It's the journey.......: Georgia, South & North Carolina #60

Georgia On Our Minds....
First stop on the Georgia side was the State Visitor’s Center so Kae could stock up on maps and information about the fun and fantastic things to see and do in the state. She discovered that just up the road was “the smallest church in America” at Darien. Well, she announced that we had to go and photograph it for the journal. Off we went, arrived at Darien and simply could not find a tiny church anywhere. We consulted the literature again, confirmed its existence again then programmed ‘Gps-y’ our new GPS system to find it. We were surprised to learn that it was actually back a ways and out on St. Simons Island to the east. So off the intrepid travelers trekked to find this little gem. When we pulled up in front of Christ Church it certainly did not look anything like small, not real big either, but definitely not the smallest anything! Kae rechecked the information once more, only to discover that it is named Christ Chapel, not Church!! Oh, well this church turned out to be a real gem in its own right.

The first Episcopal Litany was read on the site by English settlers on Feb. 22, 1736. During the years 1736-1766, services were conducted by the Rev. John Wesley, one of the founding fathers of the Episcopal Church in the US. The first structure was erected in 1820 and the congregation worshipped in it until the outbreak of the Civil War. The Church was desecrated by the troops during the ‘unprovoked intrusion from the north’ and was consecrated and rebuilt in 1886. There are several stained glass windows of rare beauty and value, such as one created by Tiffany. The structure itself is hand built and wooden pegged. Made of Northern Georgia red pine, it is a thing of rare beauty and we were treated to a charming little lecture by Elizabeth, a Southern Belle Docent and historian. All in all it turned out we found a rare gem we hadn’t planned for and we never did find Christ Chapel!

After that adventure we made certain we knew where to find Skidaway Island State Park outside of Savannah. What a pretty place after the Hugenot Memorial/Duval County Park of the previous night!!

Savannah! Wow! Cokie wanted to see this beauty just because she had heard the name for most of her life and was simply curious. Well, what a treat this great old town is with all of its oak-lined, cobble-stoned streets oozing “southern charm and hospitality”. The Gals signed up for the Old Town Trolley Tour of the historical district and I signed up for the Pod Patrol in the Visitor Center parking lot. I didn’t mind because there were buses and trolleys and tourists coming and going all morning long. I’m always entertained by looking out the windows and watching my ‘doggie tv’.

The Ladies came back in time for lunch and then they took off for another trip around town on the trolley to take pictures of the things they missed on the first go around. Marvelous architecture, fabulous trees, little parks all over, known as ‘the jewels of the city’. There are 21 of founder James Oglethorpe’s original 24 city squares left. These ‘pocket parks’ are positioned every few blocks and each commemorates some historical event or person or place. Each is truly a jewel all by itself.

Forest Gump's bench used to be here

This city was founded in 1733 so you just know there is more history, special buildings, statues, parks and places than Kae or Cokie or I can even begin to tell you about. So many of the buildings and homes have been restored or redone for historical accuracy. More than 60 buildings have been restored by the Savannah College of Art and Design- SCAD. These are major projects taken on by the students and often they become portions of the campus, such as housing offices and classrooms. The buildings all have some notation about their restoration by SCAD so it appears the campus is all over the city. I’ll suggest you might want to visit a website like www.savannahvisit.com for more information and history. By the way, speaking of history, Forrest Gump’s bench has been moved to a local museum because too many tourists were sitting on it.

Old Ford Motor Company building

Police Station with vintage cars in front

Rainbow Row

Good example of double stairway architecture. Men used one side and the women the other so that men could not see the women's ankles.

Savannah Cotton Exchange

The Savannah Riverfront is a bustling street of cafes, shops and restaurants lining the river where once stood the stifling cotton warehouses and busy auction offices. Now you can sit and watch the river traffic or stroll down a street paved with granite ballast stones from ships of the past. Tugs and paddle-wheelers ply the waters right in front of you giving you can a sense of the energy this port has maintained for nearly 300 years! Gal Pals got to see all of these going-ons by the river because they took time to sit at the Boar’s Head Pub and sip a Savannah Margarita made with peach liqueur. Peach and salt are too weird to be tried ever again, they decided.

The Ladies returned to Pod Palace and their intrepid watch dog in time to enjoy the commute traffic back out to Skidaway Island. We left the next morning to travel the back-roads along the Savannah River into South Carolina and up to Stom Thurmond Lake campgrounds.

South Carolina Cruisin'...
Traveling these little back roads certainly gets us into lovely, bucolic, rural countryside with a sort of laid-back Lab’s feel to it. There was just no need to hurry and plenty of local beauty to see like heritage barns that were over 200 years old with companion oaks that were even older.

Strom Thurmond Lake is just one of several good sized reservoirs, on the Savannah River, run by the US Army Corp of Engineers. We love these Corp campgrounds because they have electricity, water and dump stations, showers and sometimes a laundry. This keeps my Ladies very happy and I usually get to have as many swims a day as this old body can handle!

We traveled up north to another Army Corp CG where we enjoyed ourselves again. We loved this Lake Hartwell so much and thought it kinda cool that both Georgia and South Carolina share its beauty so we just moved over to the Georgia side, near the little town of - guess what? – Hartwell.

Knockin’ About North Carolina…
Our next move was up scenic, mountainous byways 11 and 64 into North Carolina and the southeastern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We started to understand why people rave about the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains when we saw the waterfalls and crystal clear streams. I was way impressed when I heard that the Appalachians are the oldest mountain range in the world! They have been eroding for over a billion years! Now that’s older than dirt!

Then it was on to the “Gem Capital of the World” – Franklin, NC. We stayed at a sweet little park called Country Woods RV Park, owned by Darrell and Marilyn but really run by their cat - Calley. We stayed a couple of days so Kae and Cokie could go out to the Sheffield Mine and try their hand at some gem mining. The Cowee Valley, north of Franklin is well known for its ruby, sapphire and garnet mines. Now I think it is way smart of these mine owners to get thousands of tourists to come and pay to get dirty. They are actually washing through the pay dirt for the majority of the gems but the owners will buy the really good gems right then and there if you want to sell. If not, then some of them will be happy to cut and polish your stone for a small fee so you can come and get it in a few weeks. Way smart; everyone has fun and the owners don’t have to hire any employees - the tourists do it all.