Well spring is in the air, and that means it’s time to hit the road for a couple of days. Little CurbCrusher is a Girl Scout, and Lady CurbCrusher is the Girl Scout leader, so that means that at some time we have to make a pilgrimage to Savannah, Georgia, the birthplace of Girl Scouts in the United States. This started out as a troop trip that would have involved the seven girls of Troop 74 and two of their leaders. As plans were made and changed over the past two years, it pretty much turned into a trip that every family ended up coming along on, and the girls just got together a few times for the Girl Scout activities in Savannah. As such, the CurbCrusher clan loaded up the motorhome and headed to Skidaway Island State Park just outside of Savannah to camp.
Skidaway is not only the closest state park with camping to Savannah, it is also a great place to camp. All of the over 80 campsites are pull-thrus. That makes parking easy, and most are big enough that you can maneuver around in your site and place your rig in just the right spot. We ended up with the front window about a foot and a half from a pine tree, but positioned perfectly to use the tent pad as our patio. All the sites have 30 Amp server and water. There are two of the loops that have 50 Amp hook ups also. The only real negative about the campground is that the roads through the loops are single lanes, but they are not one-way. This means that it is possible for two people to come face to face and not be able to pass. Someone will do some backing up unless there are empty campsites to pull off into. There is a single dump station on the larger two lane road that runs between some of the loops. The bath houses are old, but are kept clean, and we noticed during our stay that they seemed to keep the heat on too, even though it was quite comfortable outside.
There is a small museum in the park, along with three hiking trails: Avian Loop, Big Ferry Trail and a third that I can not recall right now. The trails take you out along the marshy/river area that borders the park on the north side. The Big Ferry Trail leads to a location where some liquor stills were located, and a civil war era earthworks, and an observation tower. The other trails simply take you through some marsh and pine woodlands.
It had a been a two years since we’d been to Savannah, and about four since we’d camped at Skidaway. Previously the drive into town from Skidaway had been about a 40 minute trip. Now there is the Truman Expressway that currently ends at GA-204 Spur, which is the road that runs right in front of Skidaway. The other end of the Truman Expressway is an exit to Presidents Street, which pretty much puts you right smack in the middle of downtown Savannah in 20 minutes.
Our trip was driven by the Girl Scouts and Lady CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher spent most of one day doing troop oriented things at the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Lowe, the founder of Girl Scouts in the USA. Savannah is a great place to walk around, and there is a lot of history in the city. I’ll write some other post about the stuff we did like the visit to Fort McAllister, eating at the Lady and Sons, and the Pirate House.
One of the places we visited was the Wormsloe Historic Site right near Skidaway. Wormsloe has a one and half mile drive way lined with live oaks. It is pretty impressive, and according to the folks there was the setting for the running scene in Forrest Gump. There is also the remains of an old plantation house made of tabby that goes back to the early days of the Georgia colony. A small museum shows off artifacts and documents related to the life of the family that lived on all the land associated with Wormsloe until the early part of the last century. Some descendants still live on land adjacent to the historic site.
It was a great way to spend four nights. The Savannah area has a lot of things to do, most of them right in downtown Savannah. The great thing is that you can drive to downtown, park, and then walk everywhere. The city is very walkable, with a number of squares that offer great shade, and benches to rest on. If you like shopping, River Street running right along the river has a little bit of everything. My favorite shops being the ones that sell candies and nuts that offer free samples.