Why Jekyll Island Campground

Jekyll Island Campground at first look made us feel like we were in the Adirondacks. The pine trees, the roomy sites, the raccoons, the birds, …..The Spanish Moss on the trees reminded us we weren’t in the mountains in August. The sunsets, the ocean, the ships all add to the atmosphere here at Jekyll Island. But what really makes this place different is the community atmosphere. There are weekly covered dish dinners, golf outings, trips to restaurants,and area attractions. There are men’s get togethers and weekly ladies crafting afternoons. There are monthly pancake breakfasts. The other night we experienced our first campfire/hotdog roast. It rained but that didn’t stop anything- people just went over to the tent to eat and then came back when the rain let up for the bonfire. There was entertainment as well - three men with guitars and a banjo (and a singing wife) played for hours. (They’d been practicing at the campsite next door so we recognized a couple of the country western tunes.)
The problem is the campground is practically full. We’re hoping to come back next winter but time will tell if there’s a place not already reserved.

Boats, Dolphins, and more

The ferryboat ride back to St. Marys was right on time and most people rode inside. We chose about the same place as before- outside (the rain was over), downstairs toward the front. There was a mother and daughter (early 20’s) standing near us. I was, as always watching the water for dolphins- I saw one and pointed it out to Bob; we watched as it swam in front of the boat and thought it was gone. A couple minutes later the mother and daughter called us to look over the side of the boat. The dolphin was swimming right next to the bow of the boat (riding the wake someone said). That dolphin was soon joined by another and then a third. We watched them swimming along with us. They’d swim, roll on their sides and take turns being closest to the boat and take turns skimming the surface of the water. (My camera was packed away) Then when the boat turned a little the dolphins went to the back of the boat for a while. We could still see other dolphins in the distance for quite a while- one was playing in front of a sailboat . It made a great ride back.
The pilings along the dock in St. Marys were all topped with pelicans. One puffed up nicely for the girl with the camera.

When we got to our car the PeaceMobile was parked just a couple spaces away.

Altogether it was quite a day!!

Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is the largest Georgia Barrier Island and it is the most Southern.
90% of the island is a National Seashore, but it has only been a national park for about 40 years.

To get to the island you can go by private boat or take the ferry from St. Marys, GA. The ferry is people only and everything you carry in you carry out. There are campsites so we traveled over with a boy scout troop and lots of other people (ages ranged from about 10 to mid 70’s)

The island is a mixture of historical sites and nature. Much of the island has been allowed to return to nature.
We stayed at the southern end of Cumberland. We, and more than half of our fellow passengers, went on the ranger led hike. Our tour took us from the boat landing to the ruins of Dungeness. There were two estates- 100 years apart,- at the same place and both named Dungeness. The ruins we saw are the ruins of Thomas and Lucy Carnegie’s home. There are still parts of the estate around the island – some owned by the park system, some privately owned. The ranger explained about the dirt road we were on, the trees and bushes we saw and how they were used over time by the different people who lived on the island, and the animals we might see.
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There are, and we saw, wild horses on Cumberland. Lucy Carnegie wanted her 60 some horses allowed to go free with the wild horses on the island at her death. The ranger explained to us that because the Park System is still fairly new to the area they don’t have policies about many of the issues that they are and will be facing. Two issues she discussed were the horses and the buildings. Anytime they start to discuss a policy the newspapers hear and then all sides of the issue get very vocal. First the horses-there are 150-200 horses on the island and currently the park system does nothing to help manage the herd or herds (she said there’s a small herd in the northern part of the island that appear to be part Arabian) so they really don’t know if these horses are special to the island (like the ponies on Oracoke), they believe that all the horses were left to be wild like Lucy Carnegies. We saw several horses and they seem to be pretty use to people- as long as we didn’t get to close they let us watch them graze.

Our park ranger also talked with us about the issue of preservation. She said there are some people who believe the island should be allowed to revert back to nature and no attempts to preserve the structures should be made. She feels, and I have to agree, that part of history is in the buildings and they should be preserved. It will be interesting to see what Cumberland Island National Seashore Park is like 10 years from now. Our guide did tell us that within the next two years the park service will be offering trips to the northern part of the island and that they’ve discovered where forts were located.

After our tour the ranger told us how to get to various parts of the island and she made sure everyone was clear on the directions, and how and when to be back at the dock. We had to be back at the dock because the ferry leaves at 4:45 PM and if you are not there you will be spending the night!

We headed for the beach with a side trip to a cemetery where we had the added benefit of our closet uninterrupted view of a horse. It was a 15 minute walk from the cemetery to the beach – lots of different areas- wild and beautiful. The beach was almost empty when we got there. We found a place to sit and had our lunch then looked for shells and watched the clouds get closer. We found some great shells (those are the only things you may take off the island) We decided to walk back the way we came because I wanted to see more of the Dungeness Ruins (without kids and soccer balls in the picture). We made it back to the tree covered road way before it started to rain. I chose to stay under cover rather than in the pouring rain for some other pictures- so we only have a couple of the entry to the estate to add to the pictures of the ruins we already had.(next trip I’ll try for some of the grounds and views).

On our walk from the ruins back to the covered boat dock we saw armadillos and deer.

It was a great day and I’m already anxious to return. And in a couple years Grandma and BobBob will watch the kids so Anna and Dave can relive some of their past and go wilderness camping on Cumberland Island (there was a couple on the boat ride home who made us think of you two).

The Train Funnel

Today we went to Folkston, Ga. The pamphlet says it’s the ‘Train Watchers Paradise’-up to 70 trains a day go through. They have a Train Watchers Platform complete with a radio monitor for the CSX. In addition to the platform there are picnic tables and a barbeque. We went to the restored depot museum (Bob was shocked to find calendars from the 1960’s labeled antiques). Then we walked over to the train watchers platform. A train had been through when we were in the museum so we figured we had some time and we walked around the corner to get some coffee. It was a little gift/coffee shop. There was a small group of women having coffee and a meeting (later I saw their Relay for Life folders). We ordered our coffee and looked around. As we were waiting someone asked us where we were from. To each answer we gave they wanted more specifics- of the group of six two of them were also from Northern NY! We got our coffee, chatted a little bit and went back to the train platform. While we were waiting for a train to go through people drove by and waved, one stopped and talked to us a little and gave us advice about where to camp and some things to see. In the hour we were there 3 trains went through and we heard one as we were leaving.
Folkston is southwest of Jekyll and just north of the Florida border. The drive there took us past miles of pine forests. The pine trees here are extremely tall and straight. We saw a few areas that had been clear cut but we also saw many fields of pines and each field was a different height. We saw a couple of trucks filled with cut trees and ready for pickup and we met several empty trucks returning.

Driftwood Beach

Wow!

We followed a trail to the beach today. It was just a couple miles from the campground. The pictures tell it all.

Savannah

Thursday we spent a fantastic day in Savannah. It's about 90 minutes from here. The visitors center was very easy to get to and that's where all the tour companies were. The visitors center gave us basic information. The Historic area was based on 24 squares and all the tour companies are required to go to the same basic places. The differences are in where they stop and how often the buses return if you get on and off. We talked to each of the companies and picked one. We just did the tour so we chose Old Town Trolley Tours because they did the whole River Front Area. The link will show you a map and some of the places we saw. We learned a lot about Savannah and it's history. The city was home to many authors and parts of it are in lots of movies and it was the inspiration to many books. We saw the home of Juliette Gordon Low - there's a special girl scout badge you can only earn in the city of Savannah! I think every square has fountains and/or statues. The statue of the Confederate soldier was made in Canada and then was shipped to Savannah by boat because it would be defiled if it touched Northern soil. We saw the mail order house where all the windows were put in upsidedown. We saw the "Pirate's House' , now a restaurant, it has tunnels from the bar to the waterfront and was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" . You can still see the tunnels and we were told to threaten not to pay our bill if we were not shown the tunnels. (It's on our list for a future trip). The next time will do the on and off the bus tour so we can explore more of the squares.
After the tour we asked about parking near the waterfront or if it was within walking distance, etc. The visitors center was great- they told us about the free bus service. So we took the bus to the RiverFront and walked around a bit then stopped at 'Kevin Barry's Irish Pub' for some refreshment before walking around more.
We went to dinner at 'The Lady and Son's' (Paula Deen's). The food was fantastic! The atmosphere was not what we expected- very crowded and noisy.
We asked the waiter to double check our directions for getting to the bus stop. The stop was less than a 5 minutes walk. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the bus. We missed our stop so the bus driver went around the block for us. We were one of the few cars left in the lot.
I definitely want to go back and see more. And everyone we talked to was very friendly and helpful.
We had no trouble getting back to the highway but the construction on Rt. 95 S made the trip home about 2 hours.
It was still a great day.

Cold

Monday and Tuesday were cold and rainy. Wednesday was cold (40’s)and sunny. They’re talking about freezing temperature overnight.
We’ve been driving around and getting a little bit familiar with the area. We now know where there are 3 grocery stores, Target, Lowes, and a car wash. We also found a couple streets we’d rather avoid in the future.
We got an annual parking pass for the Island and because Bob’s car is lower than most we were instructed to hug the driver’s side of the lane so the beam to read the pass (on the passenger window) is at it’s widest. It worked!!
I spent some time sewing (I can’t have the heater and iron plugged into the surge protector at the same time) and Bob worked on his stained glass- There was room and it worked pretty well,. We just have to put everything else away before and we can’t leave any craft stuff out after. We’re getting better at camper life.

Despite the cold there are wild flowers on the causeway (6 miles) to Jekyll. This is apparently yard cleanup time. There’s piles of branches and yard rakings by the road everywhere. The paper had an ad for pansies for your winter yard, and we saw people planting some. This is the winter we heard about – it sure is pleasant.

Sunshine

Saturday was a warm, sunny day in the 70’s. We drove to the beach with the top down on Bob’s car. It was low tide so we saw a lot of jellyfish and sanddollars. It was so nice to sit and watch the ocean and read. The sky was bright blue and clear, the jets had short tails and looked like shooting stars. Bob’s face and neck got sunburned so we rode around the island before coming back to the campground.
We have a beautiful view of the sunset from right here at the campsite.


People are very friendly. One gentleman’s hat said “Ranger School” after talking a bit I asked him about the hat- He is a graduate of Wanakena in the Adirondacks so we talked more about that area. Another couple stopped and asked if we knew some friends of theirs- yes, he’d been the principal at Bob’s school. We talked about the mutual acquaintances a bit and then more about camping etc. Other conversations with people are usually about the weather back home and grandchildren. Camping is such a nice, relaxed life.

Jekyll Island

We’re here!
We arrived at Jekyll Island about 3:30 Thursday. The weather’s fantastic-70 degrees when we pulled in!!
It took us a couple tries to get the camper between the trees, where we could open the slides, and be within reach of the hookups- but we’ve had more difficult sites.
We even have a Lamppost!! Lat year we saw them at lots of the campsites. It’s a lamppost with a sign that has the campers’ names and a picture of their state.

We cooked outside last night and had a campfire. The sun is out and I cooked breakfast outside this morning. We’ll explore the campground today. I need to figure out where to store stuff- its different staying for a month compared to a few days.
I think Bob has us well decorated now. We have lots of lights, a spinner, solar lights with stars, a flag spinner, and the wooden name sign.

Weather (just about everything but lake effect)

1st the good news. We’re in a KOA just south of Charlotte. We had a drink outside after getting set up and the temperature outside was around 50.

So… Last night we listened to the rain all night and woke up to everything coated with ice. The trees were pretty but the branches hung lower with the weight and scraped the top of all the campers leaving. We left about 9:30. The weather reports were better and the roads looked just wet. We quickly drove out of the ice and the tractor trailers were no longer losing big ice sheets off the top.
It was a gray sky, too many clouds, so we really couldn’t see much. As we drove into the mountains we drove into the clouds and heavy rain. We could see bits of the mountains through the clouds as we drove out of the rain. We could see the line of clouds followed by blue sky as we followed 81 through Virginia. By the time we got to rt. 77 we were driving back into the rain but a highlight was we saw a double rainbow. The views were wonderful as you follow 77 through the southwest corner of Virginia but the winds were awful the rest of the way. When we registered here they said they were expecting a lot more people because of the winds.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get to Jekyll Island.

On the Road Again

We left home Monday morning and had no problems as we headed South. We ran out of the snow quickly and even had periods of sun!!
We stopped at Candy Hill Campground in Winchester, VA. We were 2nd in line to check in. We were both told that there were ice/freezing rain warnings for Tuesday morning.
So after some debate this morning we decided, as did our neighbors, to stay another day (our decision was assisted by the fact that Bob didn't turn off his car last night and it wouldn't start this morning).
When we went to get propane around noon we were told that there were lots of accidents on 81. So I guess it was a wise decision. Tomorrow is supposed to be just rain.
Next time we make this trip were driving farther south to start with!! Delaying the trip home I handled but I'm not happy about a delay headed South!