After moving to Hilton, I heard about the famous St. Patrick’s Day Parade celebration in Savannah and I made it my business to attend. Luckily I was able to use Holiday Inn Reward Points to avoid a $450 a night rate. I made arrangements to meet SD in the Friday to have a pre-parade warm up. She was working her second job at Slowride and we meet up after her shift ended. She was with some of her Slowride friends, who were pretty cool. We went to the Rail Pub which was voted best dive bar in America and it did not disappoint. The music was cookin’, the booze was flowing and spirits were high. One of SD’s friends was Joe who was tall and full of personality. He immediately offered his flask and we hit it off right away. He was met but his two beautiful cousins, Tasha and Danielle from Detroit. Tasha is older and the more outgoing one. I will not guess age because many black women I know, look much younger than their driver’s license will reveal. She did day she had grown child so I am guessing about 40. Her sister Danielle was the quiet one but she did not fool me at all. Watch out for the quiet ones as the saying goes. Afterwards Joe, SD, Josh (another friend) and I hit a Mexican place for much needed food. It is on MLK called Carlito’s. SD and I have been there several times before. Good food and drinks and the prices are very reasonable. We separated and SD and I hit 2 more places. First we hit Stafford’s Public House by Factory Walk, a place I have visited once before with Julia on a pub crawl. Small place but amazing drinks and a top notch bar staff. After a few drinks, we moved over to Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos. First I must say that this place is one of my favorite establishments and a place not to be missed by the one time visitor and must be hit frequently by natives and those of us from HHI who come to Savannah for spiritual therapy. There was a drum and fife band from Rockland County, NY and the performers were kickin’ as always. There was a cute girl selling shots in test tubes and SD and I were indulging liberally. My hotel was near by so I was letting loose for a change. On HHI, I have to drive 12-15 minutes home so I have to behave myself as opposed to my nights on Forest Avenue where I walked home. By 11PM, we were both getting tired and we walked up to Bay Street where I ordered her an Uber ride. It was by 5 Guys and when she left, I got a burgher and brought it back to my room, put on the news, devoured it and went to bed. It was a great day with SD and I was looking forward to the parade in the morning.
On parade day, I was fortunate that the ex-brother in law of a friend had seats on the parade route and invited me to sit there. The parade was long but there were many great marchers. My favorite were the Sons on the Confederacy. There were about a dozen reenactors who fired their rifles. The float had all the correct confederate flags, yes I checked. There were various military units from the area represented and many high school marching bands. Side note; southern schools know how to march. On Staten Island it is pitiful. I would scream. LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT and so on. SD was on a float for Slowride and she was at the end. After the parade, we were suppose to meet up but her phone died and I was on my own. I was at Stafford again for a while after an hour wait to get in. SD said they were going there but I never got the message they left. I stayed a while after I got in and then went to the City Market where every bar had a block long line. Alone I roamed around for a while and headed back to my hotel hoping to get something to eat. I passed the Moon River Brewery and Bay Street and they had a table for 1. I had some ribs and fried green tomatoes before going back to my room. I was shot and was done for the weekend.
After a good night sleep, I returned to Hilton Head and just relaxed while passing up their parade. By 6, I ventured down to the Tiki Hut until they closed and then to Hinchey’s down on Pope Avenue for a late bite. They are among the best places for wings. There were two men from Canada who sat next to me and one of them, named John, was very animated with his hands as he spoke. He could have used a little tutoring about a New Yorker’s personal space and every time he tried to make a point, I got poked. Needless to say I moved to another seat when the chance presented itself. I did learn a lesson that day. Will I do the Savannah parade again? Not on a weekend, although a great parade, there were just too many people vying for too little bars. I can cross it off my bucket list and next year I plan to stay on the island.
Yankee in Dixie 