Savannah Book Festival

I enjoyed the festival, I had fun sightseeing, and I learned that I need to pay attention to my GPS when traveling, but not for the reason one might think

A picture from my 2015 trip to Savannah

Hi readers,

I love road trips for lots of reasons—especially if the route is somewhere I haven’t traveled before. I went to Savannah in 2015, but it was a different route and a different time of the year. This trip was uneventful, which is what you want when driving fifteen hours over two days. I stayed in Tuscaloosa, AL, on the way to Savannah and Vicksburg, MS, on the way home. The trip from start to finish was about 2,700 miles, which included 600 miles of sightseeing once I got to Savannah. On the second day of driving, my phone dinged, and I expected to see a text, but it said, “Speed check ahead.” I had no idea what it was, so I ignored it. More about that later.

When I arrived in the Savannah area, I checked into my Airbnb, which was about ten miles from town but a direct route with nice roads and no construction. I met the host, unpacked, and after settling in, I headed to downtown Savannah to check out the festival area set in two of the squares, figure out where I wanted to park on Saturday, and then walked down to the waterfront area for some sightseeing. I walked the length of the waterfront like I did with my family in 2015 and stopped at several little shops and candy stores along the way. At every candy store, I had to get a sample of the pralines; a trip to the South isn’t complete without those yummy treats. When I finished on the waterfront, I went back to the Airbnb for the night.

The Waterfront area and the River Street Market Place in Savannah

On Friday, I went to Tybee Island. I love this quaint little place, and since it was a weekday, it wasn’t overcrowded with tourists. In fact, some of the shops were closed until Saturday. I walked the pier, I walked up one side and back down the other side of the main tourist street, ate lunch at Rock House Original Bar & Grill, and then stopped for ice cream at Seaside Sisters. I never pass up the opportunity for a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream cone.

I stopped at the Tybee Island Light Station & Museum on the way back to Savannah, and sadly, the lighthouse was closed for restoration, but the other buildings were open along with the museum store. I left the island, went back through Savannah, and drove across the big bridge. When I got to the other side, I saw a sign that said Beaufort, so I headed that way, thinking I’d go to the Pat Conroy Literary Center, but my luck was the same there, too—it was closed. I didn’t realize that the center was only open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and I arrived shortly after that, so I couldn’t go in there either. Even though I wasn’t having good luck, I did enjoy driving around the area and seeing the sights.

Lighthouse and building, pier, and Conroy Literary Center

Saturday is festival day, and I decided the day before that since my knee was hurting, I’d go to the venue with the most authors I wanted to hear from and just stay there all day so I wouldn’t have to walk back and forth. Great idea, but I didn’t account for the fact that each author's talk location (six different) had an hour break, and I wouldn’t be allowed to stay inside the building during that break.

The first two author talks were Gregg Hurwitz and Steven Rowley. I’d heard of Hurwitz but had never read any of his books. The venue was packed, and you could tell that most people there were genuine fans of his. By the end of his talk, I also turned into a fan. He talked about his path to publishing, writing a multiple-book series, and AI issues of concern to writers. I’m excited to read my first Hurwitz book, but I think I’ll start with a stand-alone instead of getting hooked on a multi-book series.

The second author was Steven Rowley, and he was as funny as I had hoped he would be. He talked about his books and how each one came to be—his real-life dog that inspired Lily and the Octopus and how his brother and two nephews inspired The Guncle. He told funny personal stories and answered questions about his writing process, his husband, and his latest book, The Celebrants. He is as delightful and personable as I thought he would be.

After being shooed out of the building for the break, I headed to the other square and found the BEST fish ‘n chips I’ve ever eaten from a food truck. It was so good—I wish I could have eaten another order, but I was stuffed to the rim. I headed back to the venue I was at before because there were two panels I wanted to go to (historical fiction and thrillers), but there was an author before the panels, and when I got back there, the line was wrapped around the building and down the street for that author. The festival volunteers said that not everyone in line would get in, and I was after the cutoff point, so I decided to walk to a bookstore I had seen the day before.

I found E. Shaver, Bookseller, and the store was packed with people. The building that is now a bookstore was built in 1842 as a personal residence, then later housed an antique store, and then in 1975 was turned into a bookstore, which accounts for all the different rooms inside. I didn’t know the history of the place when I was there, but after being inside, I was sure it had to have been a residence in the past. Each room held a different genre(s) or age group of books, and there were a couple of rooms of other bookstore items and gifts. Those who live in Savannah have the best independent bookstore to claim as their own. By this time, my knee was really hurting, so I decided to leave the festival and do more sightseeing driving around the area.

1st picture, courtesy of E. Shaver Bookseller, all other pics are mine

I had a free day on Sunday to plan for, and since I’d done so much around Savannah, I decided to head south to Amelia Island, FL. I started planning what I wanted to do, looked at the weather, and saw that it was supposed to be pouring all day. Instead of heading south, I decided to go north to Charleston, SC, and see a few things I didn’t when I was there in 2015.

I got up early on Sunday and headed out for the two-hour drive to Charleston. Even though it wasn’t raining, the day started cold and windy. I drove through Charleston to the Isle of Palms, the location of the Beach House book series by Mary Alice Monroe, to see where the books were set. While there, I drove by Casa Flamingo, where, for the mere amount of $34k, you can rent it for four days in July. It’s too rich for my budget and also too pink, but it was fun to see. I wanted to go to Dewees Island, but I learned from Monroe’s books that only residents and pre-registered guests of residents can board the ferry to the island. I drove back to downtown Charleston for a little while and then headed back to Savannah to prepare to leave for home the next day.

Charleston, The Battery area, and Casa Flamingo

I had thought about driving a different route for the trip home, maybe taking some side roads and seeing some sites to break up the monotony of driving, but when I checked the weather, the different routes showed rain across most of one day of driving. Some of the other roads were not freeways, so I didn’t want to trust that there wouldn’t be flooding if there was a lot of rain.

I headed out early Monday morning, and it wasn’t too long before my phone dinged again with “Speed check ahead.” Within a couple of minutes, there was a police vehicle running radar in the center median, and it finally dawned on me (duh) what a speed check was. While I was stopped for gas, I googled it to find out more and figured out exactly what it meant and how to report seeing a cop running radar. You can rest assured that I now know what it means and how to report it, as others drive over the speed limit like I do. I try to drive no more than 5-10 mph over, and other drivers were passing me like I was out for a Sunday drive with Grandpa. I will always use GPS when driving long distances, even if I know the route, as that is the only way to see a “Speed check ahead” warning. Fortunately, there were no tickets for me, even though it took me way too long to figure this out.

I made it home with no problems—a little tired from driving, but so happy I went. The festival was fun. I wish I had gone to more events, but there were so many people there that it was hard to get into events before the seating filled up. I’m not sure what the answer to this problem is, nor do I know if the festival organizers realize it’s a problem, but I’d definitely go back again with a bit of different planning next time.

I’m busy mapping out the road trip for my next book festival in Newburyport, MA, which is coming up toward the end of April. This trip will be 1,800 miles one way through a part of the country I’ve never been to before. I’m excited about going, but also a little nervous about all the driving, especially through some of the big cities I will have to travel through to get there. I’ve had fun sharing my trip with you, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it and had a laugh or two. Until the next trip, happy traveling!

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