Georgia on Our Minds
The song titles I tweaked into blog titles for this post and the last one are remarkably similar. I guess there are not many ways to express the idea that you are thinking about one (or maybe two) of the fifty states. Still, I think James Taylor should have tried a bit harder to write an original title. He penned Carolina In My Mind in 1968, while Georgia On My Mind dates all the way back to 1930. I’m not a huge fan of Taylor’s wording, either. I keep things “in mind”, and have things “on my mind” but I don’t use the phrase “in my mind”. Both are great songs though, even if they are a bit too similar in title and sentiment.
From James Taylor’s North Carolina, we resumed chasing the warm weather south to Ray Charles’, Georgia. (It occurs to me that both of these men have another thing in common, in having first names for last names.)
On the way, we had a quick overnight stay in St. George, South Carolina, where the check-in process consisted of finding our name on a packed taped to the office door and leaving a check in their mailbox. We would have avoided human interaction entirely, except for a pair of lonely, unsupervised kids, who were outside our truck asking Charlotte “Can your kid play?” as soon as we rolled to a stop. Izzy went off to the little playground under Charlotte’s supervision while I got everything setup. Maybe not surprisingly given the circumstances under which we met them, the brother and sister duo were a little odd, and had some interesting ideas about how the parent/child relationship should work. Charlotte didn’t really appreciate their attempt at undermining her authority and pretty quickly convinced everyone that it was getting dark and it was time for dinner.
The next day we had an easy drive down I-95 to Townsend, GA and McIntosh Lake RV Park. This was a cute and friendly little RV park, on the shore of a small lake.
We only stayed at the park for 6 nights, but managed a few big adventures.
First up was a trip to Savannah, Georgia. We haven’t done much urban exploration during our RV travels, so walking through the streets of Savannah was a special treat. With it’s gorgeous old architecture and many squares, it felt like walking through a European city. Thanks to General Sherman for not razing it to the ground!
We started out downtown, where we grabbed some lunch and ate on a bench at a nearby square.
From there, we walked a few blocks and explored Colonial Park Cemetery which dates back to 1789, and to Izzy’s delight, has a playground at one end.
From there, we walked past The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist and a few more squares.
Before long, we ended up at Forsyth Park. This huge, gorgeous park takes up twelve city blocks and has giant mossy trees, a large water fountain, a couple of playgrounds, a civil war memorial, sports courts, walking paths, and even a little snack shop.
After exploring the park, it was time to call it a day. On the way back to the truck we decided to make a quick stop for some coffee and pastries, you know, to get our energy levels back up.
We didn’t hit up many specific sites in Savannah, but Charlotte and I really enjoyed just walking through the city, taking in the beautiful houses and mossy tree-lined streets on a sunny day. Izzy got to visit a few playgrounds and eat some treats, so she was pretty happy too.
Our second Georgian adventure was a trip down to Jekyll Island, which is a barrier island on the Atlantic coast. There seems to be a lot to do there, but much of it was shut down due to the pandemic, so we just enjoyed a relaxing day by the water.
First we went and explored Driftwood Beach.
After that, we headed over to Great Dunes Park, where we had a picnic at the pavilion, then went to the sandy, driftwood-free beach. It was a little chilly and windy, but that just meant there weren’t many other people to share the beach with.
As we were leaving, I did my good deed for the day by saving an overturned horseshoe crab.
That’ll wrap it up for our week in the Peach State. See you down the road!