Howdy ya'll.  We've hardly stopped to catch our breath since leaving New Orleans. We are still having a great time and finding Southerners to be welcoming although we wish they didn't fry all of their food (we have had fried chicken 3 times in 3 days).  Besides eating too much fried chicken -we made a quick stop in Meridian, Mississippi, drove across Alabama and Georgia in one day and visited Savannah and Charleston in South Carolina.

 In Meridian, we toured the Merrehope and Williams Houses, two of the only houses left standing in that city after General William T. Sherman's Savannah ("March to the Sea") Campaign.

We had only one day in Savannah and took three separate walking tours that highlighted the city's historic houses, gates and gardens and ghost sites.

Savannah was full of beautiful architectural details

This is a 3-D modern garden gate

The Hamilton-Turner Inn had the first electric light in Savannah

 In Charleston we strolled through the  oldest neighborhoods and toured the Nathaniel Russell House, a grand "London Style" townhouse completed in 1808.  

It sure is hot here, and the plants that grow as shrubs in California are trees here. 

The gardenias are in bloom