Fearless

Dara Torres

Dara Torres made headlines last week at the Olympic swimming trials, and she's hot in Web search — especially with results like this photo of her in a swimsuit. But our fascination with Torres doesn't stop there.

At 41, Torres will make history in Beijing. She'll be the oldest female swimmer in the history of the Games and the first U.S. swimmer to compete in five Olympics. She's a mom of a 2-year-old girl and has come out of retirement several times over the course of her long career. Yet she always ends up back on the medal podium.

Popular searches for Torres turn up even more. We search for information on her record-breaking swim times— the first when she was 14 — and her battle with bulimia in college. Then there's her stint as a swimsuit model, her work as a motivational speaker and her devotion to resistance stretching, which helps keep her in amazing shape.

Torres has proven herself a keen competitor both in the pool and out. She once appeared on the game show "Pyramid." She also won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach … as a race car driver.

From msn a-list
http://a-list.msn.com/default.aspx?cp-searchtext=Dara%20Torres

This gives inspiration to me that mature humans can compete on a world class level!

Road Trip: Savannah

Road Trip Savannah:

Wednesday- left Lindale, Texas at around 1830. Traveled I-20 to 330 miles to the outskirts of Jackson, Mississippi.
I'm the fat guy on the right.

Thursday- rise and shine. Departed around 0730. Only 625 miles to go! Having left Texas yesterday, traveling across Louisiana and 1/3 of the way across Mississippi, we are off to a good start. Just have 2/3 of Mississippi, Alabama and all the way across Georgia to the coast.

This made for a long ride, but hey it is a road trip. We lost an hour when moving to Eastern time zone, but we made it by 1930 ET. We arrived at our destination the Whitaker Huntingdon Inn.

Having taken the advice of the young lady Rebbecca running the place, we dined on River street at the Oyster bar. You can see pictures of the place and more here:

//http://www.savannahmenu.net/info_pages.php?pages_id=475&osCAdminID=ac8e32d5c7cab044d286f9c071706d35&osCAdminID=ac8e32d5c7cab044d286f9c071706d35
Of course I ate a dozen oysters. Djuana had a couple as well. As we walked on River street we couldn't help but notice a lot of people were carrying plastic cups full of a flavorful drink. We decided to partake ourselves.

http://www.wetwillies.com/bar.cfm?wizard=1&CFID=2169863&CFTOKEN=cfc2c77469e891d1-0E3D0EF4-E575-8A37-682FECA77E7FF74F

The place was called Wet Willies. It is cash and carry. Like their website says, they support global cooling, with their extensive selection of frozen drinks. We had one each. They were tasty.

Friday- 4 JUL 08- Up early to get in line to get a reservation at Lady and Sons, Paula Deens Restaurant. We stopped in a quaint part of town to get coffee and a muffin.

The line to get on the list for supper.

Finally getting on the list!

The timing had to be perfect as far as getting the reservation and making the Paula Deen Tour at 1000. The magic happened and we made both! Reservation for 1900 and off to Savannah Tours.
http://www.savannahtours.us/

Of course, it wasn't as simple at that. I had already made arrangements by booking our spots on the tour. When we get there, they had no record of us. So I go through the whole process again and pay up. We hop on the air conditioned bus when my phone starts ringing. I don't recognize the number, so I let it ring. They leave a message, then the same number calls again. This time I answer. Mr. Pennington, yes, we see you haven't arrived for your tour yet. What, I am on the bus even as we speak. Mr. Pennington can you look out to see what color bus you are on? White. Mr. Pennington you are with the other company.

Imagine my embarrassment. Oh well, we are moving now.

The tour was exciting because I felt the tour guide/driver was either inebriated or under the influence of drugs. Sometimes it is hard to discern with her heavy southern drawl. We nearly wrecked twice. She had her eleven year old son on board to keep track of the tour members.

We stopped at Polks produce. http://www.thefoodscoop.com/polks.html , I had a Bing cherry cider (delicious) and the proprietor carved off pieces of fresh succulent cantaloupe for us to eat. Mucho Deliciosioso!

Next up on the tour, the Paula Deen Store. Souvenirs and such.

Next stop, Bethesda boys home. http://www.bethesdahomeforboys.net/

Paula Deen supports this cause. She was married at the chapel on the grounds.

Chapel. Djuana inside chapel.

Next stop Bubba's, Paula Deen's brothers place.

http://www.unclebubbas.com/

We were served a buffet meal here. One thing to say CharGrilled Oysters Mucho Deliciouoso!

We were given one with the meal. I ordered another half dozen. I was stuffed.

Chargrilled Oysters

The ride back was uneventful. I convinced Djuana to left me take a nap. I needed it to digest. She wanted to go to Tybee island before our diner at Lady and Sons at 7:00pm. After a to short nap at the bed and no breakfast, we headed off. We used the gps to head us in the right direction.

One thing we didn't anticipate, until we heard it on a local radio station while driving, was how crowded it would be. All the locals as well as tourist go there for the fireworks later that night. We got caught in traffic going out to the island. Because we were pressed for time now, it was a drive by only. We didn't get out to check out the beach. Passing on the way out of town we stopped at a tourist shop to get some t-shirts for the kids.

By the time we made it back to the bed and no breakfast, it was a mad rush to clean up and dress for dinner.

I drove us down to the place (we had scouted that morning) and managed to find a close parking spot for the mini cooper. We were ushered right in. Up to the third floor and seated. We checked the nightly buffet on the way in. Djuana decided on the buffet. I ordered off the menu.

http://www.ladyandsons.com/index.php

We had the fried green tomatoes as the appetizer. We both enjoyed that. They brought a garlic biscuit and a ho-cake to the table. Both were wonderful, but I had one bite only (Uncle Bubba's was still weighing on me). I had

Steak and Pie $26.99
Beef Tenderloin and mushroom ragout surrounding our famous tomato pie.

It was wonderful. Djuana had

Southern Buffet $17.99
All you care to eat.

She chose fried chicken, greens, macaroni and cheese and short ribs. We had a piece of pecan pie to finish it out. Djuana, the foodie, was critical of each item, giving her take on it and weather or not she enjoyed it prepared the Paula Deen way or HER way better! She gave Paula high marks with the exception of the mac and cheese.

After dinner we drove back to the bed and no breakfast so Djuana could change shoes, as we were headed down to the river to watch fireworks at 9:30pm. Of course our parking spot was taken. Several thousands of people were doing the exact same thing as us! We did find a spot right beside Paula's restaurant.

Off we walked to river street to find a place to view the fireworks.