Others might have taken the start of my day as a bad sign. But it was pretty much just my fault.

Because I'd been so tired last night, I hadn't packed, and the dishes weren't done. I also had to drop Angel off at Barking Hound Village. I didn't feed her this morning in hopes that she wouldn't get carsick this time, and indeed she didn't. Good news. BHV is at the end of a long, windy road and on one of those curves, I jumped the curb a bit. Not actually up on the curb, just a good hard whump on my back right tire. Hmmm, I thought, that sucks, I'd better check it on my way out.

I put Angel into good hands and said goodbye. She'll have a wonderful time there with all the other dogs. I headed back for home and completely forgot the tire ... until it went flat on the highway less than a mile later. This is I-75/85 in Atlanta we're talking here. Not the best place in the world to get a flat. But I was lucky enough to be near an extremely wide portion of shoulder and so was able to pull off and change my flat in no time. I felt like the dad in "A Christmas Story" going for a flat changing speed record. See, I'd done dishes, but I still had to pack. It was getting on to ten o'clock, and that had been our goal time for leaving. Fortunately, neither one of us likes to rush a trip. Rushing just starts the whole thing off on the wrong note.

We got on the road around 11:30 and had no problems all the way to Savannah. Unless you count an unfortunate, yet intentional, run-in with a Penrose hot pickled sausage. At a rest stop we picked up a brochure for The Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum. What a great museum. It really is first class, and honors the history of the 8th from its inception in January 1942 to the present. There are four theaters showing films, including one that surrounds you with the experience of going on a B-17 bombing raid from England to Germany. When the bomb bays open in the film, big fans in the theater kick up a gush of wind. They do not, however, turn the thermostat down to -32� F, which is what the flight crews would have experienced.

Our guide who took us through the B-17 mission (we were the only two people in the audience for this sitting) served with the 8th in WWII himself. He'd joined up at 18.

The museum was packed with information, but we'd arrived at 3:30, and closing time is 5:00, so I didn't get to see nearly as much of it as I would have liked. Deb may let me go back on our trip home.

You know the pin-up girls that flyers used to paint on the nose of the plane? Deb bought me a cloissone pin of one of the girls that reads "Photo Fanny". I'd tell you what she got for Jake and Sara, but that would spoil the surprise.

We found the B&B easily enough, and it's just gorgeous. Our room is tres spacious. There's a four-poster bed and a sitting area with a day bed. There's also a deck off the bedroom where we're sitting now, me journaling and Deb reading.

For dinner we were recommended to the Gryphon Tea Room, but it closes at 7:00, and we arrived at five 'til. We asked the bartender for his suggestion, and he sent us to Churchill's Pub. Aha! We have a World War II theme for the day! Excellent.

I had fish and chips; Deb had steak and mushroom pie. We'd walked all the way from Gordon Street to City Hall on Bay, then around some more because we were thinking the restaurant was on Bull St., but it turned out to be on Drayton. So we'd worked up a fair appetite and thirst. The food was good, the waitress friendly. The walk back home was equally pleasant, and we detoured to see the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which led us through Lafayette Square, and then back to our B&B, which is in spitting distance of the Pulaski monument.

Finally we can relax with a glass of wine. Deb brought a bottle of Urzigger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese (Weingut Karl Erves, winery owner, whom Deb met on her trip to Germany last year) with us. The German wine keeps us in our WWII theme to wrap up the evening.