Day 44: Friday, May 17: We knew we only had short drive ahead of us today to get to our goal destination city of Savannah, Georgia, and our checkout time was noon, so we took an extra liesurely approach to the morning.Fred still got up early and went for a walk down by the lake with his camera to look for birds. The trees were so dense along the shore that he didn’t have much light for sharp photos. He snapped a few shots of a little brown bird, a cormorant, and a vulture.He calls the cormorants, “Trina’s birds,” because we always seem to see one when we are together.When he was done scouting birds, he came back to the RV, flushed the grey and black water tanks, and vacuumed! He did all this before breakfast and then wondered why he was tired by mid-afternoon.
After our usual oatmeal breakfast, Fred talked to his buddy Michael Valentine on the phone. Michael has been a great friend to Fred since they met each other in the Air Force back in the 1975. They were roommates in the barracks.The best way I can describe Michael is as an energetic force of fun and light. He is absolutely willing to do anything for a friend. He has been keeping great tabs on us on this journey. We are trying to coordinate a visit with him down in Jacksonville, Florida this weekend.Since we had so much extra time this morning, we both took showers in the RV. We have gotten that down to a pretty good science now. Plus its so hot and humid in the south already that the icy trickling water that comes out of the shower head in water-saver-mode actually feels good. When you don’t have to dance around in that tiny shower to avoid a cold stream of water, a shower is so much more enjoyable.Fred showered 1st and then went outside to hook up the tow bar to the Jeep. I enjoyed my showered and then needed to grab the shammy towel we use to dry the shower. It was in the kitchen because I used it to dry the living room after I left all the windows open in Virginia.So I opened the divider door between the bathroom and the living room. To my surprise, all the windows were open and Fred and our camp neighbor were standing just outside the rig chatting about manly things. So some lucky guy from Pennsylvania got an eye full of my nakedness today.Things like that don’t bother Fred. He is a bit of an exhibitionist. I, on the other hand, am a super-prude. I don’t even like wearing shorts because I feel like it shows too much skin. So that will bother me for a long time.On the plus side of my shower today… I figured out what I want to do with my life after CHP. I have been struggling with losing my career. CHP was so perfect for me and allowed me to help people and feel like I was really making a difference everyday. I have been racking my brain to find a replacement that not only satisfies my love of being outside and being physical, but also allows me to really change peoples’ lives. So in the shower, it hit me. I can combine all of those things and get a job in some kind of physical therapy capacity. I figure you can do that anywhere and make your own schedule. That thought made me pretty happy and shed a little light on the future. 💡😀💡We packed up, hit the road, and drove for about 30 minutes. Then we stopped for gas. As it always is when we hit the road, it was lunch time. So Fred gassed up the RV for ($2.40/gallon!) and made himself a PB&J sandwich. I enjoyed exploring the gas station store, and then grabbed a Wendy’s Hamburger from the combo gas station/Wendy’s/Dunkin Donuts.This is how you spell my name with a southern draw… “Traina” 
They had Stuckey’s stuff too!! Oh the sweet, sticky childhood nostalgia! I love it.
It was 87 degrees at 11:30am. So we ran the AC while we ate inside.
We had planned out that we would stop tonight in Savannah, GA and then hit Jacksonville, FL tomorrow. Michael Valentine gave us the heads up that all the folks who spend their winters in Florida, a.k.a. Snow Birds, are starting to flee back north as temperatures heat up. And all those snow birds are filling up the RV parks as they travel up the coast. Its a good thing he told us that because I called just about every RV park near Savannah and everyone was full accept the KOA 30 miles outside the city.I pretty much spent the majority of the drive today researching RV parks and calling them. Thankfully, I am getting much better at not getting extremely aggravated while trying to get all that accomplished while bouncing down the freeway in a super loud, vibrating rattle chamber.I also secured our camp ground for this weekend in Jacksonville. So at least I wont have to repeat this process tomorrow.We pulled into the South Savannah KOA around 2pm. We set up and then Fred rested while I scouted out the park with a long walk. The staff were super friendly, but for a small RV park, I felt like there were way too many staffers and they were way interested in the customers. It gave me a super creepy vibe. One of the gentleman that work there, who had tattoos all over his bald head and body, drove by me five times in his golf cart while I was walking. The park was pretty small so 5 times is a too much.
It was located on a man-made pond but you could not swim in the pond because there “may be alligators.” When you see all the alligator warning signs, that’s how you know your you’re definitely in the south. Alligators are everywhere. I don’t think they were too many in this pond though because they had a lot of fat swans floating around in it.By the time I finished my walk, it was 90 degrees outside, and I was really hot and sweaty. We had turned on the air conditioner in the motorhome but it was still 78° inside. I chugged some cold water, stripped down, and sprawled out on the bed next to Fred to cool down.We regathered ourselves around 4pm and decided to drive out to downtown Savannah for a little sightseeing and dinner. We hit commute traffic and it took us nearly an hour to get there. The Jeep battery got a good charging though 👍.We got lucky and found great street parking on E Bay Street, right near the river front. Parallel parking on 300 year-old cobblestone streets proved to be a little challenging. As we were backing, we hit the giant pothole that bounce the Jeep forwards, bumping the trailer hitch of the vehicle parked in front of us. No damage was done to either vehicle, so we can laugh about it now. What made it extra funny, is that all the storefronts on the street where we parked belonged to lawyers’ offices. And they probably heard the whole thing unfold.
We fed our meter with the maximum 2 hours, and then headed towards the water. We found these historic old stairs and walk down a level get to some super historic looking buildings.The staircase was very steep and the steps were much deeper than a regular staircase is today. It was quite the workout getting down them, especially in the sweaty, thick Georgia air. I was out of breath.
We read a sign along the river that said the stairs and cobblestone streets were made with the ballast stones thrown out of ships that docked in the harbor long ago. Knowing the cobblestones were that old, made the experience so much cooler. I could imagine the old-time pirates running amok up and down those stairs and in the alleyways. It was pretty awesome.We roamed around the waterways, enjoying all the sights. We found a restaurant with a second floor balcony and stopped for dinner. It was an excellent place to eat and do a little people watching, one of our favorite pastimes. The place was called Tubby’s Seafood on the River. We overlooked the river, a little pop-up marketplace, and a stage where a young lady was singing. She was almost on key, so it was pretty entertaining.
The place had such an energetic vibe. We had a great view of all that was going on. The restaurant menu let you order drinks to go. Downtown Savannah lets you drink alcohol on the streets as long as it’s in a plastic cup. As the evening progressed, we watched as very sunburned drunk people passed by below. It reminded me of pirates of the Caribbean so much. After dinner, we explored a little more and found an old timey ice cream / candy making store. We had classic vanilla ice cream in a freshly pressed waffle cones and explored the candy shop. They had a Taffy making machine that was a hundred years old. It stretched the Taffy, rolled it in paper, dropped it onto a conveyor belt that took it all the way around the room, and dropped it into a bucket for sale. It amazed me that a machine like that could have been built a hundred years ago. It amazes me even more that it was still working and in use today.We went outside and found a bench to sit and enjoyed our ice cream, while doing a little more people watching.
We were really savoring the moment and enjoying our date night! Even though we’ve been by each other side non-stop for the last 40-plus days, this night felt different and romantic. We realized that date nights foster a different kind of intimacy than just being together. We realized maybe we’ve still been a little too focused on getting to each destination and not focused enough on enjoying the special moments in between. So take my advice and keep date nights on your schedule. 😉We finished our ice cream and headed back to the Jeep. We got there just as the meter was running out. What a perfect night! We headed back to the RV feeling great that we had such an awesome time in Savannah.
We relaxed and I typed up the blog. I was all ready to post, and then realized half of what I had just written was missing. Talk about super bummed! So I decided just to go to bed and enjoy the happy thoughts from our day in Savannah instead of worrying about computer stuff.
Fred and Trina's Honeymoon 
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