21 September – Savannah

 As we booked the hop-on hop-off bus, it included free transfers by shuttle bus from the RV park. A bit more civilised than the scooter. Arriving at the visitors centre, we opted to ride the hop-on hop-off all the way around, to check everything out and see what we wanted to go back to later. Lots of choices! Lots of historic homes, trees draped in Spanish moss, leafy avenues, and lots of squares – 22 of them – like little parks. Most of them have a statue or a fountain, and benches for people to sit. Quite a few movies have been made here, Forrest Gump said “Life is like a box of chocolates” while sitting on a bench in one of the squares.

After we had done the 90-minute loop, we opted to jump off at stop 3 – the City Market. We wandered through the market with a stop for cookie tasting. 

We paid a visit to the Prohibition Museum, well worth the visit. It’s full of life-size wax figures representing the history of prohibition in the US. All in all, prohibition was rather an epic fail:

·       People didn’t stop drinking, they just made moonshine and home brews

·       Doctors could prescribe alcohol for medicinal purposes, and they prescribed rather a lot

·       Restaurant and theatre trade went down as people entertained at home where they could drink

·       New York lost 75% of its revenues (from losing the liquor tax)

·       The Govt had to introduce income tax to compensate

·       Immeasurable numbers of people lost their jobs (bars, breweries, truck drives etc)

·       The number of incarcerated people went up, and the first women’s prisons had to be opened

And….

·       Organised crime started. Al Capone and his peers took advantage of the illegal liquor trade and the rest is history! A side note, there was so much money being laundered that the US created $500 and $1000 bills (now removed from circulation).

It was a 14-year pointless exercise that created more harm than good.

“How the world must despise us for making such asses of ourselves” – Senator James W Wadsworth

After the museum, we hopped back on the bus and went to the riverfront for lunch. We tried the Shrimp Factory, for southern shrimp dishes. All with a distinctive southern spice flavour.

After lunch, we walked to see the Waving Girl statue. Her name was Florence Martus, and apparently, she waved to every ship that came in, day or night, for 44 years. Legend has it that she fell in love with a sailor and waved to every ship in the hope he was on it. He wasn’t.

We had to hoof it back to the bus terminal for the ride back to the RV park, so rode the hop-on hop-off back.