The Nixon Room

I mentioned yesterday how Vera booked us a quick vacation here in Savannah. She found us a room in a nice bed & breakfast called the Presidents’ Quarters Inn conveniently located among all of Savannah’s pedestrian-friendly squares and not too far from the river we crossed to get here.

I didn’t pay much attention to the name of the place as we were checking in, then found it funny when the sheet of paper we were given to put in our car windshield for parking had “RICHARD M. NIXON” in large type across the bottom.

Soon, though, I realized what Vera had done. Each of the rooms is named after a different U.S. president, and knowing all about my Nixon obsession studies, she had ensured we got the Nixon room. It’s being positioned next door to LBJ’s room seems appropriate, as does the fact that the room somewhat ignominiously faces the laundry.

All of the rooms in the place have been named after presidents who at one time or another spent time in Savannah -- not in the actual Presidents’ Quarters, mind you, but in the city. The hosts didn’t know too much about Nixon’s Savannah stay, but I found this description of a visit in October 1970 including a clip from WSB-TV.

Aside from the plaque next to the door, the only other indication of the room being devoted to the country’s only president to resign the office is a small display on one wall in the room dedicated to Nixon that includes some campaign buttons and a bumper sticker (pictured at left).

I actually brought one of the volumes of Stephen Ambrose’s Nixon biography on the trip. I wonder if the caretakers will spot it on the night stand when they come in to clean the room.

Speaking of privacy, I think I better go check right now to see if the phone is bugged.

Savannah on the River

So my birthday is tomorrow, and some time ago Vera planned a secret vacation for the two of us involving our leaving today and not getting back to the farm until Friday.

One of the consequences of getting the farm, incidentally, has been it suddenly became a bit difficult for the two of us to get away like this at once, given how much needs to be taken care of day-to-day, particularly with the horses. So this is a real treat.

I say it’s a “secret vacation” because Vera managed to plan the whole thing without my knowledge, and so I had no idea where we were headed. Was guessing to friends it would either be the beach (about a four-hour trip east) or the mountains (a bit less to the west), but as it turned out we went south down to Savannah, Georgia.

I should’ve guessed that, actually, as we had been talking about the fact that we’d never been to Savannah before and had more or less planned to go, although it had slipped my mind. But once we got out on the interstate I remembered those discussions, and so had guessed correctly before we arrived.

On the way down I kept thinking of the poker scene in Cool Hand Luke when Wayne Rogers, who plays Gambler, is dealing the cards in the five-card stud game and he pitches a second seven as an upcard to Koko, Luke’s opponent.

“A pair of Savannahs,” says Gambler, describing the pair Koko has showing (and which Luke eventually gets him to fold after relentlessly raising with his king-high). Don’t know much about the origin of that poker term, other than that it is used both to describe the seven and to describe a seven hand in lowball.

Gonna cut this one short, but tomorrow I’ll share one other fun aspect of the trip Vera kept hidden. I’ll give a hint -- we’re staying in a bed and breakfast that features a particular theme having to do with U.S. presidents.

Meanwhile, we’re going to go down to do some people watching on the river.