Charleston, Savannah, & St. Augustine

By Tuesday morning we had spent three days driving through the Appalachian mountains, and, was time for a change. We left Asheville, North Carolina after breakfast at our hotel, jumped on the Interstate, and headed for Charleston, South Carolina under clear skies. 

We got to our hotel, the Starlight Motor Inn, by 1:30, and they let us in early. The Starlight has been thoughtfully renovated, trying to bring back the era of classic motor lodges. In the lobby, for instance, the reading material on the coffee table was old Life and Look magazines from the 1950s and 1960s.

The exterior looks like a mid-century motor lodge, but the interiors have been nicely brought up to date; especially the bathrooms. 

Even with the updating, though, the owners put some effort into the decorating, trying to keep an early 1960s feel. Our room had a poster for a Sean Connery James Bond film on the wall, and the refrigerator looked like a late 1950s refugee. It was all very cute and comfortable. (It was kind of in a sketchy area of town, though.)

Once we got unpacked and settled in our room, Kathy and I set out to explore the historic old-town. We parked at the downtown city parking garage, and caught one of the three, free, downtown shuttle busses that make a loop through the old town. Here’s a picture of the famous pineapple fountain in the Joe Riley Waterfront Park. 

At the waterfront we walked to the end of the pier where we could see Fort Sumpter (where the Civil War started) in the middle of the harbor, and the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier on the other side.

By 2:30 PM we were really hungry. We fired up Google Maps and found The Griffon, a 4.7 rated pub, almost right on the harbor.

The food was good and inexpensive (a surprise, given its location). Kathy had a salad and I had fish and chips. I don’t know if you can see it, but every surface of the room was covered with signed one dollar bills, including the ceiling. I’d never seen this before, but apparently it’s quite common.

After lunch, we walked around the French Quarter in the historic district. Here is a picture of the US Customs House. 

We spent an hour walking through the Charleston City Market, where Kathy found some perfume that she had been looking for. I pondered replacing my 30-year-old straw hat, but the ones offered cost north of $200. I’ll wait until we get to south Florida.

We finished our sightseeing after 5:00 PM, picked up the free shuttle back to our car, and were back at our hotel by 6:00 PM. 

Wednesday in Savannah

The Starlight Motor Inn didn’t offer breakfast, so we got an early start on our drive to Savannah, Georgia, skipping the freeways and sticking to the local roads. Just after dawn, the marshes and inlets of South Carolina were breathtakingly beautiful. This is the prettiest picture I could find, and the actual scenery was better.

At around 9:00 AM we reached Beaufort, South Carolina, which is about halfway between Charleston and Savannah. We hadn’t yet eaten breakfast, so we used Google, which directed us to Blackstone’s Cafe.

The food was good. I had an omelet and Kathy had a breakfast scramble. Afterwards, we walked down to the water before heading out again for Savannah.

Because it was only around 11:00 AM, we couldn’t go to our hotel yet. So, we decided to take a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. I bought the tickets the night before, so all we had to do was hop on. Here’s the map with all of the different stops. 

The first four or five stops were great. We had seats in the very front of the trolley. Then, at one stop, we had to change trolleys and we got seats in the back, where I wouldn’t fit with my long legs. Fortunately, after two more stops, a whole load of people got off, and we were able to move back to the front.

As enticing as hop-on, hop-off sounds, after one 90-minute trip around the city, neither of us was anxious to hop on again. The trolley was open to the air, and, it was really hot and humid, and, much of the time we found ourselves in sunlight. Instead, we decided to go check into our hotel (which was south of downtown). 

As we started driving out of the city, though, I got an urge to walk through Forsyth Park, one last time. We found a free place to park on the street, and we walked down Whitaker Street to look at the house where I lived for almost all of 1971. At that time, this house was a Christian Commune that was part of the Shiloh Youth Revival Centers, which came out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

The house has been very nicely restored. When we (about 20 of us) lived there it was pretty run down. Three houses away, a block of these old houses has been knocked down, and they are digging a foundation for some type of civic building. So, it was nice to see that this one survived.

Before we left, we walked around Forsyth Park. You may have seen the park in different movies, from Burt Reynolds’ chase scene in The Longest Yard, to Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. We had to get a picture in front of the famous fountain.

And, Kathy wanted to get a picture with the iconic Spanish moss that decorates the oak trees in the park. On the trolley tour they warned us not to try and take some home because of the insects that live inside it.

After the park we drove to our hotel, which was located right next to Hunter Army Airfield at the south end of town. After checking in, our first task was to get some dinner, since we hadn’t eaten since our breakfast in Beaufort. We went to Outback Steak House, and I ate way too much. When we got back to the hotel, I fell into a food coma.

Thursday in St. Augustine

On Thursday morning, we both woke early, and got to breakfast just as they started serving at 6:00 AM. We were on the road by 7:00 AM with Google Maps set to “Avoid Highways”. It is really relaxing driving on the smaller two-lane roads, seeing a slice of rural America.

On Highway 17, we passed a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, but it was closed. That’s on my bucket list to visit one, but apparently the company is not doing that great. A little further down the road, in Townsend, Georgia, we found “The Smallest Church in America”, Christ’s Chapel.

It was built in 1949 by Mrs. Agnes Hopper, and deeded it to Jesus Christ. Inside it is very cute. I don’t know who maintains it now. According to Google, there is no official “smallest church”.

Just before we left Georgia and crossed into Florida, we had one more iconic experience. We visited our first Buc-ees, the Texas-sized and Texas-founded travel center. Since we aren’t going to Texas, I didn’t know if we’d run across one. On further research, I found that they are now in 10 different states. Inside, the size is simply overwhelming. We bought some snacks, got back in our car, and headed to Florida.

Kathy’s cousin, Linda Sundberg, and her daughter Connie, live in Jacksonville, Florida, so we stopped there to have lunch at “Grumpy’s”, a local breakfast and lunch chain.

After lunch, we continued on to St. Augustine. Our hotel, the Budget Inn, was across the Bridge of Lions, on Anastasia Island. Like the Starlight Motor Inn, the Budget Inn harks back to the motels of the 50s and 60s, and is, perhaps, a little more authentic. We both liked it.

After checking in, we decided to walk around the old town. We parked in the city parking lot, which was $5.00 after 5:00 PM, instead of $20.00 during the day. The famous fort was closed, but we could see it from outside, and take a picture.

We had a tourist map, so we walked up and down the old city streets, admiring the buildings. The sun was down, but it was still very hot and muggy. On the river front there was an air-conditioned pastry shop serving gelato (for $7 a scoop). We would have paid twice that just for the air-conditioning. Afterwards, Kathy had a short conversation with the statue of Frederick Douglass.

We got to bed a little late. Tomorrow we’re heading inland to Ocala, Florida.