Hilton Head Island, SC

I have a huge admission to make. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m getting tired of being on the road and it’s taking more and more energy to be interested in the things around me. Actually, I figured I’d get to this point, and especially as I rounded the last corner and started heading for home. As a result I only have a few pictures today, although I had a really nice day. I’m trying to stay focused as I only have a few more days of actual touring before winterizing the trailer and just turning the car north and booting it.

Today I sneaked into South Carolina without the trailer, so don’t tell it. I’ll be back there tomorrow with it when we make the next step northward to Charleston, but today I headed up to Hilton Head Island, which is in S. Carolina but is closer to here than Charleston.

Hilton Head is another barrier island, separated from the mainland by the Intercoastal Waterway. After an unbelievable slow drive up Interstate 95 into South Carolina, I turned east and over a few bridges and causeways once again to arrive at Hilton Head Island. The Interstate miraculously turns from 3 lanes into 2 going from Georgia into South Carolina and there was what looked like a horrendous accident just a mile into SC so the traffic was backup for miles. I have heard that it’s quite often a problem just because of the reduced lanes alone and on my return home today I noticed it was backed up as well. So I have that to look forward to tomorrow.

Hilton Head reminds me of Palm Desert, with the addition of the ocean and beaches and more lush vegetation and more rain and usually more humidity. It has a lot of really nice looking gated communities and resorts and a LOT of golf courses. But you knew that already. There doesn’t seem to be a main “town” or maybe I just missed it. But there are many, many places to spend your money and I did some of that today.

I started my exploring going to the far south east end of the island to Coligny Beach. The facilities at this beach are probably the best I’ve seen. And cute to boot. First of all, there is a free huge parking lot that had a lot of shaded areas and it wasn’t full either when I arrived nor when I left. On the pathway to the beach there is first a set of restrooms, then an area with change houses and showers, then a gazebo with Adirondack chairs (I imagine they call them something else here?) on one side and a children’s play area on the other, and then gazebos on both sides with big people swings. After taking the pathway down to the beach, there is then a vinyl carpet (like the outdoor carpets) that you walk on through the dunes to and on to the beach. There are the usual beach chair and umbrella rentals on the beach and they were all in use this afternoon despite it being just warm enough for the beach.

I did a bit of shopping and then grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near the beach called Flatbread Hilton Head. I had a great Chicken Asian Salad, (and NO dessert today) sitting on the veranda in the shade contemplating life and my next move. I snooped around some main streets to see what else there was to see, including stopping at Driessen Beach Park further north on the island. They have the longest boardwalk to get to the beach of any I’ve seen. It takes you from the parking lot over some marshy areas, open water and then over the dunes and on to the beach. The beach was smaller and less crowded if that’s what you were looking for.

Then I headed for the town of Bluffton which was only 15 minutes or so headed west from Hilton Beach. There is a historic section and some interesting looking shops. Unfortunately between it being Sunday and late in the day, they were mostly closed. There were some pretty neat looking and busy restaurants though. This is where I found the May River and Church of the Cross at the end of Calhoun Street, the main drag of the town. The church was one of the few structures to survive the Civil War. The congregation started in the area in 1767 and a smaller church was built nearby but the church in it’s present location wasn’t started until 1854. It’s suffered its share of troubles from fire to hurricanes to war, but has always been repaired or rebuilt and in fact has expanded as its congregation has expanded over the years.

Saint Simons Island, GA

Last evening, there was a tornado watch for our area from 3 – 9 pm but we barely got any wind at all here, just some thunder and lightening and light rain pretty much all night. And today started off drizzly and grey, but by 3 or 4 pm it had brightened up and now, just as the sun is setting, it’s all clear.

Today, despite the dreary weather I decided to head south a bit to two in the chain of islands called the “Golden Isles” (by the Georgia Tourism folks, at least). My first stop was Jekyll Island, which is the furthest south in the chain. It was easy to access just off Interstate 95 and a 15 minute drive east, over a couple of bridges and a causeway and I was on the island. One of the campers I talked to in Sugarloaf Key recommended I get there and raved about it. I found it to be a bit of an odd place.

Historically it was predominantly an upscale resort for the most wealthy and influential (names like Vanderbilts, Pulitzers and Cranes) with their cottages surrounding the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. The roadways are confusing because some of them are for golf carts or the tram that tours the property, and the shops are scattered throughout the property and the signs are “understated”, which I guess is the point. The whole area is undergoing a restoration and they are trying to increase tourism to the island. There is a small “beach town”, some of the chain hotels have built small properties, and there is what looks like a relatively new convention centre but it all seems artificial or something.

I took a few pictures, checked out the beach, (which was nice and the facilities are new and there is lots of parking), and headed off to Saint Simons Island hoping to appreciate it more. And I did.

Saint Simons Island is more established, has a historic beach town with lots of upscale, but not pretentious, shops and restaurants of all types along a well treed main street. They have the prerequisite Lighthouse and Pier and a small casino in the main town centre, which is a little different. Today there was also the added hubbub of an Art Fair going on which added to the cheerfulness of the place, despite the grey weather. I wandered around the Fair and the great locals artists had some interesting stuff, different from what you see elsewhere, which is always interesting.

By then I’d worked up an appetite so I stopped in at Barbara Jean’s and didn’t have the crab cakes even though they are the famous draw. I had a blue cheese salad with pan-fried shrimp which was not breaded and really nicely spiced. The bread basket had three choices of bread and I managed to restrain myself and try only the pumpkin bread which was awesome. I splurged though and had a Key Lime Tart, thinking it would be a nice dainty little tart. Not so much. It was quite large and I struggled to finish it, but it was fabulously tart, just the way I like it. Then I walked up and down the main drag and back through some of the art fair again to make myself feel better about working off dessert.

Next I headed to Fort Frederica National Monument further north up the island. Along the way there was lots to look at, historic and new homes, and resorts, and churches galore. And there was a memorial garden for John and Charles Wesley, brothers who were both ordained ministers who arrived in Georgia at the request of Oglethorpe group to start a parish in Savannah.

Fort Frederica was built 3 years after Savannah was established as part of the colonization plans, but also as a defence against the Spaniards further south at, yup, you got it, St. Augustine. You’ll recall that Spain had claimed all lands in “Florida” which to them meant most of the south east of North America. The British had a different interpretation of where their south boundary existed and so Fort Frederica was put at the mouth of the Altamaha River which they considered to be the southernmost point of their territory. The British had been repelled once at St Augustine and in 1742 the Spaniards sailed north in an unsuccessful attempt to take Fort Frederica. It resulted in a bloody ambush of the Spaniards and after that attempt Spain was no longer a threat to the British on the Georgia coast.

Oglethorpe’s regiment was disband in 1749 and without the troops to support the townsite, Frederica fell into ruin and lay dormant until the Parks Service started its archialogical exploration and opened it as a national park. It’s an interesting site, with few intact ruins, but you can see the whole town grid of houses as they have uncovered some of the foundations. They have posted artifacts that they have discovered in each of the buildings they’ve uncovered which give you a flavour for what life was like. And hey, a walk under the Spanish Moss and in the shade of 200 year old live oaks is never a bad thing.

Savannah, GA

I didn’t get organized and out the door until almost noon today for some reason. The forecast was for rain and cool temperatures so I wasn’t keen on being out in the rain. However, it turnout to be sunny and 28 with huge humidity. (Therefor I have huge hair today).

One of the things I did today was take the advice of someone at the information centre from the other day. He told me that tourists can get a 24 hour parking pass for $8 that allows them to park in any of the city garages or at any 1 hour metered parking spot for an unlimited amount of time during that 24 hours. So no need to move the car every hour or two from one meter to the next. Worked like a charm. The other hint if you’re coming to Savannah, is that they have DOT buses that do a circular route through the historic section every 20 or so minutes and they are free. I made use of that bus once today as well, as I worked my way walking from my car over to the opposite side of town and then hopped on the bus to get back to my car.

Since it was lunchtime and I was parked kitty corner to Paula Dean’s The Lady and Sons restaurant, I stopped in there for lunch. Of course, anyone without reservations was waiting up to an hour to get in, however as a single, sitting at the bar, I got in right away. As I’ve said, I’m no foodie, but I have to tell you, that this lunch was one of the best I’ve had on my trip. I certainly appreciated the superior quality. I had the Bad Lady Sandwich which was 1/2 sandwich, cup of soup and salad. To start was a corn meal pancake and cheese biscuit that literally melted in my mouth. Oh yes, and a peach mint julep. I figured when in Rome…..

So to work off a small portion of my lunch I walked across town through various squares I hadn’t yet visited to Saint John the Baptist Cathedral. Now, I’ve been in a lot of churches, in North America, eastern Europe, Spain, England, Italy, the Balkans, and this was definitely one of the finest I’ve seen. The congregation was started by the French from France and Haiti who took refuge in Savannah in the mid-1800’s and the church was dedicated at this site as a Cathedral in 1876. In 1898 a fire destroyed much of the original structure but it was rebuilt quickly. They did a renovation in early 2000’s that cost $11 million and it showed.

Then I headed to Owens-Thomas House for a tour of that mansion, considered to be one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in America. It was originally built for Richard Ric*******, a cotton merchant and banker, from 1819-1819. It was the first house in north america to have plumbing and did so 7 full years before the White House did. It used a system of cisterns, one on each of 3 levels, to capture rain water and supply water to each floor.

Ric*******, however, fell on hard times just 3 years after it was built. The bank took over the house and contracted it to Mary Maxwell to run as a high end lodging house (guests included Marquis de Lafayette). The bank sold the property to George Welshman Owens, who was a planter, congressman, lawyer and mayor of Savannah in 1830 and it stayed in the Owens family until it was turned over to the Teflair Museum of Art in 1951 by George Owne’s granddaughter. She also bequeathed all of the furniture in the house, much of it original, so it’s an excellent example of life during that time. A lot of restoration work has been done, including all floor surfaces, whether it be carpet, painted fabric or wood have been recreated to match the samples of each that were found in the house.

The property also had one of the few urban carriage houses still standing, which would have also been used to house slaves. The bricks used in these carriage houses and in fact in many of the buildings in the historic section were made by slaves from Savannah river bed mud and there is a story that a curse was placed in each one by the slaves that were making them. This made the bricks attractive for some buyers and at one point people were dismantling the coach houses to sell the bricks for upwards of $5 each.

One of the other unique things in the house which the architect used to advance his reputation at the time is a “bridge” on the third floor. Each of the stairways in the house is double like the back entrance and the “bridge” is a hallway between the stairwells from the 2nd to 3rd floor, from the front to back sitting rooms on that floor. It is made from curved wood to give the impression of an arched bridge. We were not allowed to take pictures in the house, so I can’t show you a picture to give you a better idea of how successful an architectural element it is.

After touring the house, I figured a Leonard’s Ice Cream was in order, and thankfully the line up wasn’t too bad. I wandered to one of the lovely squares and found a park bench in the shade to people watch and eat my peanut butter and chocolate chip cone. As my friend Marlie suggested, I feel there will be a gym in my future when the trip is done.

Before heading for home I stopped in the City Market area to look in the shops there. There are a couple of blocks of pedestrian only streets with shops and restaurants all around as well.

Richmond Hill, GA

The forecast is not good for the next few days but today was nice so off I went to see a plantation and a beach. Neither ended up being as I expected.

There are many pictures of the iconic driveway of Wormsloe Plantation and I bet you’ve seen one along the way. I’ve seen one of the best taken by photographer friend Graeme and it’s on Karen and Graeme’s wall at The Villages. Today I made my amateur attempt. I headed out to Wormsloe Plantation (my autocorrect keeps changing the name to Wormhole so if I miss correcting one, that’s why!) expecting to see the driveway, and tour a plantation house, as I had done in Louisiana and Mississippi. The problem is that at Wormsloe the descendants of the original builder still live on the plantation in a new house built much later and the original house is in ruins.

In any case, to start my tour today, I entered the gate, built by one of the original owner’s descendants in 1913 to honour his son’s birth and in front of me was the magnificent Live Oak Avenue, with more than 400 live oak trees which had been planted along this drive in the early 1890’s to honour the same son. That’s 125 years ago. But this property dates back all the way to 1733 when Noble Jones, a humble physician, carpenter and surveyer arrived with General James Oglethorpe and 113 other colonists to start the new planned colony in Georgia.

I dutifully stopped at the Superintendent’s Cottage to pay the prescribed fee, and then headed to just in front of the “stop and pay” sign, (put there just to discourage picture taking during off hours, I’m sure) to take my picture while no one was travelling down the road. Since the road actually is used by visitors to get to the museum and parking lot, you have to time your picture taking to a time when there are no cars in sight or they are far enough in the distance that they don’t interfere. It was almost noon, a difficult time to take a decent picture, with hard shadows and it hasn’t rained for a while so the Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns are brown and not green. Yes, I’m setting you up so you won’t be too disappointed in my attempt. But it is what it is.

I drove slowly down the road, enjoying every minute, to the museum parking lot. They have a great film in the visitors centre that explains how Noble Jones came to be at Wormsloe in the first place and much about the Oglethorpe Georgia colonization attempt. Jones became an indispensable leader within the small colony with his skills as a physician, surveyor and carpenter. Oglethorpe relied heavily on him to take leadership roles in all those areas and more. At one point, though some of the envious colonists turned against him and many of his responsibilities were removed, giving him time to strike out on his own and develop a plantation, home/fort and businesses. This property is the demonstration of his successful efforts.

After wandering the property, taking pictures, I headed to somewhere completely different, to Savannah’s beachfront on Tybee Island. It’s less than a 30 minute drive from downtown Savannah to the south end of Tybee Island, where most of the beach activities, pier, restaurants, shops, and night life are located. It’s a relatively small area but quite a long nice beach.

The surprise for me here was that the area around the pier was closed off to the public because Paramount is filming a sequel to Baywatch, if you can believe it. So on one side of the pier the beach was completely shut down with stuff all set up for supposed 2017 lifeguard tryouts at a beach called Emerald Bay, Florida. On the other side was the sign you see above and there were lots of people who purposely sat there hoping they’d be in the movie. They had the pier set up with various kiosks selling beach stuff, but of course no one was allowed out there so I didn’t get my walk on the pier. Trouble was, the wind was so bad they weren’t able to film. And it was only 23 degrees or so, and with the wind whipping off the water, it wasn’t any too comfortable. Zac Efron was supposedly on set and there were many teenage girls hanging around hoping to get a look.

And of course, if there is a lighthouse, I’ll find it, so on the way back I stopped at the Tybee Island Lighthouse just to take a picture. I figure I’ve climbed my quota of lighthouses on this trip so I didn’t bother.

P.S. Seeing another pineapple on the gate at Wormsloe got my curiosity on overdrive and so I looked it up when I got back. The reason the pineapple is associated with hospitably in the colonial times in north america is explained in a few websites, but this one seemed to cover it all:

http://www.levins.com/pineapple.html

Tybee Island, GA

Wormsloe State Historic Site, GA

Richmond Hill, GA

Savannah, GA

I got my first taste of Savannah today and I loved it. I love the history, the architecture, the squares, the waterfront, and of course, the food.

I decided to take advantage of the free shuttle provided by Old Town Tours today, to get acquainted with the city without having to worry about finding my way and parking. With a few stops on the way into town it took less than an hour to get from my campsite to downtown Savannah.

Once in Savannah, I transfered to one of the hop-on, hop-off Old Town Tours trolleys for our 90 minute guided tour. We immediately were immersed in the history and beauty of the city, and within minutes had passed several of the 21 of the remaining town squares (3 were lost to development before the formation of a historical society to save them). To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention to the history today and I think my brain is getting to the point of saturation. I just sat back and enjoyed the stories and the views and didn’t worry about trying to absorb much. I’ll try doing a better job another day of figuring out the important history this city played in the American Revolution and the Civil War.

Savannah’s historic district is a very walkable 2.4 square miles and in that small space there are 2300 houses of historic or architectural significance. Founder, British General James Oglethorpe is my kind of guy. He planned out the city on a grid which is infinitely easier to navigate than some cities that meander. And he planned the 24 town squares which are the most wonderful, places to sit on a park bench and contemplate what life must have been like. One of the original squares had been turned into parking by the city over 50 years ago and as soon as the lease was up they tore down the garage and returned it to it’s original condition. It was especially historically significant because it was the centre of the slave trade for almost 50 years in Savannah with the market taking up the whole square.

Cotton and later rice exporting was the primary reason for the development of Savannah and you can see evidence of that in the buildings near the river – cotton storage warehouses and the cotton exchange. The city was spared in Sherman’s March to the Sea campaign in 1864 at the request of President Lincoln, although no one offered an explanation of why.

I didn’t make it all the way around on the tour before deciding to jump off – you guessed it – at the river front. It looked like a fun place to wander, so wander I did. I took some pics, looked in some shops and stopped for an early lunch. I didn’t sample the seafood which I’m told is great, especially in the restaurants lining the River Walk, but opted for a lighter chicken salad, eaten on an outdoor patio, that although it was perfectly lovely out, had their heat on.

I wandered the waterfront for a bit and then I headed up the hill to visit some of the squares we’d passed on the tour. I started at Johnson Square and then went south on Bull Street, visiting 4 more before getting to Forsyth Park in the middle of the historic downtown. One with most current relevance is Chippewa Square (developed in 1815) which was made famous by a scene in the movie Forrest Gump where he is sitting on the park bench and goes into the soliloquy about life – “life is like a a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”.

Forsythe Park is a huge, beautiful park with walkways covered by live oaks covered in Spanish moss, and open green spaces where games of football, tag and other games were taking place. In the centre is a fountain that is so bright white it glistens. We were told that’s because it’s repainted in Jan/Feb of each year so the green water used around St. Patrick’s Day stands out. Savannah hosts the 2nd largest St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebrations in the US (second only to NYC) attracting over a million visitors to this tiny city.

One of the other interesting things about Savannah is that it is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, who started the Girl Scouts of America. There are several buildings in the historic district with some attachment to Juliette Low, which the Girl Guides now run. Another tidbit I learned is that the pineapple is the sign of hospitality in Savannah, and they pointed out a place that had pineapples on either side of the entrance walk. Apparently the hostess would put pineapples on the mantle, to show everyone they were welcome and then she would take them down from the mantle when it was time for the guests to leave.

The tour guide mentioned that in Savannah a red door on a home meant that the home was paid in full, i.e. no mortgage. And I saw quite a few red doors on gorgeous homes, so there is a lot of money in Savannah. And you foodies would recognize another of the city’s famous residents, Paula Deen, who started selling bag lunches that her sons delivered to the downtown business folks. She has since written cookbooks, hosted her own show on the Food Network and won many awards for her restaurants over the years. She and her sons now run a popular restaurant called “The Lady and Sons” which has twice moved to make more room because of its popularity.

After wandering for some time, I jumped back on the Old Town Tour trolley and repeated some of the tour, but with a different guide this time (who was quite a lot better) and stayed on until it returned to the Visitors centre. There is a small museum about Savannah’s beginnings and history, and the famous Forrest Gump bench which they say was put in the museum for preservation, but I think they just did that to increase revenue for the museum.

Then it was time to hop on the shuttle and head back to the KOA. I thoroughly enjoyed my first day in Savannah and it was topped off with a brilliant peach (well, really more orange) sunset tonight.

PS A huge thanks to Mary Jo and Ed for their advice of places to go and things to do in Savannah from their experience in this city a few weeks ago.

Richmond Hill, GA

Greensboro, GA