More From SOUTH CAROLINA & GEORGIA

We are still in Hardeeville SC and doing whatever we can find to do until time to move on north. Saturday the 15th, Gary found a Car Show at Blufton's High School. He enjoyed it and thought that you might also! Gary has also attended a couple lectures on Civil War in the south and has really enjoyed them. While he is off doing these, I usually scrapbook or read. I am never at a loss for something to do. We also decided to get our pictures of the First Baptist Church that we are attending while here. We find their pastor so friendly and welcoming! We have been so blessed to be in such a welcoming Sunday School Class also. We went out with them for a social at the Pink Pig Restaurant that is just up the road from our campground. We enjoyed their pork sandwich so much that we decided to go back again this week. They are only open two evenings a week for two hours each evening, so not too much choice of when to go out! It is hard to believe that they have as much business as they do because of the brief hours. It has to be their reputation of great food! Then Sunday evening the church had people from several churches participate in a Spring Sing. It was great and fun with both inspirational and secular music. After the music they had refreshments in the fellowship hall and our class ladies were hosting. They did a beautiful job!! The beginning of this week we kicked back and relaxed a lot as well as a day shopping at Joanns, Michaels, and K-Mart. We have to drive a bit to get to any of these stores, so we end with lunch and finish early. Gary took me to Ci-Ci's Pizza. That was a first for me and of course, needs to be the last for a long time! It is too many carbs for me! But it really was tasty! The next day we did our big shopping day at Walmart to stock up on groceries for the month. While I was in Walmart, Gary went to Home Depot to get lumber to make a box for on the floor next to the bed. The bed is too high for me so this make a step and will also give more storage for things such as shoes! Now if I could just figure a way to have another closet, I would love it. But that is not likely! We decided today to go back to Tybee Island. We had checked it out once before by car, but found that you have to pay to park ANYWHERE! So we were not sure that we wanted to go back at twenty-five cents for every ten minutes of parking. Wel-l-l-l, I forgot to take our laundry quarters, so we only had enough for an hour and ten minutes. We made that be enough time. We had taken lunch with us and we ate that in the pavilion before going down from the pier behind it to get to the beach. The pavilion was huge and there was a sign about cost, but we found no one to ask. So we took our chances and ate while others were also coming and going. The cost may have been for large groups renting the pavilion. I think that all of the fees that they can charge must be their main source of income for the community. There are restaurants that we would like to check out, but probably will not get the opportunity this time in the area. We need to leave something for next time! It was very windy, but that was good as the sun was hot! And so was the sand above the water line!!! We walked the beach for a ways, until we knew that we were running out of time on parking. There were many sun bathers and even kids on school trips. I just love the water though!!! After leaving the beach, we drove around the rest of the island just to see what was there. Before leaving we found the Tybee Island Lighthouse and took pictures.

We also found what looked to be a fort or bunkers from days gone by.

One was the Tybee Island Museum

in the Battery Garland of 1899, so the sign said!

And another was the Tybee Lite Shrine Club.

We had to drive through Savannah both going to and from Tybee. That is always such a pleasure as it is so scenic and so easy to navigate!

I guess that we did have a full enough week! Just four more days until we move on. We are expecting rain tonight, but hope there is not any storms. Hopefully they will have worn themselves out before getting this far east!

Take care and God Bless you all.

ROUND HOUSE MUSEUM in Savannah, GEORGIA

On Tuesday we decide to go to the Round House Museum in Savannah, easy parking and as we pulled in this big steam engine greeted us. It was a nice cool day, in the mid 70's with little humidity.

Note in the next picture why they called it the roundhouse, - - - - because it's round!

The roundhouse was used to repair locomotives either overnight with light repairs or major repairs, these are done in different bays of the roundhouse. Light repairs were done in an area of the shop where the locomotive could be kept running; there are smoke hoods in the ceiling to let the exhaust escape. This structure was built in 1855 and is 250 feet diameter. There were 34 stalls, each 138 ft. long and each have a 3 to 4 ft. deep maintenance pit.

The turntable in the center is for rotating locomotives and rolling stock to the proper location to be moved into a repair stall in the roundhouse. This turntable was in the Columbus, Ga. repair shop and was moved here in 1907 and expanded to it's current length of 85 feet. We were able to ride an observation car onto the turntable and rotated to tracks, with an exit and entrance onto the turntable to see how it workers.

We had the opportunity to tour two executive cars, almost like our RV, with everything except we don't have a cook or a porter. I guess that would be me! LOL

This car was refurbished to it's 1956 condition in 2003 by the Coastal Heritage Society here in Savannah. The car is very well done with an executive lounge, bedrooms, baths, dining room with kitchen and offices. As you can see from the next pictures.

This was the lounge and it had phone land lines to use while stopped in a station and radio phones, hanging on the wall, to use during transit.

Since we live in an RV, this bath looked quite roomy to us.

This is the dining room with the actual china that they used, stored in the cabinet. We went through two executive cars. This is what they start out with when doing restoration of a coach. Looks like quite a job, but I think it would be fun to do. The Coastal Heritage Society of Savannah does a lot of this restoration at this museum site, building much from scratch because parts are no longer available.

This Caboose was open, so I took a picture of this bird house. I think this would have been a fun job! Hey guys at S.E.S., do you recognise this coupler?

We were also able to look in the repair shop area of the roundhouse. They were working on this passenger car

, though not the same one as pictured above.

Blacksmith Shop

A line shaft driven set of tools, lathe and more. There was a hydraulic hammer for big work as well. They also had their own print shop!

The smoke stack was used to divert smoke from various areas of the facility through underground tunnels. primarily the boiler room. The bottom housed privies and changing rooms. After the roundhouse was no longer in use, some citizens of Savannah, noticed the smoke stack shrinking. When the brick was worth a lot of money for restoration here in Savannah, would you climb that thing to steal and sell those brick? They had to replace about a third of it. All I can say for those taking the brick, WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS!

History of this facility: The Central of Georgia Railroad & Canal Co., chartered in 1833, for the purpose of moving Georgia cotton to Savannah was in competition with Charleston. It served as a rail facility for the Confederate military, but Sherman tore up most of the rail from Atlanta to Savannah and wrapped the heated rails around trees.

In 1866 William Wadley became president and widely expanded this company from 290 miles of track to over 1500 miles of new track. During the first part of the 1900's it expanded and was the largest employer in Savannah. During the depression, falling on hard time, it survived to later be abandoned in 1963.

In 1989 the Coastal Heritage Society took over the property and it has been growing as a museum since then, with a bright future for Savannah.

This is a short synopsis of this museum, but a must see!

We will be traveling on, so stay tuned and God Bless.

PAULA DEAN'S RESTAURANT - LADY & SONS

OK, WE DID IT! Yes, we went to Lady and Sons to eat. It was a wonderful lunch and we were stuffed. I had their crab burger and French fries (which were potato slices, breaded and deep fried) and Gary had their chicken pot pie. We really are glad that we did not wait around all day for dinner as we would not have slept well afterward. It really is rich food and yummie! The building was an old warehouse, renovated, and we ate on the third floor. The kitchen is on the second floor. We began the day with Gary dropping me off at the restaurant about a half hour before they opened the reception booth, so that I could sign in and choose a time. That is their procedure, no phoned reservations! I was about six from the front of the line and really could have had any choice. The half hour went fast as there are other tourists to visit with. Gary drove around the block over and over to pick me back up when finished. We then took the Tour Bus to go to City Market to see what is there. There was just more tourist boutiques and the horse carriage tours! From there we went to an Antique Mall on Bay Street again and finished the other two floors of it that we did not see the first time. Then we went down the steps to River Street to see the ships and the back drop of River Street, which is more boutiques and restaurants. Once we had whiled away enough time, we walked to and rested in Wright Square, which is one of the cities 22 squares. We enjoy watching the people and looking at the buildings. . Wright Square is pretty well surrounded by large bank buildings of both past and present. Then we went on to Paula Dean's store connected to her restaurant on Congress Street. I hate to say it, but I did not see anything that I could not live with out! But the lunch made it worth while. It was 2 p.m. before we left for home. So it was about our limit for a day. We usually do five or six hours! Tonight we are going out to dinner at the Pink Pig, near the campground, with the Sunday School Class that we have been visiting. So we are looking forward to some good fellowship and food. I am sure that we will need to cut back on food next week!!! Stay tuned! We are not sure what we might do next. We still have about two weeks here! Take care!