A Parkless Disney Adventure. A Trip Report *COMPLETE 1/18*

[BennyFedora]

Hey everybody! Sorry for being such a bad DIS-er, but holidays are crazy right? Yup, that’s my excuse. I posted the last update a wee bit before Thanksgiving, and now here it is a week into twenty-12. I’m poised for some epic trip reporting to round this thing out, so please bear with me

If anyone’s still on board, you’ve probably also seen Joyce’s PTR for our October 2012 WDW trip which now includes a bonus WDW May 2012 trip (sadly only for her and her friend Mark since I can’t get the time off), as well as a squint-your-eyes into the future trip of potentially April 2013 with some of our other friends. They all probably think we’re crazy for planning 2013 vacations, especially since at that point I’ll have been to WDW twice in 6 months and Joyce will have been in 3x in 12 months, but hey, do what you can, when you can, right? The brilliance of this will be that all the trips will be covered under APs! While we’ll definitely be back to HH and VB, that won’t likely be before 2016 or so—sheesh!

Now back to our show…

Since Savannah is only about an hour away from HH, and we figured we couldn’t check in until noonish, there was really no rush to leave. Even though we again didn’t really need to do laundry, it was practically outside our door off the lobby, so we did it anyway. For the next hour and a half, we just lounged around, ate breakfast, packed up what we could, and played some Gin on the deck. Checking out at 11, we were on our way to Savannah!

The drive was quick and uneventful, and we shortly pulled up to our new destination—The Inn at Ellis Square. This hotel is in a great location, right on Bay St. at the west edge of the historic district. In fact, it’s “perfectly positioned”. (Haha, that’s actually their slogan.)

The hotel itself is really nice, but not nearly what we had been used to in VB or HH.

We were really excited to see the city, so after quickly putting our stuff in the room, we headed out for lunch. Some of our friends had recommended a burger place called B&D’s, and it DID NOT disappoint! The fried pickles and “potato pancakes” were awesome, and the burgers were excellent. Mine had fried egg, salsa, and pepper jack cheese. It wasn’t as crazy as the Aussie burger, but IJLOFC!

We then walked up and down River St. and Bay St. a bit and were sort of underwhelmed. We figured that we were probably just not seeing the right places, so we decided to check online for a walking tour and booked a tour with Savannah Dan for 10AM the next day. In the meantime, we figured we might as well take advantage of Savannah’s law that let’s you walk down the street with alcohol

First we went to Wet Wily’s on River St. We heard it was a “must do” place, but Joyce and I really aren’t big on frozen drinks. What we ARE big on is taking our drinks “to-go”!

We found one of the squares that Savannah is so famous for, and stumbled upon this interesting business card stuck in a bench:

We then made our way to Abe’s (on Lincoln St.) which was a cute old looking bar. Looking around, we were still amazed that they just have piles of plastic cups near the door that you can pour your own drink into as you leave!

This did lead us to an unfortunate realization…Joyce cannot drink beer and walk at the same time! She was OK with the frozen drink because of the straw, but she just can’t get the technique down with an open cup. The more beers we had, the more spilly she got, so the novelty of drinking outside wore off a bit. On our way through several more bars, we did end up seeing more of the charm of the city, including a dog with a stuffed animal of itself!

After more wandering, drinking, and eating at Moon River Brewing company, we turned in early (9pm) so we could get a bright and early start the next day. With today feeling a bit lackluster, we were excited to see what Savannah Dan could tell us about what we hoped would be one of our new favorite cities! (Hint: we now love it!)

 

[BennyFedora]

With no toaster or refrigerator in the room, we were forced out of the room for breakfast for the first time in what seemed like a month! We headed down to the continental breakfast which was INSANELY packed! There was a waffle machine with 20 people in line, so that was a no-go. They did have biscuits and gravy which I thought were OK, but Joyce didn’t like them at all. Otherwise, we basically had toast, juice, and coffee…oh yeah, and we had to just stand with plates, because there were absolutely no seats…ARGH!

Oh well, off to meet Savannah Dan at Johnson Square!

Savannah Dan is a colorful character that had great reviews online. In person he was everything we hoped for! If you go to Savannah, and aren’t familiar with the city, I’d say spending a couple of hours with Savannah Dan is an absolute MUST!

He told us about not only the “standard” history, but had many other interesting stories including the cemeteries that were built over by houses, Forrest Gump, bed bugs, and any other question we had. We also got to see a bit of a wedding (you can rent out the squares!). Without boring you with all the history (which Joyce and I actually found quite interesting), here’s a flurry of pictures, and I can reply on anything you want!

In this church, there was a funky optical illusion on the ceiling. The first picture is from close up, the second picture is from near the entrance of the church…cool, huh?

The last picture is called the Pink House and located the square where we ended. It apparently was painted white over brick, but then a fire many years ago altered the chemistry and made the brick red blend into the white making it pink. The owner painted it white, but it turned pink again. He painted it white again, and it turned back to pink. After a few times, they just left it pink.

It’s actually a really good restaurant, and we were STARVING at this point, so we figured we’d check it out. We had some awesome crab soup to start and they had amazing “cheese sticks” that were like long Cheez-It tubes. I got fried chicken (which was great!) and Joyce had a delicious Dixie chicken wrap.

I think I’ll take a break in the TR here…but I’ll be back soon!

 

[Joyciemc]

Holy Wow, I thought you totally lost interest in finishing this!

Ahhh, I would LOVE to be back in Savannah right about now!

 

[AKL LOVER]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Savannah and your pictures made me want to head back there right this minute to visit. All the beautiful squares. And the moss hanging from trees. And the booze. *sigh* We haven't been in like 5 years, so I think we are due for another visit soon.

One of the things I love the most about Savannah (besides the ability to walk around with your liquor ) is the history. I think that's one of the reasons I like Savannah so much. I could sit and listen to people talk about the history of Savannah for hours. And visiting all the historical houses, cemetaries and other places is so interesting.

Keep the Savannah updates coming--I loving 'em!!

 

[klacey1]

Wow, Savannah is gorgeous!! Those pictures are fantastic! Savannah Dan sounds great, too-- I love hearing history/folklore of places.
Awww, that doggie makes me miss my pup! We had a basset hound, too-- although ours wasn't as much of a chub as that cutie!

 

[BennyFedora]

Holy Wow, I thought you totally lost interest in finishing this!

Ahhh, I would LOVE to be back in Savannah right about now!

Nope, just got busy

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Savannah and your pictures made me want to head back there right this minute to visit. All the beautiful squares. And the moss hanging from trees. And the booze. *sigh* We haven't been in like 5 years, so I think we are due for another visit soon.

One of the things I love the most about Savannah (besides the ability to walk around with your liquor ) is the history. I think that's one of the reasons I like Savannah so much. I could sit and listen to people talk about the history of Savannah for hours. And visiting all the historical houses, cemetaries and other places is so interesting.

Keep the Savannah updates coming--I loving 'em!!

We can't wait to go back either...though logistically it will probably be at least another 3 years or so.

We also love the history of the city. It just has so much character! The fact that it's 20 degrees here right now and never 20 degrees in Savannah is also a plus

Wow, Savannah is gorgeous!! Those pictures are fantastic! Savannah Dan sounds great, too-- I love hearing history/folklore of places.
Awww, that doggie makes me miss my pup! We had a basset hound, too-- although ours wasn't as much of a chub as that cutie!

Savannah was beautiful, and we've got plenty more pictures coming.

Sorry to hear about your pup! We've got a house full of "kids" and it's always tough when you lose one. Savannah is VERY dog friendly, so Joyce and I have thrown around Savannah as a potential retirement location

 

[BennyFedora]

After lunch, we headed to the Owen House. Savannah Dan had said that if there were one historic home to visit, that would be the one. Joyce and I love that kind of stuff. We’re from Quincy and if you’re ever in that area, we highly recommend a tour of the Adams’ houses.

On our way, we stopped at Loepold’s which was a famous ice cream joint. It had a bit of an odd feel since it was both old-timey and decorated with a bunch of movie memorabilia. Regardless of the ambiance, the ice cream was delicious! I got pistachio ice cream which was loaded with nuts and didn’t have any of the fake-sweet flavor that pistachio ice cream sometimes has. Joyce got a chocolate shake that was nice and thick and chocolaty.

We walked over to the Owen House and luckily had perfect timing. The next tour was at 2pm so we spent 40 minutes enjoying our treats in an adjacent square. What was even perfect-er was that the tour was supposed to be $15/person BUT there was a promotion where Bank of America customers got in free on the first weekend of every month. Today was 10/1

The tour was really cool (if you’re into that stuff), but the people that worked there were weird. Our docent was kind of twitchy, but seemed really into the history of the place, so that was good. She was also perhaps the least confrontational person I’ve ever met. In one of the rooms, an older gentleman was leaning a bit against a wall—completely unintentionally, and also didn’t realize he was doing it. The docent said something like, “Now would be a good time to mention that we all need to be careful not to touch anything.” She didn’t even direct it towards him, so he kept leaning. She then added, “That includes leaning up against the walls because of the delicate wallpaper.” The older gentleman still didn’t quite get her hint, so I sort of did an “ahem” with a head nod, and then he straightened up.

The house had a cool “bridge” feature connecting two parts of the upstairs, and also had double staircases that went up each side from the foyer. The house had a cistern upstairs, and one in the basement, so the entire house had running water. It was really cool to see some “advanced” features of such an old house.

Anyway, we really enjoyed it, and then headed back to the hotel for a nap—it’s not vacation without naps, right?! Around 5:30, we woke up to head to Jazz’d Tapas which was pretty close to the hotel. We got shrimp fritters (Great!), empanadas (Good.), and chicken lettuce wraps (OK.) We finished it off with a chocolate torte which was double-thumbs-up fantastic!

Now, on to the haunted pubcrawl! For those of you who don’t know, Savannah is the most haunted city in the WORLD!!! OK, well Joyce and I don’t believe in ghosts, but if you do, this is apparently the place to go. Many of the buildings in Savannah have had their own stories about being built over graves, or having body parts hidden in them, or shootouts, all of which have left restless souls looming around. We signed up for a haunted pubcrawl that started at Moon River Brewing Company and then headed to a few more choice bars. While we didn’t see anything unusual, it still was a lot of fun…especially since we were drinking and walking around the streets with beers

Below are some pictures from upstairs at Moon River Brewing Company which probably aren’t as spooky as it was in person:

Here’s your dynamic duo fully enjoying some beers:

We ended up at O’Connell’s that had a cute pitbull out front:

They also had an awesome shot named a “Pickle Back”. It’s a shot of Jameson whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice. I know what you’re thinking. EWWW…whiskey! But no, they’re actually pretty good. With the pickle juice, you don’t even notice the whiskey! We brought this idea back home with us and actually have much improved upon it. Now we do shots of tequila and follow them with shots of banana pepper juice—named a “Pepper Back”. I even got the local bar down the street from us to make them for us on our annual Christmas Eve pubcrawl.

After the haunted pubcrawl came to an end, we wandered around and ended up at the Marshall House. The Marshall House is a hotel that has ghost stories of its own. Apparently when they were renovating the basement, they found piles of hands, feet, arms, and legs—but no full bodies. It turns out that during the Civil War, it was turned into a hospital, and all of those body parts were amputations from soldiers. Instead of disposing of them, they just sort of buried them, leaving them forgotten after the war ended.

The Marshall house was pretty cool, and we got to hang out with some fun people that had just gotten married and were having their reception there. Here’s a picture of Joyce enjoying herself:

On the way home, we saw this sign that we thought was pretty awesome…Hey, Man…and Sons

Then back to the hotel with no alarm to wake us up…or so we thought…

 

[BennyFedora]

Remember how we were going to sleep in? Well we woke up to an alarm at 7:30…only, it wasn’t our alarm. It was the FIRE alarm! Yikes! We scramble to just grab my laptop case, the SLR, and throw on some clothes and hit the stairs. Six flights later, we were outside with the rest of the guests in the hotel, waiting for the fire trucks. Hmmm…fire trucks? Well about 20 minutes later, a truck rolled up and firefighters rolled into the hotel. A few minutes later the alarm stopped and we were told that it was a false alarm. Apparently the heat turned on last night for the first time this year and some dust or something started smoking which set off the alarms. I was really glad that our hotel didn’t burn down, but honestly, 20 minutes? No wonder so many places burned down in Savannah!

Well, now it’s about 8, but it is still WAAAY too early for us, so we went back to sleep until about 10. At this point we were pretty hungry, and the hotel breakfast wasn’t something we wanted to try again. A quick internet search showed that Goose Feathers (just down the block) was a highly rated, so that’s where we headed. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was a 45 minute wait. Apparently 10AM on Sunday is pretty popular for going out to breakfast—haha, yeah, couldn’t have seen that one coming. Anyway, we decided that was going to be much too long, so we would just head on down to Huey’s on River. Savannah Dan had suggested it, and we had also found it reviewed well online. That 10 minute walk brought us to another 45 minute wait. ARGH!

OK, so at this point, we weren’t STARVING and it was about 10:30, so we figured we’d start walking towards Forsyth Park. In that area were both the Mercer House (from Midnight in the Garden of Eden) and Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. We wanted to eat at Mrs. Wilkes’ and I knew it opened at 11, so we figured we could make that work. On the way we stopped at Starbucks and were peppy, but starting to feel a bit of a growl in our bellies, but hey, we’ll be eating soon, right?

Wrong. Around 11, we finally found Mrs. Wilkes’. The problem was, that it is not open on SUNDAYS! OOPS! We’ve now walked about 1.5 miles, and were getting HANGRY (hungry-angry). We were quite a bit off the beaten path where we’d find restaurants, so we figured we’d head back towards the river where there were more restaurants. On our way we came across Soho South Café, but there was ANOTHER 45 minute wait! At this point, Joyce was ready to give up, but I was determined not to wait! I know it’s not rational. If we had just stayed at Goose Feathers, we would have already eaten by now, but I was totally in the zone at this point. The cranky zone. My excuse to Joyce for not waiting at Soho was that it was stupid and arty in there. Haha, yeah, that makes sense!

Where to next? Angels BBQ! It’s basically lunch time now, right? Angels was a place that was on our list of places to go and it was only five blocks away. With every step we were getting angrier and snippier. We walked to the address and strangely, there was no restaurant at all! We did two laps around the block and still couldn’t find it. What-the-What?!? At this point, Joyce sat down on the curb and started to cry. OK, well maybe not full tears or anything, but we were in a bad way. (Turns out that Angels BBQ is a hole-in-the-wall place that is ALSO not open on Sundays, so that’s why we couldn’t find it.) After collecting ourselves, we decided to just walk back to the hotel in defeat…it was now 11:30.

We dragged ourselves back towards the hotel and on the way, we walked by Goose Feathers again. This time there was essentially no wait! We just spent 2 hours walking almost 3 miles, only to end back where we started. This food best be worth it!

With no expectations, we both ordered Eggs Benedict on croissants with sweet tea, and I also got shrimp grits. Super Score! Even though we were about ready to pass out, the food here was beyond compare for a breakfast. It almost made our rough morning journey worthwhile…well, no, probably not.

It’s amazing what food and drink can do for us. We walked in distraught shells of ourselves, and were now full of pep and ready to take on the world! (or at least ready to get back on track with our vacation )

 

[BennyFedora]

With fresh legs, we decided we’d actually head back to Forsyth Park since we never quite made it in the morning. Forsyth is a huge park that looks like this:

The park also has the best public restroom area we’ve ever seen—no joke!

After having our fill of park time, we walked back and continued to enjoy the scenery:

Just before the trip, I had seen Midnight in the Garden of Eden (and Joyce read the book because she’s cool like that), so we stopped by the Mercer House.

We also saw this electric meter which was doing its best “Joyce blending in” impression.

At this point, we felt like we’d had our fill of Spanish moss and squares, so we went back to the room to plan out the rest of the day. Looking online, I saw that Tybee Island was just a short drive away, so we were off to see what it had in store for us!

The short answer. A lighthouse. There’s not really a whole lot at Tybee Island. Some beach, some touristy trinket places, some sketchy bars and restaurants, some icecream joints…and that’s about it. In fact, this is the only picture we took:

I should also mention that our small camera was about out of batteries at this point. We came with 2 batteries, but I forgot the charger, so the pictures get a bit thin from here on out

Being a bit disappointed with Tybee Island, we decided to stop at St. Bonaventure Cemetery. Joyce and I aren’t big on cemeteries, but this one is famous, so we thought we might as well see it. The only picture we took here is below, which we thought seemed like the most ironic thing we’d ever seen:

We were now tired and ready to go back and take our final nap to gear up for our final night of the trip ! When we got back to the room, we quickly flipped through the pictures and realized that the last pictures we had looked more like we were on a photo scavenger hunt than a vacation…haha

 

[klacey1]

Augh-- what annoying quest for breakfast! I'm just glad the food was worth it in the end-- how horrible would it have been if it sucked?!

 

[Practically_Perfect]

I'm back to try my hand at this again...

A few beers later, a stumbly Valerie tried desperately to get Bill to walk her home, in spite of his overwhelming IJNTIY vibe.

I'm
Just
Not
That
Into
You

It wasn’t as crazy as the Aussie burger, but IJLOFC!

And...I'm stumped!

 

[BennyFedora]

Augh-- what annoying quest for breakfast! I'm just glad the food was worth it in the end-- how horrible would it have been if it sucked?!

It was by far the worst part of the trip to that point (ominous foreshadowing music), but the food was truly delicious. In fact, Joyce and I drool over Goose Feathers' Eggs Benedict croissants on a regular basis!

I'm back to try my hand at this again...



I'm
Just
Not
That
Into
You



And...I'm stumped!

Glad to have you back! In fact, glad anyone's still following after I took so long between updates!

Yes on the first one, and then I Just Love Odd Food Combinations! I'll be sure to turn my acronasty button back on now that I know you're still playing

 

[Practically_Perfect]

Glad to have you back! In fact, glad anyone's still following after I took so long between updates!

Yes on the first one, and then I Just Love Odd Food Combinations! I'll be sure to turn my acronasty button back on now that I know you're still playing

Don't worry - I've been even longer....I have a mild excuse. I took all my notes on my blackberry, and I've since suceeded in crushing the screen in my car door, so you can only see the top two lines of text. Still though, I could go from pics and memory, right??

Wow - I was actually pretty close!

I figured that IJL was "I Just Love". And, since you were talking about a burger, I guessed that the F was for "Food", but I just couldn't make the O-Food-C make sense

 

[BennyFedora]

Don't worry - I've been even longer....I have a mild excuse. I took all my notes on my blackberry, and I've since suceeded in crushing the screen in my car door, so you can only see the top two lines of text. Still though, I could go from pics and memory, right??

Wow - I was actually pretty close!

I figured that IJL was "I Just Love". And, since you were talking about a burger, I guessed that the F was for "Food", but I just couldn't make the O-Food-C make sense

Yikes...sorry to hear about the BB! Is there any way to save the files to an SD card and pop them in the computer or forward them to another phone?

Super close on IJLOFC! It was pretty tricky

 

[BennyFedora]

Sorry about this, but STOP, REWIND, PLAY…Pretend we’re still back at the Owens-Thomas house…

Dr. James Gray Thomas was the person who gave the house to the Telfair Museum of Art, and he died in October, so the curators decided to give visitors a feel for mourning in the Victorian age throughout the month. They had mirrors draped with black fabric and curtains drawn and it was all pretty cool. In one of the rooms, they had a coffin with a “mourner” next to it. When we walked into the room, a woman was draped all in black and sitting motionless next to the coffin trying to give the appearance of being a mannequin. She then breaks into this way over dramatic rant about the loss and sort of collapses on the coffin—a performance which reminded me of someone who thought they were really good in drama club in high school. When she starts a minute or so after we get into the room, some people are really shocked because of her stealth. Joyce and I weren’t as startled because when we were in the next room over, Joyce noticed the familiar blue glow of a person checking something on her phone through her vail…BUSTED!

OK, maybe that wasn’t worth mentioning, but at the time Joyce and I thought it was high-laryous, and I’ve already written it…

Now back to our show…

Around 5pm, I wake to Joyce calling out “yes, yeES, YES!”…but not in a sexy-times way. Apparently, she had a dream where she was in the bathroom and my rats kept coming in through a crack in the door. She would kick at them and get some of them out, but they kept coming back in. After a while I asked her if she wanted me to take the rats away, and she tried to say “yes”, but just couldn’t. Finally she managed out a meek yes, followed by a better one, and then a loud one for good measure. That’s when I woke up and woke her up. Satisfied that all the imaginary rats (I have no rats) were gone, we got up and headed out to enjoy our last night on vacation

Side Note:
Do you remember your dreams? I practically never do, but Joyce often remembers hers in detail, and I’m a bit jealous. I’m pretty sure I have awesome dreams most of the time, but they're gone within seconds of waking…they totally need to invent a dream recorder.

Anywho…after Joyce’s wake up call, we decided to walk on over to Wild Wings Café which is really close to the hotel. It’s in an area called City Market that has a lot of shops, and restaurants with outside seating, and they even had a band playing. The band was comprised of 3 kids that seemed like 10-15 years old with brothers on the drums and bass and the sister was the lead singer with a guitar. I can’t remember what they played, but they were really good!

At Wild Wings we got buffalo chicken nachos as an appetizer, Joyce got pull pork sliders, and I got a buffalo chicken wrap—guess my hots-sauce-meter was reading about a quart low! Joyce got a SweetWater IPA and I got a SweetWater 420. We had never heard of SweetWater before, but the brewery is apparently located in Atlanta and also apparently really good at making beer! The timing of dinner was also convenient because I got to catch a bit of the Patriots game—even though it was only playing on 1 of their 50 TVs and two rooms away from where we were sitting. I missed the game the week before, and I’m kinda sure that was why we lost. Luckily, Joyce didn’t mind me getting up every so often to help beat the Raiders.

After dinner we decided to walk clear across town and stop in at 17 Hundred 90. It was a place that Valerie (from HH) had mentioned, as well as a couple of other people we’d met along the way. As we were walking, we got to an intersection with a light that I thought I had time to get across, even though I’d be crossing a green light and a car was a bit down the road. About 2 steps into the street, Joyce shouts “Stop and wait for the light!” and I do. The reason I mention this is that there was a dude walking towards us from the other side of the street. Apparently he thought Joyce was talking to him because he stopped, turned back, and waited for the light. HAHA! It changed a moment later and then we all crossed and he gave Joyce a bit of a confused look. Can you imagine thinking that a stranger across the street was yelling at you not to J-Walk? We can…

A few streets down, Joyce and I were starting to cross while the hand signal was flashing, but there were definitely no cars in sight. All of a sudden, a woman across the street shouted at US to stop! There were still no cars coming, so we kept going anyway (after our initial startle) and she yells, “I said STOP!” At this point we were really confused at being reprimanded and jumped back onto the curb. A moment later, I noticed that she was yelling at her 10 year old son essentially right behind me. Since it happened twice in 10 minutes, we figure that this sort of thing must happen all the time in Savannah…

We crossed all the rest of the streets without incident until we finally found 17 Hundred 90. We can prove it:

This is a really old restaurant/tavern/inn that was full of character and characters. Can you guess what year it was built?

I hope so

Again, our pictures are limited, but the inside had a low ceiling and a lot of old looking brick and wood and had an overall cool feel. We sat at the nearly empty bar, drank SweetWaters and immediately felt like we were on the set of a sitcom.

Next to us was an old man who was reading a newspaper, half-watching the Brewers-Diamondbacks NLDS game, and complaining, grumbling about several things to nobody.

Across from us was an older woman (think Mimi from the Drew Carey Show) flipping through a magazine that I couldn’t identify from this side of the room, but I’d guess was something from the rack at a grocery store check-out line.

To the right end of the bar was an extremely flamboyant gentleman telling Mimi and the bartender (a 30ish snarky girl who knew these regulars by name) about how he was really excited to have just “been chosen” to decorate for some fancy Christmas party. It must be SOME party because Christmas was still almost 3 full months away!

The only other people in the bar were two couples in their 60s at a table who were quite a few rounds of wine into the evening. The bartender shouted over to them that it was just about 7, so Happy Hour was ending and they should order another round now if they want one. One of the guys asks, “What happens when Happy Hour is over?” and she dryly replies, “It gets very serious in here…” This is where I imagine a bright “LAUGH” light flashes for the audience.

We didn’t really get involved in any of the conversations, but just happily watched the show for two beers and then continued on our way

Next we headed to Isaac’s which was one of the bars from the haunted pubcrawl the night before. In this bar, apparently they used to have boxing matches where a local Savannah hero beat all his opponents. One day a huge man from DC or something showed up and actually killed the Savannah boxer in the ring. The angry mob then hanged that guy and not knowing what to do, bricked him up in a wall in the basement. Many years later during a renovation, the unusual, non-load bearing wall was removed, and the bones were re-discovered. Yup, only in Savannah!

Isaac’s was totally empty except for us and the bartender, Marla. She was really nice and apparently lived with a roommate from Boston for quite a few years in CA. She was surprised that we didn’t really have accents since her friend still calls her “Maah-luh” and never lost even a bit of his accent. (As a note, Isaac’s is the only bar around that has Dogfish Head 60 Minute, so if you’re a fan like we are, this is the place to go!) A while later, a couple that seemed about our age came in and said that they had just come from a vacation in Charleston and were stopping through Savannah for two days before heading out of Atlanta. They LOVED Charleston and we talked to them about it quite a bit because that’s a city that we definitely want to combine with HH and visit in the near future. They had gotten there at about lunch time today and were kind of disappointed with Savannah so far. We told them that we knew exactly what they were talking about, and how Savannah Dan saved our trip. They decided they’d check him out and hopefully he saved their Savannah experience as well!

After a couple of MORE beers, it was off to JJ Bonerz—yup, that’s right! This bar had $2 PBR tallboys and free peanuts. I’m not a fan of PBR, but my wallet made me get them. At this point, Joyce was unaware that she would soon become a target…

…of peanut shells! By closing one eye, drunk Ben only had one Joyce to shoot at and became much more accurate.

We then wandered around and found this helpful sign, but I can’t quite remember where…

We ended up at Kevin Barry’s Irish pub. You can’t believe we’re still standing right? Well we’re professionals, so this is probably a good spot to envision your favorite public service announcement.

At Kevin Barry’s, our bartender actually had lived in Boston for a while, so that was fun, but we were again basically the only people at the bar. We then headed over to the next room where the world famous Frank Emerson was on stage and singing to the one other couple in the room. Frank really isn’t all that famous. I just Googled him, and from his website, he mostly only plays at Kevin Barry’s. Regardless, it was amazing to have live Irish music when you’re drunk and basically the only people in the joint!

After a few more beers it was about a quarter to pass-out-o-clock, so we stumbled back to the room. We were sad that our vacation was coming to an end, but so happy that it really turned out to be everything we had hoped for. Our flight was out of MCO (5 hour drive) but it wasn’t until 8 pm, so we knew we weren’t in a rush to get up and out the next day. We had toyed with the idea of just flying out of the Savannah-Hilton Head airport which was only about 20 minutes away, but the flight would have cost more, not been non-stop, and the car rental would have cost about an extra $500 because of the one-way fee. Besides, our flight wasn’t until late in the day, so we’d have plenty of time, right? WCPGW?

 

[ronnmel]

Hey! I think I know that one!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

BTW, I'm still following the trip report and enjoying the read.

 

[BennyFedora]

Hey! I think I know that one!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

BTW, I'm still following the trip report and enjoying the read.

Excellent work on the acronym! I'll try to wrap up our final day soon, because I'm sure I've got you on the edge of your seat!

While it's fun to relive the vacation through a TR, it's always nice to hear that other people are enjoying it, too! Since this was my first TR--and a non-park one at that--I wasn't sure if anyone would join along, especially after my long break. Thanks for sticking around!

 

[BennyFedora]

CAUTION...this final section is a lot of writing, but a lot of action!

Ahead of our “safety alarm” set for 10:30, we actually woke up closer to 9 and were in surprisingly good spirits considering the previous evening’s liver workout. While Joyce packed up our stuff, I went to the business center and printed out boarding passes which unfortunately had boarding assignments that left us hoping that back row would be available again. A short while later, we checked out and packed up the car on our way to our new favorite breakfast place, Goose Feathers.

While the menu did tempt us, we really couldn’t get anything other than the Eggs Benedict on croissants. This time we did get an extra croissant to share, though, because A) they were the best croissants we’d ever had, and B) we had to ration croissant the day before to make sure we cleaned the plate of all the egg and hollandaise sauce. An extra croissant just made life a little better.

On the way out, the waiter asked us if we wanted sweet teas to go. I love sweet tea. I extra love the fact that this whole beverage to go thing in Savannah extends to non-alcoholic beverages as well! Finally, at 11:20 we headed out. Here’s the last picture we have before our camera told us it was officially done.

With a 5 hour drive to MCO, we figured that would put us there around 4:30 with 3 hours to spare before the flight. We knew we had to get dinner somewhere, so the plan was to stop somewhere kind of close to MCO for dinner, burn a bit of time, and then drop off the car and head out. Along the way, we started getting a bit hungry and saw a sign for a Sonic. Now, Sonic isn’t anything special, but neither Joyce nor I had actually even been to one. We’re just never usually in Sonic territory. I think there might be 3 in New England or something—certainly none near us when we’ve ever been hungry. Joyce was looking on her phone and it seemed like there was one in Daytona that would be convenient, but then it turned out to be closed or something. So then I ask (much to Joyce’s delight) how far exactly is it to WDW if we were to sort of drive by MCO and then swing back? (That was worth about 20 DH brownie points!) I knew it was about 30 minutes between WDW and MCO in general, so I was thinking that it might be close.

We've eaten at many resorts, but had never been to Saratoga Springs, so we thought we'd check that out. If we got to SS at 5, ate right away, and left by 6, we could get to MCO and drop off the car by 6:30 and be right on time for our 7:40 flight…assuming everything went perfectly. Joyce quickly looked on her phone and it turned out that MCO and SS sort of make a triangle off the highway, so it actually takes the same amount of time to get to SS directly as MCO (saving 30 minutes of my estimate) and giving us the cushion we needed to turn this from “wemightjusthavetimefingerscrossed” into a winner!

Through Joyce’s phone, she booked an ADR for 4:30 at The Turf Club Bar and Grill and we flipped through the menu deciding what we were going to get and thoroughly pleased with ourselves for adding yet another WDW stop on our WDWless trip

The time flies by and we’re rocking out to whatever music comes on the radio—country, reggae, katy perry, Metallica. The road is open, the speed limit is 70, and our Chevy Aveo is chugging right along with the cruise control set at 72. We pass by the exit on our printed directions to get to MCO and continue on Route 4. About 10 minutes later…VROOOOOOM…white knuckles…scared faces…

As I said, I had the cruise control on 72 basically all week and the tachometer was right around 3000 RPMs which makes sense. Out of nowhere the tachometer jumps up way past 5000 which is NOT good. I quickly tap the break once and turn off the cruise control while switching lanes to the right and let the car just glide for a bit, hoping that somehow the car will decide that it should shift back into 5th gear. I slow down to about 50 and slowly give it the gas again, but the car just stays in 4th gear. ARGH! Any faster than 50 and the RPMs just go way up and the car just won’t shift. It’s like 5th gear fell out on the highway somewhere and from here on out 4th is the best we’re going to get.

At this point, we scrap the SS ADR idea, and I take the next exit to pull into a gas station. As I get to the end of the ramp and am slowing down, the car starts bucking as the tachometer needle bounces near zero. To keep from stalling, I’m keeping one foot on the gas a bit while I’m also hitting the break so the RPMs stay up above 1000. Finally we pull into the gas station, I throw it in park, and Joyce is just about ready to cry.

Plan B. Well, I didn’t want to turn the car off for fear of it not starting again, so we just sat there for a minute, sputtering and bucking while I keep giving it just a bit of gas. With our flight now less than 3 hours away, we figure we just need to get to the airport (or as close as possible) as quickly as possible.

Getting back on the highway, I keep a solid 50 going in the exit lane with my hazards on (remember, most cars are doing 70-80). Joyce keeps freaking out and I’m so nervous that my eyes hurt, and we just keep celebrating the exits like they are little victories. Finally we get to our exit…PHEW!

OK, not phew. See, on the highway, it was a steady 50 with traffic zooming around me on the left. I’ve now got 4 miles of surface roads with lights and constant stop-and-go traffic. The whole time I have to keep doing my two-foot driving with the break and gas which was about 100x worse than the highway. Now every intersection is a victory…

After what seemed like forever, we did get to the car return, but now I’m already starting an argument in my head with the Thrifty person who’s going to tell me that I need to pay for the rest of my tank that was down to about ¼, and you best believe that I’m not turning this car off until I’m at their gate! So when we get to the car return, I jump out and Joyce and I practically kissed the ground. When I handed the woman the keys, I think I got out 3 sentences of gibberish before I calmed down enough to tell her what happened and how I wasn’t going to pay for the gas. She was actually really nice and marked it as full on my receipt and sent me on my way.

Now, PHEW!

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We ate at Macaroni Grill and walked around every square inch of MCO to waste time. We thought it would be a cool picture to add to our scavenger hunt if I took a picture next to the NASA store wearing my NASA shirt with the same logo—alas, it was packed. Once at the gate, we were approximately the last people to board the plane and unfortunately ETLRWT so we DNGTSNTEO…boohoo.

Minus the super stressful ending, this was an amazing trip, and we were so glad that we were able to put DVC to such good use AND sprinkle in a bit of WDW on our Parkless Disney Adventure. Thank you all for tagging along with us, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!