I’d heard so much about the history and beauty of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina that I planned a visit to both cities.
I was talking about the planned trip one day at the Baca Center, while playing Texas Canasta when Sonya Counts asked if she could join me. I told her sure because a journey is much more enjoyable when you have someone to share the experience with. Plus it would be nice to share the expense.
The vacation didn’t start off very good. I woke up at 3:00 AM even though my alarm was set for 4:00 AM. Sonya was supposed to pick me up at my house at 5:15 so I had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast. But it didn’t turn out that way because Sonya got lost and didn’t get to the house until 6:15! Then we got lost trying to find the motel where I had arranged for us to park.
Due to all of the difficulties so far we didn’t get to the airport until 7:40 which made us too late for our 7:57 flight. American Airlines was pretty nice though and put us on ‘stand by’ for the 9:30 flight to Dallas & we were able to get on that. Thus began our bizarre flight to Savannah. It ended up taking us 5 hours to land at DFW airport, which is only 150 miles from Pflugerville because we had to circle Dallas for 2 hours due to the rainy weather and all of the other planes trying to land. We ended up having to fly to Shreveport, LA to get gas, then fly back to DFW. We couldn’t catch a flight to Savannah until 8:00 PM, which meant we had 5 hours to walk around the airport, get something to eat and talk about plans. Sonya and I actually ended up enjoying ourselves there.
Our flight to Savannah was supposed to arrive at 11:30 PM so I called Thrifty car rentals to make sure I could pick the car up then. I was told they would be opened until midnight so it would be fine. But of course it didn’t turn out that way. We landed a little before 11:30 but we got stranded sitting on the tarmack and couldn’t get to our gate until almost midnight. Well, we hurried to the Thrifty car rental stand and no one was there! Of course we were scheduled to be there at 1:30 PM, not midnight, but I was still very angry.
We got a taxi and he took us to the Holiday Inn Express, we checked in at 2:00 AM. What an exhausting day!
On Wednesday the 10th, we got up at 8:30, after 5 hours of sleep, and had breakfast. After a good meal and lots of coffee we caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport. After finally getting the rental car we had reserved we headed out for Charleston, but not before we expressed our anger about them not being there the night before and getting a refund for the day.
It was a beautiful drive along the ocean to Charleston but the wind was so strong and cold we didn’t stop anywhere and enjoy the sights. We grabbed a quick lunch before checking into the hotel, then contemplated what to do on our first day there.
We decided to go to the Gibbs Art Museum. It was an interesting place with some wonderful art work. I really liked the paintings by Frasier West but couldn’t find any prints of his works in the gift shop, shoot. After a couple of hours we decided to leave and Sonya volunteered to go get the car, so I wouldn’t have to walk so far. Boy did that turn into a traumatic event….She walked out the front of the museum and down all of the steps. I walked through the building to the side door and ramp. I got to the sidewalk and to the front of the museum and waited for Sonya in the cold wind which cut right through me because I didn’t have a coat on. I stood there freezing for 30 minutes, getting very worried; I was afraid she’d had a wreck or something worse. While I was there a man and woman walked by and asked if I needed help. I told them no, that I was just waiting for my friend to come back and pick me up and expressed my appreciation for their kindness. They said OK and left. After a few minutes they came back and said they were worried about me and would stay until Sonya got there. Thank God they did because a few minutes later Sonya drove by slowly but didn’t see me and the lady jumped into the street to knock on the window and got her to stop. They were such a blessing to me. Sonya said after she got the car she was trying to get back and kept running into one-way streets which made her completely lost. She got so frustrated she broke out in tears and finally called 911 and they stayed on the phone with her telling her where to turn until she found me. I tell you the first two days of this vacation were defiantly stressful, we could only laugh and pray that things improved.
I’m afraid Thursday the 11th didn’t start off much better. We tried to visit the Magnolia Plantation but after we drove out there we found out hurricane Micheal had left it too muddy, so it was closed to visitors. So we went to the Middleton Plantation and drove around in the lush foliage, it was definitely beautiful and we enjoyed it. We then stopped off at the gift shop where we took some pictures. (below)
That evening we ate dinner at Moe’s and there were some police officers there. Sonya started talking to them and told them about getting lost last night and calling 911. They laughed and said they’d heard about it. I guess we’re famous now.
Friday was a truly enjoyable day. We took a Pineapple tour of Charleston. The guide was very smart and entertaining. After eating lunch we took a boat tour, it was great also great; we got to see a lot of the city in a relaxing atmosphere. All in all with both tours we got to see a great deal of Charleston. That included seeing the historic downtown with lots of historic homes. We also saw and heard about important important important revolutionary and civil war sites. I had no idea how strategically important this city has been. We had a great view of the ‘Holy City’, called this because the city has more churches per square mile than any other city. In the evening we had a great BBQ dinner.
Me (Gayle) inside a beautiful home
Pictures of Charleston in museum
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This is Sonya enjoying lunch
The 14th was a little stressful. After keeping my rollator-walker together with a pincher and duck tape we drove to Home Depot and this really nice employee helped us and got it working again by finding the correct bolt and attachment and putting it all together for me. I hope God blesses him.
After leaving Home Depot we drove to Paula Dean’s ‘Creek House’ Restaurant for lunch, it was really good. We then drove around Savannah for awhile and got a feel of the city before going back to the hotel and taking a nap. That evening we had dinner at another BBQ place, it made for a very laid back evening.
Me with Paula Dean (statue)
October 15th, Monday was a very enjoyable day. We caught an ‘Old Town Trolley Tour’ bus at 9:30 AM from our hotel. It was great; we saw and heard about the 250 years of Savannah history, including their role in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It was very informative and entertaining. I would definitely recommend this tour. Sonya and I got off the bus at stop 13 and walked a block to Paula Dean’s ‘Lady and Sons’ Restaurant. The atmosphere and food was outstanding
After getting back on the tour bus we got off again at stop 9 and walked around awhile. Then we split up and Sonya went shopping while I went to the ‘Prohibition Museum’, which was significant to me, with my 38 years of recovery from alcoholism. It was lots of fun and I got some cute pictures. We both got back to the hotel after 6:00 and we decided to just kick back in our room, watch TV and eat junk food.
Tuesday morning we headed out for the Savannah History Museum and got lost a few times (typical of me) which made it hard to find, but we finally got there. It was a fascinating place, starting with things from the Revolutionary War. We had lunch at a place people kept recommending called ‘Chrystal’s Bar Parlor’. It wasn’t bad for a bar. After lunch we went to the Talfar Epsom Art Center’s Monet to Matisse exhibit. I didn’t think it was very good compared with the exhibits I’ve seen in Paris and Spain.
This was a neat statue but the window behind it made it hard to see
Our flight back to Austin on the 17th was totally different from our flight to Savannah. We got to the airport at 9:30 AM only to find out our reservation for the flight had been canceled due to our being put on stand-by on our flight in. We spoke with a manager and explained that our flight had been paid for and we didn’t cancel it. He was understanding and ended up putting us on the 11:00 flight instead of the 12:15 flight we were supposed to be on.
We got back to Austin at 3:30 instead of 6:30 PM, which was nice. But we had one more problem, of course. Sonya was carrying my walker tray when she went to the restroom and left it in there. When she realized what she had done she was already past security and they wouldn’t let her go back. She finally found a lady that would go back and get it for us but we were so stressed out by then.
The trip was very enjoyable despite our many traumatic events. I enjoyed getting to know Sonya better but it was a relieve to get home.