Savannah to Atlanta

Today started, as yesterday, with cloudless skies, making it even more difficult to say goodbye to Savannah. The city has a great feel to it and we all agreed we are coming back here. We had a late breakfast and then drove a couple of kilometres to Hertz, where I had booked a one-way rental car to drive to Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson international airport. I drove the rental car and Wendy followed me in the Landcruiser to the shippers, Jax Auto Shipping. Their yard is stacked out with wrecked cars that are being shipped to the third world, where they are broken up or repaired.

I hate to think of people driving some of the repaired wrecks!

We took one final look at our 'trusty steed' and said farewell to it. That is, until we see it in California in a few weeks time.

As we drove back to the hotel, we went past several buildings that had the famous Savannah College of Art and Design initials, SCAD.

Once back at the hotel, we collected our bags and checked out of the Bohemian. It has been a great hotel for the last couple of nights of the drive.

I couldn't resist posting one photo of the diabolical-looking Hyatt Hotel, which is next door to the Bohemian. How the developers got permission to put up such a monstrosity is beyond me.

The hotel was close to the Savannah Cotton Exchange. I liked the composition of this photo, taken by Wendy, with the building framed by trees with Spanish Moss hanging from the branches.

Initially, we drove out on I16, the freeway that runs all the way to Atlanta, about 400 kms from Savannah. After about 100 kms, we decided to take to the side roads, and what a good decision that turned out to be. We drove through beautiful country with wooded areas and open farmland. We came to an area with lovely-looking cotton fields. We pulled off the road by one field that was a dazzling white. Wendy took these close-ups of the fluffy cotton buds.

This cotton bud looks like it has been carefully tied up like a parcel.

Our rental car, a Nissan Sentra, parked by the cottonfield.

I couldn't resist posting a photo of this car. The driver pulled out from a side turning without even looking in our direction. I had to do an emergency stop to avoid hitting the car.

The road took us to the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, which we drove through without seeing any wildlife at all!

Once out of the Refuge, we came to this large lake that turned out to be formed by a dam. We saw a number of eagles soaring high above, unfortunately too far away to take good photos.

We reached the freeway leading into Atlanta at about 5pm. We saw this Lexus with an interesting number plate. I wondered if the driver was one of the Shuttle astronauts.

Our flight to London was leaving at 9.15pm, so we had plenty of time as we drove the last few kilometres to the airport.

We took the car to the Rental Return area and the Hertz manager, seeing us struggling with all our bags, offered to drive us to the terminal, rather than using the shuttle bus. So, thank you Hertz.

We checked our bags in and learned that the seats I had paid for were not available. I was annoyed to think I had wasted £60 to guarantee our seat locations. I told the check-in staff I was very unhappy, but all she said I could do was to contact BA customer services in London!  Not much help when you have a flight to catch in a couple of hours. We went through security and then to the gate, where we had a two hour wait for our flight. Ten minutes before boarding, I heard my name being called and I went to the gate desk. To my great surprise and delight, we were told we had been upgraded to Business Class. Sleeper seats, what joy on a night flight!!!

Thank you BA. My faith in you is restored.

It was the perfect way to end our drive and what a great drive it has been - one we will remember for years to come.

So, I can finally sign off. Thanks to all those who have posted comments and sorry to learn that, for reasons beyond me, some have not been able to do so. Still, maybe that's a good thing, especially for one particular person, who will be nameless, who usually posts derogatory comments about my journalistic skills!

Here's to the next drive, wherever it may be.

Addendum

My cousin, who lives on Salt Spring Island, Vancouver, has just noticed that my technical knowledge of bridge construction is not quite what it should be! He picked up on the fact that where I described the two bridges we crossed in Charleston and Savannah as suspension bridges, they were in fact cable-stayed. Full marks to you, Basil!

I have now amended the postings accordingly.