Beyond the South End

 

 

A Yankee Does Savannah

This Yankee and the other Yankee from Philly, Nanci, recently spent a night and a day in Savannah, Georgia. The trip, which is about four hours away, was mainly a comedy of errors. However, once we got there we both had a great time, until calamity struck at the very end of our visit. You’ll have to read this whole story or cheat and go to the end now to discover what the calamity was. Don’t cheat!

There will also be two other side bars with this story so go into the blog and look for “The Old Town Trolley Tour” and “Oglethorpe and the Founding of Savannah.”

The reason for our visit to probably the most charming and history-laden city in Georgia, was Nanci’s participation in a Jeopardy search event at the Westin hotel in Savannah. We have gone to Savannah once before for the same reason. We hope this time, which is about the seventh or eighth time she’s tried out for the show, will be the one, the magic charm so to speak.

I did take some pictures, but they didn’t come out very well on this little cheap camera I have. I therefore have stolen some shots from the brochures I brought back with me.

 

The Trip Down

We left the Atlanta area about 1:00 pm after Nanci actually did some of her real job in the am, if you can believe it. Nanci had looked online and tried to pick the best route for us. Everywhere she looked she could see construction delays. It’s the story of our life around here. Kids growing up in Georgia would think it strange if they didn’t see a bunch of orange cones in their travels around the state.

We more or less flipped a coin and chose several connecting highways to get to our destination. Although the day was nice, the construction about drove us crazy. She drove and we couldn’t go more than 50 miles or so without running into a stretch of construction. She’d get it up to 80 or so and learned how to use the cruise control to save her bad knee when she could.

And oh, did I mention the bugs who insisted on ending their short lives on our windshield all the way down?

The Hotel and Dinner

We checked into our hotel about 5:00 or so and tried to catch our breath for a while. Our room was nice with a nice couch, microwave, frig, and tv. We munched on the snacks we had brought with us while we waited for our reservation time for dinner at Lady and Sons.

Our favorite Southern chef,
 Paula Deen

 

 

Parking was scarce on those old narrow streets and it was also Spring Break time and the city was loaded with people. Therefore we pulled into a parking lot for a whopping $10 dollar fee. The parking attendant was amusing though. He and Nanci exchanged jokes and he probably told the one she gave him for the rest of the night. I think the man may have warrants out on him up Atlanta way because he mentioned he had a DUI and couldn’t go back up there because of it. Hmmmm.

Before we went in to eat we went next door to the Paula Deen Store. Oh boy, I could have bought one of everything in there. I did get an apron and a T-shirt. We got out of there before I went really crazy.

For dinner I had an appetizer of fried green tomatoes, one of my very favorite southern dishes. Then we both had crab stuffed shrimp. She loved dinner, I wasn’t crazy about it. I think I prefer my shrimp in more of a plain fashion.

Did I also mention that I forgot my reading glasses? I only had four pair at home and none of them found their way into my suitcase. Therefore I couldn’t see what I was eating very well and the lighting was also poor so there you go. We were going to bring some key lime pie back to the room with us, but decided against it.

Nanci walked down the street after we left the restaurant and got me some new glasses and a bottle of Tylenol because we both had forgotten to bring any kind of pain medicine with us—she with a bad knee and me with a bad knee and ankle.

The Next Day

The next morning we got Nanci all dolled up to go see the Jeopardy people and she left about 9:00 am. By the way, she forgot her good shoes and had to wear the sneakers she drove down in. She only had to drive over the New Talmadge Bridge to get to the Westin, about ten minutes away. We packed the car before she left and I put what I needed for the day into a backpack.

Checkout was 11:30 am so I hung out in the room awhile. There was a free breakfast downstairs but I was feeling apprehensive about going on a trolley tour by myself with a cane and knee and ankle braces to get me through the day. Although I had exercised ahead of time, I still have not recuperated enough so that I can stand or walk for too long.

I finally got up enough courage to go find some breakfast. There was actually a tour representative for the tour I had booked ahead of time online, in the lobby. She relieved my mind about how I would get to and from the tour. She said there was a shuttle that would take me back and forth.

So I managed to get an English muffin toasted in the breakfast room which was full of people. There was hardly elbow room. As I found a place to sit, my cell phone text feature rang. It was T Mobile telling me they had received my most recent payment. I thought, “get lost.” I have enough to think about right now.

Some other people in the hotel were going on the same tour, so I made friends with them. They could see I had a cane I think because when the shuttle left us off we had to walk a bit to get to the trolley for the tour. One of the women let me get in front of her to get into the trolley so I wouldn’t have to stand too long. I got a wonderful seat right behind the driver and my legs held up just fine. I planned to stay on the trolley and not get on and off, which was an option. Another trolley would come along in about 15 minutes and your tour would pick up right you left it off.

As it happened I did get off once. But you will have to read the tour story, “The Old Town Trolley Tour” to find out where. And guess what, you’ll also have to read to the end of that story to find out what the big calamity was. Sorry, cheaters.