Savannah to Jacksonville USA

Woohoo! I know you are all hanging out to read the next instalment of our trip to the US of A.

Before we left Charleston we visited the Drayton Hall plantation. A walk around the land and a tour through the house was very interesting but I thought the best was the little house at the side of the building.

Drayton hall was never updated to have electricity or plumbing installed so the privy was a very important outhouse. I can’t imagine those fine ladies in the 18th century with their large hooped dresses making a run for the privy between dances in the ballroom.

We drove on to Savannah. Savannah was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, is the oldest city in the state of Georgia and Americas first planned city. It seemed like a poor cousin to Charleston but had many famous people who went on to be governors of the state etc. Most of them are here at Bonaventure cemetery .

So, James Oglethorpe sets up Savannah with people from the debtor’s prison back in the old country. To keep these scallywags in check he makes rules that they all must obey. This was utopia so they had to be good, hard working Christian families. There was to be no hard liquor, no slavery and no lawyers. ( it was utopia so they wouldn’t need them!) James set up 22 parks in the city and for 20 years he enjoyed his own little piece of heaven. Unfortunately the inhabitants of Savannah looked across the state line to Charleston and saw the inhabitants having a good old time being lazy and having slaves to work while they drank hard liquor and played golf with their lawyers. So James Oglethorpe got ousted and in came the bad behaviour. ( there is a moral to that story somewhere).

One of the famous people of Savannah is Henry Ford.

Savannah is the site of the first showroom where Henry Ford sold his new Modet T . A building in a Moorish architectural style. Did you know he had the first ever recall of a product? Apparently the seats were stuffed with Spanish moss, a plant that grows prolifically here. Unfortunately these plants were full of little red biting insects and bums were bitten!

Apparently it is neither Spanish, or a moss. But an air plant.

Off in the car to Tybee Island. A short walk down to the beach and a sit on the sand.

Police on quad bikes, dune buggies and foot were patrolling the beach, had blocked the roads and generally making us feel unwanted. They were doing all this in preparation for the Orange Festival the following day. Maybe Donald was attending!!!!

Yes there really is a place called Okefenokee!! We had a couple of hours to wait for our boat tour up the canal so I used the time to paint.

So now we are in Jacksonville where our family live. This is the view from our bedroom.

You may not hear much from me while I’m soaking in the sun.

Ciao……..Pamela.