journey to the sea - savannah

there are not words for me to describe the downtown area of savannah, georgia.  the majestic live oaks draped with the spanish moss, the beautiful buildings, the squares, the fountains, the sense of history...so i will leave you with these shots of my morning.  many stores were not opened with the president's day holiday and i longed to take a road never traveled before.  i don't know that i admitted to myself yet, but this is what my adventure was about - the road never travelled....

out of savannah, i decided to take all rural roads down to the "golden isles" - the sea islands that dot the coasts of georgia (similar to the islands off the coast of north and south carolina) - in this case brunswick, st. simons and jekyll.  i rode along highway 99.  the wonderful thing about taking rural roads.  you might find the world along with you for the ride....

or you could find america's smallest church (so they say).  this precious little church sits along highway 99 between savannah and darien.  under a canopy of live oaks, the one tiny room has beautiful stained glass, one pulpit and maybe eight chairs.  behind the altar are scattered pictures of loved ones with prayer requests, statues and other offerings.  it was a sweet and touching experience to see these.

darien is located along one of the many rivers along the coast - a huge fleet of shrimping boats were docked but i couldn't get close enough for great shots.  this area also had rice plantations and you can see the grasses filling a lot of the low tide areas along the banks of the rivers.

 

for some strange reason i quit taking pictures once i got to brunswick and st. simons.  maybe it was late in the day and i was tired.  the traffic was hectic and heavy - there was construction across high bridges (which wig me out anyway) and i wasn't the daredevil that i was on sunday.  i made my way to the mullet bay seafood restaurant - a popular place as it was quite full even later in the afternoon.  i love sitting at the bars because you meet other people alone.  i chatted with a nice older man about the book i was reading (the happiness project) and to another gentleman who was treating his mother to lunch (he was 65 and she was 90!).  leaving there, i felt the siren call of being on the road.  so, i decided to drive the backroads of georgia....

the problem - the gps decided it was time to quit the quiet roads and kept routing me back to interstate.  finally, in macon - i found highway 80.  but...it was also dark and i decided i was close enough to home and headed that way.  the deer along the highway were beautiful and the dark made it feel as i was alone in the world.  peaceful - quiet - wrapped in dark silk with me and the radio.  life was good...well, until i couldn't find a gas station for a while...but that resolved itself too. 

i made it home - back to montgomery - having seen new places and new things, with a belly full of shrimp. 

life is indeed very good.