Savannah, Georgia to Raleigh, North Carolina

Over the last few days we have covered a lot of miles. And I mean a lot. One night stops are hard work, you arrive mid to late afternoon, sometimes in the evening and get back on the bus early the next morning to do it again. For those following along on the map, in this stretch we've gone from Miami to Cocoa Beach, to St Augustine, to Savannah, to Raleigh, and end up in Washington D.C. tomorrow for a luxiourous 3 night stay. 

Savannah was a beautiful city, very obsessed with park squares. Have you watched Forrest Gump? The park where is sits waiting for the bus and narrates his story is in Savannah. In fact here it is:

The actual park bench is at the visitors centre. I have a picture of that too somewhere. Savannah is a place I wanted to visit as it really captured the 'South American' culture that I wanted to experience. I definetly want to come back here and explore it more. It's on my 'return to' list. 

We arrived in Savannah around mid day and promptly lined up at 107 West Jones Street. This is a normal home on a normal street, with an amazing history. Mrs Wilkes Boarding House is an institution in Savannah and in the USA. You line up for about an hour and when you get to the door you sit at a dining table with other customers. In front of you is a table covered in about 18 dishes of homemade southern food and the biggest plate of the most amazing fried chicken you can imagine. You dig in and when you empty a bowl or plate they replace it. At the end of the meal you take you dishes to the kitchen, pay and attempt to roll yourself back your hotel. It was quite honestly one of the most amazing meals I've had here and real quintessential South USA culture experience. We ate so much food that i'm pretty sure we were 'food drunk' on the walk to the hotel, where we proceeded to curl up in the foetal position on the reception floor (that's no joke - the rooms weren't ready and we were about to go on a tour of the city). 

After the tour we went out to a local pub for a few drinks and a few rounds of pool. The majority of the group moved on to another pub after an hour or so, but a smaller (and cooler ;) ) group stayed behind. With $2 beers and pool tables to play can you blame us?! We had a ball and spent a bit of time flirting with a group of local boys, whom were enamoured with out accents. 

The next morning more sick bags were passed out on the bus than throughout the rest of the tour combined. It was going to be a very long and messy drive to Raleigh. 

We stopped in Charleston, South Carolina, another very pretty and old city on the East Coast with a lot of history, in fact it was the site where the Civil War began. 24 hours after Mrs Wilkes, a lot of beers and not much sleep we needed food, and pronto. After a brilliant steak, we finally managed to appreciate the Charleston city and visited the markets. 

We spent a total of 7 hours on the bus today, which is a lot for one day. You can't move much, there's constant chatter or music, or movies playing and it's hot. Oh and smelly. Anyway, we arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina around 6pm. To be honest not many people have had much positive things to say about Raleigh. Based on my experiences so far there is something very awesome and different about each city and place we visit, so I'm sure there is something about Raleigh. Unfortunately we won't really get to find out as this stop is really just a stop for a stops sake. We are back on the road tomorrow to Washington D.C. I can't wait, there is so much to see and do there!