Savannah Revisited

We were RV bound because of bad weather for a couple of days while staying in South Carolina at the Hardeeville RV park north of Savannah so I tried my Home Economic skills and cooked!  I know those who know me also know I did not sign up to COOK.  However, the Tropical Storm, Beryl, sort of changed my mind; that and Tom keeps telling me that I am a great cook .  When we drove into Hilton Head we stopped by the Piggly Wiggly and bought some fresh shrimp, scallops, grits, red beans and rice, and Creole sauce. 

That resulted in a pretty good shrimp creole over rice and beans with almost no fuss other than shelling the shrimp, sautéing the Vidalia onions, adding a little wine and Old Bay spices. Tasted pretty good.

The next night I cooked; I use the term loosely.  I discovered this concoction by accident one night and Tom has asked for this to be prepared often. It only has seafood, no red meat.  All the ingredients are in the cupboard, freezer, or refrigerator almost all the time.  I call them staples.

I start with the Tomatoes, Okra and Corn, add 1/2 can of the Bush’s Grillin Beans (Bourbon and Brown Sugar), 2 glugs of Moe’s BBQ sauce.  Bring this to a simmer and add 1/2 lb. shelled shrimp (fresh or frozen), and 1/2 lb. scallops. Heat 3-5 minutes or just until the seafood is done.  Delicious. I think Tom would eat this 3-4 times a week with no complaints.    I, however, would have to hire a person to clean up the kitchen if I fixed this 3-4 times a week.

The weather cleared up and it was time to go back to Savannah.  We parked in the lot next to the Welcome Center/Museum on MLK, Jr. street and went to the museum. 

There was an excellent film that we watched before we went into the museum that explained the early history of Savannah.  Savannah's recorded history begins in 1733. That's the year General James Oglethorpe and the 120 passengers of the good ship "Anne" landed on a bluff high along the Savannah River in February. Oglethorpe named the 13th and final American colony "Georgia" after England's King George II. Savannah became its first city.  The amazing thing is Oglethorpe designed Savannah with streets and the famous squares and they still exist today and that makes Savannah the charming community that people want to visit today. 

The museum explores the many faces of Savannah, its railroad, its history, its famous people.

The movie, Forrest Gump was filmed in Savannah and the bench that Forrest (Tom Hanks) sat on is replicated in the museum.

The founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low was born in Savannah.

And Johnny Mercer, the musician, was born in Savannah, too. A family ancestor’s home is the setting for the novel, In the Garden of Good and Evil.

 

We finished our visit to the museum and road the free DOT trolley down to River Street for a bite to eat. 

We found a great restaurant, Moon River Brewery.  Our waiter happened to notice us looking up a cache only 50 feet away. He had heard of caching and we gave him our card and a Path Tag and I think we might have a new cacher signing up soon.  We left the restaurant to search for the geocache.  Unfortunately, we were looking for the cache with our cell phone under a lot of trees and had to rely on the previous logs for the cache.  Many mentioned the horse pulled carriage driver.  While trying to be real stealthy, the driver walked up and said, “I think it is in there, but I don’t know what those people are looking for.”  Naturally, we told him and gave him our card with an explanation of geocaching on the back.  The name of the cache was Pitchin’ a Tent, and it explained the history of this bench. This is where James Oglethorpe first pitched his tent and rested when he landed in Georgia.  Love geocaching history.

 

The carriage driver told us to check out the view from the hotel third floor balcony bar across the street.  The Bohemian hotel was quite amazing, probably better than the view.

OK.  The view was pretty nice, too.

Savannah Views VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We visited the Forsyth Park, the largest of the squares designed to serve the growing southern population just as the Squares were to served the individual wards.

Forsyth Park VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We caught the free DOT trolley back to the parking area and found a parking ticket on our windshield.  AGAIN. This was getting boring!  We following all the rules this time, only the parking meter lady goes home at 6 pm and it was now 6:20 pm.  A sign to this effect would have been nice.  I called the number on the ticket the next morning before we left  the RV park and was told that there was no fine or penalty, just put a check for $4.00, the parking fee, and the ticket in an envelop and mail it to the police dept.  So it cost us 1 Freedom Stamp and $4.00 and a little stress.  All’s well that ends well.

The unusual thing about this park is that we checked in, renewed once, stayed 6 days, drove in and out 4 of the 6 days, and never – no not once – saw anyone connected with the campground.  We did meet our neighbors as we were unhooking.  They are fellow Boomers and had gone on Cool Judy’s and Luke’s Albuquerque Balloon Festival Rally last year.  Another small world experience while On The Road Again, Caching Places That We’ve Never Been.