SAVANNAH
After a little jaunt back to Florida for Eric’s mom’s surprise birthday party (which was fantastic!) we headed back on the road toward Savannah, GA.
I was looking forward to hitting Savannah and Charleston back to back because they are two southern cities that everyone always speaks fondly of. Even though Savannah is only about 5 hours away from where I grew up, I never made it there for a visit. It is a lot easier to visit tourist towns when you have a bit saved up, and you are camping 20 minutes outside the city instead of staying in a hotel. To give you an idea, our camp budget is $25 a night, which we are usually under, and a hotel is on average $120 a night, so camping is so much more cost effective for traveling if you have the gear already.
We stayed at an RV campground called Whispering Pines and it was a great location for touring Savannah. The campground itself was alright, it had three tent sites pretty close together, but it was next to a reflection pond so it was as nice as it gets for an RV park that had a fair bit of ‘lifers’ in residence. Oh, but the shower facility was awesome! Newly redone, and hot!
Our first day we spent getting acquainted with the layout of the town, and spent a bit trying to find parking. Thanks to a very nice parking garage attendant, we found out Savannah has a 48 hour parking pass that allows you to park in any metered spot for any amount of time for a flat rate. Since the whole city is 2 hour metered parking, we were floored at how awesome that option was, so we went down to the parking services building and picked up a pass for $24. That is now an option we will be keeping on our radar for all cities we are looking to explore.
After that was settled, we walked around the main shopping area of the city, and hung out for a few hours in the Coffee Fox to use the internet. This activity unfortunately will be happening frequently to plan out future routes and campgrounds, along with catching up with this site. I enjoy hanging out in coffee shops because it gives me an excuse to ‘treat yo self’ and get a fancy late. It also allows time to observe a lot of people in the area especially if you can sit outside.
In the afternoon we took a drive through the Bonaventure cemetery and I swear there were vampires hiding in there. Definitely ghosts. In fact, both Savannah and Charleston have a big haunted tourism market, and I can see why. It was actually very peaceful walking through the headstones with the dogwood trees and azalea’s in bloom, and all the old oak trees draped in Spanish moss.
Our second day in town we took our skateboards and explored the whole historic district. We started at the river walk, which I will be honest, I thought was going to be a lot prettier than it was. We loved the big old cobblestone streets and the ‘historic stairs’, but other than that it was very touristy and a little run down. We did get free samples of pralines so it was worth the time.
Another ‘top things to do in Savannah’ spot we checked out was The Olde Pink House. My only goal for Savannah was to eat the famous low country She-crab soup, and I was happy to eat that in this most ridiculously fancy mansion-restaurant. Unfortunately, when you are camping, being presentable is not high on my list of priorities, so with skateboards in hand, we walk into this insane restaurant for lunch. We were treated with such kindness and hospitality even though we looked (and smelled) pretty rough. Eric had the shrimp and grits with collard greens and I got my She-crab soup. It was deliciously creamy and rich. The building itself was built in 1771, and is the oldest mansion standing in the South. We toured the rest of the rooms and wished we were rich because we decided we needed a secret basement cellar dining room and giant leather chairs next to a hearth in our future home.
The rest of the city was great to skate through. It is peppered with little city parks, some about a block, some larger, and ornate iron work. It was a diverse city and a lively one. It seemed that many people who lived there also enjoyed the parks and city activities, not just the tourists. Everyone we met was friendly, and I now understand why so many people brag about their time in Savannah. You can also have an open container as you walk around, so maybe it was that rather than southern hospitality that made every one so nice.
Either way, we had a great time, though short, in Savannah.
8/10 would visit again
Song: kick, push – Lupe Fiasco