Savannah, GA - 04/16/14

Wednesday – April 16, 2014
Savannah, Georgia

We awoke to a cold morning with the temperature in the mid-forties here at the Fort McAllister Historic State Park, in Richmond Hills, Georgia. A cold front from the north dipped all the way down into southern Georgia last night. The weather forecast for today is for a clear, sunny sky with the temperature in the low-sixties and quite windy. We decided this would be the perfect day to familiarize ourselves with the Savannah area.

We arrived in Savannah around 12:30 p.m. We took the Coastal Highway (US-17) there, thinking this might be a more scenic route to take, rather than taking I-95 and I-16 there. It was not a more scenic route, so we decided we would use the Interstate system on our future visits.

We had done some preliminary research on Savannah on the Internet. Armed with this information we toured the city for about an hour, during which we concluded our Ford E-150 Cargo Van was too large a vehicle to comfortably navigate through the Historic District, as well as finding a parking garage or parking lot that would accommodate our vehicle’s size.

We located the Savannah Visitor Information Center at 301 Martin Luther King Boulevard, near Fahm Street. The Visitor Center has a large parking lot, with a section designated for RV parking. This will be the perfect place for us to park. The only downside is all vehicles must vacate the parking lot by 6:30 p.m. The fee is $5.00 for all-day parking, Monday through Saturday. Parking is free on Sunday.

The "dot fare-free Transportation" system includes the Express Shuttle, the River Street Streetcar and the Savannah Belles Ferry.

• The Express Shuttle provides free bus rides throughout the Savannah Historic District.

• The River Street streetcar runs back and forth along Savannah’s Historic waterfront (unfortunately, this system has been out of service for about a year and is undergoing major repairs).

• The Savannah Belles Ferry traverses the Savannah River connecting Historic Savannah with Hutchinson Island, home to the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center, golf and resort facilities.

There are also narrated tours through the Historic District, available for a fee. We purchased a narrated tour with the Old Town Trolley and negotiated a $5.00 discount per ticket and two free parking passes. We can take the tour whenever we want, with no advance reservations. We now have sufficient information to explore the Savannah Historic District on Thursday.

We returned to our campsite at Fort McAllister, via the Interstate route, at 5:30 p.m. This proved to be a much better route to take to and from Savannah.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.