Savanna, Georgia

360 Panorama of the Riverview

The original plan was to stay in Savanna for an afternoon or so, but the weekend was here, and I wanted to spend it somewhere rather than nowhere. So I perched up in Savanna for two nights. I really wanted to stay as close to the downtown as possible, but I only could pull off lodging in my price range somewhere in the string of hotels by Savanna Tech. I ended up at an Extended Stay America. They're meant for extended stays - I learned that the hard way. They actually charge by how long you stay, and why you're in the area. The rooms actually were like a studio apartment, with a kitchenette inside. Other than that, the room was crap, the bed was stiff, the room smelled, my bedspread had cigarette burns in it, and the TV was the crapiest yet. I had two Fox News channels. TWO! I've never even heard of the Fox Business News channel. Its mostly just a soapbox for Andrew Napolitano, which gets old quickly. But the good news is, I wasn't in Savannah for the hotels, so I left.

The first night in Savanna I stopped into a burger place called Sweet Melissa's for dinner. After getting acquainted with the girl who worked behind the counter, she proceeded to tell me all of the cool bars in Savannah only to reveal she wasn't even old enough to drink in them. I pinky promised not to rat her out to the cops, and than she continued on. Her recommendations were as you'd expect it to be - mostly the bars that didn't check for IDs, and less of the bars that were over 21 worthy. But that first night I got a good lay of the land.

The next day, on the drive to the downtown I was listening to some talk radio. The guest on that particular show was Jan Gehl, a Danish architect who helps to design outdoor spaces in cities. Listening to this broadcast, it described exactly what I am in search of. He talked about how a good city is like a good party, when you go there, you stay longer than you expected to. Cities should be centered on giving people the ability to interact and be outside, how he judges a good city by how many people are sitting outside, not walking. Cars have reached their max potential a long time ago and we should focus on walking and being outside again. After work we want to 'stroll home, stop down at the river, drink a cappuccino, and look at the girls. After that we meet up with a friend for dinner.' Every word that he was saying described my thoughts of exactly of what I am looking for in my city.

Its not about the weather, it's what nice weather allows for. It lets us go outside, interact, to stop and smell the proverbial roses, to break up our daily routines with walking and interacting. That's what I want in a city, and as a place to live. He wrote a book called Cities for People. I need to read it, but I think that its at the core of what this trip is about.

Arriving in the downtown after hearing this life affirming radio broadcast, I was in a great mood. The sky was clearing up a bit, and after walking around for a while, I had a chicken and goat cheese quesadilla from some cafe. I don't eat goat cheese very often, but it activates parts of my pallet that don't seem to get much stimulation in the day to day affairs. I quite enjoy that with fancy or exotic foods - Its not just food made well, its an adventure for your taste buds that you don't always get to have. ¡Muy bien!

After that, I did some more walking around and enjoying the downtown. Around eight or so, after the sun had gone down, I was thirsty. I ventured into a bar with a sign over it called The Velvet Elvis. They had an awesome band playing covers of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (I, II, & III), Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and the like. They also had a Big Buck Hunter arcade game in there. Normally I skip over those games when choosing a video game because I prefer to virtually kill people over animals, but I figured - when in Rome...