The new leaves of hardwoods are red, orange, yellow and tender green. I cross the Tugaloo into Georgia and all is green here.
I take exit 173 north into Lavonia, then 6 miles to Martin, turn right onto 328. Here is a small village called Avalon and on the left a residence with blue neon lights in the front windows off the porch proclaiming:
"Stumpey's Playhouse". Two miles up the road at the corner of Seven Forks Rd, in a village with the odd name of Gumlog, sits "Stumpey's Gas Station". Farther on is a BP station where I turn left and soon find the park. (This is not the best way to go, but it may be the most interesting.). I have traveled from Stevens County into Franklin county.
From the Visitor Center near the edge of the water, the 3.5 mile Sassafras Trail begins. It snakes along the shore, up and down hills with bright blue blazes to mark the way. Here there are flat rocks of sparkling shale. On a bluff overlooking the river, someone has piled stacks of them making a line of cairns. I pass an amphitheater and up the hill, a closed Nature Hut. Finally there are Yurts with decks built high up looking across the water towards expensive houses on the other side.
Back on the road, I wonder how my great grandfather traveled to Decatur to finish medical school at Emory in the year following the end of the Civil War. Was there a train? Did he ride a horse? Did he carry food with him? Where did he live?
Eleanor, Ryan, Martin and Mathew and I have dinner at Chai Pani (Namaste, Ya'll) in Decatur. Would he recognize this place? Would he believe it could be true? What will it be like another 150 years from now? Would we believe it?
Here is a recipe for Sweet Potato Pie, the winner of the "Back to the Basics" recipe contest printed in The State newspaper Sunday, November 7, 2004. The winner was Frances Mitchell of Florence.
2 cups sweet potato pulp
1 stick margarine, sliced
2 eggs
1/8 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp butter flavoring
1/8 cup milk
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
*Mash sweet potatoes and all ingredients. Pour mixture into 9-inch pie shell
*Bake at 350 degree for 35 minutes.
What the heck, just use butter, not margarine and you will not need butter flavoring.
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