By Ben |

I stayed at the hostel until lockout this morning (10:00) and then checked in on the Tree Climbing Championships on my way to church.

The UU Church of Savannah calls itself the Jingle Bells Church (http://www.jinglebellschurch.org) because John Pierpont was serving as its music director at the time he published "Jingle Bells" and a number of other ditties.  He wrote the song while he was still living in Massachussetts... anyone driving a sleigh in Savannah back then would be pulling it through mud.  I was interested to visit the church because most of the congregation were actual Southerners, unlike in Florida where they were mostly snowbirds from New York and thereabouts.

In the afternoon I rode out to Bonaventure Cemetery, which despite its fame is not shown on the tourist maps of Savannah and not, as far as I can tell, included in any of the bus tours.  As a result it was very quiet as well as beautiful, and I enjoyed it very much.

Then I rode out to Skidaway Island State Park, southwest of town.  Had I not known about the hostel, I would have tried to use the park as my base of operations while seeing Savannah... I'm very glad I didn't do that, because it's a long ride on narrow roads with lots of traffic.  The hostel was much more convenient, despite the lockout and such.

15.7 mi