DAY 6, SEEING SHIPS

Day 6,  Seeing Ships

Oh, my lands!  It was HUGE!  I was an ant and it was a gigantic monster.  Silently gliding along was a cargo ship!   And I mean SILENT.

We were on Savannah's River Street, a cobblestone road lined with myriad shops, restaurants, and a trolley ride stand.  The cobblestone road was made of rocks and stones carried in on ships from all over the world which were sold to the early settlers.

We'd just left The Peanut Shop which sold Spencer's favorite nuts -- Smokehouse Cheddar and Bacon Peanuts when something started moving in our left paripheral vision.  It was HUGE!  It was stealthy. It was silent.

I had no clue the waters along River Street were deep enough for a cargo ship to traverse!  I thought it just a channel or canal, but no, it was the Savannah River.  It has strong currents and turbulent waters which explains why I never saw anyone near the water.  And this 1200 foot long ship with the capacity to carry 8,000 containers was gliding along as easy as an air filled inner tube on a pond.

Another day we went back to experience red snapper at The River House restaurant.  As we sat there at the Mediterranean style table, with a distressed black buffet to our right, and blackened ceiling above, there was large movement outside their picture windows, "What's that white and red thing going by?"  By golly, it was a riverboat!  Specifically, it was the Georgia Queen.

She loomed large!  230 feet long and 68 feet tall, it took time for the Georgia Queen to paddle-wheel on by.  We next saw her tethered to the dock and boy, was she a beauty, the biggest paddleboat I'd ever seen.  I just had to take a picture.  In the middle 70's a 4-H group of girls and I took a tour on the Belle of Louisville and she was something then, but nothing compared to this now.  It's what makes one think of Mark Twain's characters' adventures.

As we traveled down General McIntosh Blvd. heading to Tybee, I spied what looked like the tops of the building moving from right to left.  Just two stories on top.  And...low and behold, they really were moving!  Then from the left of the stationary building came the prow of a dirty maroon colored barge.  Shew!  I thought I was seeing things.  LOL, well, I guess I was, I was seeing yet another vessel on the Savannah River, in town!

I was seeing things no landlocked, landlubber was used to seeing.

Landlubber.  Landlocked.  That's me living in Indiana, so why Tybee Island calls like ice cream on a hot day, I don't know.  The fellows stopped at Seaweed's Snow Balls and Ice Cream, for sure, but I was yearning for other quests.

I have to tell you my first experience of River Street was thrilling!  With many a large barge and a paddleboat easing on down the watery road in a silent glide in my memory banks, maybe even callings from my ancestors, I'm destined to return.