6/8/21 - Savannah....Not such as bad place to be 'stuck'

Erik awoke today and walked out of the hotel room to let Riva do her morning business to discover a lawn care company truck had burst into flames and burnt to the ground next door in the Burger King parking lot.  Bummer of a way to start your morning!  

Renee stayed back at the hotel to work on finishing up her homework assignment and to start preparing for her midterm later this week.   Meanwhile Erik set out into town to run some errands.   Immediately upon getting into our 'loaner truck' he noticed that the brake pedal went to the floor and he had to pump it multiple times to get any brakes :-(    Upon investigation he discovered that there was a hole caused by corrosion in one of the four brake lines almost immediately after exiting the brake systems master cylinder right at a bend in the line.   After adding some fluid, that was spraying out badly, he was able to get the truck a few miles down the road to a local tire/repair shop who efficiently and economically repaired the leaking line for us.  He continued with errands at the bank, post office, notary and marina and returned to the hotel about 45 minutes after our technical check out time of 11am.   The hotel was kind enough to extend our check out time an hour at no cost.    

We set out into Savannah where we had reserved a different hotel room just a few miles from the city center.   We figured since it was apparent now that we would be here for several more days we might as well be at a hotel closer to activities we wanted to do and also that had an operational swimming pool.  Since it was too early to check into the hotel we had reserved we decided to stop by for a visit to the 'Wormsloe' historical site.  It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, and, it was dog friendly.  At the entrance to the site you are greeted with a beautiful gateway arch followed by a 1.2 mile long road flanked by gorgeous moss covered live oaks creating a tunnel back to the historical site.  Noble Jones was a carpenter and early English settler who came to Georgia along with James Oglethorpe and built the 'tabby' which is the oldest standing structure in Savannah.   To say it is 'standing' is a bit of an overstatement given that it is just ruins at this point.   What remains now is just the basic structure of the four fortified walls of the estate.   There was a nice museum to learn of the history and a nice walk through the properties trails.   

Entrance gate to Wormsloe historical site 

Nice drive down the live oak lined Ave 

Pictures of the live oak tunnel along the avenue really don't do it justice

Cool old cypress trees along the edge of the marshes almost looked dead at their trunk but were still alive

We checked into the hotel at 3pm and after settling in Riva napped healthily in the A/C of the room while we chose the swimming pool as our cooling off method.   The hotel is much nicer than the one we had stayed in last night in Darien.   The interior rooms (which is what we had) surrounded a very nice courtyard with nice soft grass, palm trees and a very well kept pool.   

Riva enjoyed being able to run free and play fetch in the courtyard of the hotel

At about 6:30pm we headed back to downtown Savannah where Tom (guy who had let us borrow his truck) had recommended to try the Tybee Crab Chowder at 'The Cotton Exchange'.   Tom's recommendation did not disappoint!    The crab chowder was delicious as was the spinach dip appetizer and Caesar Salad that Renee chose.   We were able to grab an outside table right on the river front so that we could have Riva with us and also enjoy the people watching and activities along the river.  It was a comfortable evening with the breeze lightly blowing after sunset for us to stroll along the river to walk off some of the calories we had taken in.  This was good because, well, you know....ice cream came into play!  We were still pretty full from dinner but how could we resist sharing a single scoop of coffee crunch gelato from the candy company?   

yummy

Nice relaxing views for dining

Riva needed a little nap during dinner

Boat Envy

We thought this was a very cool fountain

Riverfront was pretty after dark 

Renee and Riva resting their feet before heading back down the riverfront toward the car

Back at the hotel we rounded out the night relaxing, watching television and catching up on the blog from the last couple of days before our eyelids became too heavy to hold them open any longer.