Day 2: Charleston, SC & Savannah, GA

Day 2 Miles: 137

Total Miles: 622

Day 2 Expenses: $285.80

Activities- $190.80

Food- $40

Lodging- $45

Parking- $10

* Woke up around 8, had some scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast, outside at our site's picnic table. We packed up some sandwiches for lunch, then took a quick walk to the lake at the campground just to enjoy the view, then went to check out.

* 30 minute drive (11 1/2 miles) from the campground to downtown Charleston Parking Garage. Then it was a 15 minute walk to Liberty Square to get our tickets for the boat & carriage tour.

Fort Sumter & Old South Carriage Tour of Charleston, SC- $41/ ea.

9:20-10:30: 1 hour boat tour of Fort Sumter National Monument 

Did you know? The 1st shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861.

* By 11, we arrived back at the tour office to take our horse-drawn carriage ride, a fun 1st for both of us. The tour was an hour, and the narrator was very knowledgeable of the history of downtown Charleston. It was about 2 1/2 miles, maybe 30 blocks.

(not our carriage, but pretty much what it looked like)

(Aiken-Rhett House, built in 1820, one of the best-preserved antebellum mansions in Charleston)

* We ate our picnic lunch in the beautiful Waterfront Park near the famous Pineapple Fountain.

We wanted to stay longer but we also needed to get back on the road, for our almost 2-hour trip (102 miles) to Savannah, Georgia.

We checked in at our campsite, which was again uneventful & then loaded up the bikes for our trip to downtown Savannah. It was about a ten minute (6 mile) drive to the Visitor's Center, where we parked to pick up some brochures, then rode our bikes around town to see the sites.

Overnight: Red Gate Campground, Savannah, GA- $45 (Good Sam)- This is a somewhat unusual campground in that it was originally Georgia's oldest Jersey dairy cattle farm many years ago.  It is now basically owned by two families and has only a few sites, but they're pretty spread out and they have ponds for fishing and a really nice pool, although we didn't have much time to check these out.

Sites on our Savannah bike ride:

(Cathedral of St. John the Baptist)



(Lafayette Square)



(City Market- really old-- like 1700's old-- open-air market with lots of cool shops & restaurants)




(Flannery O'Conner Childhood Home)



(Candler Oak Tree- more than 300 years old, the oldest in Georgia-- sadly, it used to be used for lynchings)


*Then we went back and put the bikes back in the truck & drove to Paula Deen's Savannah Restaurant, The Lady & Sons. For less than $40 we both got the full buffet.

We had fried chicken, creamed potatoes, collard greens, black eyed peas, macaroni & cheese, and of course sweet tea, and some pecan pie for dessert!




* But the day was still not over! We had purchased this: 

Savannah Day & Night Tour Package- $54.40/ ea.
So at 9:00 we headed to the Old Town Trolley office & met our tour group for the Ghosts & Gravestones Tour. The tour guides were dressed as ghosts, which made for great ambience. They told us about an ancient cemetery we drove past, and an old battlefield from the Civil War.

1st stop: Andrew Low House- We got to go inside & see the beautiful ironwork balconies and hear the legends of how spirits dressed in old-fashioned clothes (including, supposedly, Robert E. Lee) walk around & furniture moves on its own. Andrew Low was one of the wealthiest men in Savannah around the 1820's and his wife was the Juliette Low of Girl Scout fame.



2nd stop: Perkin's & Son's Ship Chandlery

It was super late when we got back again so we headed straight to bed!