MOVING ON TO SAVANNAH

Thinking about this trip started more than 10 years ago when Marlene and I read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", a book based on an incident in Savannah. The main character was a real person, dead now, who restored old houses in Savannah in the late 50s and 60s. We both agreed then that someday we wanted to see Savannah. We finally made it. It was a short drive down from Charleston.

We checked into Skidaway Island State Park. This is similar to the one we just left, but is not as refined, more rustic setting and not as much concrete. For whatever reason there were more Country Coach RVs in the campground, 3 others including the hosts from Anacordes, Wa., than we have seen on the whole trip.

We started exploring Savannah by first taking a tour bus. This works well to orientate us to a new city. Once we get the lay of the land, we then set out on foot to explore in detail what we saw from the trolley.

Savannah is the birth place of Johnny Mercer, the song writer. It turns out his grandfather's house is the house that the character of the book refurbished and decorated with antiques he collected around the world.

Savannah is filled with lots of old buildings and houses of renown architecture.

This is "The Book Store". Meaning, it is the headquarters for anyone who has read the book and wants to go back to the source.

Savannah is also known for it's garden parks. Every four blocks or so there is another small park surrounded by churches or government buildings. That's the way the city was designed. It makes for wonderful walking, sitting, and people watching.

This is the old water front street. Shops below and offices above with entrances off a street which is another level above.

This is the Mercer House, the setting for the book. We toured this house. The guide described the source of all the furnishings and the original art which is still in place as the owner, Jim Williams, left it.

Our final stop was the cemetery where Williams with other characters from the book are buried. This is the Garden of Good and Evil.