Made it home safe and sound

Whew!
That was a close one!  Dodged some more nasty weather this trip.  That's one great thing about being mobile you can always pull up stakes and get the heck out of town.  We didn't have to do that though, just got lucky and were on our way home before hurricane Matthew hit the east coast.

We left off our blog before our venture into Savannah.  Now, Savannah is a city rich in history, culture and diversity.  Full of all kinds of things for just about anyone.  We are glad we made the trip. We only have two issues with it.  One, its very difficult to get around in, thank heavens for the trolleys, but those aren't cheap and if you were going to spend a week in the city you'd be broke before you even got started.  They really need a public system of some sort to move all the tourists around.  One leads you to Two, its a very expensive city.  Nothing is free, excepting walking.  Which we did a lot of.  The history and architecture are almost overwhelming.  Beginning with the original immigrants who came from England and Ireland.  Savannah was a major port for commerce, especially for cotton.  The cotton exchange is still there.  We could go on and on, but we are sure you don't read this for a history lesson,,,,so here are few pictures of what impressed us the most.

 We did our tour on a trolley, but you could do it by horse drawn carriage

Old town Savannah was originally designed around 24 squares, what we would call parks or green spaces, this is one of them.  22 of the squares are still in existence.

Small Victorian garden tucked in between two grand houses

If there was 1 there were 30 houses you could tour.  Some, supposedly haunted, all beautiful, all at least $10 a person to see.

This square was where the park bench, box of chocolates scene from Forrest Gump was shot.

This is the oldest house in Savannah.  Called the Pirates house, it is a restaurant today

It dates back to the 1700's

 

Waterfront on the river 

Cobble stone street

Kevin Barry's pub on the riverfront had the best reuben sandwich!

 Cudos to the powers that be for using the old historic structures for current use.  This one on the riverfront is from the 1800's

 If you are into micro brew, this was the place to go.

We took lots of pictures, didn't make it to a couple places we wanted but maybe that just means we need to go back someday.  

Before we left Georgia and headed to Clemson, we spent some more time on Tybee Island. Have to show you a few more ocean pictures,,,don't I?

Very large horseshoe crab

Rog, Kennen and Terri were giving me a hard time about taking their picture, too bad!

Not sure if you can make it out, but this was a pretty impressive sandcastle.

We always enjoy our trips with our cousins Kennen and Terri!  There were lots of late night card games and walking the beaches.  So glad we were able to meet them at Skidaway Island, Georgia!

Next we headed to Clemson, SC.  Which is in the far northwest corner of the state.  Roger's cousin Mike Mac Lain and his wife Michelle have two sons who attend Clemson.  Both played football for the Tigers.  We were lucky enough to go to the Louisville game and as a bonus we are able to attend Mike's promotion to Lt Colonel USAF.  He wanted it to be held on campus and have his two sons pin on his promoted rank.

We had a celebration afterward.  A bunch of Mac Lains and a couple Rains

Next day was gameday.  Holy cow!  You talk about crazy!

We have never experienced such noise!  They have a dB meter on the jumbotron, it went up to 112!  We had kleenex stuffed in our ears.  Clemson won, but it was a close one.

We were camped at a county park outside Seneca, SC.  Great park, peaceful and beautiful.

This was our view out our window.

 Sunrise

we would definitely stay here again.

Our last day in SC we decided to check out a waterfall close by.  Brochure said a 1.3 mile hike to it, so we figured it would be a nice walk.  Which it was, just a little more strenuous than we thought it would be.

 We had to climb through these fallen trees...

 Over the creek,,,,

We met this group of 19 hikers, all in their 70's or 80's...there was no way we would turn back, if they could do it so could we!

 Boy, was it ever worth it!

On the way back, you know we just had to find something interesting....

 This is a copperhead

So glad Rog had a stick already,,this guy was pretty aggressive, would not have wanted to try to cross his path.

Final night in South Carolina, on the way home we stopped in Kentucky.  Heard about Hurricane Matthew winding up to hit Florida.  It was a great trip.  Time to come home though, that's always good too!

Hope all of you are well, take care!

Rog and Nita