Savannah. Two nights for $12.

The first great thing about Savannah, Georgia, is I can park my van at the Visitors Center for 48 hours to the tune of $12. The building is next door to the art college's gallery as well as 10 blocks to the historic river front downtown. I love being able to leave my van in a safe place, call it home, and go out for walks in a new city.

At one point while driving there I had to come onto the breaks, hard, sending the items stored under my bed flying through the hatch and crashing forward between the seats. I thought, 'well, this can't happen', so I stopped at an Ace Hardware to buy a hinge. What started out as a simple fix became an hour long back and forth with one of the employees. But, we did figured it out and I felt better having fixed the problem.

I also stopped at "Artistic Taxidermy Shop and Museum" to look around and take some photos. I made the mistake of getting into a conversation with the owner about hunting, consequently keeping me stuck there for 15 minutes longer than I wanted to be. I should probably learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes.

On arriving in Savannah, I parked the van and we toured the southern historic district on foot. It is similar to New Orleans' French Quarter but smaller and cleaner. You can buy a drink, daiquiris are the specialty, and take it along for the walk. The same as in New Orleans. This also produces drunk, loud puking people, however on a much smaller, more tolerable scale. It's a very pretty place and I feel quite safe everywhere I've walked. I've been very good at keeping a low budget. I've been doing as many free activities as possible. So far I've managed to spend about $10 on beverages, including the $5 coffee I treated myself to at the coffee/wi-fi spot I'm writing from. The rest of the time is spent walking, sitting in a park or window shopping.

Today we took a little road trip to Tybee Island which is toted as an artistic island with a 3.5 mile length. We took an illegal stroll a short ways on the beach; dogs aren't allowed anywhere there it seems. I meandered along the shop-lined streets but didn't feel too inspired to shop. The one place I found that I did browse in was just on the outskirts of downtown, on my way back. They had pile of stuff to go through and I was very tempted to but a an old neon sign letter but I restrained myself. It was a red letter C and it was lovely. Alas, there is no shopping for unnecessary things when you live in a van. Sigh. Back into Savannah I took Okie to the big park and sat in the sun with her tied to a long lead so she could explore and eat things. Just before we get up to go, a photo student and her friends come over and ask if they can photograph Okie. She's using a film camera and shooting black and white and developing it herself! Hallelujah!! I didn't think schools taught film anymore. I'm thrilled and of course Okie hams it up for them.

I like it here. The east coast of Georgia is full of swampy lands, island, rivers and bridges. The city is easy to navigate. Either I'm getting better at this or it's really well planned. Back on the road tomorrow. South Carolina bound.