Update Archive

Archive 12/03 - 12/12/2005:
12/3/2005 - (180 miles – 4 hours - L:42F – H:66F) Today we moved from Florence, SC to Savannah, GA. We’re actually staying about 20 miles from the Historic District of Savannah in a town named Richmond Hill. Henry Ford started the community of Richmond Hill in 1925. The campground is charming with lots of pine trees and a 35-acre pond with resident ducks, geese and swans. In the evening the trees fill with white egret like birds that make the weirdest sounds. Some of these birds are damn near prehistoric. They look and sound like some strain of pterodactyl. Watching the birds fly in and roost, it’s so, so southern. I love it.
12/4/2005 - (L:50F – H:71F) We bummed around today, doing nothing much aside from some research on things to see in the area.
12/5/2005 - (41 miles – 6.5 hours - L:50F – H:70F) I left Max at the trailer and drove to the outskirts of the Historic District. I stopped and purchased tickets from the Old Savannah Tour Company – on and off privileges for two days, entrance to one of the house museums and the full excursion for Wednesday. I rode the trolley straight through three times. That may seem like overkill, but lemme tell you, each tour driver had a completely different perspective and a completely different spiel – they even contradicted each other. I didn’t take many pictures because the trolley never stopped moving long enough.
Oh Savannah. It is such a beautiful, charming, delightful city. The first city in Georgia, which was the 13th and last colony sponsored by the British, was established in 1733. The first 114 colonists were mostly desperately poor people who weren’t able to provide for themselves or their families, many of who were in debtors prison before leaving England. Some were indentured servants who were bound to work off their passage to Georgia, and still others were fleeing religious oppression. England wanted to get rid of the people who were unable to support themselves, and there was the optimistic though that those same people might become taxpayers once in the colony. Georgia also served as a buffer protecting the very prosperous South Carolina colony from the Spaniards in Florida. The founder of the colony, James Edward Oglethorpe, not only orchestrated the charter for the colony he also selected the site for Savannah and brought the city plan with him from England. No one seems to know how he came up with the plan or what inspired it, but it remains one of the most famous layouts ever. The first of the 24 original squares laid out in 1733 was Johnson Square. Twenty-two squares remain, with one in the process of being reconstructed. That’s just a little bit of info on how Georgia and Savannah started. There is so much more history here and no way for me to cover it all. I would recommend reading Here’s Savannah – A Journey through Historic Savannah & Environs, or if you’re in town, taking one of the tours.
I love this town. It’s just like in the movies. The Spanish Moss waving in the breeze seems to work on the subconscious, making you slow down and stroll - thinking of hot humid days, plantations and the relatively slower pace of life a hundred years ago. It’s so Savannah. The Squares are neat and tidy, but casual, not landscaped into submission. The houses, man oh man, do I covet some of these houses. They are fantastic. In many of the sidewalks and even houses you can see the building material used, which is called tabby. Tabby is a southern U.S. coastal building material composed of equal proportions of homemade lime made by burning oyster shells, sand, whole oyster shells and water. A surface layer of stucco protects the finished product.
One the way back to camp it started to rain buckets. The freeways slowed to a 45-mph crawl, except for the truckers – they didn’t slow down at all, and you could hardly see a thing. When we arrived back at camp I put my rain gauge out and in the ½ hour before the rain stopped it measured ½ an inch.
12/6/2005 - (192 miles – 8 hours - L:41F – H:64F) The day dawned sunny and clear so we headed north, back into South Carolina to Hilton Head Island. It’s one of those places I’ve always heard about so thought we’d visit to see what the fuss was all about. As it turns out, it’s a resort island and they don’t really want you to visit if you’re not staying there. I tried to drive back to the Hilton Head Plantation, but it turns out it’s not a plantation, it’s a gated community that you can’t drive into unless you live there or have a visitors pass. There is a charge to drive back to Harbour Town and finding a parking place isn’t easy if you’re not registered as a guest at one of the pervasive condominiums and resorts. The gas stations looked like expensive boutiques. I was amazed to see something as plebian as a fast food restaurant. I visited the lighthouse in Harbour Town and then we headed back to the mainland.
We drove down the coast to visit Tybee Island. Amazingly it took me a while to find since the road twists through the suburbs of Savannah. I ended up driving down Victory Drive, which is an fantastically beautiful road lined with moss draped live oak trees and has palm trees running down the center. The community on Tybee is much friendlier, much more casual, and way more of a party place. It was pretty quiet since this is their off season as well. I did notice that all the bars seemed to be open. I visited the Tybee Island Lighthouse (closed on Tuesdays) and stopped at the North Beach Grille for some Conch Fritters, which I ate on the beach. The fritters weren’t what I expected – I was thinking it would be like calamari only using conch meat. Instead they were like round, deep fried crab cakes using conch instead of crab. They were kind of spicy and greasy, but pretty good. We drove to the end of I-80, which runs out at the south end of the Island. We stopped and walked on the beach… such a beautiful day!
On the way out we stopped at the Fort Pulaski National Monument on Cockspur Island. Construction of this fort was started after the War of 1812, in 1829 with the purpose of guarding the river approaches to Savannah. Confederate troops seized the fort two weeks after South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861. Union troops lay siege to the fort in 1862 from nearby Tybee Island. The fort was thought to be impenetrable, and was from the regular smooth bore cannons normally employed in a siege like this. However, the Union troops used the new rifled cannon, which had increased accuracy, range, and penetration power. With the rifled cannons the Union artillery was able to breach the fort walls and the Confederates surrendered within 30-hours of the bombardments begin. Federal troops garrisoned Fort Pulaski until the Civil War’s end, when it was used to house several political prisoners. After 1880 a caretaker and lighthouse keeper were the fort’s only occupants. The island was made a national monument in 1924 and restoration of the fort began in earnest about 1933.
12/7/2005 - (40 miles – 8 hours - L:37F – H:57F) Today I took the Savannah Experience Tour, which is an in depth tour of Savannah and the outlying areas. It was really fascinating, the tour guide not only knew a whole lot about the area, but he did funny accents too. After the tour I rode one of the trolleys to the Owens-Thomas House for a tour of the inside. You can’t take pictures inside, but the furniture and décor were amazing. There is an amazing bridge over the main stairway. Very cool.
12/8/2005 - (38 miles – 2 hours - L:49F – H:59F) I did a little grocery shopping amidst the pouring rain. By the end of the day my rain gauge measured almost 2 inches of rain.
12/9/2005 - (153 miles – 6 hours - L:46F – H:66F) Another bright and sunny day here in Dixie. I drove down to Jekyll Island, another Georgia barrier island. What a beautiful place. There is a $3 (or was it $5) charge to enter the island and that covers your parking anywhere. There are several resorts, hotels and campgrounds. The beach access if free and easy to get to. It’s beautiful, well worth the price of admission. We tooled around, took the Island Loop Road.
Our next stop was at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation. In the early 1800s, William Brailsford of Charleston carved a rice plantation from the marshes along the Altamaha River. The family continued to grow rice until 1913, when rice production was no longer feasible. The fifth generation at Hofwyl-Broadfield started a dairy that ran until 1942. When the last descendant, Ophelia Dent, died in 1973, she left the estate to the Nature Conservancy, who turned it over to the state of Georgia. It was preserved exactly as it was when Ophelia lived there. It’s an amazing collection of antiques from the 1800’s to the 1970’s. There was a guided tour that takes you through the house and you’re free to roam the grounds. Some of the live oaks here are 100’s of years old and I’ve never seen magnolia trees that big.
I wanted to see the lighthouse on Sapelo Island, but the island is only reachable by ferry and even then you have to have reservations. I stopped at the visitor center for some information and then we headed home.
12/10/2005 - (309 miles – 5 hours - L:37F – H:67F) I drove all the way to Macon, GA to visit the Hay House. I so should have called ahead. The last tour started at 3PM and I arrived at 3:15PM. Damn. It was a long drive for no pay off. Not to mention I had forgotten to bring my camera, which is unbelievable. Macon was beautiful and the outside of the Hay House was amazing.
12/11/2005 - (58 miles – 4 hours - L:43F – H:55F) Today we visited the Wormsloe Historic Site. The driveway is lined with beautiful live oak trees draped in moss. The gently waving moss is so whimsical and kinda sexy. There were Colonial Christmas reenactments going on so I watched those for a while and then walked back to the ruins. Noble Jones was one of the original 114 colonists who came to Georgia with Oglethorpe in 1733. In 1736 he leased 500 acres and named the estate “Wormslow”. He began construction of a fortified tabby house in 1739 but was unable to finish the dwelling until 1745. The original tabby house fell into disrepair and in 1828 Jones’ descendants built a two-story frame house about a half-mile north. In 1972, Jones’ descendants donated 822 acres to the Nature Conservancy. The 1828 house and 65-1/2 acres are still owned by the Jones family.
12/12/2005 - (L:32F – H:65F) We bummed around today, getting ready for our big push through Florida. It’s going to be a fast and furious trip.


New Pictures: SC, GA