Day 10 Savannah, GA

May 4, 2019

May the fort be with you

We spent today sightseeing in the Savannah area with friends Dan and Diane. We met Dan this morning at the Georgia State Railroad Museum and looked at the old rail cars in the roundhouse. We toured two Pullman cars which were "Luxury Executive" cars used by presidents of the Central of Georgia Railway.

This car has the original furnishing from it's last update in the mid 1950's. This was the first class travel available to corporate executives at the time.

When the car was at a station, a phone line was run out to the car so the executives could make phone calls. When the train was moving, they used the radio phone on the wall.

The radio is from a Ford. Our guide told us that they used a car radio, because a home radio could not stand the vibrations from a moving train.

After visiting the railroad museum, we made plans with Dan to have him and Diane pick us up later at our hotel.

Kerry and I then struck out on our own to see the sights. The first thing we did was walk down to the river front and check out the ferry we can take Monday to cross the Savannah River.

We have two choices to get to South Carolina on Monday. We can take the little ferry in the foreground or ride across the big bridge behind it. We're going to try to get the bike on the ferry.

Riding into Savannah yesterday, I heard someone shout "Pedal, pedal." I looked around thinking it was someone speaking to us, only to see this "bicycle bar" whose conductor was telling the patrons to pedal. I didn't get a picture yesterday because I had the camera packed away due the rain, so I took one today.

We chose not to ride on this. We pedal enough already!

After seeing the riverfront, we walked around City Market.

Then we went back to the hotel, had lunch and rested before Dan and Diane picked us up in the afternoon for more touring.

First we went to Fort Jackson, built in 1808 and added to in the 1840's and 1850's. It was used by Confederate militia during the Civil War until it was abandoned by the Confederacy just prior to the arrival of General Sherman in 1864.

After Fort Jackson, we went to Fort Pulaski. It was another fort occupied by the Confederacy which fell to the Union in 1862.

Fort Pulaski was much larger than Fort Jackson

What we will always remember about Fort Pulaski has nothing to do with the Civil War. While walking around, we saw that the sky was getting very dark. We talked about needing to leave before the storm hit.

View of approaching storm while at Fort Pulaski

Just after I took the picture above, we got alerts on our phones saying "Tornado warning. Take shelter" The park staff soon arrived and urged everyone into the underground interior of the fort.

Waiting the tornado warning out in a bunker at Fort Pulaski

We figured if we needed a shelter from a tornado, this is about the safest place we could be. Today is May 4th, and park ranger Elizabeth most cleverly said "May the fort be with you." as we entered the shelter.

Once the tornado warning expired about 4o minutes later, we left and got into the car to drive out to Tybee Island. We found out later that a tornado had touched down just a few miles away.

We added to our total days of ocean views with our visit to Tybee. We're at 6 now.

View from the Tybee Island pier after the storm had passed

We ended our day with dinner at the Crab Shack. We understand that it's a Savannah institution. It was very good and we enjoyed meeting Dan and Diane's friend Tom, also a cyclist. Thank you Dan and Diane for a great and memorable day.

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Lou HarminThe storm(s) that came through Crystal River today were the worst I ever saw. Hard to explain but nasty. lou
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