Day 3 (17 May). South Carolina and Savannah, GA

From: Myrtle Beach, SC

To: Savannah, GA

Miles today: 224

Total miles: 855

Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Savannah Georgia are all connected via US 17, and most of my ride today was either on this route or roughly parallel routes. For the first 30 miles out of Myrtle Beach I was accompanied by hundreds of Harley riders, few of whom wore helmets and all of whom wore tank tops.  (Never mind crashing; don’t these people get sunburned?)  By the time I got to Charleston, they were all gone, replaced with the occasional Honda Goldwing riders with full body armor (like me). 

At Georgetown I turned off of congested US 17 for Alt 17, US 531, and then SC 41 south through the Francis Marion National Forest. This was a beautiful and almost empty two-lane road that took me through forests of mostly pine.  (Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, was played by Mel Gibson in the movie The Patriot.)  All the trees were thin and of about the same diameter, indicating new growth.  A check of Wikipedia told me the forest was essentially wiped out by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, along with much of Charleston. 

The Francis Marion National Forest, from SC 41.  Lovely, but all new since Hugo.

I passed through Charleston itself fairly quickly, not because it is not a wonderful place but because I had been there before but had not been to Savannah and wanted to spend some daylight hours there. US 17 emptied out, but it was still divided 4-lane (great for driving, but not as scenic), winding south on SC 170 among others.  Everything was divided 4-lane!  South Carolina has apparently invested quite heavily in their roads.

Savannah was worth it.  I admit one of the reasons I wanted to stop there was that I like the sound of the name; “Savannah” says Antebellum South to me even more than Charleston or Montgomery.  This was the original Georgia colony, laid out by James Oglethorpe himself, and is on a 30-40 foot bluff overlooking the river of the same name.  The street that runs along the edge of the bluff is called Bay Street, and there are several places where colonial-age stone steps lead down to River Street along the waterfront itself.  River street is paved with stones, and has had its warehouses converted into restaurants and shops, much like Alexandria, Virginia.  However, Savannah is still a working port city, and every hour or so gigantic cargo ships move almost silently down the river, right across from “main street.”  You don’t see that in Alexandria.

River Street in Savannah, looking south.  Could be Old Town Alexandria, VA.

River Street in Savannah, same spot, but looking north. NOT Alexandria!