(Hey, that rhymes!)
ShaVanda spent three nights in Savannah, Georgia. Deciding to slow down a bit, we ended up staying in Savannah as long as it took us to drive down South Carolina's coast (see our journal "South Carolina's Coast"). In South Carolina, we had picked up and left each morning continuing to travel further south. When we got into Savannah we wanted to take a break, so we did.
Savannah is right across the border from South Carolina, and less than an hour away from Hilton Head, South Carolina, the place we had stayed the night before. We came to learn from a waterfront market vendor and also from a Starbucks store management team that Savannah is haunted. "It is the New Orleans of the East Coast," said the waterfront market vendor.
The market vendor went on to show us a photo he had taken on his phone a few days earlier. The photo was of this older abandoned building with big half circle windows up top. All of its windows were clear except one. This one window was foggy. It looked as though it could have been foggy from some condensation. However when you look more closely you could see the window had the distinct figure of a ghostly-white face looking out through it.
Similar to this story, we got to talking with a manager and assistant manger at one of Savannah's Starbucks. They shared with us that the city is indeed considered haunted, and that most of Savannah is built on top of old forgotten cemeteries. The assistant manager continued to share that her mom used to be a Savannah tour bus guide, and the tour bus company took two sites off its list because they were too haunted. Apparently four people at four different times had heart attacks at two different locations - two people at one of the locations and two at another. The assistant manager shared with us that when things like this happen once, they are considered to just be a coincidence. But, if they happen a second time at the same location, the spot is then deemed too dangerous, and no longer a suitable destination for tours.
That is all so wild. I'm pretty sceptical. I guess it could be real, it just seems so crazy! This is either a great hoax on tourists or people really believe it to be real. Everyone we talked to admitted how crazy it seems, especially to outsiders, but that it was all too real.
We continued to site see, walking and driving around Savannah throughout the days we were there. We didn't make it to any cemeteries but heard they were beautiful and part of what made Savannah so enchanting. For us, we were enchanted by the natural beauty of the trees, with hanging beard-air plants and ferns on them, and with the classic and beautiful architecture, buildings, and homes.
Many of the buildings used black as their trim and accent color. This against the older designs looked so cool and modern. This reminded us of ShaVanda, where we used black as our trim and accent color. We were on to something!
Our first night we spent at a Walmart on White Marsh Island, just south of Savannah. This was Tuesday, 6 November, election night. (Throughout the night we occasionally looked up election results across the country.) Our second and third nights we stayed on another island named, Skidaway Island. Here we stayed at the state park named after the island, Skidaway Island State Park. This part of the island was technically still within the city of Savannah. Skidaway Island State Park was absolutely amazing! This was definitely a great choice! And, it was one with which I was really hesitant at first.
This was the first time on our travels we had stayed at a state park. The only other time we had stayed at a state park was in Washington state. Within the first month of us purchasing ShaVanda (October 2017), we took her to a state park to sleep in her for the first time, while we were still living in an apartment in Kent, Washington.
We had arrived at Skidaway State Park late Wednesday afternoon and were able to talk to the park manager, Sam Cox. **Orsuré and I are giving Park Manager Sam Cox a shoutout because he was incredibly helpful and flat out awesome.** Park manager Sam Cox directed us to what he said was the most beautiful part of the camping grounds. He got us a spot with very little neighbors and light and still relatively close to a bathroom / laundry site.
Park manager Sam Cox shared with us that Skidaway State Park is the most expensive state park in Georgia. However even though it is the most expensive state park it was still always full every weekend of the year and mostly full during the week as well. I asked why it was the most expensive state park and nearly full all year. He shared with us that this was because of its location. Of all the camping sites around the city of Savannah, this was the least expensive. Every other location was a (private) for-profit RV campsite that charged even more for the night, for even less amenities and quality of the stay. Skidaway was the closest (public) state park to Savannah, and this was the cheapest option for anyone wanting to stay at a campground close to Savannah and plug their camper in to use electricity, water and sewer utilities. The answer was simple, because of its location and amenities the demand is high, driving up the price.
Our first night at Skidaway State Park was so nice. We were able to fully unwind. We were in the forest. It was beautiful. And, we had no lights from neighbors pouring into our home. It was the darkest night we have had on our journey thus far. No need for reflectix up in our windows to keep out light this night. Even though we didn't need to keep light from getting into ShaVanda, we still put up reflectix to keep out wandering eyes of people walking by. We wanted to keep our light in.
The next day we took full advantage of the bathroom / laundry site. We washed and dried our clothes, bedding, bench seat fabric, Ben's dog beds and our floor mat. We shaved and showered. We were feeling good. We had showered while our clothes were in the washing machines.
While showering, one of the volunteer campground hosts had jumped in front of us to use the "good" drier. It was so good that when we started up the "bad" drier, the volunteer host came and took out the towels she was drying and had us put our clothes in the good one. She even left an extra $1.25 for us to use if our load needed extra time. Wow! That was so kind!
We decided we wanted to stay an extra night. And so, as our first load was in the drier, we walked up to the park office near the entrance to the state park. Park Manager Sam Cox was there and again helped us. Unfortunately our current spot had been reserved by someone else for this next night, so we had to move. Fortunately we didn't have to move far. We moved one spot away. It was still a really great spot. The only thing was that our neighbors across the road had their external RV lights on all night, and they were bright.
They weren't alone in doing this. Apparently it seems like the thing to do. Walking around the campsite that night we noticed people decorated their sites with all kinds of decorations and lights. Some were on their massive rigs, others were spread out across the ground. To me it felt like a mixture of making the space feel like an extension of their home and an attempt to 'keep up with the Joneses.' It was quite the site. And then there was us - our beautiful, and by comparison, really modest, campervan. Oh how we love you, ShaVanda!
Our time at Skidaway Island State Park was just what we needed. It was a break from having to be on the go all the time. We slept in. We relaxed. We hiked and explored. We were in nature. It was magical.
Savannah, thank you for being a great home these last few nights. Until next time, Savannah.
