Edisto Beach to St Marys, Georgia

I left the Edisto campground in the golden dawn, hoping to spend some time in Savannah before driving to very southern Georgia for the night.  Once again, I am reminded this is all low country, all of it tidal.

I drove the back roads past the turn to Hilton Head Island the across the Savannah River on another newer suspension bridge, more riverside industry than I had expected.

I parked in downtown Savannah and proceeded on my bike directly to the most important land mark in the city.  I can't think of another person who had such a positive impact on so many people over so many years.

Downtown seemed busy,with several nice old theaters still in operation, the scale smaller than I had imagined, no towers around, perhaps because  like Charleston so much of the city is historic.

The waterfront is a series of low brick buildings where the factors - agents - used to meet to arrange transactions, most importantly cotton.  Now it is restaurants and shops with cobblestone alleys leading down to a nice walk along the river.

I rode back through downtown and around several of the many parklike squares that are a unique and defining feature of Savannah.  The squares slow traffic and soften the city, have interesting monuments and are surrounded with nice old building and churches, including an unusually ornate Lutheran church that played Nearer My God To Thee at noon.  The squares also create one way streets that make for some creative bike riding.

Savannah is home to what they say is the second largest art school in the US.  Whether or not that's true, there are many kids around,  but no hip strip that I found.  I did finally find a good coffeeshop by one of the squares that seemed like a local hangout.  Having enough of Savannah, I decided to drive I95 south to make some time, more fields, rivers, what looked like a big paper mill in the distance.

I95 is the main drag up and down the east coast and probably always busy.

The entire east coast from Boston to Miami feels full of people, more than I'm used to, especially in the open country of the west. Using the numbers from my atlas, something like 100 million people live in the states on the east coast, many within a few hundred miles of the ocean,  No wonder it feels crowded.

Off I95, a stretch of older strip malls led into St Marys, a pretty, old one time shipbuilding now marina and tourist town on the broad St Marys river.

I rented a kayak, loaded the boat and drive the fifteen miles out to Crooked River State Park, where I found a group of ACA Instructors camped for  weekend of training paddles in the area.  Kayaking has taken off everywhere, and there is a lot of fine water all along the Georgia coastline for paddling.