Day 14: Dillon to Savannah, GA

I slept for almost 8 whole hours the night we stayed in Dillon, which meant I woke up feeling FANTASTIC. A good thing, because we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some food and asked where we could get good coffee in the area, and the clerk kind of laughed at us. You can't get that kind of thing until you reach the coast, you see.

The coast being Myrtle Beach, immortal home of Shag: The Movie, and a bastion of all that is delightfully tacky and overdeveloped beachy. We headed out, picked up a coffee (who knew Dunkin' Donuts made lattes and other espresso drinks? And they're basically decent!), and cruised down the main drag. It was pretty excellent. We stopped and picked up postcards, then headed on down the coast highway to Charleston.

It was about the time we stepped out of the car in Charleston - into the wet, steamy heat that made us sweat within the first breath taken in outside air - that we started to re-think our plan to camp that night in Savannah. Camping in Ithaca was great, but it was about a gazillion degrees cooler there.

We had some delicious lunch in Charleston, then wandered around and looked at some gorgeous old houses and the city's old slave market. By the time we made it back to the car, accompanied (appropriately) by our good friends Ben & Jerry, we'd talked ourselves into staying at a hotel in Savannah. We picked the River Street Inn - gorgeous place, great view of the river, kinda blew our budget.

Actually, it probably wouldn't have had *that* bad an effect on our budget if we hadn't also had dinner and a bottle of wine at the too-fancy-for-my-wardrobe Il Pasticcio. But damn, was that meal and wine worth it!

Also, Savannah at night is beautiful, but apparently very dangerous - according to our server, who Anja asked for recommendations for a walking route. I think she may have simply been trying to protect the drunk tourists, myself.