Savannah, GA

We will be leaving the Savannah Oaks RV Resort today (Saturday) after spending a pretty nice 6 nights here. This was a working week for me, so we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing, but we did get to downtown Savannah twice to look around – once on Sunday night and again on Friday afternoon.

The camp store/service station

First, the park. I wouldn’t put it on our Top 10 list, but it wasn’t bad. It had the best camp store we have seen anywhere – a true convenience store, with an entire wall of beer and wine and an entire aisle of snacks. We didn’t buy a lot of stuff there, but it was nice to be able to make a short walk to buy a half gallon of milk or some TastyKake cupcakes (yes, Jett sent me out Wednesday night to get some because she had a craving). The store is also a service station with both diesel and gas pumps. It wasn’t cheap, but it was nice to have the option of topping off there before heading out.

The staff at both the office and the store was very courteous and helpful. The site we were given (#93) was wide and long, so we had no trouble pulling in and setting up. There was a pretty nice laundry that we used Friday night to do a couple of loads and there is a dog park that is not large but was a good walk destination for the dogs. The WiFi, while not particularly strong, was steady and very usable. I was actually able to do my work using their WiFi Monday and Tuesday when my hotspot was acting up. The hotspot seemed to be better by Wednesday, so I used that the rest of the week.

The park also had a pool that was OPEN (I guess we are truly in the south now) that we didn’t use and a propane filling service that we did use. Like Circle Cg, a flat rate was charged, but it was $19 – $1 cheaper than Circle Cg.

Dog park

Negatives:

• The campground had a lot of street noise.  We were pretty close to a busy road and we heard (and sometimes felt) the big trucks to by.
• The roads in the campground are narrow and make some sharp turns.  While we didn’t have any trouble getting into the site, getting to the site was a little tricky.  And we still aren’t sure whether we can make the sharp turn to exit the campground; we may have to go through the service station to get a gentler approach to the road.
• I am not sure what kind of trees lined the site, but they dropped a lot of crap on the RV.  I have a feeling that Patience is going to look like Pigpen when we leave the campground, trailing a cloud of debris behind.
• It is 17 miles from downtown.  Getting to the places we wanted to see was a 30-minute trip each way.
• Jett didn’t like the dryers in the laundry.  She thought they were expensive and ineffective.

So not one of our all-time favorites, but not bad.

The OPEN pool

Narrow roads

Savannah River at night

The trip into Savannah Sunday night was to get our bearings and to grab some dinner. Bearings were easy to get at the Historical District is a grid bounded on the north by the Savannah River. There is a beautiful bridge to SC that my camera didn’t capture very well. Getting to River Street (along the river, duh), was a bit of an adventure as the street is paved with very crude cobblestones. We were thoroughly jumbled by the time we maneuvered our beast of a truck into a (free) parking spot along the river.

The Cotton Exchange Restaurant

We selected The Cotton Exchange as our dining destination, partly because it was very near where we parked and partly because it had an appealing menu. Once inside, we also found the decor to be appealing. The building was truly a cotton exchange back in the day. I would guess that the structure was circa 1900 with lots of exposed brick and beams. Very cozy.

Jett, never very adventurous in culinary terms, chose the chicken finger basket, which she found to be more than adequate. I chose one of the evening specials: shrimp and grits, which turned out to be about a dozen tasty shrimp in a mushroom-and-sausage cream sauce, resting on a puck of fried grits. Yes, fried grits. I never knew grits could be fried. Anyway, it was superb.

Shrimp and fried grits

The second trip was on Friday afternoon. The intent was to walk around the Historic District, with no particular destination in mind, so see what Savannah was all about. The weather, which was beautiful most of the week, did not cooperate as it turned cloudy and threatening. But we did get to look around for nearly two hours before the rain began.

Cotton Exchange

We parked near the Colonial Park Cemetary but delayed visiting it until we returned. Instead we headed north, toward the Savannah River, and visited River Street a second time. We wandered the street a bit, but were more interested in the buildings than the shops they housed. The city side of the Cotton Exchange building (where we had dinner Sunday night), for example, was quite striking. I also liked the 3-level sidewalk/alleyway that served that side of the row of buildings along the river.

3-level sidewalk

John Wesley statue

One of the nicest features of Savannah is the numerous squares that punctuate the Historic District. Each has its own character, but they all have some large, gnarly trees that would be awesome in fog. Some of the squares have statues or obelisks as centerpieces; others just offer benches for quite contemplation. They may not be as grand as the parks of Paris and they are miniscule when compared to Central Park, but they are very nice in their own way.

Obelisk

Duellist’s Grave plaque

After grabbing a coffee, we ended our self-guided tour of Savannah at the Colonial Park Cemetery. It has lots of atmosphere and purportedly has the graves of many Revolutionary War heroes. Unfortunately, almost none of the headstones was legible, so unless there was a modern explanation of who was buried nearby (as with the “Duellist’s Grave”), we would have no clue who was there. But even with the help we didn’t find anyone we knew.

Then the rain began and we headed home.

Colonial Park Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery

Corner house

Row houses