June 13 - Seeing Some of The Sights

We set off to play Tommy Tourist again today. We tried to get an early start as it gets really hot out in the afternoon. Managed to leave about 9:30 for Savannah, but made a quick detour to fill up the truck. There really are not many places that sell diesel out where we are or going into town.

First stop was Bonaventure Cemetery. It’s billed as one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the US, well, in the spring, because of all the azaleas, camellias, dogwood, etc. it would be for sure.  All the blooming was way over but there are tons of plants and I can imagine how beautiful it would be. It’s also known for several important people who are buried there, Johnny Mercer, famous songwriter and musician is one.  We found his grave with his parents and grandmother. The monuments are quite elaborate and you could spend quite a while driving or walking to see them.

Bill and one of the steam engines

From there we headed into downtown Savannah to the visitor center. We had been there before but it’s been a number of years, at least we recognized it. We got our bearings and verified that we already had plenty of maps, coupons, brochures and info to make our way around for the day. The visitor center was the original train station when people actually did their travel by train. It houses a nice museum, 2 gift shops, a small theatre, snack bar and a train car converted to a dining room, which is where we ended up having lunch. But before that, we went next door to the Georgia State Railroad Museum. We did enjoy it and may go back on one of the days you can go on one of the trains. This whole area is managed by the Coastal Heritage Society, and they are still working on the many buildings of the railroad that fell to horrible conditions once the highways became the popular mode of both travel and movement of goods and supplies. The buildings were constructed beginning 1851 as the Central of Georgia Railroad and Canal Company and at one time housed 50 locomotives and 500 cars as rolling stock. The business peaked in the 1920’s but in the 40’s diesel engines came out and the roundhouse was no longer conducive to diesel maintenance and as they were sent to Macon for repairs. In 1963 the railroad was sold to Southern Railway and the Savannah depot was closed. The site sat decaying until 1989 when a group of concerned citizens petitioned to have the property titled back to the city of Savannah and under the management of the Coastal Heritage Society. It’s been a slow process but it’s moving right along. We saw a number of engines and cars in the roundhouse, the print shop and blacksmith shop. Two cars have been turned into small theatres for video presentations, which we watched today. There are guided tours and on some days you can ride on the train.   As part of our volunteering we were given passes to about 25 different buildings, etc that we can visit for free, so that was a nice perk.

Forrest Gump bench

We walked back over to the Visitor center and went through the museum and watched the video there. I realized when I went to take a picture of the 403, the last steam engine in service on for the Georgia Railroad, I left my camera at the shop at the Railroad Museum, so I had to walk (in the heat) back over to get it. By now Bill was getting hungry so we ate at the Whistle Stop Café. It was OK. Bill said his burger was really good but I was disappointed in my bbq chicken, which was just a baked chicken with sauce on it. Oh well, it filled me up and kept me going!

We called down to the Ships of the Sea Museum to see if they had their own parking and they did, but they didn’t tell us they are closed on Monday. So we drove down and they have a nice parking area with wonderful landscaping and we parked in the shade only to find out it was closed. They were doing some work behind the museum in the garden and one of they guys told us we could walk around in there if we wanted. It reminded us of the gardens in Colonial Williamsburg, but the shrubs were much bigger. It was really nice though.

We attempted to stop at the Waving Girl statue but missed the turn off so just went on out of Savannah and headed back. We made a quick detour to Publix to refill our water jugs as we are using about a gallon a day and the machine there is only .35 per gallon. I picked up a bag of apples too and then we headed home.

I managed to get more laundry done, make dinner and we walked Xena. Then Bill and I went for a 3 mile bike ride.