Savannah is a quintessential tourist town which has enough history to showcase. The first tour a Trolley ride through its historic streets. We stopped by the oldest house, its first owner was a Pirate in 1735 and still preserved. The tour guide stopped by the bench made famous by Tom Hanks in his iconic movie "Forrest Gump" who sitting on the bench delivered in his thick, Southern accented monologue - "Life is a baax (box) of chaacklates (chocolates). You don't know what yaa going to geyt (get)".
USA is blessed with gigantic water bodies to sustain the river cruise liners. The rivers are fed by rainfall which is well distributed throughout the year, not just limited to a particular season. It explains why there is no particular "rainy season" in most parts of America. In the relatively dry West, snow clad mountains feed the rivers, making them perennial. US is filled with big lakes of different shapes sizes - starting from tiny ponds to Great Lakes in North, all gargantuan sources of freshwater.
It was a cooler, slightly windy and humid day here in Savannah with intermittent rains for few minutes. Water, water every where - coming down from top in form of rain and the Savannah river brimming in water below the River Cruise liner with the drenched American flag fluttering on the tall flagmast atop the ship.
We all were ensconced inside the ship followed by shifting to the deck for a better view of the shore as the ship snaked its way through the great Savannah river, dredged to 50 feet deep to let ships pass through. From the comfort of cool enclosure we watched the seagulls brave the rain, diving into the river water for a fresh catch. The Seagull catches fish the hard way, under harsher circumstances and lower visibility. It yet vindicates that fishing on your own way gives you better confidence than being an armchair angler.
Americans have mastered the art of commercializing things which even Science doesn't explain. The country is full of hunted hotels, mansions where folks pay a premium price to experience. It is said that the Actor Jim Carey once stayed in one such famous Hunted hotels paying heavy price. In the middle of night he was seen running bare bodied with only his shorts on in the hotel lobby. He promptly shifted, never going back to his room again. When asked, he never disclosed the reason for his weird behavior in the middle of the night but vowed never go back to that hotel ever again.
Same goes with the Ghost tours and Savannah in the state of Georgia is famous for those. A trip to Savannah is incomplete without taking one of the several ghost tours available after dark. Many stay in the Hunted hotels for the sake of experiencing spooky stuff, but we preferred to avoid such hotels. I am afterall a meek Odia without much water stored in his ass (GA**I RE PAANI NAHI, as they say in Odia) chicken out of any such adventures.
Last time when we were here in the winter of 2019, the weather was perfect for a Ghost tour - Cold, Dark and Stormy. We took a guided tour of the most famous Hunted House of Savannah - Andrew Lowe's mansion. Andew Lowe was a rich and influential man who minted money by exporting Cotton when the demand for the cash crop was high at in the initial days of the Industrial Revolution.
But even stinking rich people are not immune to tragedies as one after another struck him at the height of his money and fame. His wife and couple of kids died young. Andrew Lowe was left crestfallen. Many since have witnessed shadowy figures in that mansion, a man in a Butler's dress named Tom. Smell of cigar suddenly wafts inside the hallway with no one seen smoking around.
A few have smelled a rosy perfume close by as they felt like suddenly brushed aside by some. The perfume was supposedly worn by Mary, the second wife of Andrew Lowe who died young in that house.
Following the hurricane of 1979, men working around the Mansion heard the painful sobbing of a woman. Their first thought was it was someone taking refuse there, as many mansions were used as temporary shelter homes for the hurricane evacuees. They followed the sobbing sound to one room above the staircase, but found nobody there. However, they found that it was the Anniversary of the death of Mary, who died in that exact room where the crying came from.
As a finale to our Savannah travelogue here are a few Spooky Jokes told by our Ghost tour guide retold here.
Why the Skeleton didn't go to Prom ?Because he had nobody.
Why the Ghost didn't couldn't get his crush?
Because he had no guts.
What's the cross of a Vampire and a Snowman- Frostbite.
We made a short trip to the Tybee Island beach, a popular beach close by. It is arguably the best sea beach of the state of Georgia and I found it muddy, hardly worth of taking a stroll. Saw a few angles fishing and tourists wading through the shallow brownish blue water as a sea gull couple were struggling to make love in the sky. Thus concluded our short and sweet tour to Savannah, Georgia.
