Continuing the theme of The Road Less Traveled, I avoided the I95 and drove Route 17.  This is ironic because in my youth, when the I95 was still under construction, we’d be redirected to the 17, a two lane parking lot.  But now everyone uses the 95, so the 17 is an empty road.  It was a very pleasant drive and it only added minutes.  Got me much closer to America.

Seeing a sign for the Midway Museum brought me pause.  In my mind it’s an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  But Georgia has a fairly famous town named Midway and it has a museum.  Unfortunately closed on Sundays.

Just north of Brunswick I stopped at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, which was established in the early 1800s to grow rice.  The 1851 house was not the beauty that exists in Savannah, mostly because the owners had a home in Savannah for the summer social season.  (As is becoming a normal occurrence, a caretaker saw my Goldwing and spoke lovingly of the 25 years he owned one. Old age forced him to sell it.  Ominous.)   The museum has a well designed display room illustrating how rice was grown and the plight of the slaves doing the work.  The grounds has lots of room to just walk around.  Peaceful.  Just up the road is the town of Riceboro.  No rice though.

Huge bridge for 17 just south of Brunswick.  Steep.  People jogging up it, in (of course) a very strong wind.  Thousands of cars, so it’s obviously a port for imports.  One grass field had hundreds of Smartcars.

Almost got rear ended by a Greyhound bus going way way over the speed limit as I was slowing down to stop at a historical marker.

Savannah is beautiful.  The official historical site is over 2 square miles.  Intimidating, so I did the hop on hop off thing for once.  Savannah almost certainly doesn’t have more history than many other cities, but it certainly has preserved and documented that history.  Markers everywhere.  Home to many movies, such as Forest Gump.  (The Baywatch movie is actually being filmed at a nearby beach, so there is talk of where the actors are staying.  That it’s being filmed on the east coast would be a bit of a buzz-kill if I was planning to see it.)  Home to the Girl Scouts.  Center of the world for cotton.  Ghosts; lots of ghosts.  Second largest St. Patricks Day parade (Huh?).  Just an impressive list.

Drove past two paper mills.  They make skunks smell like fine perfume.  How anyone lives nearby is a mystery to me.