2BRVing (toberving.blogspot.com): The Hostess City

7/20/20 - 7/24/20 Brunswick, GA to Savannah, GA, 68 miles, stayed at Savannah Oaks RV Resort for 4 nights

When I was still in High school, I dreamed of attending the Savannah College of Art and Design. There is just something about that southern town and their hospitality. As a matter of fact, they’re called “the Hostess City”. I read that the first city of Georgia was spared during the Civil War because they decided to welcome General Sherman and the union army instead of fight them.

James Oglethorpe received the charter to establish the last English colony of Georgia for King George II in 1733 as a buffer against the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe designed the city along a grid and 24 squares. Each settler would receive similar houses and amount of land so that no one person had more than the other. Lawyers, Catholics, slavery and alcohol were forbidden. Unfortunately, those ideals didn’t last long, and Savannah soon became THE slave ship port for the colonies. It is said Sherman decided to save the city because it was so beautiful, and offered it as a Christmas present to President Lincoln.

It still holds up today. The riverfront is lined with cobblestone streets, and inviting restaurants and shops, once you find a way down the iron staircases. (There is an elevator at the Hyatt Regency, if you don’t do stairs well). Up top, you can stroll along Factor’s Walk with more restaurants and shops, or venture into the city. Savannah is easy to navigate because of the grid design, and each cool, grassy square has a fountain or statue or benches where you can rest under mature shade trees, a wonderful respite from the heat and humidity.

Of course you can tour the city with the hop-on, hop-off Old Town trolley to get the lay of the land, as in most big cities, but they didn’t have the plexiglass between rows or limited seating as they did in St. Augustine, and I wasn’t willing to be that close to others even then. Such is life in the time of COVID. I found a great Self-guided walking tour that wound from the riverfront, past the historic Colonial Park Cemetery and the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, ending at Forsyth park. It was so hot, we actually drove it. We followed a trolley for a while, Bill dropped me off at a few spots, but parking was easy at the Pay and Display spots along the road, and it was cheaper than the trolley.

We ate at The Cafe at City Market in the City Market, a four-block pedestrian area, just across from the American Prohibition Museum. The lunch was okay, but the peach cobbler was TO DIE FOR. Then we meandered. I love to just explore after gaining a little knowledge about an area. Jones street, in particular, had gorgeous, unique townhomes on cobblestone streets and beautiful gardens. We parked on Monterey Square and walked along Bull Street to Forsyth Park. It’s a great place to rest and people watch. There’s also a monument and a bandstand in the park.

The next day, we went to Bonaventure Cemetery. Is that weird? If you’ve read “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, that’s where the girl with the bird statue used to be, but like Forest Gump’s park bench, it’s been moved to a museum to preserve it. Still, this is an old cemetery, and I love to look for the oldest headstone. Again, I like to wander. Here’s what I found.