Kings of The Road
We are two friends who went on a road trip around the United States 20 years ago to serve churches. We kept a journal as we traveled and are reading through the journal and remembering our adventures. Listen and laugh with us as we go back in time and inspire others to go on an adventure.
Kings of The Road
42: Building a Heartfelt Mosaic in the Heart of Savannah
Ever wonder what it would look like if an average Joe competed in the Olympics alongside professional athletes? Join us as we kick off this fun and insightful episode with a hilariously off-the-rails intro and a provocative thought experiment that highlights just how extraordinary Olympic athletes truly are. We then shift gears to compare the sugar content in Coca-Cola versus sweet tea, revealing some shocking truths about our favorite sugary drinks. Our journey continues with a heartwarming project at the Wesley Center in Savannah, where we helped local children build a beautiful mosaic.
Next, we explore the beauty of imperfection in nature and life, using the gentle curve of tree branches as a metaphor for the unexpected quirks that shape our stories. From wedding mishaps to road trip adventures, it’s the unplanned moments that leave the biggest impressions. We share personal anecdotes, including a groom forgetting his song lyrics and the creative process of an artist who can transform simple lines into masterpieces. Amidst this reflection, we recount our battle with Georgia's notorious no-see-ums while working on the mosaic project.
Finally, we discuss the ideal times to visit Savannah, Georgia, focusing on the pleasant weather in November and April. We touch on how weather impacts activities, drawing a parallel with the Masters golf tournament held in April. With some light-hearted advice on staying active and a nod to the Olympic athletes, we wrap up by expressing our gratitude for sharing this wonderful Wednesday in Savannah with you. Don’t miss this whimsical yet profound episode that celebrates the joy of sports, the sweetness of life, and the beauty in our imperfections.
that groovy sound. You know what that means. It's the. You are going to enjoy another episode of the kings of the road podcast with scott hawkins, andrew gare. We are going to bring you some funky thoughts today, some groovy tunes um some hip uh, I'm stuck just yeah, I was okay, I was not gonna bail you out. There you were, you were just letting me hang.
Speaker 2:I could see you tumble down the hill into that pit and I was just like yeah, let's do it. We're going to end up.
Speaker 1:Hip, hip. What I wanted to say was hip, hip, hooray, but then that wasn't exactly, I think, going to be the best place to go. So welcome, welcome to the Teens Love podcast. We are glad you're here. If you haven't yet, follow us on Facebook. Follow the podcast on your app, spotify, yeah, all of those great things. If you want to defend your state, let us know. I do think we have someone to start with and we'll do that soon. So, yeah, great day, Great day. So we are. We are actually, you know, in very real time because of summer and we've used our stockpile of recordings, so we'll have to at some point, do that. But what's nice about being in real time is is that we can talk about current events.
Speaker 2:Current events.
Speaker 1:Yes, Now. Is there anything more current than the fact that the olympics are starting? I think it's this friday.
Speaker 2:I would say, yes, there are some things more current, but we don't want to talk about this I thought of that too, but I'm like this will probably surprise people when they when they, oh, they're gonna talk about, oh, the olympics that's a much safer conversation don't worry, you have your political conversations. You're here for a reason.
Speaker 1:That's not what we're about yeah, you're here for a reason. It's to enjoy thoughts and just laugh together. Um, so the olympics, which, overall, I would say that I I really enjoy um, watching, I enjoy having it on. We turn it on every night and it becomes a part of the summer. I really enjoy the Olympics. Where are you guys at with the Olympics?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm definitely interested. I love the Olympics. I think they do it right by making it every four years so that enough time passes, so that you'll get excited about it, because I think if it was any sooner you'd be like eh, we just watched it, it's like oh yeah, simone Biles oh, is she still what she's supposed to be?
Speaker 1:And Katie Ledecky right, like Michael Phelps, he's out of this one, but you know all these names. You're like Whoa, but I saw this meme and I don't remember what I saw. This is not an original thought, but I did. I laughed out loud and I thought of it again and I just wanted to set it before you, andrew. And the idea is we watch these athletes and they're spectacular. Right, they are absolutely amazing at what they do and they've been training for this their whole life. Right, this is they're in perfect shape. Everything's incredible. And you watch them. I don't know if you're like me, but you think well, that doesn't look that hard. Now, why? Because they're great at it, right, they're so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and you just see a group of them right and they're all that good at it and so you're like oh, so that's just like yeah, that's just normal. Right, that's how I the speed at which they're running around the track they all seem to be about that speed so exactly. So you can't really gauge how fast it is.
Speaker 1:No, you can't date or like in the swimming pool. What I think is they should every sports or something. They should put a just normal dude or a normal lady in the pool and say here are nine professional swimmers. And then Scott yeah and shoot it off, and then they just, and by the time they're done I'm on lap two, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, You're like pausing at the wall, Like well, I got to go back again. Oh my yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're holding on to the wall. You're like asking for an assistance. Can I have a sip of water, please? And they're just sprinting by you. Or, yeah, in the lawn jump. We heard your story about the lawn jump like oh boy that sand pit is far.
Speaker 2:I sure hope I make it and you run as fast as you can and guess what?
Speaker 1:you don't make it. You don't. And yeah, this would give us a bar then for what to see. So we don't that. That really is amazing, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:no, it's, it's such a yeah I. I wasn't thinking that they would actually like be in the pool. I was almost thinking like they would do the first team. You're like, oh okay, they swam those, yeah, five minutes five minutes and then the other guys, the pros, jump in and they're like, oh, two minutes and 30 seconds. But I love the idea of like they all start at the same time. They just like have lane eight, exactly george from from claremont, california yeah, and even make him a good swimmer.
Speaker 1:I say like it doesn't have to be someone flopping around like no solid guy, but you're like, I want to see their credentials too.
Speaker 2:Like yes, made it to shark level at the claremont Community Center swim pool at age 11.
Speaker 1:Swims three times a week for exercise from 6 to 6.30.
Speaker 2:Everyone. Oh, he's a good swimmer, takes water aerobics, yeah, right. So I'm like I'm impressed already, right, yes, and then he gets in and just gets whooped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you would not believe.
Speaker 2:And you would go oh oh, that's the difference. It would also be interesting to see if there are any sports where, like the lay person did sort of well now that's like curling right where you're like how about that's? Immediately what comes to mind? Like curling and granted, that's winter olympics, isn't it? But still like, because you're like is it really that hard? I mean, it's shuffleboard on ice, right. I know what if somebody was pretty decent at backyard games?
Speaker 1:Could they hold their?
Speaker 2:own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. Or I mean, I just, yeah, can you imagine like archery, okay, scott, your turn, everyone duck Because we're not really sure where this is going to end. And then, boom, right in the middle, everyone else, I it the like. And now, with ai, they can just lay over the image right of scott doing the archery and the pro, oh yeah, oh, there's, there's what it's like. Yeah, I just, I love it. Like entertainment level is this could be a comedy central thing, though, right, like, instead of like what does the who's doing the olympics? This year's nbc, what is their like funny version? Their channel that's, I'd have that on the whole time I, I think there's something to it.
Speaker 2:We, we, yeah, like I don't know how, how this would come to fruition, but there's got to be something where, yeah, they could have, they could just have a person in a random pool somewhere else and just, yeah, like you said, overlay it or do split screen and just show the show.
Speaker 1:The dude get smoked he's so great there he is in uh torrent california. Take it off to the side.
Speaker 2:No, you're just going as hard as you can, as much as you can swim or you're just running as fast at the west high school track these people, these people are already like on the podium, dried off, singing their national anthem, accepting the rewards. Guys still swimming like he's. Let's check back in the pool now. Okay, four more laps to go four more laps to go.
Speaker 1:that Four more laps to go. When I was thinking about this I was like the most difficult one If you just say like, let's pick random guy from the crowd, right, if that's the mode, like you, sir come on down.
Speaker 1:Could you imagine the pole vault with that being the idea? Like run. I have no idea how to even start. That feels like a death wish, like being stabbed with a lawn pole. First of all, how do I run with this incredibly long piece of PVC pipe? Oh, you'd be good at that because of your degree. Floppity, floppity, floppity, flop. Oh man, there's 0% chance. I'm hitting that little hole with the pole.
Speaker 2:That would be no way. Right, like the thing that you don't even consider being difficult about this sport would be the thing that we couldn't even get past.
Speaker 1:Right, we couldn't even start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if they said the event is you run as fast as you can and you hold this 20-foot long pole and then you have to get it in this little groove, I'd be like, oh, that's impossible, nobody can do that no, no, sir, I'm out already no, sir, you'd be like oh so. So the challenge, the game is actually to see how close you can get it to the groove.
Speaker 1:They're like right, no, no, no, that's just like that's that's not even it yeah, that right. That's just what we all can do, man, oh yeah, oh uh. Um Bill's coming down the stairs, I don't want to do the pole vault.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't, I can't. Yeah that doesn't end well for anybody. Bill weighs 320 pounds.
Speaker 1:We chose the wrong guy here everybody. Oh my gosh, yeah oh gosh.
Speaker 2:There was. I've been seeing videos and this is hilarious where it's people trying to learn a gainer. Oh, you know the flip where you basically yeah, I'm trying to describe it If you're not sure what a gainer is. Just look it up, but it's like a backflip. But instead of having your back facing the water, it's your front facing the water. So you basically have to throw your feet out in front of you and you're running back run like a running back, flip, reverse sort of thing.
Speaker 2:And so there's all these videos of people on tiktok. It's become like a trend and they're all trying to learn and it just shows them failing over and over. It's so funny, but it's one of these things. You look at it, you're like, well, that doesn't look hard at all the people, but when you actually try, it's one of these things.
Speaker 1:You look at it and you're like well, that doesn't look hard at all, but when you actually try it, when you actually try it, it's the most awkward thing, the high dive. Could you imagine the high dive On that? Okay, Sal, come on down.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, oh good times Well.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to watch.
Speaker 2:So hey, before we, we jump in. So we're still in georgia. And we did a poll on facebook, yep, and we wanted to know what you thought, without looking it up, what had more sugar, coca-cola or sweet tea? What one sweet tea won by a pretty hefty margin. Okay, we just looked it up and do you still have it in front of you? I do, I think it's Coca-Cola.
Speaker 1:Let me just real quick. Yeah, so a typical 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 39 grams of sugar, whereas sweet tea varies widely, but a standard sweet tea recipe might have between 25 to 30 grams of sugar per 12 ounces. So those are per 12 ounces for both of them, right, right, so there's more sugar by a factor of like, either almost double or a quarter. I mean, it's a lot more.
Speaker 2:Like that. If you've ever tasted sweet tea and you know how sweet it is, it's amazing. And then there's more sugar in Coke. That really puts into perspective how sweet it is. It's amazing. And then there's more sugar and coke. That really puts into perspective how much sugar is in coke how?
Speaker 1:yes, and also the other flavors.
Speaker 2:That doesn't make it just because I could more easily get down a coke than I could a cup of sweet tea, oh yeah yeah, but I was just saying before we started recording, like if you've ever let a coke go sort of flat and get like room temperature and then you take a sip of it, oh man, you notice it then then you understand yeah, it is gross so, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So this has been your health yeah, good info.
Speaker 2:We're doing this for your health, because we're concerned about you and we want you to make good choices so don't torture yourself with.
Speaker 1:That's another poll. Do you like it or not? Yes or no? I I think I think, I think I lose in that one because I'm not a fan the poll I think the poll that we should put out is uh, or just maybe a short answer question but what, what sport do you want to try before? Like what would you think? And that'd be a good one, because pole vault there's some good ones on there, so we'll think about it, okay.
Speaker 2:Hit us with Savannah. All right, we're still in sweet Savannah, day 53, friday, november 19th 2004. We got back to the Wesley center around nine 30 and got straight to work. We built shelves in the shed and organized that. We put together a little tight slide. That might have been yesterday. We painted a bench in the playground to look like a stove and barbecue.
Speaker 2:Our big project was to help a very pregnant lady build a mosaic. Yeah, this was cool. It was cool. Never done anything like this before. We have some pictures of it that we'll share. Yeah, let me read on and then we'll talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 2:But the tiles for the mosaic were all made by the children who go to the Wesley center and they were colored and fired according to Elizabeth's plan. That was the lady who made this mosaic. So again, these kids made these tiles, they colored them or painted them and then they glazed them. So then she had all these tiles and we were going to use them to build this mosaic. The finished product was to be a big tree with flowers and stuff. Our first task was to rough up the smooth parts of the wall so the tiles will stick. That meant hitting it over and over with the claw side of a hammer until it was all roughed up. What a workout. Scott and Elizabeth began putting up tiles, so I went and finished the shelves in the shed. When I came back they had just about finished the whole trunk and branches and it looked awesome. So I think there was all these tiles and then she would actually break them into smaller pieces right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't remember if they were already broken or if they were just tiles they painted and then she broke them, so they had the mosaic-y, you know different shape, which made sense. I think you're absolutely right about that. Yeah, and then put them up on the wall, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we continued to work doing the leaves of the trees until a bit after five, when it started to get dark. This was when we were introduced to no-see-ums.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, hold on Before we get to no-see-ums, which I forgot was in here. I did, too, the. I still remember this very clearly as well as I. I remember something that she said. First of all, she was very, very pregnant, so us being there to help her was, I think, important because she was so pregnant. Secondly, we have the fact that when we're building this um concrete thing right and we're putting it up, we're having the tree go.
Speaker 1:And your temptation, I mine, was to go straight and to make it go straight up. But she said no tree in nature is straight, everything is curved. And so she had us have this like gentle, you know curve and he's like different things in the branches. We're supposed to do these weird things. And when she said that, I thought that is so true, you draw trees, but you draw them as he's like straight up little things, but the whole point of them is to also have this like natural feel, and I've used this in ministry or in sermons, because nothing is exactly like you think. Nothing's perfect, is basically what I end up saying you know, everything in nature, like the personality comes from all of the little, like funky angles and all of the things that aren't exactly perfect and I just I just thought that was so cool. She, she's, like it looked fake If it's straight.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, it does I never, you know, like that, like line for me sticks out all the time and I'm sure an artist goes. Of course, Scott, but I mean I'm, I am no artist, so just having that was really an interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, as you were saying that, I was like but a pine tree is pretty straight but then I was thinking about that and like even that kind of adapts and then the branches are not straight and everything.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it checks out it checks out, and I mean they, they do. Of course, they can try to grow like super straight trees for purposes, but I think nature just always has this, this personality, and I think the big lesson that I take away from there is, like, the events that happen are the things you usually remember, are the little quirks Like what do we talk about at our wedding Most often? Is it the perfect cake? Is it that? No, it's the fact that it was like baking hot, and that comes up more often than not about our wedding, like, oh yeah, they told us that this room is never hot right on the beach and it was like 94. I don't know if you remember, but our wedding was just smoking hot. Besides us being smoking hot, and when I that's what I remember smoking hot, and so it's like I went to.
Speaker 1:I did a wedding this saturday and the groom, his wife, is amazing singer, just spectacular. And then he's a musician too, but not yet. I mean, he's not as good as his wife, let's just. And he would say that if he was sitting here, yeah. But he decided to like sing a song to her. But then he got halfway through and he's like oh too many old fashions, don't remember the lyrics right now, oh geez. And I said to him I said stop, like you said to him. I said stop, like you're gonna want to beat yourself up for that. I said this is going to be the story, this will be the funny story from your wedding. It's okay, and like we, we needed this story things are going too well.
Speaker 2:the tree looked too straight. Um, yeah, I like that. I feel, yeah, we could unpack that all day long, couldn't we? I mean, yeah, and that's like the point of this whole entire trip on this road trip, this podcast, all this stuff is all about the stories, and the best ones are when things went wrong, right, right. Like you know, we think about the funniest ones, and like the thing in New York where the guy wanted to show us the shotgun, or like the RV getting towed in.
Speaker 2:Boston or the banger main and stuff, and it's like it's all the things that don't go according to plan, all the things that are crooked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:You know, and I just thought that's so cool. Yeah, no, that's really good. I like that we beat ourselves up for it.
Speaker 1:It's so funny that, like we end up going, oh I wish that. Like we end up going, oh I wish. But really that's the stuff that we end up talking about. I mean, we had an amazing day snowboarding with me, you and Isaac, but what's the story we tell all the time Is when you know, according to Isaac, you almost killed him on the chairlift, so that's the like. That's just funny. That that's. Those are the things, right, that we talked about.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Okay, back to no-see-ums. Yeah, it's true. And yeah, I can't wait to share this photograph oh yeah, of that mosaic, because it's cool. I mean, we had never done anything like this, you know. And so to have this lady who's this artist and just has this eye, we're like, how are you going to take this bunch of tiles and turn it into a tree? Like I don't. And have you ever seen an artist where, if you try to draw something like a person, right, you start with maybe the head and then go down to the and like, from the early stages you kind of know what you're getting. And then you watch an artist and they draw a line here and a line there and you're like I have no idea what they're drawing. And then all of the sudden they add one little line and you're like, oh my gosh, it's a, yeah, it's a person in a wedding dress?
Speaker 1:exactly no. I know their minds are just different, right? Yep, I never would have started there, but that's where you're supposed to start, right? Yeah, exactly no and you've done those like draw on, like youtube, where you can like do drawing school with draw characters. Those start weird places where you're like, oh okay, and then by the end I'm like that's much better than I would have ever drawn that character yeah so yeah, exactly, yeah, no, it is, it is fascinating.
Speaker 2:So no seeums, there had to be some downfall to georgia right all we were doing is pumping it up, pumping it up, but uh, here we go, the downfall, um, downfall. This is when we were introduced to no seeums. They call these little buggers that that because you can't see them. Oh, but I explained that to you, you know, because otherwise you're like where did they get that name? Um, but you can sure feel them. Yes, they are tiny bugs that bite like mosquitoes. We endured the pain long enough to clean up and then we took off. We were taken out to dinner by elizabeth and her husband, who reminded us a lot of jenny and jimmy from, uh, iowa, yes, iowa. Uh, from sioux. Oh, look at that. I even said it, thank you, andrew, 20 years ago. Yeah, so I guess that's all we needed to say about no-see-ums. Well, I think.
Speaker 2:Anything more, having lived in.
Speaker 1:Bama, yeah, I think the thing about the no-see-ums is, I believe that when we started hearing that name, thought that was their like name, you know, like their inset name because they say it just has one word, no seems. And you're like, oh, what kind of. And then finally, I think someone explained to us no, they're called no c ums because you can't see them. We're like what?
Speaker 1:so it's not their inset name, it's like what everyone calls them, because, yeah, they are these tiny little like death things and we're going to also run to fire ants later, which are a whole other. There are so many bugs in the south that we do not have out here that are just tough so. I did look this up. The insets belong to the family Ceratopodonidae.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, I figured.
Speaker 1:So instead of trying to say that name. You just call them no-see-ums. Yeah, oh, that's the Ceratopodonidae. No, they're no-see-ums, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no-see-ums, let's just go with that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Miserable little tiny bugs.
Speaker 2:Little biting flying bugs, just the worst. So for dinner we had some Mexican food, which was pretty darn good, and then went back to their house. I don't remember that.
Speaker 1:I didn't know we did that.
Speaker 2:I remember hanging out with them, but I don't remember having Mexican food and stuff. Yeah, so I must have forgotten his name, because I just have this like weird blank space in the journal and then it goes does computer animation? So I must have thought, oh, I need to go back and fill in his name and I never did so.
Speaker 2:Sorry, Elizabeth's husband. I didn't take note of your name, but he does computer animation and he showed us some of his movies that he had made A lot of stop motion stuff like Claymation, Wallace and Gromit sort of stuff. It was incredible.
Speaker 1:I remember that now.
Speaker 2:Do you man? That is a blank in my mind. I do not.
Speaker 1:No, I remember seeing some of his stuff, because when you said the Wallace and Gromit, that brought it in.
Speaker 2:Cool. I wish I could recall that we hung out with them for a while and then headed on back to our wheeled home. They were fun people, the type of artsy people you would expect to find in Berkeley. She did give off, kind of. Berkeley vibes, but maybe that's like a universal sort of artistic thing, like kind of nature-y. I'm pretty sure she I picture in my mind kind of like dreadlocked hair, but I don't think she had dreadlocked hair, but I think she wore like strappy hiking sandal type sandals which, you know, gotta have your feet close to the earth to feel the vibrations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like Portland, berkeley, savannah fix. Yeah, she was great and they were kind and it was really fun to be with them. Yeah, it was really really nice to be with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do be able to do so much work. I mean, we were there the day before and then the entire day this day, just helping this wesley center, which we should probably look up and maybe we'll give a link to it. Um, I will, but uh, I'm pretty sure it was. Did we say it the other day? Or uh, I think they do stuff for kids or just the community in general, but it was a cool little place that we got hooked up with.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I just have tucked away and is so john wesley is the guy who, um, came over and he's british and he is also the founder of the methodist church.
Speaker 1:So john wesley and he started the first orphanage for boys in Savannah, georgia, remember that? No, so he started one of the first American orphanages, maybe in the South or maybe in Georgia, because I'm sure there were other ones, but this was a long time ago 1700s, early 1800s. You know, 1700s, early 1800s. I don't exactly remember when he came over, but he came over and was a missionary, slash the church planter, uh, guy, and so that's why the methodism has a lot of roots in the south, since 1949 wesley community centers of Inc's mission is to enhance the economic, educational and spiritual growth through excellence in early learning, care and services for women, children and families.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's focused mostly on women and children, so that's probably why they have that school there and all of those things. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, that that's a really it was a very cool place. Do have we filled the gas up in the jeep wrangler yet do we write about that? Oh?
Speaker 2:I don't know, but let me I wonder if I can. Uh, I think that might be coming. Okay, that's no problem If we don't we'll talk about it another time, but yes, yeah, so just to to round this date out or day out. It was such a nice night, so this is back. When we got back to our RV, it was such a nice night that we sat outside and smoked our pipes and enjoyed the warmth of Savannahannah uh take me back.
Speaker 1:Do you remember that? I? I do remember that. In their parking I feel like I do yeah, just sitting outside I think we put our like our little chairs poop and sat down the parking lot of the church. Yeah, just the methodist church are smoking our pipes, not exactly what they want to have, but here we are, debatable, walking around enjoying ourselves. Just the Methodist church are smoking our pipes, not exactly what they want to have happen, but here we are walking around enjoying ourselves.
Speaker 2:So love it. It was again.
Speaker 1:I cannot recommend Savannah enough. It's funny how, when we posted that so many people have been to Savannah recently, your mom's been to Savannah recently we had some friends from Birmingham who were heading over to Savannah. I'm like wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess it's summer and a popular place to go. But did you want my fun in savannah?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, I think they'd been before too. Um okay, but but yeah they, they loved it there. I think it was a bit hot being in the middle of summer, I think.
Speaker 1:I think probably no south. Yeah, I think november is probably the ideal time to be there really, yes, november or April. Yeah, that's why the Masters is played in April, not played in July, for a reason. Yep, yep, you are miserable, oh man.
Speaker 2:Yeah weather is everything but another great day in Savannah Another great day in Savannah Georgia.
Speaker 1:We are so glad that we get to be together on this hip, hip, hooray Wednesday.
Speaker 2:Oh brother.
Speaker 1:Go swim a lap in a pool.
Speaker 2:Avoid Coca-Cola. Oh, that's a good idea. Go do some event Time yourself, and then that's a good idea. Go do some event Time yourself and then compare it to what the Olympic athletes are doing and just see how close you are.
Speaker 1:You have a pool. We're going to do that for you. We have a little video. Talk to you later. Bye, sounds good, bye.