Marching through Georgia - Sherman did it, why not us?

With reluctance we left the area on Tuesday, November 17th and arrived at Kathleen and Lee Haller‘s home on St. Simon’s Island. Kathleen insisted there was adequate space near her home to park our rig, but we don’t think she completely comprehended the 45’ length, 8’width and limited maneuverability of our truck and trailer. Parking our rig in a somewhat cleared, 12’ wide space bordered with cedars on one side, the street on the other and capped by a street sign at the rear and a tree in front, might have been perfect for a 16’ Airstream but was a bit tricky for us. Chris was having kittens while watching large branches of a cedar tree scrape the front and side of the RV as Jay backed and pulled forward multiple times. He did get Sonny off the road with no apparent damage.

Kathleen and Lee in front of their home.

Kathleen is a realtor and chauffeured us all around St. Simon’s and Jekyll Islands pointing out the majestic, waterfront homes owned by the rich and famous and the newly renovated Sea Island resorts. Resort membership is a little out of our price range as the annual fees exceeded $7,000. That’s okay, we’re not golfers anyway. Our visit to the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on Jekyll island was especially enjoyable as strolling through the impeccably maintained, Victorian style hotel took us back to its heyday in the late 1800s. Originally named the Jekyll Island Club, it was founded in 1878 as a hunt club and its members/investors included wealthy northerners such as J. P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer and Wm. K. Vanderbilt. It was the most exclusive club in the U.S. at the time but lost half its membership at the onset of The Depression and was evacuated and closed by the Government during WW II. After the war, the State of Georgia purchased the entire island and converted it to a park which is enjoyed by millions of visitors each year. Unfortunately our stay with Kathleen and Lee was only for one night but we were so entranced with the area that we vowed to return for an extended photography stay at Jekyll Island’s park.

Some of the ornate exterior of the Sea Island resort, The Cloister.

The Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

The turret at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel entrance.

Jacksonville, Florida was our next week-long destination. It was chosen it because of the RV park at the Naval Air Station and we felt there were fewer attractions in the area to distract Chris from installing Windows 7 and all new 64-bit software on her computer. She was not breathlessly looking forward to the week’s anticipated frustration, but the condition of her system mandated it. Since we had to change our residence to Florida, we did take some time out to get our Florida drivers licenses, voter registrations and a Coast Guard logo tag for Sonny. We were pleasantly surprised at how convenient it was to obtain everything. Florida has registration and licensing centers in shopping malls and retail stores. We even found one in a car parts store!

The Windows installation went well and Chris’ computer had the essential programs in place by the time we left on Wednesday, November 25th to head to Melbourne, FL for Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Mona and Merrill Wood. It had been a busy but productive month and we were happy to be making our way closer to Jessica.

Oh Savannah - or is it Suzanna?

Hmmmm, Charleston or Savannah – Charleston or Savannah? Where should we spend most of our time? This was our mental debate as we tried to decide which city would be the most interesting for Chris to photograph … and Savannah won. A decision had to be made because of our campground reservation in the Miami area for December 7^th and the amount of time we wanted to stay at other stops along the way.

Charleston was voted to be a short, 2-night stopover location which kept our drive close to 200 miles and allowed a visit to the famous Boone Hall Plantation. The plantation is one of the most photographed in the South. Famous for its centuries old live oaks lining the ¾ mile long driveway, and stately Georgian style brick mansion, its grounds have several original buildings including seven, brick, slave quarters and the gin house where the cotton, that was grown on the premises, was processed. There is a guided tour of the first floor of the home (the current owners sometimes occupy the upper floors) and each slave quarter building exhibits a different aspect of everyday slave life from cooking and sleeping arrangements, to their religious practices, to making the famous low country sweet grass baskets. Several films have utilized the grounds including The Notebook, Alex Haley’s mini-series, Queen and the ABC TV mini-series North & South. It continues to be a working farm today growing peaches, tomatoes, strawberries, pumpkins and other fruits and vegetables that they sell either at their roadside market or allow people to pick their own.

The mansion on the Boone Hall Plantation.

This illustrates the size of the magnificent Live Oaks that line the ¾ mile drive leading to the mansion.

Some of the brick slave quarters.

November 6^th we arrived in Savannah for an 11-day stay. A tour through the Visitors Center gave us the necessary guides and maps we needed to navigate the city. The next week and a half was spent photographing the beautiful wrought iron fences and gates, and historic homes, visiting with our friend, and historic district resident, Rubi McGrory and touring the Mighty 8^th Air Force Museum. Although we loved the sunny, warm days of our stay they played havoc with photographing outdoor architectural features so, Chris planned photo days for cloudy days or at least photographed in the shade when the sun was out. Since Chris spent so much time “working” her subjects, we were invited into three of the beautiful homes by the owners and learned about their history and how they are lived in today. One is owned and lived in by an older couple, one has a portion divided into apartments and one couple rents the lower living area out for weddings and corporate events, and lives upstairs. All were beautifully maintained and individual in their architectural design.

We were invited into this home. It was beautifully decorated inside and had two porches that overlooked one of the many parks in the city.

The unique curved façade and unusual yellow brick of this home set it apart from any in the city. We got a tour of the lower level that they rent for special events and weddings.

An ornamental detail of another home we toured. The red brick mansion boasted a turret, had slate roofs and original floors, decorative plaster bas relief and paneling inside.

Chris is in the process of creating a gallery of other photos from our Savannah stay and will continue to add more photos as they are edited. Click here to view the gallery.

Jay being the World War II buff that he is, we spent a rainy day at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. It was a very educational experience for Chris as she’d always known about the airfields built and manned by American forces stationed in Britain before the Normandy invasion, but didn’t know the grand scale of the effort. The museum is in Savannah because the 8^th Air Force was headquartered there before it was sent overseas and was one of the armed forces segments that experienced heavy casualties – estimated to be about 26,000 – between 1942 and 1945. The tour begins with a walk down a long hall housing a pictorial history of Germany’s actions which led up to WWII. Other rooms contain fully and partially restored aircraft, a recruiting video by one of its pilots, actor Jimmy Stewart, cases filled with uniforms and other artifacts from the time, and lots of displays explaining all about what they did. Because the war took so many men away from flying jobs here at home, a section of the museum paid tribute to the many women WASPs that flew the newly manufactured Air force planes. Some were test pilots and others transported the planes from the factories to air fields in preparation for transport overseas. The museum is a must-see for all that visit the area.

A B-17 bomber the museum is restoring.

Jay looking into the ball turret of the B-17.

All good things must come to an end and Jay had to dddrrraaaaaaaggggggg Chris- kicking and screaming – away from Savannah since the weather was cooling and our deadline to get to Miami was fast approaching.