... we do Savannah. (GA)

At 9:30 AM we were picked up by a tour trolley and driven to Savannah for a city tour.

Savannah seemed less than expected, not quite the mood of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which perhaps unfairly established expectations. Not helped by 90 minutes bumping up and down on bench seats in a fake trolley. There are at least three trolley tour companies and their vehicles are everywhere.

On the ground, it is a more interesting city. The architecture is varied and well protected by ordinance. The neighborhoods all center on small squares. But there is a mythology about this town, too much emphasis on ghosts haunting old buildings where terrible things happened. There is even a riverfront statue of a girl waving at passing ships, as she promised her sailor boyfriend she would do until he returned; he didn’t, and she waved for 42 years before dying of a broken heart. They claim locally that this is true, and if it is, that is all the more pathetic.

Ah, but the food. We ate at Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons. She is on the Food Channel. The menu items looked good but fearing I might get something I didn’t like, I went for the $13 buffet. Marcia also chose the buffet; she had ordered off the menu last time, on the Ladies Tour.

The cheese biscuits were great, the fried chicken very good (as it is nearly everywhere), the mashed potatoes excellent, the lima beans and black-eyed peas were very good, as was the mac-n-cheese. Marcia reports the collard greens were the best she has had, but still unpleasantly bitter.

This was again a fairly typical low-country, or perhaps more broadly, southern food offering.

This could have been a tourist trap but we were seated at the promised time, politely served, and never rushed.

Before lunch we spent time prowling around galleries of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Established in 1978, SCAD already has buildings all over Savannah and in other cities as well. After lunch we toured the Jepson Center for the Arts.

Beaufort to Tybee Island and Savannah… (SC GA)

Beautiful, spotless day as we left Tuc De Wood Campground for Savannah, a short distance away.

Savannah from this direction is entered across a bridge very similar to the one in Charleston. This dramatic entry builds expectations and it was a letdown to be deposited in an area of crumbling buildings. We followed a sign to the visitor center, parked with difficulty, and walked inside only to find it was a trolley tour promoter.

Since we couldn’t enter our camp until 3 PM, Marcia and I reluctantly parked our rig on a side street and walked a couple blocks to what the map indicated was the true visitor center, and a railway museum. The railway museum is housed in the crumbling buildings we had seen, the old rail yard. An interesting self-guided tour ($4.75 each) but not a lot to see. Some equipment, a beautiful brick chimney with privies built in to the base, and a turntable. The true visitor center was in the old passenger terminal.

Having killed enough time we followed the directions in our drivers manual to the River’s End Campground & RV Park on Tybee Island, about 12 miles the other side of Savannah. This is a really old campground with streets built seemingly for 1940s-style trailers and it was very tough for all of us to get parked. Once parked, our hookups were on the wrong side, so the dump hose (and everything else) had to be strung under the trailer to the other side.

Unrelated to the campground problem, Judy’s refrigerator door fell off en route, spilling the entire contents about her trailer. She thinks she forgot to pin the door closed.

Dinner tonight was in the campground, prepared by our fellow caravaners. One of the best: chips and homemade salsa, BBQ chicken, corn and bean salad, saffron rice, and really good freshly baked bisquits.

Tuc De Wood resident reptile… (SC)

There is a nature trail about 100 yards from our Tuc De Wood campsite, where we found this 7-footer.

We think there is a fence around the pond, but hard to tell with all the growth.

Beaufort makes the Marcia/Cam approved list… (SC)

Beaufort is a beautiful very old waterfront town with a lot of history.

We very much enjoyed walking around looking at the many beautiful old homes, and driving the waterfront that we could not walk.

Lunch was very good, at a popular waterfront casual restaurant called Plums.

This was a good-old California style coastal getaway town, with B&Bs, nice restaurants, antique shops, art galleries, and Realtors everywhere.

Beachcombing on Hunter Island... (SC)

Beachcombers search for--well, whatever.

We go to Hunting Island State Beach (SC)

A chilly morning promising to be a very nice day.

Marcia and I drove to the state park beach on Hunting Island, South Carolina.

The beach is beautiful, wide and so covered with sea shells they crunch as you walk. We discovered Ed and Susan beachcombing for seashells, and Marcia had a great time doing the same.

The lighthouse, obsolete since lighted buoys were deployed in the 1930s, is built of interchangeable cast iron plates, one of only two of this construction. The idea was that the lighthouse could be disassembled and moved to a new location, if necessary. This became necessary about 20 years after it was built (in the 1800s). All told, there have been three lighthouse sites on this island, the first two now under water.

Erosion continues to eat into the island forest, an odd but beautiful mixture of pines and palms.

Baynard ruins on Hilton Head (SC)

These are the ruins of a plantation home on Hilton Head, where cotton was grown. We spent forever with Dave and Cathy trying to find the ruins, so I’m including a photo in the blog.