Dear Dry Ink,

After living in Georgia for well over 22 years, this was only my third trip to Savannah. My first trip was to visit the ship Mimi on which the now legendary educational series, The Voyage of the Mimi, was filmed. It was a fun, “educational” trip for a middle school boy such as myself. Much different from later trips of course, but fun nonetheless. We visited the trick shop and put fart spray in the vents of the hotel. We spent two nights if I’m not mistaken. The fart spray culprit almost got sent home. That person was not me.

My second trip to Savannah was to play a show. Last summer, on a Thursday, Clinton and I drove down to play at 10. We got there at 7, unloaded, ate, and played. I had work the next day, so I drove myself back. The things you do for rock and roll. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Round trip in one day, however, was not fun. I had to go back to fix this.

Third time’s a charm. No Mimi, no fart spray, just Michael Jackson, the beach, BBQ, and ghosts. Lindsey and I left around 6 in the evening, and quickly started our trip. We spent our time trying to shave minutes off the GPS and succeeded. Michael Jackson died exactly a year ago, so we trolled the radio, anxiously awaiting his music. Score! “Man in the Mirror” and “Black or White” on the radio. This made my trip. Dance music is the best and nobody beats the King of Pop.  Along the way, we hit rain and some KFC before spotting those Spanish moss-covered trees around 11. There was a feeling that accompanied this sight which also let us know we were in Savannah.

The next morning we got breakfast at the hotel before making our way to Tybee. I hadn’t actually relaxed on the beach for years (maybe ever), so this was a treat. I did some body surfing, but ultimately spent most of my time reading under the umbrella. Reading is great. Time to actually do it is rare. We were briefly interrupted by people protesting off-shore drilling. Yes, there are problems, but this is vacation, dude. Went back to relaxing. Have you ever realized how water greatly enhances hunger? We handled this problem at Wylie’s BBQ. Seriously, this was just about the best food, let alone BBQ that I’ve ever had. Perfect. After showering and killing time at the Hotel, we made our way to historic downtown.  We wanted to eat at Paula Deen’s place, but they were booked for the whole evening. No surprise there. So we ate at Anne’s. It was good.

The highlight of the trip was Chase Anderson’s historic ghost walk through the city at night. Mass graves, murder, voodoo, the Civil War, hangings, and old haunted buildings were all discussed on the tour and held my interest for the entire 1 ½ hours. This is what I came for. Savannah is built atop thousands of bodies and the streets pave over mass graves of people. I did not know this. That explains a bunch about the most haunted place in America.

We returned to Tybee the next day where I did some more reading and surfing. We hit the road to the sound of more Michael Jackson and returned home late in the evening. The trip was awesome, but too short. Life and death in Savannah. Naturally, I’ll be back.