Author: Neal Saye

My daily snapshot of Robert’s and my 2023 trip to get away from Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebrations.

This Post-St. Patrick’s Day morn, after Robert and I finished our coffee in our little Airbnb, we embarked on a short day trip up to Toccoa, Georgia to take a gander at Traveler’s Rest State Historic Site. We have now visited all 48 of Georgia’s state parks, and all but three of the state historic sites.

“This stagecoach inn and plantation home was built around 1815 by James R. Wyly. He strategically located it along the newly constructed Unicoi Turnpike, a busy highway over the Appalachian Mountains. Wyly operated the inn until 1833 when he sold it to his neighbor Devereaux Jarrett, the “richest man in the Tugaloo Valley.” Jarrett continued to operate the inn, but doubled its size to make it the home place of his 14,400 acre plantation along the Tugaloo River. Three generations of Jarretts inhabited the site until the state of Georgia purchased the remaining few acres of the once-vast plantation for $8,000 in 1955.”georgiastateparks.org

Dynamic docent Billy showed us around and even gave us a suggestion for a local lunch, which we took him up on.

Tonight we’re getting all cultured as we melodically make our way to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Here’s a little something I put together about it:

We’re going to … let the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra transport us into Nature’s realm with the rugged Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius alongside the Overture to Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber. In between, catch the U.S. premiere of a new saxophone concerto, For Wadada Leo Smith (2022), by jazz and classical multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey.

Okay, I lied. I copied all that from the program. And understood very little. But I do plan to be “transported” by it. I’ll tell you if I was in tomorrow’s post. That will give you something to look forward to.