December Roadtrip, Day 3...The Big Chair

Day 3

Sunday, December 3, 2022

     Today's excursion is the true reason I came to the far south-eastern corner of Georgia.  And it's all due to something I just came across by chance.  More on that shortly.  

      First things first, sunrise along the St. Mary's River...

      After a pretty decent breakfast at the motel, I still had some time to kill.  I was headed to Kingsland at noon.  It's the next town over from St. Mary's and extremely quiet on Sunday mornings.  

      I was looking for a place called Neutral Zone Studios.  It's on the far end of Williams Avenue, though there are no signs from the street. It's a long, dirt driveweay that leads to a gravel parking lot and a building that once was, and definitely looks like a warehouse.

     Ray Tesi owns the place and once a month opens the doors for Fan Appreciation Weekends.  Inside, you'll find a working film studio containing sets designed to be as accurate as possible to the original Star Trek TV series.  

     Quite a few fan films have been shot here.  The Paramount legal department doesn't have a problem with it.  But, they do have stipulations.  Each film has to be clearly labeled a "fan film" and thus not a Paramount property.  Neither the films or the studio can make a profit from these films.  

     So, Ray can only charge a small fee to cover utilities and the building's rent over the course of the shoot.  The rest is by donations.  

     Ray even admits some of these productions are pretty cringe worthy.  But, he enjoys watching the fan's excitement as they create them.   His favorite are a series called Star Trek Continues.  Click on the link and you can watch their films.  

     As for the tour, it's free and access is limited.  Let's face it, too many people in a tour wouldn't work.  There's only so much room.

     Ray himself leads the tours.  

    
      After a brief warning to please not climb on anything, he asked where everyone was from.  Phil from Michigan came the furtherest, so he got the first look...

     The doors opened to reveal, Main Engineering...

     Ray talked about how the original designers created the set and used anything they could find simply to create what looked like it could be important, painted it and stuck it to the walls.  

   Next stop on the tour, Sick Bay...

    The corridor outside was built with a curve for two reasons.  One, the ship was round, and thus curved corridors made sense.  Two, you could get away with shorter corridors.  Change a few signs on the walls, as it looks like a different section of the ship.

      The main transporter room.  Actors would step up onto one of the pads, wait while the lights overhead were turned off and on a few times, then step off.  The rest of the effect involved poking tiny holes in the actual film.

    The main Briefing Room.  Everything in the here is removable, making it a utilitarian space for numerous ship spaces.

     Auxilary Control.  I recently rewatched the episode "The Doomsday Machine" which used this room.  Once again, the desk is removable, making it a utilitarian set space.

     Captain's Quarters.  Just like in the original series, that red wall art is removable.  Stick a camera through it and you get the reverse angle shot of the room.

     Inside the Turbolift...

      And a Jefferies Tube.   These were designed for access to circuitry, as well as a way to get from one deck to another.  They're named after Matt Jefferies, set designer for the origial series.  

   Final stop on the tour was the set for the original Main Bridge.  

    While everyone waited their turn for a picture in the Captain's Chair, myself included, I simply walked around the set and soaked it all in...

      The Engineering Station...

     Comminications...

   And the Science Station...

        Somehow, on the TV show, the big chair seems larger than life.  In reality...

         The view from the big chair...

     We were welcome to take as many pictures as we wanted, and take our time.  Once I got my shot of the empty bridge set, I was good.

   The day ended like it always does here, back at Riverside Park, watching the sun set over the Saint Mary's River...

      

 

RE: December Roadtrip, Day 1-2... Meeting Lilly

Day 1

Friday, December 16th

    6:30A and my last shift of the week is finally over.  I used to find is a bit depressing to drive home while watching the sun coming up.  Truth is, you do get used to it.  And a dazzling sunrise is still a dazzling sunrise, whether you wake up early for it, or drive home with it.  

     With all the early morning things planned on this roadtrip, the hardest part was the half day turnaround on the body clock.  After a while, you get used to that, too.

     So, I left home around 1P, took the back roads south and eventually picked up I-75 South.  Twenty minutes later, I was in downtown Macon for lunch.  The last few times driving to the coast I stopped into different breweries in the city for lunch.  Of the four downtown, Fall Line Brewery was the only I had missed so far.  

     The place was pretty quiet, and I had a nice chat with the staff while waiting on my sandwich.  I hadn't planned on more than a single pint.  But, suddenly a photographer appeared to take some promotional pictures.   They poured a glass to use as a prop in the photos.  They passed it to me.  So yeah, the trip was starting with a free beer.  

     Ordinarily, this is where I’d pick up I-16 East towards Savannah.  Instead, I kept driving south to Valdosta, county seat of Troup County.  Like the neighboring community of Troupville, it was named after former Georgia Governor George Troup.  Gov. Troup owned a plantation here that he named Val d’Osta, after Aosta Valley in Italy.  

     It was already dusk when I pulled into the Valdosta Motel 6.  It's one of the better ones, but still a Motel 6.  Nothing special.  I was just glad to have the three and a half hour drive behind me. 

Day 2

Saturday, December 17th

     Since the Valdosta Motel 6 didn't do breakfast beyond coffee in the lobby, I took a walk a couple of blocks up the street to Waffle House.  I only mention it because of what happened afterwards.  I took this shot after breakfast, as I was about to walk back to the motel.

     Just for kicks, I posted the shot on Twitter, and tagged @Wafflehouse.  I got some love back. 

     There was only one thing of tap for the day, a visit to Stephen C. Foster State Park, located on the western side of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  It’s just over an hour drive from Valdosta outside the town of Fargo.

      Stephen C. Foster is sometimes referred to as the “father of American Music.”  In 1851 he wrote the song “Old Folks at Home.”  Most people know it by it’s opening line, “Way down upon the Swanee River.”  

      

      A few years ago, I spent half a day walking the trails on the eastern entrance to the refuge.  There's a lot of history back in the swamps.  Some of the most intriguing will require a third trip and a day's kayak rental.  Instead, I took the noon boat tour.

      With a little time to kill, I hit one of the trails near the visitor center...

      Promptly at noon, we met our guide, hopped in the boat and he took us out into the swamp.  

       

       Often, he would stop the boat and point out alligators and the various birds who call the refuge their home.  At one stop, he pointed out the distinct lack of trees.  The ones visible were all scortched and burned.  Even in a place as wet as the swamp, they do occassionally have wildfires.  In April, 2006, a storm blew over a tree which took down power lines, sparking a fire.  While it was still burning a month later, lightning struck inside the swamp on Bugaboo Island.  The two would converge and eventually burn 116,000 acres of land.  

       From the park, it was an easy hour and a half to my final stop of the night, St. Mary’s.  On my last visit, I stayed in a historic hotel right along the waterfront.  This time, I stayed a little further inland at the Best Western Sure Stay.  Sure, it didn’t have the character of the Riverview Hotel, but it did the trick.  

      Along the way, I passed through the small town of Saint George.  Years ago, I came up with a roadtrip rule.  When it's time for lunch, always stop at the first non-chain place.  This time it brought me to the Woofy Wagon.

      It's a converted food trailer, with a covered eating area.  They serve hot and cold sandwiches.  Based on the people who came in while I was there, they also sell a whole lot of sweet tea.  Everyone was friendly and the sandwich delicious.  

         The motel is an easy drive to the Saint Mary's Riverfront Park.  The plan was to settle in for sunset, such as it was.

      What I hadn't seen before is something called the Tinsel Trail.  Local citizens, civic groups and businesses decorate a tree in their own style in the municipal park by the river.  

           There's always one...

     
      With sunset around 5:30P, it was still too early to call it a night.  Naturally, I went to check out the local brewery, Brackish Beer Company.  They're only open Thursday-Saturday and a bit off the beaten path.  Friday's they have live music on a small stage outside.   Tonight it was really quiet.

       It's a pretty small place, but one of the owners told me they're expanding to a larger facility in the middle of the tourist area.  Probably a good thing.  If you didn't go looking, you'd never know it was here.  

       Inside capacity was perhaps twenty.  By the door is a circle of easy chairs.  The three people in them were obviously old friends and regulars.  The owner's dog Lilly was scurrying about as well.  She obviously knew the regulars and would periodically bring a small, blue rubber toy over to play fetch.

       When they left, Lilly came over to me, sniffed me up and down and decided I was a friend.  She brought her toy.  She understood the command "drop" and put it down, stepping back.

     I lost count how many times I tossed that toy.  She always brought it back.  That is until I tossed it towards a short hallway by the bathrooms.  She ran for it and didn't some back.  Curious, I went to check her out.  She was standing there staring at a broom.  No growls, just stone still and staring.  The owner says she does that at home, too.  The staredown eventually ends and she comes out and curls up on a blanker in a corner.  

Coming Up,

I get a chance to sit in the big chair