Trip to Savannah

“OK, here's my writing. Not too sarcastic in this one. And it jumps around a bit much, but I wanted this stuff all in one column.

Column title:
Discovering Savannah: It’s hip to be square – and have squares

Just like residents of Savannah – fearing Union General William T. Sherman’s impending, doomsday march to the sea – my friend (gojo) and I beelined it out of the gracious southern city Monday afternoon, trying to save our own butts.

Well, I’ll be the first to admit our trip was nowhere near the terror-filled escape the residents of the Confederacy felt impelled to make as Sherman’s troops breathed down their necks. Sherman telegraphed President Abraham Lincoln on Dec. 22, 1864, to say that the city had fallen. He offered Savannah and its 25,000 bales of cotton to the president as a Christmas present.

Savannah shares its history in generous servings all over town. Not only did the city play a major role in the Civil War, its history goes back farther than that, to the Revolutionary War and even earlier.
I really hadn’t considered that before noting the city’s many, many, many historical signs. Plus, a trip to the stately Colonial Cemetery Park told part of the early history, with Revolutionary War heroes and more. That cemetery was closed to further burials in 1853.

So, why were we escaping Savannah? While the ultimate reason was that I had a plane to catch, another good reason was to avoid the throngs of St. Patrick’s Day festival partygoers already descending upon on the town and sure to peak come Thursday, March 17.

I had no idea about this side of Savannah either. According to "savannahonline.com," the city hosts the second largest St. Patrick’s festival in the U.S., with only the Boston celebration topping it. The website stated that between 500,000 and 600,000 people visit.

We started to get a taste of that – along with some excellent burgers – as we sat eating in a restaurant called the Cotton Exchange on River Street Monday afternoon. Numerous stores, shops, restaurants and taverns front the street, which runs along the Savannah River.

Looking out a window over the narrow street – which still has trolley tracks, although the trolleys run on wheels these days – we saw three motorcoaches from Illinois squeeze by. Earlier in the day, while walking the city’s historic squares and avenues, we’d spotted an imposing man with shaved head, tattoos and – not to be missed – a kilt. St. Patrick’s Day was fast approaching.

The night before, we’d tried some snacks in a dining establishment and bar called One-Eyed Lizzy’s, also on River Street. The bartender, Donald, told us just how crazy the town would get. He helped us realize that, in reality, Savannah would transform into something of a New Orleans/Mardi Gras environment.

As Mrs. Colorado and Ms. Colorado sat at the end of the bar (it never fails to amaze me just who you might run into out and about) – and as Mrs. Colorado picked out a souvenir T-shirt for her husband – they explained they’d been out on the town with some men dressed in skirts. Well, no doubt they had to be kilts. Mrs. Colorado was in town to talk about surviving breast cancer.

Donald, who looked to be in his 20s, said he just couldn’t seem to leave his native city. He really loved the area. When I mentioned it gets hot and humid in the upper Midwest, he recalled attending a wedding in Lincoln, Nebraska last summer. As the supposedly tough "huskers" swooned in the hot, humid weather, Donald apparently put them all to shame as he said, "It’s nothing" – and meant it.

River Street was amazing and fun. I had no idea what was in store when, upon our arrival Sunday afternoon, we turned off Bay Street and headed down something of a cobblestone alley to River Street below. Cobblestone is not the right term. The street’s surface more or less consisted of rounded rocks of all sizes stuck in what I guess was concrete. It was a very uneven surface. I think a few SUVs were put in 4WD to make it up the grade. (Don’t be scared. Cars made it, too.)

Right away on Sunday we caught a huge ship coming in, obviously from the Atlantic Ocean. I could hardly believe how tall it was. And it was full of semi trailers and similar cargo on its deck. Later, we drove past the docks at the Georgia Ports Authority and semi-trucks were leaving with their now land-bound cargo one right after another.

What a different world.

Savannah was founded when General James Edward Oglethorpe and fellow travelers landed on a bluff high along the Savannah River in February 1733. Oglethorpe named the thirteenth and final American colony, Georgia, after England's King George II and Savannah became its first city.

Oglethorpe also laid out an interesting series of city squares. Twenty-one or so remain of the original 24. They’re beautiful, sporting memorial statues and plaques as well as magnolias, live oaks and more, plus the elegantly draped Spanish moss.

We wandered away from River Street, going from square to square. What ambiance. I presume cities today would never have subdivisions planned like this, with the squares probably a bad use of space and making addressing much too confusing. So you have to enjoy it where you can: Savannah.

Eventually – after stops at the impressive Colonial Cemetery Park, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and more – we ended up at Forsyth Park. Spotting what seemed an inordinate amount of Ultimate Frisbee games going on, we asked and discovered it was the High Tide Ultimate Frisbee tournament for college students. They’d traveled from all over for a spring break like no other.

Also, I made sure we saw the Mercer-Williams house made famous in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." As (gojo) kept asking me pointedly if this was really a stop worth pursuing (I have a feeling he felt it wasn’t), I said, "Well… yes. The movie was based on fact."

It seemed that in May 1991, Jim Williams, a prominent figure in Savannah society, was accused of murdering his homosexual lover. Over a period of eight years Williams was tried for murder four times (a record in Georgia) and launched three successful appeals against guilty verdicts. He died, apparently of pneumonia, about a year after his final defense.

The Mercer-Williams home, while put on the map by the movie, was in reality just another of the unbelievable, never-ending parade of handsome historical homes in Savannah. A huge restoration project started in the 1970s kept and restored many historic buildings.

I really enjoyed Savannah and certainly could have spent more time there. We never did make it out to Tybee Island or even to Bonaventure Cemetery, made famous by the "bird girl" memorial statue in the "Midnight" movie – and now located at Telfair Art Mu-seum, I believe.

We did see the "Waving Girl" statue near the river, where a woman waved hello and good-bye to ships for years. We also, due to my insistence and wanting to add another "state visited" to my list, crossed the tall Eugene Tallmadge Memorial Bridge into South Carolina.

Ugh. It was certainly a plain area, full of trash and some exotic dancer locations (well, I did mention trash) after Savannah’s beauty. I guess South Carolina must clean up its act with Hilton Head just a few miles further on. The Savannah National Wildlife Refuge looked interesting as we crossed back over the Savannah River on a different bridge.

The beautiful entity that is Savannah kept growing on me during my stay, just like the elegant Spanish moss sweeping so many tree branches. I suspect I’ll be back.

COPYRIGHT: LIZS”

“snip....we caught a huge ship coming in, obviously from the Atlantic Ocean. I could hardly believe how tall it was. And it was full of semi trailers and similar cargo on its deck...snip - lizs

Dang reporters NEVER get it correct! ;-)
Is this the type ship what you saw?


Those aren't 'semi trailers'. They are shipping containers and the ship is called a container ship. The modular shipping container are sized to fit on 'semi trailer' and rail cars.
Here's what they look like unloaded.
”

“Well, that's what I meant... that they fight on semi-trailers. OK, so I need to add boxes. :-)

I did run a photo of the ship, too, Mr. Ship Guy. lol! And I even called it a "container ship" in the cutline!!!! I think I caught the word on some Savannah website. Had never heard them called "containers" before.

And ya gotta realize, I am used to seeing the "containers" one, or at the most stacked two high, on railroad cars.”

“lizs, I was in Savannah last yr and really liked it. I went on a kayaking trip with Sea Kayak of Georgia, rode my bike around town and checked out all the squares. I took lots of pictures of the restored homes, my kayak trip etc. It is a beautiful town that I wouldn't mind visiting again.”

“Oh yeah, I have TONS of photos. I just need to get fired up to do something with them. Four were going to run with this column:

- Mercer-Williams House

- Container ship (Stovey will be soooo proud to hear it said like that! LOL)

- One of the sloped, cobblestone alleys going from Bay to River St.

- ME in front of the Georgia Historical Society (gotta let the adoring public know it's really ME doing these things. LOL! Say it's getting awfully high on the hip waders, eh? LOL)

My next column will be on this cool geocache we did, finding the grave of an Iowa Union soldier, left behind with three others when all the other Union soldiers remains were moved. Brought a tear to my eye to see the stone.

I e-mailed the guy who found the gravesite for a family who requested his help. Very interesting! Just might make a good freelance story pitch somewhere!

It was multi-part cache. The first stop was a downtown hotel, which was a hospital in the Civil War. The guy had died there. We walked inside and I kinda told the concierge what we were doing and said, I suppose others wander in here.

He said they sure do. And told me the place was haunted and that seances occur. I asked for a history of the building if he had one. Hmmm... I read part of it. Anyway, we found out something we weren't expecting, which was very cool.

It would also be neat to go on some of those "haunted" tours. Oh well, we wandered across one such spot on our own. :-)”

“that they fight on semi-trailers. OK - lizs

Hee hee”

“Stovey, Stovey, I think I *SMELL* a job for you as my EDITOR. :-)

LOL! I make screw-ups like that all the time. Thank goodness for spell-check... and editors!”

“Had never heard them called "containers" before."
~Lizs

Actually, you had.
I ID'd it (container ship) when we spied it. I went on to 'splain about trux'n rails, too. Went further about stories of containers falling overboard in rough seas, and about how container contents are forever washing up on some Pacific island down current from shipping lanes...

Anyhoo, you had lots of new stuff to take in - forgetting such minor details would be normal. Yes... normalcy rears its pretty head (whoohoo!).


Too bad we could't spend more time in the area. Tybee woulda been nice. A River Street Crawlathon would be fun, too. Next time we'll bring heavy gloves and knee pads...
:)”

“Hee hee hee.
gojo nails lizs.”

“LOL!

Musta been blitzed when I missed all that container talk? (too many containers of a diff. type?)

Hey, at some point I'll get some photos up.

And, as Monty Python would say, "for something completely different," go read the "holy freakin' snow" thread!

Oh yeah and there's a Cumberland thread, too, somewhere. :-)”

“Damn reporters! ;-)”