Downtown Savannah -Yr 1, Day 190

Hardeeville, SC (near Savannah, GA)

I have a lot of work and a very critical deadline to meet (by 5:00pm tomorrow), but we decided to take the afternoon off.  The idea was to drive around somewhat aimlessly, to explore the area and get a feel for what's around (nothing at all).  Somehow we landed up driving to downtown Savannah, something we had planned for a different (nicer weather) day.  But I'm glad we did, as we got a good feel for the lay of the land.  There is so much walking to do.  This would be a really great place to use our urb-e's -- if only they were available already!

So here is my impression of what I saw in Savannah:

- On the drive from Hardeeville, SC over the bridge (crossing over Hutchinson Island), the skyline was very depressing.  There are a lot of large factories and old buildings - nothing beautiful to look at.  Entering the city limits, it was evident that it was a very run down industrial area, and it looked like many of the factories had closed down.  Houses, if you could even call them that, were dilapidated. 

- As we got more into the central downtown area, it appeared more like a city with old buildings.  Streets were somewhat narrow but clean.  We went to the Visitor Center which is housed in the same building as the History Museum and Railroad Museum (we didn't have a chance to visit either of those, but plan to go back there).  We heard that they had RV parking so were looking forward to a good place to put the truck.  Ha ha!  There was 1 row (about 15 spaces) long enough for small class C's.  The truck would have fit, but it was certainly not a place we could consider bringing our rig.  Unfortunately, the entire parking lot was filled and 90% of the vehicles in the RV spots were cars or SUVs - inconsiderate people!  We decided to give up on the visitor center and pulled out of the lot.  Luckily, we found a parking spot on the street that was big enough to fit our truck, about 3 blocks away!  So we parked there and walked over to the Center to collect some brochures and maps.  I hope to learn more when we visit there, but the premises appear to be an old fort.  In the truck, on the way to the visitor center, we had passed a Mexican restaurant advertising they had a vegetarian menu.  On the way back to the truck, we wanted to go there for lunch, but it was about another 5 blocks away and I was getting extremely tired by then and didn't feel I could make the walk.  So we went back to the truck and decided to drive around the city a bit to check out the other areas.  I found that in the historical district, streets were very much like Charleston -- old and narrow with Victorian houses lining the streets, and in some other parts, it was very much like New York City - a little wider and very congested, with buildings and storefronts lining the streets.

- We passed through the historical district and saw many of the old style Victorian homes which were very similar to those we saw in Charleston, and some even more elegant and palatial.  We plan to take a trolley tour around that area.  We also passed some awesome looking parks, which I hope we'll have a chance to walk through on a nice day.

- We found ourselves driving on River Street which is a very famous street on the Savannah River.  It is all cobblestone and trolley tracks run through it, making for a very bumpy ride!  The buildings are quite old (one building is called the Cotton Exchange, but it is filled with shops now).  You can tell the area was once used as a shipping port, although now it's filled with touristy shops, restaurants and pubs.  This area promises to be hopping on New Year's Eve, with fireworks over the river, lots of live entertainment and a lot of drunks.  Although we were planning on finding something fun to do, I think we'll be much happier staying home and playing our annual NYE game of Scrabble over champagne (or Apple Pie moonshine, which we found again in apple, strawberry and peach!) and nachos.

- After leaving River Street, Mitch decided we needed a few groceries and wanted to buy some oranges which were on sale at Krogers.  We found the closest one in the city.  The store itself was small with very narrow aisles, and the customers seemed very poor.  In fact, the 3 people in front of us on line used food stamps to pay (and unlike NJ, they don't have debit-like cards.  They used paper vouchers so it took forever to check out).  By this time, I was beyond exhausted and was getting very cranky.  Mitch did a good job dealing with me.  

When we returned at 4:00 (we left at 12:30), I really needed to get back to work.  (This job is still causing me a great amount of grief).  Mitch was a real doll tonight.  He unpacked the groceries and made dinner (a salad and stir fry with rice), cleaned up his mess, did the dishes, and even finished the wash that I started before we left.

Tomorrow's plans are work, work, work.