HISTORICAL SAVANNAH, GA

Saturday, August 21 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY Carrie!!!! Our youngest is 25 today.....JEESH! She's a wonderful young lady and we wish her the best.....Love you!!

Before we tell you about Savannah, let me go back to Friday night. We knew it was going to rain so we drove to the River Street area. We walked around for a while and then it began to rain.  We jumped in the car and were following the GPS suggested way back to the motor home. Now in my defense (Paul), it was dark and raining. All of sudden we found ourselves on this road.

That wasn’t the way we were going. The road was very rough-COBBLESTONES…..Yikes!

The next day this is how it looked.

 

Bridge to Savannah

Savannah is the 4th largest cargo port in the U.S. and is 1st in growing port.

We went on the Oglethorpe Trolley Tour of Savannah this morning. It was a 90 minute tour and was excellent....only $14 with a dollar off coupon from a tourist book.

James Edward Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733. He was meticulous when he drew the plans for Savannah. He designed 24 squares with 40 families around each square with a plot of land 60 x 90. Twenty-two of the original squares stand today. The first four squares began in 1733 are the Franklin, Ellis, Johnson and Ellis

This is from Franklin Square

 

Such is the beauty of Savannah that General Sherman spared her the torch during his March to the Sea. Instead, he presented her to an enthusiastic President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift.

Following the tour, you can use the trolleys like a regular bus-on and off at will-all day long! We walked all over Savannah returning to many areas we saw on the tour. Savannah is a fairly compact city so the walking was easy......nothing like the marathons Marsha had me do in Washington, DC.

Marsha read the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt many years ago and always wanted to go to Savannah to see some of the places mentioned in the book. Well, her was her chance. She just loved the book and was very excited to see the sites. She says if you haven’t read it…do!

The action that serves as a catalyst in the book is the killing of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute (characterized as "a good time not yet had by all" by respected antique dealer Jim Williams). Four murder trials resulted, with the final one ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to move the case away from the Savannah jury pool. The book characterizes the killing as the result of a lover's quarrel, not a pre-meditated murder. The death took place in Williams' home, originally built by an ancestor of songwriter and Savannah native Johnny Mercer.

Mercer house

Johnny Mercer was the cofounder of Capitol Records. Along with names like Hoagy Carmichael, Mercer penned the likes of “Skylark”, “Hooray For Hollywood,” “Moon River,” “Accentuate The Positive,” “Lazy Bones,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “I’m An Old Cowhand” and thousands of favorites that have since become universal standards. Buried near him is his lovely wife Ginger and her epitaph harks of yet another tune he penned, “You must’ve been a beautiful baby.”

Of course there are carriage tours going on all lover the city.

Remember the movie Forest Gump. It was shot in Savannah. This where the famous bench sat. It has been moved to the Museum. This is Chippewa Square.

The famous Live Oak trees are everywhere. They are so big and beautiful.

One of the brick streets that still remain in the city.

We stopped a couple times to enjoy a couple of ice cold beers in air conditioned bars. Ten Pence Pub was famous from the movie “Something About Nothing” with Julia Roberts. A neat place to rest and enjoy the atmosphere.

We stopped at an outdoor bar in the Market Place to rest, drink a beer, and listen to an excellent country band (Charlie and Uncle Buck).....unfortunately it was an outdoor venue and fairly warm.

We had a great day, a very informative tour at a fairly reasonable pace, and saw all of Savannah. We returned to the MH by early evening to rest for tomorrow.

We also visited two cemeteries and several churches. We will cover these in later blogs. Too much to put into one blog.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all again.