Savage Island & Thereabouts

My campsite on Savage Island was perfect: level,  a pull-through, and looking into the woods. I had passed a cool looking restaurant on the river just outside the state park entrance so after making sure B was settled in I headed back out to Fish Tales for dinner. As soon as I walked in and everyone in this small local pub greeted me, I knew I’d found my spot for the next few days. While they only had a couple craft brews on tap, it was still more than I expected. I chose the Gangway IPA from Red Hare Brewing Company and rated it a 3.5 on Untappd. Paired well with the blacked Mahi, cole slaw & a few hush puppies.

In the morning (the 11^th) I headed up to Savannah, about 30 miles north. Kicked around town. Savannah is cool but didn’t knock my socks off. Maybe better with a group to enjoy the countless pubs… The historic houses are great, the park squares are nice; all-in-all I certainly can’t dis the town but one day was enough. I will say, southern friendliness was in play. Great people. I wrote about Service Brewing there a couple days ago, so …  moving on to Fort McAllister! (Oh yeah, I had an appetizer dinner snack at… Fish Tales!)

Next day. LOL, I guess I was just clueless. I thought forts had walls. I knew maybe they didn’t have to have moats (I think castles have to have those) but I really thought forts had walls. Even the cardboard box forts I made when I was a kid had walls. Whatever. Fort McAllister was an earthen berm fort on the Ogeechee River—and it was an effective barrier to enemies. Very cool to experience. Georgia has done a fine job preserving and presenting Fort McAllister. I fully enjoyed walking through the fortress: it’s magazines, palisades, parade grounds and museum. Interesting how walking through history brings history to life. I get annoyed when my wireless hotspot gets cranky; I can’t imagine what life was like as a Civil War soldier sleeping on cots (if lucky) and spending every waking (and sleeping?) moment batting away the incessant flies. (What the hell do they eat when people aren’t around?!)

After enjoying the fort I tracked down a FedEx package which I’d rerouted to the local Walgreens when FedEx failed to figure out that they were supposed to hold it at their own FedEx Office store in Savannah. No problem (as everyone seems to say here); it worked out better this way. Business done, I returned to (yep!) Fish Tales for din-din! Then back to the campsite for a morning departure to Charleston.