South Carolina
The only other time I've been to South Carolina was when Tom came home from the Middle East during Desert Storm back in the early 90's. There were seven of us in a mini-van (Mom, Sue, Eric, Donna, Judy, Amy and me). We drove straight through (16 hours) to be there when his plane landed. It was quite an emotional experience; we sat in bleachers and there was a welcome home ceremony. Then all the Marines were dismissed and the crowd was let onto the field to find their soldier. My favorite memory is of Amy yelling "Tom, Tom Merkes" and a marine tapping her on the shoulder asking if he could help her - it was Tom! She flew into his arms screaming. Great memories. |
| Amy, Mom, Tom, Eric and Mary |
Ok, that's enough for the trip down memory lane. We arrived in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Wednesday, December 13th and stayed a month. We stayed at Briarcliff RV Park which backs up to the Intra-Coastal Waterway. It was also a very short walk out the back gate to "Barefoot Landing" a very touristy outdoor mall with a great Sweet Shoppe which we visited quite often (and not just for the free samples).
We've never been to this area before and weren't sure what to expect. December/January are not necessarily the best months to visit Myrtle Beach. It's too cold for most snow birds (no sitting by the pool). There are many golf courses, t-shirt shops, miniature golf courses and water parks. The shops were open, everything else was pretty much shut down for the season. There were lots of restaurants and we were only a one mile easy walk to the ocean, that was nice.
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| Sunset at Myrtle Beach, this was on our first night. |
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| Pier at Myrtle Beach State Park |
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| A beautiful day to be at the beach - those are horses behind me! |
There is a theater attached to the Barefoot Landing, the Alabama Theater and a Patsy Cline Show was on the schedule for January 12th and 13th. Since I love Patsy Cline we walked over to buy tickets for the Friday Night show. While I was buying tickets, Marty was talking to a "Time-Share" representative who offered him a $100.00 American Express Card, a $25.00 gift card to a local restaurant and a $20.00 gift card to the theater's gift shop; all this for only 2 hours of our time. Marty told her no and we left to walk back to the rig. When he told me about it I thought it would be worth it for all the goodies. We went back the next day and signed up and then went to the presentation and stayed strong and did not buy anything. Our sales associate was a young man (23) who was still in college and interning for this company, he was very nice and low pressure. His boss did come by a few times to talk to us too but we got out of there with just our freebies!
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| At the theater to see Patsy! |
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| On our last day in Myrtle Beach we saw this guy hanging out at the Mall |
We left North Myrtle Beach on Sunday, 1/14/18 and drove south to Hollywood, SC (right outside of Charleston. We arrived there around 2:00, set up and then drove around looking for someplace to eat. We found the "Kozy Korner" a hole-in-the-wall soul food restaurant with delicious food. They even had lemon cake!
After dinner we took a drive to the "Visitor Center" which turned out to be another promotional place for vacations. For just one hour of our time we could get free tickets to Fort Sumter, a carriage ride through Charleston and a Plantation Tour - a savings of at least $80.00. I think we've found a new career!
We drove into Charleston on Monday, sat through the presentation, grabbed our free tickets and headed over to Charleston's City Market to catch our carriage ride. The ride was a great way to acclimate ourselves to the city and to see what else we wanted to do.
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| Yamasee was a very gentle horse |
The City Market was very much like the French Market in New Orleans only smaller (maybe because it was January?). After walking through, we strolled through Old Charleston to the waterfront and walked a bit more. Charleston is a beautiful city and very walkable although the sidewalks were often cobblestone and you did have to watch your step.
Tuesday was our day to visit Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is where the Civil War started which I assumed everyone knew but after talking to a few of my family members discovered that there seems to be a lot of napping during American History classes. Fort Sumter is on an island and during the winter there are only two boat trips a day to take you there. Before you get on the boat you walk through a visitor center/museum which gives an overview of the history of the area, then it's on to the boat and a 1/2 hour narrated ride to the Fort. Here's a link to the Fort Sumter website: https://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm
Note the date - exactly four years apart
When we arrived on the island we were met by Ranger Scott who gave a very informative talk about the history of the Fort. Fort Sumter was built because these was a gap between Fort Johnson and Fort Moultrie and enemy ships knew that cannons could only reach so far and if they went right in between those two forts they could reach Charleston Harbor unharmed.
My favorite fact learned was that Abner Doubleday was second in command there and we all know what he went on to do -right??
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| Fort Sumter |
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| Fort Sumter Cannon |
When we got back on land we found a deli for dinner and used our free American Express card to pay for it so we had a great time in Charleston for free.
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| Magnolia Plantataion House |
Thomas Drayton and his wife Ann arrived
from Barbados to the new English colony of Charles Towne and established
Magnolia Plantation along the Ashley River in 1676. Thomas and Ann were
the first in a direct line of Magnolia family ownership that has lasted
more than 300 years and continues to this day.
We took a guided walking tour of a small portion of the former rice plantation (it's 500 acres total and was a lot larger pre-Civil War). After taking a guided walking tour, we hopped on the "nature train" (tram) for a more extensive, wilder tour - we even saw an alligator. Once our train tour was over it was time to take the house tour, we got to see every room. This is a beautiful plantation and all three of our tour guides were very knowledgeable.
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| Camellia Flowers |
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| The White Bridge |
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| Bamboo Garden |
The Plantation was the last of our three free tickets and it was well worth sitting through the one hour presentation to get them. We would have done Fort Sumter with or without free tickets but probably not the carriage ride or plantation tour.
Our last touristy stop in South Carolina was a visit to the Angel Oak. The Angel Oak tree is believed to be between 300-400 years old and is 65 feet high with a circumference of 25.5. The largest limb has a circumference of 11.25 feet and is 89 feet long!
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| Angel Oak tree |
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Georgia On My Mind
We left South Carolina on Thursday, January 18th and headed south to Skidaway State Park near Savannah. It was an easy short drive and we were there by 12:30. Check in wasn't until 1:00 so we walked around a bit and then registered. This is a very popular Georgia State Park and pretty pricey for a state park - $42.00 per night. We did have water and electric and, best of all, CABLE! The sites here are very nice - all pull throughs and very large. There were lots of hiking trails and just walking the campground was nice. After spending over a month in private parks it was nice to be in nature. Cable and nature - yes, life is good.
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| Birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low, now a Girl Scout Museum |
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| These "historic steps" down to the waterfront were pretty steep! |
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| Savannah's waterfront along the Savannah River |
The weather in Georgia was pretty nice; we spent Saturday and Sunday at the campground doing a little hiking and a lot of relaxing. We also took a drive over to Fort McAllister State Park (only 30 miles away) to see if we wanted to spend some time there.
We liked what we saw at Fort McAllister so on Monday morning we packed up and headed south. This campground has a wonderful winter special of only $16.00 per night - what a deal! We had water/electric but, sadly, no cable.
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| This was the view behind our campsite (past the trees) at Fort McAllister SP |
This park was smaller than Skidaway but I liked it better. It's located on the Ogeechee river and they had canoe and kayak rentals. It was a little too chilly for us (maybe next time). We walked every day and discovered that if we walked the causeway to the office/museum and back it was almost 4 miles.
There were two trails in the park but the longer, 3 mile, trail was closed (because of hurricane damage?). Since that trail was closed we asked a ranger for recommendations and she referred us to the nature trail in nearby Richmond Hills. What a wonderful trail, it was a three mile loop partially paved and very serene and scenic. It also was on the Ogeechee River.
On Saturday we took a ranger-led hike to learn about local edible plants. Ranger Scott walked us around the fort and pointed out what would be edible if we were ever stranded in the wilds of Georgia. After the hike we strolled around the fort on our own and learned some of its history.
Here is some more Civil War history for those who were napping in American History class (this information is from the Park's website):
Here is some more Civil War history for those who were napping in American History class (this information is from the Park's website):
Located south of Savannah on the banks of the Ogeechee River, this
scenic park showcases the best-preserved earthwork fortification of the
Confederacy. The earthworks were attacked seven times by Union ironclads
but did not fall until 1864—ending General William T. Sherman’s “March
to the Sea.”
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| Magazine built right into the hill. |
We left Fort McAllister State Park on Monday, January 29th and headed south, 71 miles, to Brunswick, Georgia. We are staying at a private campground, Golden Isles RV Park, which has a great monthly rate and is close enough to the coast for some interesting sightseeing. We are staying here for all of February because we couldn't find a campground in Flordia until March 1st.
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| RV Junkyard |
There are no extra amenities in this park and quite a few of the campers have been here a while. There is a walking path behind us and it's a short walk to the Winn Dixie so we can get our five miles a day in (walking the path 2-3 times).
Southeast Georgia and northeast Florida have many islands off the coast. We've visited Jeykll and St. Simon in Georgia and Amelia Island in Florida. They're all beautiful, it's always nice to see the ocean and we've been really lucky with the weather.
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| Walking the beach at Jekyll Island in Georgia |
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| St. Simon Island Lighthouse |
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| Avenue of the Oaks, St. Simon Island |
While on St. Simon Island we picked up a map at the Visitor's Center and went looking for "Tree Spirits".
From The Golden Isles Tourist Information Website:
What Is the Tree Spirit Mythology?
In the 1980's, artist Keith Jennings decided to make his mark on St.
Simons Island, carving about 20 faces from the island's famous oak
trees. Each unique face is hand-carved, taking the artist between two
and four days to complete.
Legend has it, the images immortalize the countless sailors who lost
their lives at sea aboard the mighty sailing ships that were once made
from St. Simons Island oak. Their sad, sorrowful expressions seem to
reflect the grieving appearance of the trees themselves with their
drooping branches and moss.
But if you look a little closer, you can see that there are more than
just sailors amongst these tree faces. Artist Keith Jennings attributes
the artwork to the spirit of the tree. He carefully carves the faces
from the wood, but his artwork simply reveals each tree's soul. The
trees really do all of the work.
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| Found two, only 18 more to go |
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| Mermaid Tree Spirit |
Our current location of Brunswick, Georgia is only an hour away from Jacksonville, Florida so we've been there a few times for shopping (Costco) and an RV Show. We walked through lots of rv's; every kind from Motor Homes to Class B's. Our fifth wheel still fits our needs the best but who knows what the future holds.
When we leave here on March 1st we'll head further south into Florida ending up in Miami. The Cubs are opening against the Marlins and we're going to be there!! Go Cubs!!
