The journey from Charleston to Savannah was a quick little drive, first along highway 17 before meeting up with I-95 for the last half of the trip. We don’t remember much about the drive other than lots of pine trees, swamps, and suspension bridges (one in Charleston, the other straddling the South Carolina – Georgia border just outside Savannah).
Our home while in Savannah was the Red Gate Campground. This cool little campground located on the outskirts of town was easily one of the most unique and quaint RV parks throughout our time on the road. It is hard to describe this place in just a few words, however, if I were to try, I would say that it is a wedding venue/active horse ranch with RV sites sprinkled throughout the property. Our particular site was kind of off by itself with a storage shed on one side and an open pasture on the other.
This place had a lively feeling about it. Between the constant setting up/tearing down of wedding arrangements to the consistent coming/going of animals (horses, cats, peacocks, goats, etc.), there was a rarely a dull moment around the campground.
However, we did manage to find a few “dull” moments and when we did, we made our way over to the campground’s awesome pool to cool off and catch a few rays!
Although Red Gate Campground would have been reason enough to make a trip to the area, our primary reason for coming to Savannah was to meet up with family for a few days. My cousin, Coral, attends the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), so naturally, we figured that this would be a great place for everyone to get together while we were passing through the area.
Ever since I can remember, Coral has been an exceptional artist. Hell, she’s been putting the rest of the cousins to shame with her drawings going all the way back to the days when her primary medium was crayons! However, these days she has upgraded from Crayolas and now Coral’s primary focus is video game design/development – pretty stinking cool!
In addition to Coral’s father, Stewart (my uncle), we were also joined by my mom, my aunt Trudy, and Meme, of course! As Meme always says – “if the car is going somewhere, I want to be in it!” Although we wish that we could’ve been a little closer to the gang during their stay in the area, we were only about a 10-15 minute drive from their AirBnB in a lovely older house closer to the downtown area which made for a great rendezvous spot for exploring the more touristy parts of the city.
Given its history as a major hub in the Atlantic slave trade, and one of the oldest port cities along the east coast, Savannah has plenty to offer if you are a history buff. Every building you walk past feels like it has a million stories to tell, and, if you believe the locals, many of these old buildings actually talk in the form of ghosts and spirits – if you know how to listen for them. In fact, Savannah has developed quite the reputation as a “haunted city” which prompted our little group to sign up for a ghost tour one evening (on Sam’s birthday!) to see what the hubbub was all about. Although we didn’t see any ghosts, we did have a great time learning about some of Savannah’s little idiosyncrasies and niche urban legends via a highly entertaining and enthusiastic tour guide who not only knew his stuff but was able to make it funny at the same time!
Overall, Savannah wasn’t one of our favorite cities. Yes, it is historic, and you want to keep some of that old-timey atmosphere, but at the same time, that shouldn’t prevent you from keeping the place in good condition and taking a power washer to the buildings from time to time to remove some of the grime that accumulates in the salty air. It really just felt like a smaller version of New Orleans, where nothing is really newly built or properly renovated, rather, its all just half-assed patches stacked on top of each other year after year after year.