Savannah and Charleston

Our campsite on Skidaway Island State Park just outside of Savannah, GA was the prettiest camping spot we have had so far on this trip. In addition to the beautiful trees and moss, the park hosted a lovely marsh and many trails. During our hikes we enjoyed seeing water birds like herons and ibis and lots of oysters and crabs.

The area was so lovely Jerusha had to have another glamor shot in the trees.

We saw Ken’s cousin David and his wife Claudia a couple times since they live just a mile away from our campsite. We love playing tabletop games with them!

The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of slaves brought from West and Central Africa to work on the coastal rice plantations of the Savannah and Charleston areas. We learned more about their culture and history when we visited the Pinpoint Heritage Museum. Our tour guide was really interesting and even taught us a few phrases in their dialect. What do you think this means? “Oman needa for watch that gal, she spittin that long spit.” Find the answer below the photo!

Translation: “Woman, you need to watch that girl because she is pregnant.”

We went on a delightful on-off trolley tour of Savannah. In addition to seeing the lovely park squares, charming buildings, and key historical sites, our experience was augmented with costumed characters from history who got on the trolley at various stops and gave us a “personal” accounting of the times. The most interesting story was about how the pirates would shanghai young men.

We had planned to spend an extra day in Savannah, but cancelled those plans because it was absolutely pouring the day we were going and Jerusha had a migraine as well. We ended up driving up to our next RV spot in the rain and the next day took a walk around some ponds that were somewhat flooded. We left the RV for a night and drove the truck up to Charleston. Even though it was two days after the rain, the fact that the moon was full during high tide meant that some of the city was still flooded. During particularly high tides the drainage sewers in the city actually spill water from the sea into the city.

We started our visit in Charleston with a horse and buggy tour. Our guide was very informative and knowledgeable, but he made us feel unwelcome with his disparaging “yankee” comments and uncomfortable with his habit of taking his hat off and holding it over his heart when he mentioned his favorite confederate plantation owner. It was distressing to see the underlying racism that is still so prevalent in the south. On a more positive note, the antebellum homes were lovely. He pointed out the piazza’s on the sides of the homes where the occupants could get cool sea breezes. The borders around the doors and windows indicated where the wealth of the owner came from (rope meant they earned their fortune in shipping).

We visited the Old Slave Mart. In this building domestic slaves were bought and sold. It is now an excellent museum chronicling both the domestic and transatlantic slave trade.

After exploring more of the city and visiting some historic homes (we saw one of the original articles of secession), we ended up at a seafood restaurant where Jerusha enjoyed the popular local dish of shrimp and grits!

After a comfortable night in the hotel we visited the Museum of Charleston. This museum was fantastic covering everything from geological history to native americans to the role Charleston played in the revolutionary war. We learned a lot about how the slaves worked the rice fields and the civil war portion of the museum highlighted individuals including brothers who fought on opposite sides and a slave that escaped and joined the union. The photo below shows a bale of cotton because even though rice was the primary source of plantation income in this area, there were still cotton plantations.

We bought sweet grass baskets from a woman we watched making them in the market then drove to the Magnolia plantation. We could still see remnants of the berms made for the rice fields, but mostly it is now just a gorgeous garden (with alligators lurking in the waters!)

On to Florida!