This KOA was just 20 miles south of Savannah, Georgia, probably one of the prettiest cities in the entire country. We decided we needed to see this beauty, so this morning we left the trailer with the dogs in air-conditioned comfort at the campsite and headed to town arriving a few minutes before 9:00am, which is relatively early for us even though we get up every morning between five and six a.m., when the dogs start stirring.
We found the big visitor’s center/museum and immediately signed up of a 1½ hour trolley tour of the city that was leaving right away. We figured we had 2½ hours to spend in the city before we needed to head back to the dogs, pack up, and head for Aiken, South Carolina, our next stop.
This is a historical tour, where the drivers narrate a scripted tour, complete with lame jokes. We could get off at any one of the fifteen stops and board a later trolley to take us where we wanted to go next.
Savannah was founded in 1733 as a buffer for the English to keep the Spanish in St. Augustine and Florida. It was laid out as a grid with 24 squares as parks, of these, 22 survive, giving the city its charm. Building codes now force new construction to look like the buildings that surround the particular square so even brand new buildings look just like buildings that are almost two centuries old.
Rich, our tour guide rattled off facts and figures as he drove around the 1½ hour course. Because of our limited time consideration, we stayed aboard until the 14th stop, Franklin Market Place, just across from Franklin Square, named after Benjamin Franklin. We finally got breakfast around 11am at Belfords, were I ordered my favorite breakfast, Eggs Benedict. But this breakfast not only had Canadian bacon and an egg, but a slice of tomato as well. In my opinion it’s the Hollandaise sauce that makes the Eggs Benedict, and this met my expectations.
We only had time to duck into one store (thankfully) before the next trolley came by for us to catch back to our starting point. With that, our whirlwind tour of Savannah was over.
We drove the 20 miles back to the campground, got the trailer ready for travel, hooked it us and left around 1pm headed for Aiken.
We elected to take the back roads of South Carolina from Savannah to Aiken. We love driving through the countryside, because you can savor the flavor of the area. We got to see the quaint city centers of the small towns, people sitting on their porches, at the local filling station, and church lawns. Total Americana.
We hadn’t arranged for a camping spot in Aiken, and this turned out to be a little difficult because Aiken isn’t really a camping destination. We searched through our GPS maps and finally found a one that would probably meet our minimum standards, but we had to call them to get their physical address since the guides just said “Aiken”.
Armed with that information we plugged the address into the GPS which led us to where we wanted to be, Palmetto Lake Campground. This small campground doesn’t even have a main office; one just registers at the restaurant near the entrance on the highway. For $25 we got a nice shady spot.
The lake turned out to be about the size of a football field. It resembled more of a sink hole than a lake, so in my estimation is was probably a pond.
After I got everything set up, we put Marianne’s sister’s house into the GPS and off we went again. Janet and John have a darling house in Aiken that backs right up to a 2000 acre wildlife preserve, which will never have any buildings on it. They have redecorated the home since the last time I was there about a dozen years ago.
We sat on their new back porch sipping some drinks and catching up. As it was starting to get a little late, we all climbed into Janet’s Toyota SUV and headed for downtown Aiken and dinner.
In the late 1800’s, Aiken gained fame as a wintering spot for wealthy people from the Northeast. The nation's attention was riveted on Aiken when Nicholas Longworth, Republican Speaker of the House, came down unexpectedly with pneumonia and died there on April 9, 1931. He had been visiting family friends – all long-time Republicans and fellow poker players – who had a winter home in town. Longworth was married to US President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who rushed to his side from Cincinnati, Ohio, arriving prior to his death.
The main street running through downtown Aiken is wide with a median running down the middle of it. Cars can angle park on both sides of the street as well as both sides of the median. This creates a very wide boulevard with quaint stores and interesting restaurants.
We chose to go down a side street/alley where a former stable was turned into a great restaurant, The West Side Bowery. For their evening fare they offered about a half dozen different menu items for less than $10 called Jockey Meals. For that price I was expecting either miniscule portions or microwaved fare. I was wrong. I got more food that I could eat and it was scrumptious, once more adding to the plight of my diet.
After dinner we were invited to the home of Linda and Sam, who live just a couple of doors away from Janet and John. Their home was more secluded since it was closer to the wilderness and down a longer driveway. It was a fantastic home that featured an enclosed porch that had the feeling of a treehouse, since it was on stilts about 25 feet in the air. The reason we were there was to see the lightening bug show.
One of the things I miss about living in Oceanside is that there are no lightening bugs. As a kid growing up in New York, it was great catching as many as we could in glass jars. We stuffed some grass into those jars and punched holes into the lids with a hammer and nail, creating what we thought would be a perfect habitat for these luminescent flying bugs. But by the next morning they would all be dead. I also remember the strange smell of those dead bugs, a unique aroma that I believe I can identify at any time.
Linda is an artist who is preparing for a major one woman show. She creates huge pencil (graphite) drawings of logs, shells, rocks, and other natural items. She’s really good and hopes that this show will get her noticed. I hope it does.
With daiquiris made with fresh fruit we headed to the edge of the wilderness to view the light show. I was impressed, I’d never seen that many lightening bugs, but Sam said a couple of nights before there were many more.
Since the dogs were back in the trailer all this time, we had to say our goodnights and head back to the trailer. Tomorrow we’d be going to Charlotte to see our daughter, Nikki.
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