Author: sandcastle

 

Jekyll Island was, once upon a time, a fairy tale place. The beach getaway of the very rich. People named Pulitzer, McCormick, Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan. They and others bought this island, built a clubhouse here, then built their own cottages. Cottages so big one of them had 17 bathrooms. They and their families spent their summers here away from the heat of the city. Until they moved on. Now it still has its historic district and a museum with exhibits of those days and tours of the island. We saw the film at the museum and the exhibits there but we did not take the tour. The tram did not have enough leg room for us to ride it comfortably. As you all know by now, I am big on comfort.

We camped last night at the Jeykll Island State Park. A cold front came through, it rained really hard, and the temperature dropped. So this morning it was dark and cool and we slept until almost 9:30.  

Today is a good day for ducks. I like duck. Roasted duck. Someday I’d like to try turducken. That’s where they stuff a boneless duck with a boneless chicken then put that into a boneless turkey and roast the whole thing. Sounds good to me.

As I’ve said before, I like small museums. Except for their unreliability. The website for the Maritime Museum at the Historic Coast Guard Station on St. Simons Island, Georgia, say they are open seven days a week. They aren’t. We tried on two different days. They say they’ll teach you what is was like for the guys stationed here in the 1940s. Maybe if we could get in they would. But we can’t get in. If any of you succeed, please don’t tell me it was wonderful.

We didn’t get into the Geechee Kunda Cultural Arts Center & Museum in Riceboro, Georgia, either. But, they never said they’d be open for us. They had a BIG event there April 18th. Maybe they haven’t recovered yet.

Late afternoon we arrived at Fort McAllister State Park. This is the first fort we’ve visited that was a Civil War fort. It had a great museum but my photos from there didn’t turn out well. Dave’s photos of the fort are much better so I’ll include them shortly. This fort was built along the Ogeechee River which was important to the shipping and receiving of supplies of Savannah, Georgia, during the Civil War. What I want to tell you about this fort is that its claim to fame isn’t so much the battles it won as how it did that. The fort was built of dirt. So when the Union ships fired on it the ammunition just sunk into the mud walls. Every night, the Confederate soldiers piled the dislodged dirt back onto the walls so the next day the Union ships were starting from the same place they’d started the day before. In the meantime the Rebs were shooting heated cannonballs into the Yankee ships setting them on fire. it wasn’t until the U.S.S. Montauk came with it’s iron cladding that a ship withstood the cannon fire. That battle was called a draw. Finally, the Union attacked from the land side with a ratio of 25 soldiers to one. That did it for this fort.

                

So now we are parked in the campground at Fort McAllister State Park.  This might be a good park for those us you who drive up and down I-95.  It has water and electric hookups for $24 a night plus $3 admission to the park and most of the sites are pull-through. It also has a dump and several trails in addition to the museum and fort.  Plus, there’s a boat dock and ramp in the campground for salt water fishing with a license.  Our cell phones both had good reception but our Sprint aircard did not.  We do not have a satellite dish but did park in the trees.  I don’t know if there are more clear spots down by the river.

Tomorrow we will enter Savannah to see what there is to see there.

TTYL, 

Linda

Another day; another fort. That seems to be what we visit most lately. I guess that’s what happens when you search out history sites along a country’s coastline. But this fort is different. OK, the fort itself is not but the surroundings are.

We started, as usual, in the visitor center. The movie was already playing for other visitors so we were invited to enjoy the exhibits while we waited. I enjoyed the games on display. They had written instructions for you to play them. This one is called Bagatelle and I’ve read in books about people playing it  but I had no idea it was so much like pinball or pachinko. In this one you use a wooden rod to push the not-very-round balls up the channel on the right. I had Dave quickly calculate my score because the movie was starting again. We think I got 225 but are not sure of that.

   

Then we went exploring. This time I got to go too because this park provides golf carts to their visitors who want them.

So, I drove carefully across the bridge over the first moat into the town.  

 

There  are only foundations left of that colony but they give us an idea of how small the houses were.

     

James Eward Ogelthorp invited people with myriad skills to come to his new colony. Archaeologists have been busy here studying many documents to figure out who lived and worked where. Most of the colonists had a business as part of their house. Here’s a sample of them.

     

Then we crossed another moat and came to the fort itself.

     

So, another day; another fort. And we haven’t even started on the Civil War ones yet.

TTYL,

Linda

Today is a dampened day. Do you remember taking a soda pop bottle, filling it with water, putting a special top on it, and using it to dampen clothes to make it easier to iron them? Maybe today is getting ready to help get the wrinkles out of our travels.

Reading another RVer’s blog found this quote, “Spontaneous travel takes a lot of preparation.” This person understands me spending so many hours online researching spots and sites ahead of us so we can spontaneously decide each day which things to do that day. Our daughter says my research is worth charging people to share it with them. But, I feel it is so special to our own tastes and interests that most other people wouldn’t find my lists useful. So, I just randomly put the public camping parts of my lists on my blog. I hope people are finding that useful.

Today we chose Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as our site. We explored their visitor center and saw a great film there.

Check out this display that is overhead so you see things as if from the bottom of the swamp.

Then we drove down Swamp Island Drive. Some of this looked a lot like the Everglades but some was very different.

Dave took a hike down the Homestead trail and brought back these pictures of the Chesser Island Homestead. Notice there is no growth in the yard. That’s to reduce fire danger and increase visibility of snakes.

The Chessers were a typical family eating what they could grow, catch, or hunt. For cash they grew corn or sugar cane and tapped trees for turpentine. Work and play often came together such as at at hog butchering and syrup grinding time. Life was hard but it could be fun, too. The Chessers were fond of four-note, or sacred harp, singing. Chesser descendants continue to sing the primitive, a capella, harmonies today.

Dave’s next hike was down the Swamp Walk Trail. This is the boardwalk that runs the 3/4 mile length of this trail. It is smooth and level enough to be wheelchair accessible. I could have ridden my Segway down it if I’d been willing to risk more bug bites. But, since I still look like I have chicken pox, I decided not to do so.

This is one of the carnivourous plants that grow here.

This is a gator hole–the place where a gator digs himself in to keep cool or warm depending on what the weather is doing. His digging helps keep ponds open for the use of other wildlife as well. This one is supposed to be a good place to watch for turtles if you have enough time and patience.

This is a transition from pond to forest. The pond is slowly filling with vegetation that may eventually support large trees.

These are dead cypress trees. They were killed by wildfire back in the 1950s. They are now favorite scratching posts for the 400 or so bears who live here.

This is a view of a prairie and a deep pond. Alligators nest near here. They lay 30-50 eggs on peat mounds. The heat of the decaying vegetation incubates the eggs.

This is the Owl’s Roost Tower located a the end of the boardwalk and the views from it.

I hope you enjoyed our visit to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

TTYL,

Linda