3rd Day in Savannah, Georgia

1902 Crestmobile

1902 CrestMobile

1902 Crestmobile

We started our morning at the Official Visit Savannah Information Center and Savannah History Museum. Don seemed to like the steam engine on display there and the early car (or maybe horseless carriage?). The sign said there are only sixteen like it in the world.

Reproduction of the Forrest Gump Bench

Forrest Gump Bench

I liked the reproduction of the bench used in the "Forrest Gump" movie in Savannah. I also enjoyed the special exhibit about Juliet Gordon Lowe, the founder of the Girl Scouts, and the fancy carriage her family owned that she had refurbished for the Girl Scouts' use. She was a strong-headed woman, very giving, who wanted the Scouts available for all despite the laws and strictures of the time. She made sure Scouting was available to girls of all social classes, for example, and opened up troops for girls of color because the laws in Georgia required separation of the races. She had a hearing problem, so she was forward-thinking about people with disabilities, too. She wanted her girls to have fun and to grow up into independent and self-sufficient women. She also loved nature, animals, and the outdoors.

The Gordon Family Carriage

The Gordon Family Carriage

After the museum we returned to the nearby Georgia State Railroad Museum to obtain our special tickets for a ride behind the Steam Locomotive. We got to see and feel the turntable in action. The ride was short but a highlight of our trip. The museum needs $10 million to extend the track to make longer rides available. Right now it has a matching donor program up to $15,000. Don and I both contributed and hope others will, too. This is a great program and highly educational plus fun.

The Silver Meteor is an example of advertising the line

Don and I in front of Steam Engine #30

Bill the Engineer from the passenger car

I have videos of the steam engine and turntable in action, and will include these if I can. Unfortunately, my Apple phone and Blogger and Windows Computer don't cooperate very well. I've actually had to upload them to Facebook, download them to my computer, and then upload them from there. They look and sound great on my phone, though. Just hard to share.

The other video, showing the actual use of the turntable, is available through a Facebook link here. Or you can watch it below.

The evening's entertainment was Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos. Yes, a bar. There were two musicians (sometimes relieved) and a drummer onstage. Patrons wrote requests on bar napkins and "stamped" it with money. The musicians played pretty much any and all requests, although priority went to those stamped generously. They would also write a "phrase of the day" on the mirrors behind the stage for a donation. It sounds awful, but it was really fun. The musicians were great entertainers and could play almost anything. They encouraged the audience to sing along. They also encouraged the pretty girls in the audience to get onstage and dance, but they didn't get any takers.

Too bad they didn't ask me and Don to show off our Swing moves. Oh, well.

Spring Break in Savannah, Georgia

Don and I celebrated a wedding anniversary this month. We started it in the best way possible, with two days of dance-lessons and West Coast Swing dancing with Robin Smith, a special-guest dance instructor at DanceSport VA on April 7th and 8th. Not only were the lessons useful, but we really enjoyed the music he picked for the social dances. The dance on Saturday night was a particularly fun party.

We spent most of Sunday on Amtrak, specifically on the Palmetto, from Rocky Mount to Savannah, Georgia. The station in Rocky Mount was historic and beautifully renovated. Parking was plentiful and easy, the station relaxing and basically a "blast from the past." We arrived in Savannah rather late in the evening, so we took a taxi to a Quality Inn in downtown Savannah. We did little more the first day besides grab a quick bit to eat at a local bar and check out the local dance scene and other attractions online.

Don is a train buff, so we spent most of Monday, April 10th, our first day in Savannah, at the Georgia State Railroad Museum. We walked there from our hotel and stopped at many historic sights and markers along the way, particularly the site and a memorial to the Battle of Savannah during the U.S. Revolutionary War. Don got very excited when we approached the museum, and he realized  we were standing outside of a roundhouse. A roundhouse is a yard or repair and maintenance center for old-fashioned steam-engine trains.

At the railroad museum, we watched a good documentary introduction to the historic site. We walked around the grounds, inspecting several types of steam and diesel-electric engines plus other types of passenger and other cars plus the machine-shops and other buildings that supported them. The museum is raising money to continue restoration and expansion of the site. They need millions of dollars, and Don and I hope they get it, because they're doing a fantastic job of preserving and explaining this vital part of the region's history. We toured two executive railcars, the roundhouse, the steam power demonstration and locomotion lab, and checked out the model train room. We learned a lot, got a ride on a hand-car, and plan to go back on Wednesday for an actual ride in a passenger car pulled by their "Number 30" Steam Engine, and 0-4-0T Switcher built in 1913 by the American Locomotive Works and fully restored. I'll post pictures below.

The turntable to turn the steam engines in the Roundhouse

The Georgia State Railroad Museum

The smokestack was once the tallest feature in Savannah

The smokestack w/ showers and latrines

Don w/ the hand car, which we later got to ride

This map shows the Central of Georgia rail lines c. 1950

More detail for the picture above

We receive a demonstration on the steam-engine tour

The number 8 engine, "The Mule"

The No. 30 Steam Engine used to give rides