Monday we stopped in Live Oak, FL, at Spirit of Suwannee RV. This is a very big RV park that appears to have some pretty big music events during the tourist season. Right now it is basically empty, & appears desolate & slightly run down. When Dan made a Wally Mart run after setting up camp, he realized we had previously dry camped at this very place on New Years Day 2009.
08FEB, Tuesday, we stopped at the FamCamp RV park, located at the Trident Sub Base, Kings Bay, GA, where we spent Xmas 2007. In our opinion this is one of the best military facilities we have stayed at. We were fortunate to get a site with a great view of the lake, & their laundry is still free.
http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/12/22-25dec07-kings-bay-ga-merry-xmas.html
On 09FEB, Wednesday, we decided to drive to Savannah, GA, & stop for a couple of days to sightsee. We decided to stay at another military RV facility, & after getting lost three times finally made it to Lotts Island FamCamp RV, Hunter Army Airfield, outside Savannah, GA. Hunter is the home of the aviation units for the 3rd Infantry Division headquartered at Fort Stewart, GA, as well as home of CG Air Station Savannah - the CG's largest helicopter unit.
Immediately after setting up camp we head downtown to the river front & discovered “Factors Walk”. First some history about Savannah – Savannah was founded by a “trust” headed by British Gen. James Oglethorpe in 1733. As a trust, Savannah did not “belong” to the Crown. The trust had four unique rules in its charter: no alcohol, no lawyers, no slavery, no Papists. Within twenty years the trust had failed, the rules fell by the wayside, & Savannah was “returned” to the Crown. But there was one great success of the trust & that was Oglethorpe’s world renowned city plan based on 24 squares. The idea was each square would be surrounded by churches, homes & businesses; creating a network of interconnected neighborhoods.
Unfortunately three of the squares were lost to mistaken attempts at modernization. But one of them (Ellis Square) was recently recreated when the city leveled some buildings, dug an underground parking garage, & installed the “new” Ellis Square on top of the garage. Many of the squares have monuments dedicated to important personages from Savannah’s history; but sometimes the monuments don’t match the square. For example, there are statues & monuments to Oglethorpe throughout the city, but there isn’t one in Oglethorpe Square; & the monuments in squares in honor of Gen Pulaski & Nathaniel Greene are not located in the squares bearing their names?
Anyway, back to the river front & the “Factors Walk”. The waterfront of Savannah is unique that the town was founded on top of a forty foot bluff. This was great for military protection & protection from floods, but made the loading & offloading of vessels very difficult. The solution was to build a small piece of level land at the bottom of the bluff with warehouses & extend the warehouses up vertically until the offices were on top, level with the top of the bluff. With the invention of the cotton gin these warehouses & Savannah became the number two cotton port in the world. With the advent of the container vessel, this portion of Savannah’s waterfront fell into disrepair. It has since been revitalized with shops, hotels, offices, bars, restaurants, etc. The two main areas are at the bottom on River St, & at the top along Factors Walk. It was an unexpected discovery & an enjoyable afternoon exploring.
Trivia – what is a Factor?
On our way back to the RV we stopped by Chippewa Square to find the bench that Forrest Gump sat on eating a box of chocolates while he waited for the bus. Every scene of Tom Hanks sitting on the bench was shot on the north side of the square; but as always the case in movies, certain liberties were taken with the actual location. Turns out all the “real” benches are on the interior of park not the exterior as shown in the movie, & face the monument in the center of the park not facing the buildings across the street. So what the producers did was place a fiberglass bench in the middle of flower bed on the outside of park! The fiberglass bench is now in Savannahs History Museum, & the flower bed has been restored.Thursday morning, 10FEB, Dan headed to Fort Pulaski National Monument; which is also part of the National Park System’s Gullah Geechee National Heritage Corridor, & the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Fort Pulaski is one of the more than thirty forts of the “Third System” of coastal fortifications built during the first half of the 19th century. What makes Pulaski unique was how it fell to Union forces on 11 APR 1862, signaling the end of all such existing fortifications from then on.
The forts of the Third System were pretty much immune to smooth bore cannons beyond 1000 yards. Even the Union Chief of Engineers when discussing Fort Pulaski stated “You might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains!”. In light of the success of brick forts to withstand long range bombardment, the Confederates were not concerned when the Union seized Tybee Island over a mile away. In fact Robert E Lee told the Fort’s CO that the Federal gunners could not breach the walls. But 10 of the Union’s 36 cannons were new experimental rifled cannons. The Union bombardment commenced on 10APR, & by the end of the day the southeast corner of the fort was breached & the Confederates surrendered on the 11th. One Union officer likened the significance of the engagement to the significance of the battle between the MONITOR & the MERRIMAC. Luckily Dan was able to catch the free walking tour of the fort led by one of the Rangers.
An interesting forgotten historical fact is that after the fall Fort Pulaski, the Union General Hunter issued a General Order freeing all slaves in Union controlled areas around the fort, on 13 APRIL 1862. But remember up to this point the war from the Union’s perspective was about secession, not slavery! So President Lincoln rescinded the order. It wasn’t until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in JAN 1863, that the war also officially became about ending slavery.
http://www.nps.gov/fopu/index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/guge/index.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr/about.htm
http://www.nps.gov/ugrr/TEMPLATE/FrontEnd/index.cfm
That afternoon Dan went to Old Fort Jackson which was a Confederate fort upriver from Fort Pulaski. This is a state park that has a little “southern” bias in its historical displays, as compared to the balanced presentation by the National Park Service at Fort Pulaski. The historical displays make much of the fact that although the Union took Fort Pulaski within one year of the start of the war, they never advanced upriver to Savannah. But with the capture of Pulaski, the Union effectively removed Savannah & all upriver ports as supply routes. And the Union could than remove many offshore vessels employed in the blockade & position them off other Confederate ports. So there was no hurry to try & seize Savannah from the Union view point, probably saving thousands of Union lives.
http://www.chsgeorgia.org/home.cfm/page/OldFortJackson.htmThat night we had dinner at the Olde Pink House. We did not know anything about the restaurant, & were surprised to discover one of Savannah’s oldest & finest restaurants! Corrie had the BLT salad & grilled lobster with baby corn, Dan went with the she crab soup & seafood platter (blackened oysters, seared scallops, & shrimp w/grits). Most excellent! Dan wanted the seafood tower at $115 but Corrie said no!
Friday morning, 11FEB, we headed back into the historic district to catch a “trolley” tour. You have probably seen these fake trolleys providing tours in most major USA cities. We have never taken one, but figured it was a quick one & one half hour history lesson on the city. Our driver also allowed an unauthorized stop at John the Baptist Cathedral to view the beautiful stained glass windows. After lunch Corrie went shopping on Broughton St, while Dan headed to the Savannah History Museum where he learned the about the siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War.
In 1779 Savannah was a British city under siege by American & French forces. When they finally attacked the British Redoubt at Spring Hill, the Americans & French suffered tremendous casualties & eventually broke off the siege. Many historians theorize that this convincing British victory raised the moral of the citizens back in the UK & strengthened their resolve to win the war. As a result the war lasted another four years. Interesting thing is that although the war was between Britain & American Revolutionaries, this battle was mostly fought by other nationalities. The British forces were Scottish, German & loyal colonists; the French forces were Dominican Republic, Haitians, Irish & Swedish; & the American forces were revolutionaries, Austrian, German, French, Polish & Swiss!
Trivia – what does “15 minutes with Venus & 3 years with Mercury!” mean? The USA was the first country to gain independence in the “new world”, what was the second?http://www.chsgeorgia.org/home.cfm/page/SavannahHistoryMuseum.htm
Although we have only scratched the surface, we were very impressed with Savannah & definitely want to return!
Trivia – what was the name of the first steam powered vessel to cross the Atlantic? What was the name of the USA Navy vessel struck by the first radio controlled bomb (ie forerunner of the guided missile)? What was the name of the first nuclear powered cargo vessel? (hint – if you get one right, you should get them all right)
2 comments:
Someday, we will have to meet up in Savannah. Great place.
great idea! maybe our wives will let us order the Seafood Tower at the Olde Pink Restuarant? - dan
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