Savannah Water Front

No trip to Savannah would be complete without exploring the waterfront and docks which was the main reason for its existence. All of the buildings at the docks were used to sort and store cotton for shipment to England. Empty ships would arrive full of stone ballast which kept the ship stable crossing the ocean. Once cotton was loaded the ballast was thrown on the streets because it wasn't needed. All of the streets in this area are made of that ballast (and bumpy as all get out, as well).

As we walked along the docks (which are beautiful), plaques tell about Savannah's history. Did you know Savannah is the busiest port in the US after New York? Well, neither did I. Far in the distance you can see some of the docks which are used to load ships bound for all over the world. Even clay from a small Georgia town is shipped to England because it makes the best porcelain in the world. Nice smooth toilets! The bridge in the background is new because as the ocean carrying ships get bigger, the bridge had to be raised to allow them to pass underneath.

One of the ships that call Savannah home is the barquentine "Peacemaker". Isn't that a cool designation for a ship? Barquentine. Just saying it makes you sound so knowledgeable. You're welcome to use it. Anyway, it was built in Brazil by a family of shipbuilders from Italy using traditional methods. The original owners sailed her to Savannah for final outfitting but for some reason nothing happened and it was finally sold 11 years later. It is now used to teach sailing to rich yuppies.

Tours are offered so, never passing up something free, we took our leave to visit the barquentine (just can't stop saying it). Carmen is inspecting the front (bow) and in the background you can see the tour boat we'll be taking shortly for a tour of the harbour. Her sharp commands "raise the mizzen mast" and "belay the yardarm" rang out. I was getting concerned we'd be either shipping out or sinking shortly.

I was relegated to the rear (stern) where my commands fell on deaf ears. You don't get much respect standing on the poop deck I suppose. I was careful to watch where I stepped, thats for sure!
This was a beautiful ship and immaculately maintained; I guess thats why they asked us to leave.

Eventually, it was time for our tour and we boarded our riverboat. Its not as authentic as the barquentine was but is better suited to carry 200 people I guess.

The buildings behind me were the cotton storage buildings and look as they did 200 years ago. Except for the trendy awnings of course. After arriving here, the cotton was graded and then run through Eli Whitneys cotton gin to ensure only bales of pure cotton were shipped to England. Nowadays most gin comes from the Juniper berry, but thats another story. The top floor of these buildings was occupied by factors who did all the grading, buying and selling of the cotton. Their harried existence led to the term factories. You can thank me later for any new knowledge you have acquired.

This is the other tour boat. You'll notice it had a paddle wheel, ours didn't, but we tried not to let that spoil our day. The dome in the background is Savannah's city hall (coincidentally, its at the end of Bull Street, read  into that what you will). The gold on the dome is now worth more than the original cost of  the whole building. It cost $200,000.00 to build the building in the 1800's; the gold is now estimated at $275,000.00.

The city of Savannah is a few miles away from the ocean up the Savannah river in a huge natural harbour. It is not a bay on the ocean so the strongest storms have little effect on this harbour. It is considered one of the best harbours in the world. You heard it here first folks!

Exploring around Savannah

Tybee Island is one of the most popular areas in Georgia to go to the beach so we didn't want to miss that. The Tybee Lighthouse was built in 1773 and is the oldest and largest lighthouse in Georgia.

Down the road is the tourist area where all the tacky stores and burger shops are. This is the first pier we've seen with concrete footings, usually they're wooden poles. Certainly looks sturdy. There were a few people fishing off the pier but not catching much that we could see. Still, it looked relaxing, in fact I think some were asleep.

We like long walks on the beach, holding hands and solitude. This beach at this time of the year fit the bill perfectly.

We found a nice quiet spot where we could relax and enjoy the view after a long walk on the beach.

The ocean was rough that day my friends. We sat and watched surfers attempt intricate maneuvers on their boards such as trying to stand up. It was quite impressive. That black object in the surf behind the surfer is not a shark, but another surfers butt. He did resurface eventually.

On I-95 just west of Savannah sits the Mighty Eighth Airforce Museum. I do love my aviation museums and I've seen the sign for this one every time we drove down to Daytona Beach over the years, and every year I said we've got to stop and see it. Well, finally we have our chance.

The eighth air force was formed during the second world war as that arm of the airforce tasked with taking the war to Germany by using large bombers to bomb military targets in Germany and surrounding invaded countries. At their peak, raids of over 3000 bombers were sent over Germany during the day. Because there were no fighters capable of flying that far, the bombers were unescorted for most of the trip and suffered huge losses. Some raids lost up to 30% of the planes. Once the P51 arrived, it could protect the bombers and losses dropped to 2 or 3% per raid.

This museum was formed by the pilots and crews who flew in the eighth air force. It is not an aviation museum, but an historical location where records and plaques about the eighth are displayed. There are only about 6 airplanes in the museum so I was greatly disappointed about that. But, there are rooms of well displayed actual artifacts from that era with stories and films. It very effectively explains the times and efforts taken to win the war. The loss in planes and crews was incredible, yet every day they would go out and do it again. A flight crew member had a 30% chance of surviving the 25 flights it took to get sent home.
This is a replica of a British country chapel where some went to worship during those years.

Its a beautiful building and is used for special events, memorials and even sometimes a veterans funeral. The stained glass depicts aviation themes rather than the standard saints etc. As a place to look at planes, a dud, but to get the history and feel of those wartime efforts, the museum was well worth seeing.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day (Remembrance Day) and the museum is planning a big event. As a result, there were flowers in holders all over the grounds with great big wreaths at some of the memorial sites. Lovely.

Beautiful Savannah

Our first order of business is to get out and see the downtown district of Old Savannah. Trolley tours are offered which show all the important sights and the guide tells about all the interesting facts. But, Carmen decided we should go anyway.

After an interesting tour, we decided to walk the areas which we found most interesting. This statue was high on the list. Don't read anything into the fact that my left hand is not visible.

The city was originally laid out so that every second block was a park, so we didn't have to walk very far before we came to a park where we could relax. This area was used as a dueling field. The southern gentry needed somewhere to go to settle disputes so this area was set aside to resolve these conflicts. One of the signators of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett died here after losing a duel. On the other side of the fence behind me is a cemetery. Pretty handy, just throw the loser over the fence.

This is part of the cemetery on the other side of the fence. The wispy tree behind me is actually covered with Spanish moss which make it look so lacy. During the American civil war, union soldiers camped here and destroyed most of the headstones.

Time for lunch so we stopped for seafood at the Pirates House. This has been used as a Tavern and Restaurant for over 200 years. Pirates used to hang out here. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, used to hang out here and stories say that he developed the plot by listening to the pirates tales here. The food was great and the stories even better.

Time to get walking again and wear off some of the grouper we had for lunch. The houses in the old part of town are all hundreds of years old and in great shape. This area was obviously where the wealthy lived.

House after house looked like this, or better. Between the beautiful houses and the lush parks, this is the prettiest city we've ever seen.

Here is the entrance to the main park. It is a huge park with wide paths and flower gardens.

The central fountain is lovely and on a hot day the cool water makes the area feel much cooler. Yosemite and I appreciated the coolness.

If you've see the movie, Forrest Gump, you will recall the scene in the park where he is eating chocolates and says "my momma says life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get". He was sitting on this park bench at the time. The church is behind me, from which the feather floated down and landed by him. Really cool to be here! What a great city to tour; we're glad we came.

On to Savannah Georgia

Although we enjoyed our time at Myrtle Beach, our schedule dictated that it was time to move on. The road from Myrtle Beach to Savannah follows the coast line. Being a professional RV pilot I was easily able to block out the distractions brought on by the ships and ocean views along the way.

Although a road that ends in the middle of the river was hard to ignore. We couldn't figure if they ran out of money or a ship hit it. Hmmm.

On the way to Savannah we traveled through Charleston South Carolina. We could smell it before we got there. If you've ever been through a pulp mill town you know what I mean. That big plant to the right is the pulp mill obviously.

As usual we managed to find some road construction. It doesn't seem to matter if we drive for 10 hours or 4, road construction always seems to add interest to the drive. This was OK, its when they put the cones 6 feet apart and we're driving an 8 foot wide RV that it gets interesting.

With my usual skill, and a little luck, we have arrived at our campground in Savannah. After setting up and squaring away, we have a quiet time allowing me to relax and recover from the stress of driving. At least thats what I tell Carmen to get her to bring me a refreshment. Now, lets see what there is to explore around here!

After relaxing for awhile we decided to take a walk around the campground. One end of the campground butts up to the Ogeechee River. There is a good boardwalk and dock to walk out on. The tide was coming in and you could watch the water level rise. This is considered a brackish area because salt water from the ocean is mixing with the river water because of the tides. A guy on the dock was fishing for catfish, one of the few fish that can live in brackish water.

Walking the beach

It would be a shame to go to Myrtle beach and not walk the beach, so at our first opportunity we drove down to the main beach area where all the touristy stuff is. As you can see this is the busy season.

We walked a long ways down the beach and back and never did find the crowds. Perhaps a water temperature of 65F was keeping people away. Its a beautiful beach and goes on for miles.

We found this small diner along the main boardwalk for lunch. They are famous for their foot long hot dogs and burgers. It was kind of a dumpy place, but the food was great. Much more entertaining than Macdonald's.

The next time we decided to go for a walk, we went to Myrtle Beach State Park where we walked through nature trails and got educated on the various types of flora and fauna. They have a lot of trees we've never heard of.

After walking the trails, we then walked along the beach and checked out the pier. You can see the area we walked last time in the distance. This area was much busier with maybe a dozen sun bathers.

By the time we stopped for our picnic, the heat had forced me to find relief (within the bounds of decency of course).

Carmen seems to have a higher tolerance for the heat, or is more modest I suppose. We relaxed and ate a lovely picnic, then laid back and soaked up the sun for awhile. This was one of the nicest days since we came so our timing was great to get some southern warmth in our northern bones. It supposed  to get cool again so its almost time to move farther south.

Battleship North Carolina

About 65 miles north of Myrtle Beach in Wilmington North Carolina sits one of the best preserved battleships from the second world war, so of course I wanted to go see it. I've never seen a big warship before and this is certainly big. When it was launched in 1941 it was considered the worlds greatest sea weapon. It is 720 feet long and had a crew of over 2300 men.

These are the 3 16" guns which face rearward. Its hard to get a scale but, standing under the guns, you can't touch the barrels. The deck is the original teak. Apparently it never rots, all it needs is to be scrubbed with soapstone to bring the original colour back. As part of the self-guided tour, you can climb into the gun turret and sit in the seats and aim the guns (they don't really move though; wouldn't that be cool). The turret's the size of a small house and about 20 men fought in there. Another 40 worked below the guns feeding up the shells and powder.

This is the front deck of the battleship. Carmen is standing behind one of the 2 anchors. It would take 2 men to lift one of the anchor chain links. Behind her are the 2 16" front turrets. They were aimed by analog computers and were so accurate they could hit a target over 26 miles away while in rough seas. That system is still used in some ships because the new computers don't perform any better.

This is the view from the captains window on the bridge. This ship fought in every major sea battle in the pacific and was torpedoed in 1942, but quick repairs saved it. Although it was repeatedly attacked by Kamikaze planes the only other battle damage was when another American ship shot it while shooting at a diving airplane. 3 men were killed then. After going through the whole war, only 10 men died on it, mostly in accidents.

Its hard to imagine what it must have been like to man a gun like this during a Kamikaze attack. The ship was credited with shooting down over 40 planes and shared over 100 more with other ships. The ship had over 130 guns for air protection.
Although we didn't take any pictures of the interior, the services required to feed and house 2300 men was amazing. 3 meals a day for that many men as well as sleeping quarters, toilets, showers and laundry was crammed into the smallest spaces. Interior pictures didn't do it justice because there were hundreds of small sleeping quarters and washrooms. Dozens of eating areas and kitchens were located all over the ship. There was 1 toilet for every 200 men; makes you wonder what a diarrhea outbreak would look like.

Grammies Birthday

Today is Grammies birthday so she got to sit around and do nothing all day. Well, she did make a meal or two and clean up a bit, but she wanted to, really.

 10 years ago, she got the Saturn for a birthday gift. We don't have room for another car so I decided to clean hers up as a gift to her. Don't scoff, after towing it in the rain all day yesterday you couldn't tell what colour it was, so I spent most of the morning getting it sparkling. Being a good sport, Grammie acted pleased about it. She said she already has lots of jewelery.

She did get an actual gift though. Before we left Kyle, Michelle, McKenzie and Andy gave us a Wii as a gift to cover all gift occasions while we are away. Grammies birthday is the first time the gift is received. Within hours she was bowling and playing tennis. I think its going to get used a lot.

Just down the road from our resort is a bunch of great restaurants. I took Grammie out for supper to Greg Normans Australian Lodge. Great atmosphere. We had a great meal and got to bring some prime rib home because of the large portions. We figured out this is the 43rd of her birthdays we have spent together. You'd think we would run out of things to do wouldn't you.