Hidden Gem in Savannah

Another great hidden treasure that we came across today, it’s just a short ten minute drive from downtown Savannah to the Oatland Island Education Center, even though the center is owned and run by the County Board of Education it is open to the public.

The sixty-acre forest was once cleared farmland where the McQueen family, made famous in Eugenia Price’s (one of Cathy’s favorite authors) novel Don Juan McQueen, grew cotton during the 18th and 19th centuries.

As you drive up the palm lined divided drive to the center you spot the center, the building alone has a very interesting history.
It was built in 1927 as a retirement home for the Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors, then during WWII it was used as a hospital. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then used it as a laboratory, and when it was declared surplus in 1973, the Chatham Board of Education took it over and created the education center. The building was used in the movie The General's Daughter, starring John Travolta.

The center has about two miles of trails that take you to the various animal exhibits, the river boardwalk, a heritage home site and the farm with its barnyard. We spent about three hours walking the trails which were lined with azalea’s that were close to full bloom.

When we first saw this nest hatching we went crazy thinking how lucky we were to be here at just the right time, until we looked a little closer and discovered that it was fake.










Boardwalk & Richardson Creek









Bob Cat and a sleeping Black Bear











Two American Icons














The wolfs were great, there were five of them and they were waiting for their feeder to come so they were very active think everyone that came down the path had food for them.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay My, oh my what a wonderful day.
Why are we singing the Song of the South, it must be that we’re parked in front of the Uncle Remus Museum which is located on US 441 in the town of Eatonton GA., the birthplace of the author of all the Br’er Rabbit stories. Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton , when he was 13 years old he got a job on the Turnwold Plantation where he was a printers helper, the plantation was about eight miles out of town and he lived there with the owner. To entertain himself at night after work he would go sit on the porch of the slave cabins and listen to the stories that the slaves told. Later in his life when he was living in Atlanta he wrote and published these stories that he remembered from his youth on the plantation. There is not too much at this museum, it doesn’t take more then 15-20 minutes to see everything, but it’s only a buck and you can walk through the Briar Patch.




click on picture to enlarge and read










This is just something that we stumble across where criss crossing the back roads of Putman County.

Double Bubble MicroCar Museum

If you love cars this is a must, it’s the Double Bubble Micro Car Museum, it’s located about 4 miles south of the city of Madison GA. On US 441. The museum is only open Tuesday through Thursday from 1pm to 4pm. Donation of $5 per person, which goes to the local Humane Society After WWII the airplane factories in Europe were banned from building aircraft so they retooled there factories to build cars, but since fuel was so costly the designed micro cars with 1 and 2 cylinder engines that got up to 80 miles per gallon and a top speed of some where around 60 & 80 KPH. I’ll just post the pictures with a little description if I can remember anything about the car.

These are all real cars that where driven on the street, mostly in Europe but some in the USA.













The small one is a pedal car





















Rainbow row



A real Police Car from Germany



















Notice that there is only one front tire on the red car.









the engine on this dragster is really larger the the original car body,










The police and Traffic can be pretty tough down here.













This is what the curator of the museum drives, go figure.