What I Did On My Summer Vacation - Day 2 - She's Been Waiting For This Day Since 1923

After a day of delays and unexpected expenses on Day 1, Day 2 started with a windfall.  The tooth fairy left $5 under my grandson’s pillow.  Then, while exploring the room where he had spent the night, he found 5 five-dollar bills rolled up together under a foot-stool.  Maybe the tooth fairy got a little careless.

By 8 am we were on the road. 

By 9 am CDT we had crossed the Georgia state line – twice due the weird shapes of Tennessee & Georgia where the states meet and meet again - and lost an hour when we entered the eastern daylight time zone.

By 4:30 PM, we were parked at Forsyth Park in Savannah, Ga., one of the most beautiful parks in one of the most beautiful cities in America.  Between admiring the monuments, the fountains, and the beautiful live oak trees adorned with moss, the kids burned off some energy at the playground.

Then we headed for the beach.

At 5:48 pm I paid for 2 hours parking near the pier on Tybee Island. 

Within minutes, the kids were changed into their bathing suits and headed down the boardwalk to the beach.  My wife and I, her still recovering from foot surgery and a recently strained knee, were not far behind. 

When we reached the point where the boardwalk ended and the sand began, we encountered a family with an elderly lady in a wheelchair trying to figure out how to negotiate the sand to the shoreline.  Pointing to the lady in the wheelchair, one member of the party told me “She’s 94-years-old and this is her first time at the beach!”  With a member of her family on each side of the wheelchair and me and at the back, we lifted the wheelchair and kept the old lady aloft across the soft sand to the hard-packed sand where the surf met the shore.

“Where you all from?” I asked.

“Shelbyville, Tennessee” said one of the wheelchair bearers.

“We just went through there on a detour yesterday!”  I said. “That’s near where they caught those escaped convicts."

“Yeah, we were down here and those bad guys were up by our house!”  said one of the guys.

Just the way I’d want it.

First Time At The Beach for the Youngest
And Oldest in this Picture

Since it was also my 2-year-old grandson’s first time to the beach, I took a picture of him and the 94-year-old lady together.  She may have been born in 1923 and him in 2014 but both shared the same fascination at the beauty and wonder of the waves that have been relentlessly washing the sand since the beginning of time.  One of the two was considerably more impatient than the other in wanting to get the picture taking over with, though.

We had spent 30 hours getting there, but the 3 1/2 hours we spent in Savannah and on Tybee Island was a nice reward.

But it was not our final destination.

At 7:48 pm, not a minute of paid parking wasted, we headed back through Savannah to southbound I-95. 

With no reservations.

As we drove, we began our search for a place to spend the night.

The options fell into two categories:

1. No Vacancy! and

2. No Cheapskates!

When I was a teenager, I tried to spend no more than $3 a night for a place to stay.  Nowadays, the average runs about $100 a night.  The asking price along I-95 in south Georgia was $140.  FINALLY, in Brunswick, Ga, we found a nice Comfort Suites for $89 a night.  As we sealed the deal and were handed the keys to two rooms, the desk clerk said “We are officially sold out.” 

 Sure glad she said that after we checked-in instead of before.

 

Two generations of Reeces at Tybee Island, Ga.