I haven’t really posted much about my trip to Savannah, as I wanted a bit of time to think so that I could post something halfway intelligent. Fuck it. No amount of time is going to change it either way.
It took me longer than it should have to get there. Five or six hours I guess. I made several stops on the way. I wasn’t feeling very good Thursday so I stopped at all of the rest stops (three of them I think) as well as a couple of gas and pee stops. Got in a little after noon. It was pretty easy to find the hotel. A lot of us stayed at the La Quinta on Abercorn, which was pretty close to the funeral home. Since I got there at a decent time, I managed to get them to let me check in three hours early and showered. Probably a good thing since I had been in the car all day.
Once personal hygiene was taken care of I called Zonker to see where the hell everyone was. Everyone was going to meet for lunch at the City Market. He gave me directions and I headed out. Apparently the were initially going somewhere near River Street, but it was too crowded so they had changed their minds. I headed out and got started. I didn’t make it too far before he called me back and told me that there was no place to park, so we were going to meet at a restaurant near the hotel. No problem. Minor cluster fuck, but that’s what happens when you get a bunch of free souls (fucking hard heads) together.
I managed to get there first and have a beer at the bar. The first people to get there were Recondo32, Georgia, and their son Rick. Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter. I met Zonker, as well as Eric, Key, Yabu, Elisson, Denny, and Velociman. Damn it, today started 20 hours ago. I am missing someone, and I can’t figure out who. Oh well, send me a flaming hate mail and I will correct the error of my ways.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to change. I hedged my bets from my earlier entry and brought along a shirt and tie, which I donned with misgivings about having my ass melt off. The service itself was actually a pleasant surprise. No fire and brimstone, which I am extremely grateful for. The preacher gave everyone an opportunity to speak about Rob if they wanted. A couple of buddies that had known him since high school got up and spoke some nice things about him. Then Livey spoke for a few minutes. She brought along her snakes as well. I hate funerals, so I didn’t hang around inside very long once the thing was over. I hear that they had his ashes in a pretty cool box. Outside I met Catfish, Dizzy Girl, and several other bloggers whose urls escape me at the moment.
We all headed over to the celebration which was in full swing by the time we got there, since most of us wanted out of the fucking monkey suits. I still have my ass but I swear I lost five pounds in sweat. I got to meet Sam and Stacey. They are both really nice and met us down on River Street later in the evening. Stevie was there, but I never got a chance to introduce myself. Maybe next time. I met lots of other people in Rob’s family, as well as some other bloggers, but apparently that short-term memory loss is taking it’s toll so I won’t try to list them tonight.
As I said before, we did head down to River Street and hung out for a couple of hours. Probably would have stayed longer but they closed the damn place on us. After that, several folks got together back at the La Quinta, but by that time my head was pounding, I felt like I wanted to puke, and couldn’t even eat much of anything. I just crashed at the hotel. I ended up sleeping about two hours later than I wnated to on Friday, so didn’t pull out of Savannah until about 7am. I had a nice time even though I felt so bad, and am looking forward to going to Helen in the fall, perhaps I will actually open my mouth once or twice. I put in for my next vacation this morning (my bosses were thrilled about that one) and am planning my week around Helen (right in the middle so that if I get too shitfaced I have time to recover.
Well, I have to get up for work in five hours, have to take my ass to bed.