The CAT, Dot and Belles

We visit a city by public transportation.  We both enjoy seeing the neighborhoods and people of the city.  For me, the people and their lives are more important than architectural landmarks.

The 31 approaching.

The paddle wheeler docked .at the City Hall pier.

Savannah is a long city.  The northern boundary is the Savannah River.  This part of the city is the historic district and major tourist area.  It is served by the Dot, a free bus service that wends its way around all of the 24 squares in the city.

The river is served by the Belles, 4 ferries that connect the historic section to the convention center on the other side of the river.  Each of the Belles is named after an historic woman in Savannah history, two white, one Black and one Native American.  The Belles are part of the CAT, Chatham Area Transportation and use the CAT pass.

The CAT is the bus service for the area.  There are 19 bus routes.  The cost/ride for an adult under 65 is $1.50 one way with a free transfer.  The transfer cannot be used on the reverse route of the bus, if you use route 11 out, you cannot use your transfer to reverse ride.  For the senior the cost is 1/2 or 75 cents with proof of age, your Medicare card.  A rider can purchase a pass at the terminal in the historic district or at some libraries.

Our area, Skidaway and Bona Bella  is in the south.  It seems to me that the sidewalk ends at DeRenne and everything south of that is sidewalk-less.  Bus riders here walk well worn paths on the side of the road.  The 36 bus serves the area north of us, about a half mile walk, on an hourly schedule.  The 11 drops at the door, but serves the area Monday through Friday rush hour only.

Riding the 11 home is a hoot.  CAT buses are shorter, 2/3s as long as a Chicago bus.  The 11 drivers. all of whom needs special training, wend the bus through 3 squares, 2 hospital parking lots and a Wall Mart lot and innumerable side streets.  The ride home for us takes us through the whole route and drops us last.

We're all the same

This is Benny's a tavern at an intersection on Tybee Island.  Tybee is heavily commercialized on the Atlantic side, not so much on the inland side.

We were wandering down the commercial strip looking for lunch and we decided on Benny's.  Written on the door is a sign proclaiming that Benny's has the coldest beer in town.  It does.  It is the joint that Han Solo walked into in the first Star Wars.  On the left the main bar with a group of regulars who it seems were camped there for the last month or so.  In the center a pool table.  On the right a raised section for diners.  If smoking was allowed, you'd be greeted with a low hanging fog of cigarette smoke.

Ilze was drawn here because there was a hand lettered sign that said something about chowder.  The kitchen is independently run.  I'm sorry I don't remember the chef's name, he is a black man in his 50's.  We ate well, the beer super cold, eavesdropping on the bar conversation entertaining.

While Ilze was freshening up, I was finishing my lunch and the owner, Benny ?, came over to ask how the experience was.  I praised the food and the cold beer.  He told me the chef was a good 'ol boy and asked me were I'm from.  When he heard Chicago, he backed up a pace and reflected that "Well we're all the same."

How ARE the people?

I was asked this question by friends.  Before answering, I need to point out that we're senior citizens, white, married 43 years and quiet, despite my unusual choice in clothing.  When you travel it is difficult to strike up conversations other than banalities.

Waiting in line in the Food Lion, a local grocery chain, I listened to the conversation between the cashier, African American and a senior, to a customer, white male and middle aged.  The conversation flowed freely and friendly.  When it was my turn to check out, I greeted the cashier, who responded How's Chicago?  It appears that my Chicagoese immediately marks me.  My sense is that about 80% of what I say is understood.

This holds true for us, despite our hearing (which is getting worse), about 3 in 4 statements in Georgian are understood.  This Southern patois is soft and silky with a tendency to go fast and trail off.  South Carolinian seems to be the southern spoken the most in Chicago because we both recognized it immediately.  North Carolinian and Tennessean are twangy.

Hey! How ya'll doin?

The most common greeting in Savannah.  Everyone greets everyone everywhere.  I still haven't figured out a response.  I tried my usual, Doin' Great! but that doesn't bring back a rejoinder.  I don't think that it requires a response, it reminds me of the wave in the West.  Driving in the Western states when you see a car on 2 lane blacktop you wave.  I asked a local in Wyoming why everyone waves and the response was to make sure your safe and not a bad guy.

I'll try, best I can and see what that does.

Hey, as a salutation has multiple syllables.  Waiting in line at a food court an older woman got to the head of the line and responded to "what would you like?" with a haaaaaaaayyyyyy that trailed off as she read the menu.

Getting to Know Savannah

Taking a walk through Forsyth Park.

I bicycled today from the cottage to the Historic District.  It took 35 minutes and was for the most part easy and flat.  I learned to use my phone's GPS which gave me directions as I went.  Really useful in finding bike paths and pretty streets.  Weather has continued to be great although the sun in the afternoon is intense. Time for air conditioning.


Taking a boat out into the mouth of the Savannah River we found dolphins surfacing near us.  Most of them were too quick to capture with my camera, but I got lucky with this one.

This cat along with his siblings seemed to own the dock.

The sky had these beautiful colors.

Savannah, Georgia

We are staying in a cottage on a property called "Cohen's Retreat".  In the 1920's (or 30's) a man
left a bequest to create a place for old men to have a place to live.  Since then, it has turned into a mixed venue of shops, upcoming restaurant. and cottages on five acres of land.  Our cottage is lovely, thoughtfully furnished and very comfortable.  We will be here for a month.

Today we took a bus to the historic area of the city.  Savannah is beautiful.  The trees with hanging moss are everywhere and they are gorgeous.

The pictures below were taken at squares found throughout this area.  There are 23 of them breaking up the community with beautiful parks.

First African Baptist Church (1859)
The oldest black church in North America constructed by slave hands.

Haitian Monument to those who fought during the Revolutionary War.

Nathanael Green was George Washington's second-in-command in the Revolutionary War.

Christ Church (Episcopal, founded 1733, is the "Mother Church of Georgia" where John Wesley started the first Sunday school.  Juliette Gordon, founder of the Girl Scouts married William Low in this church.

The "

Gardenia tree blooming!

Cotton Exchange Building

Upper and Lower Factor's Walk where the warehouses stored cotton for shipment.

Regular residences are found throughout the historic district.

Where else do you smell gardenias in October when taking a walk.  Fall is making it cooler but doesn't seem to change the colors. Flowers and beautiful trees and bushes are everywhere.  This was the 13th colony, created in the mid 1700's.  There are history lessons all around.

Off the Blue Ridge Parkway

We have continued to have glorious weather for being outside.  Mountains, water and fall colors!  Michael and I have learned to use our trekking poles when walking on paths.  It makes a big difference.  I am sad to realize that my knee is never going to handle full out hiking. The poles help make trail ups and downs more manageable.  They offer support and help with balance.  Once upon a time I could scamper up these trails, but now that I lost some cartilage and my ACL, it just isn't gonna happen. Today we needed to turn back just as things were getting interesting. Oh well. On the other hand we saw a hiking group today that consisted of seniors.  They were doing pretty good.  

Peepers

Some observations on being a Yankee in the South,

We drove through Kentucky, our first stop, Tennessee and North Carolina.  At every stop we were greeted with friendship and with more conversation than, city dwellers, we're used to.  One groundskeeper in Kentucky saw me taking photos of the Magnolia tree, put down his work and came over to talk about the tree, where we were from and anything else that came into his head.

In Tennessee we were visiting relatives, so I suppose my observation doesn't count, but I've visited there a lot, McMinnville Tennessee.  It has a reputation of being a backwater but it is also beautiful and very rural, cows in the pasture across the road.

North Carolina was a surprise.  Sylva and Dillsboro (sp?) were sophisticated and definitely upscale.  Listening to the news it becomes apparent that in order of importance, locally, the pecking order is Charleston SC, the tri-cities, South Carolina, the lowlands, then the highlands.  Sylva to Boone are the highlands.

On local TV the news is dominated by the high school football game recorded from the announcer booth at the 50 yard line and colorized with play-by-play from the local announcer with the kids' names.  This past evening the 2 hours of local news was high school football games in their entirety.

Our habit is to walk for exercise.  Strolling down the road, a farmer came over and we talked for quite a while about life and Boone.  He was a A&P store manager for 40 years and a goat farmer.  His children moved closer to him because he has been having heart trouble and his sons have picked up the slack on the farm.

This may be the peeper effect.  Peepers are travelers who come to the highlands for the Fall colors.  The other possibility is that gray hair is a club itself, a lot of peepers are gray haired, but I don't think so.

I believe that we're all beginning to realize that there is little difference between us.  If we're polite and cordial we'll have more in common.  I did not see the uncomfortableness of the races in the small, think maybe 2,000 people to Boone, a college town with 20,000 people.  Certainly there were more white people, 95%, but the interactions I saw with the African American adults were relaxed and respectful.  I observed mixed race couples both peepers and locals, being treated with the respect they deserve.

Seems to me that I have mistakenly generalized an attitude about Southerners.  It'll be fun to see what a month in Savannah is like.

Boone, North Carolina

Taking a walk from our cottage...we ran into an older man in overalls transporting bails of hay to his barn.  He introduced himself and told us about his land and animals.  He bought 20 goats this year because he wanted them.  Then he heard of other friends with goats that were losing them one at a time to coyotes.  So, he bought donkeys to protect the goat.  They have been pretty good at this and the goats are doing well.

This is a beautiful place off the main road near town.  The town is centered around Appalachian State University.  By all appearances a pretty hip place. Innovative food in restaurants with the emphasis on healthy.  No red-necks so far.  Although today gave me pause when I heard someone shooting a gun over and over again.  On the Blue Ridge Parkway we ran into trucks with kennels for hounds. Apparently it is bear hunting season.

In town we ate lunch at F.A.R.M, Cafe, part of the "ONE WORLD EVERYBODY EATS" movement. This means that your payment for your lunch is a donation and anyone can eat a meal in exchange for an hour of work in the cafe.  It was bustling and friendly.  Most of the workers are volunteers who checked on us and invited conversation.  There were all kinds of people, young and old, fancy and not, hipsters and farming people.