There are pics this week.

A walkway under the mighty oaks in Forsyth Park

We’ve been goofing off, slowly moving north, and enjoying perfect weather. Jacksonville is a nice city. We had a good time there and saw some cool stuff — from river walks to plantations to forts. But Savannah has earned a special place in my heart. Their downtown area historic district was dying. They focused on preserving it and made it an area where people want to hang out. Of course, it helps that we are visiting the area in the spring, when high temperatures stay in the low 80s.

St. John Cathedral

Our hotel was right in the historic district. We were able to get around without using our car, which made parking a lot cheaper. Besides the parks and 22 squares, Savannah has a rich selection of historic buildings, houses, churches, and such. We spent the better part of a day riding a tour bus around town, getting off when we wanted to see something. They advertise that a buses come every 20 minutes, but I’m sure we never waited anywhere near even 10. We had our first evening’s dinner in the Cotton Exchange on the river walk. We found it had good food, a quiet atmosphere, and very reasonable prices. Without realizing it, we selected the same place for dinner the second night. Our first dinner was good enough that we decided to go ahead and eat there again a second time.

Railroad Museum

Besides just hanging around in Savannah, we also visited the the railroad museum. They had docents give tours, which made it more interesting than just looking at the trains. This was especially important since their signage was nonexistent. They don’t run steam engines during the week. Even when they run their working steam engine, they can’t go very far because they no longer connect to working railroad track. But they obviously have lots of people restoring equipment, and very knowledgeable docents. We even got to ride a hand-car. It’s nice being able to relax while we tour. The thing that surprised me the most was the passenger car used by the RR’s president. Discounting the mahogany and china, it wasn’t any better than the larger rooms on the car train. And, of course, there was no WiFi or cell phones. And the air conditioning was whatever they cooling they could get out of 800 pounds of ice.

Here are a few more pics of our trip.

Savannah bridge

This was the first diesel-electric engine the RR got. GE loaned it to them for evaluation. The RR was so impressed at its advantages that the called GE back in 2 weeks, bought that engine, and ordered more. It was the beginning of the end of the steam era.