Georgia - Day 17 - Vidalia & Savannah

Savannah South KOA, Richmond Hill

Sunday, 9 April 2023

Happy Easter!

I'd planned a lot of driving today, and we got on the road before 9:00.

today's route, from left to right

Georgia has clearly named many (or most) of its towns after a person, then tacking on a suffix.  This morning we passed Scottsboro Community, Irwinton, Nicklesville Community as examples.  Lots of names like that.  (As an odd side note, Georgia has this town named Nicklesville - spelled "le" - as well as another town in the far northwest named Nickelsville - spelled "el."  Those folks must get their mail misdelivered all the time.)

I saw the turn for "Southern Bell Tower Road," and I wondered if it were a tower for a bell and was some landmark I hadn't heard of.  I couldn't find a straight answer online, but I think the name refers to a pole or tower erected some time back for Southern Bell Telephone Co., and the name just stuck.

You'd think the town of Dublin might be considered important, given that it has 16,000 residents and is the seat of Laurens County.  But I didn't see any sign on the highway with its name on it, unlike, say, Irwinton which had a sign for its 531 residents.

I passed a lot of farmland, including several large pine tree farms.  

I also passed quite a few churches with about 6 to 10 cars parked at each (plus one sort of mega-church with dozens of cars).

For about 20 miles, I was on GA-15, designated "Traditions Highway," according to a sign.  Online, though, all I could find was that this road spans the state from north to south and was given this name "because of the rich history and traditions surrounding the places on its route."  I couldn't find any examples of these.

I saw a couple of billboards that gave variations on "Chicken of the Sea - Now Fishing for New Employees."  And a large homemade sign saying: "Sons of Confederate Soldiers - Join Now."

And we came to Vidalia, "The Sweet Onion City."  Vidalia hosts the Vidalia Onion Festival the last weekend of April (very sorry I won't be here), as well as something called the Vidalia Onion Museum.  And I passed a historical marker about the importance of this onion to the area.   https://www.hmdb.org/Home-of-the-Vidalia-Sweet-Onion

We took a break for lunch (Bucky bit me while I was trying to feed them; he's lucky I don't believe in withholding food as punishment) and a walk at a city fountain I'd found online.

Looks like a 21st century onion.

The nearby stage was decorated with these:

Clearly this town celebrates its most famous farm product.  Having lived in Washington state for many years, I couldn't help wondering if there were a difference between Vidalia onions and Walla Walla onions, so I looked it up.  Mostly I got mixed messages.  Here's one where they actually did a taste test.   https://www.oregonlive.com/which-sweet-onion-rules  And here's one that includes not only those but also Maui and Texas 1015 onions.   https://sweetishhill.com/which-onion-is-sweeter

Around the corner from the park, Dext and I found the city offices:

As soon as I saw this building, I thought this must once have been a post office - and then I found the cornerstone and was patting myself on the back.

And around another corner we found the local newspaper, the Advance.  I took this photo because the front windows looked to me more like an office supply store than a news publication.

I found that Vidalia ran into the next town, Lyons, which is much smaller but is the county seat.  A sign told me the large new building under construction was a county courthouse - and it had a large metal sculpture of an onion on top of a dome.

I passed a large "Trump 2020" flag (I looked specifically for the date).

I saw a billboard that said, "If blood isn't available, who feeds Milo?" and it had a large photo of a small Boston terrier type dog standing on his hind legs looking out a window and the plea: "Donate Blood."  Enough to make me want to rush out to the nearest blood bank.

I ran into a series of towns, each with its own highway sign, and all of them bing bing bing one after the other.  One of those was Claxton, which calls itself the "Fruitcake Capital of the World."  That made no sense to me because everyone knows that title goes to Corsicana, TX, so I looked it up.  Here's one take on it.   https://www.southernkitchen.com/two-southern-towns-battling-over-title-fruitcake-capital-world  As far as I can tell, it depends on where you are and what you're used to.  For me, fruitcakes will always be round and full of Texas pecans.  Just shows travel can broaden minds only so much.

Yesterday in Milledgeville I checked with Gas Buddy to find the best gas prices in Vidalia and Savannah.  The best was $3.19 at a station in Savannah that was on the route I'd already planned to take.  Today when I went through first Milledgeville and then Vidalia, the best prices I found were about $3.35, so I decided to wait.  But by this time I was getting pretty low on the gauge, so I reduced my speed to only about 55 mph, even on the interstate, to conserve gas.

When we got to Savannah, I made a beeline to that gas station, only to find that they were charging $3.44 - a far cry from the $3.19 they'd listed yesterday.  I was furious and bought only $20 worth to last me till I could find some place in town cheaper - or even the same price, but I didn't want to reward a bait-and-switch like that.

From there, I tried to explore the main part of Savannah and learned that the streets there are absolutely not built for my RV.  The trees here are big and old, with drooping branches heavy with Spanish moss.  The town is laid out in such a way that, on the main street of Bull St., that leads from City Hall through town, all traffic is forced to make detours around a series of parks.  Lovely parks, and lovely areas, but a nuisance to drive in.

The houses here remind me a lot of those in New Orleans, and I find it very odd that their beginnings have nothing in common.  New Orleans, as the entire world knows, was heavily influenced by the French, whereas Savannah was settled entirely by the British.  But they look much alike and, to me, feel much alike.  I've heard Savannah even allows open carry of alcoholic beverages in the historic district year round (in contrast to some of Georgia's more uptight liquor laws).

I'd intended to go by the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, but the one-way street system in town, combined with all the parks, defeated me.  But at least I managed to see the City Hall.

Savannah City Hall
(online photo, but this is what I saw, except today was overcast)

In all that driving around, I accidentally passed the historic Solomon's Lodge, a Masonic lodge.  It's historic because of possibly being the oldest continually operating Masonic lodge in America, begun in 1734.  It's currently housed in the old Savannah Cotton Exchange Building, completed in 1887.  Here's a little information about both the lodge and the building.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Solomon's-Lodge-Savannah

Online I'd found a dog park, and with some difficulty I managed to find it in real life.  It was in a neighborhood park named in memory of Mother Mathilda Beasley, the first Black nun to serve in Georgia.  She lived from the 1830s until just after 1900 - a long and apparently very useful life.  Here's some information about her remarkable life.   https://georgiahistory.com/mother-mathilda-beasley-and-the-catholic-church  That article mentions a historical marker at the park which I didn't see.  But it's a summary of that more detailed article and is shown at this link.   https://www.hmdb.org/Mother-Mathilda-Beasley-O.S.F.-Georgia's-First-Black-Nun

There wasn't anybody else in the dog park, but at least it gave Dext someplace new to sniff.

Before we left the park, I tried Gas Buddy one more time to see about possibly current gas prices in town and found one that seemed to be almost on the route I'd planned to take, so I aimed for that.  On the way, I drove around 3 sides of Forsyth Park, which covers 2 or 3 city blocks with grass and lovely shade trees, obviously an old wealthy neighborhood.

As I was rounding one side, I saw a couple in front of a building that I now know was the Oglethorpe Club, which bills itself as "one of the most prestigious private clubs in the South."  I particularly noticed the woman who wore a cream silk suit with a white shell top and a double strand of pearls.  Her hair was nicely arranged and altogether she looked the epitome of elegant, and I thought I'd like to be like her (if I had another life).

From there we found the other gas station without much trouble, and they charged me 20¢/gallon less than the first one.  When you're buying 40+ gallons, that can make a real difference.

And from there I actually managed to get onto I-95 without trouble and found my way south 15 miles to the campground without getting lost.  Nice, for a change.