Quick Side Trip

Sometimes when you are out driving you turn down a road just to see where it goes. It is one of the great things about living in the United States. If you stay on public roads and obey the law, no one cares where you are going. Yesterday we were in Savannah and decided to go for a drive on Skidaway Road. It takes you, of all places, to Skidaway Island. That was not our destination. Carol had heard about some houses on Isle of Hope so we thought maybe there was something worth looking at down that direction. Along the way we saw the entrance to Wormsloe Historic Site. Well, you know me and history so we took a side trip. This is the entrance to Wormsloe.

Wormsloe was the estate established by Noble Jones. It would be reasonable for you to ask who the hell is Noble Jones? He lived from 1700 to 1775 and was one of the founders of Colonial Georgia. Noble Jones obtained a grant for 500 acres on the Isle of Hope in 1736. He constructed a fortified house on the southeast tip of the island overlooking the Skidaway Narrows a section of the Skidaway River about halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and downtown Savannah. The house was one of a series of defensive structures designed to protect Savannah from a potential Spanish invasion. During his lifetime Noble Jones was able to amass a vast real estate holding amounting to 5,500 acres and 5 town lots in Savannah. The Wormsloe estate was donated to the State of Georgia and opened as an historic site in 1979. The descendants of Noble Jones still own the Wormsloe House and its surrounding acreage. After you enter the gate pictured above to arrive at the historic site you drive down this mile and a half road lined on either side with live oak trees.

When you look at this does it somehow seem vaguely familiar? It should. In the movie Forest Gump this is the road Forest and Jenny were walking on when Jenny yelled those famous words. "Run Forest, run!" It is where Forest ran out of his braces as the boys in a pickup truck were chasing him.

So, when the opportunity arises, take a turn down a road. See what you find. Maybe it isn't Noble Jones' estate but there is something worth seeing and remembering down many roads in America.