Feb 5-Savannah, GA

Gene was supposed to write about Charleston and Savannah while I was in Seattle...he didn't, so I'm making him write them now that I'm back! I'm doing my homework. So, Gene speaks, and he's pretending to write it on time!:

Whereas Charleston got a whole day and a half of exploring time, Savannah, Georgia received probably the shortest visit to a city that we have mustered so far. We are not the earliest of risers. We are always the last to leave a parking area, usually around 10 AM. We could blame this on the effects of sleep, dog, breakfast, but it just easier to say that we are caressing the famous slowed-down and relaxed Southern way of life. I’d have to re-tool that excuse for the month of mornings in New England way back in October of last year!

It is now Monday and Barb flies out of Jacksonville, FL for her “early” 11 AM flight home to Seattle tomorrow. We are going to have to cover Savannah in just a couple of hours.

Hey! We had to drive the “whole length” of Georgia and find a spot to park the coach!! “Hey!, there’s a Wal-Mart, let’s park there!!” Extend the 3 slide-outs, level the coach, and --- we’re home again!!

We decided that the best way to learn something and to see as much as possible (but quickly!) was to buy a ticket on one of those orange trolleys that the real tourists take. It turned out to be what was needed: a quick, helpful, and informative tour of this beautiful city.

The one house that Barbara really wanted to see was Juliette Low’s house, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America. We were told that it was too far to walk to make it in time to complete the trolley run. After scurrying around to find the trolley station and get on, we then sat there long enough to get the house 4 minutes after its closing time! We sat down and ate an imaginary box of Girl Scout cookies (thin mints, of course), then hopped on the next trolley to finish the narrated tour. We were on the last trolley of the day so it was a shame that all the stores were closing as we traversed their famous riverfront shopping area.

A James Oglethorpe laid out the streets and public squares in 1733, and it remains today just as he drew it out. In this section of historic Savannah, there are a total of 24 historical public squares which are named after either an important person (from Franklin to Calhoun to Lafayette) or event in the history of the city. Monuments, statues, and an occasional gravesite or two can be found in most of these squares. The homes, churches, and buildings along these roads tell the tale of the Southern wealthy.

Oddly, during the trolley tour we received a call from Sister Caroline. She told us that Savannah was one of her very favorite cities to visit. We preferred Charleston, possibly because we did our usual walking tour, that it was right on a big beautiful harbor, and that the Disney staff seemed to go to work there every night. Maybe it’s because we didn’t eat in Savannah! We had to have some time to pack suitcases and enough time to drive the 2 hours back down to the Jacksonville airport.

I left the coach in the Savannah area (Home Depot parking lot) and explored the SW corner of Georgia on the way back, driving a bit north through the Okefenokee Swamp and on back to Savannah via some unknown pathway.

OK, we aren’t giving Savannah the coverage and props that it deserves, but we did see the historic area and were told about the city and a bit of its history. Savannah still has the beauty and charm, history and warmth that made General Sherman decide not to burn it down like everything else in the Union march to the sea. In a message to Abraham Lincoln, Gen. Sherman actually proclaimed the city as being worthy of being presented to the President as a Christmas gift from the Union Army!