bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We had a busy day with Jackie and Dr. Bob. They picked us up at 9:30 and we traveled to the Savanah outskirts. We stopped first at The British Pie Company. Jackie bought a steak and mushroom pie at the English pie shop. The pies are very good!

We left and went to Sam’s Club. We did not purchase anything there, although they did their weekly shopping. Next we went to Kroger’s, where we picked up some of Bob’s protein bars. They have the ones that he really likes. Then we were off to lunch at the German Restaurant, Schnitzel Shack.   .

We had a great lunch, then went to the Service Brewery. I don’t drink beer, so I was the designated driver. Jackie, Dr. Bob and Bob all had a flight. I did have a small glass of root beer, which to be perfectly honest, was awful. It tasted like roots!

When we left at about 4:30, we went to Habersham’s Liquor store. Both Bob’s bought some beer. Then I drove all the tipsy folks home. We went to the MH and they dropped us off. We walked and fed the dogs, then went over to their house.

The dogs all greeted each other. We ate the nice pie for dinner and watched the movie Fury, with Brad Pitt.

Sunday-  We did tasks around the MH, then went over to Jackie and Dr. Bob’s. Dr. Bob was at work, catching up on some items. We watched the Redskin game. Bob had seen an email that his medications had been delivered to the house, so Jackie went to retrieve their mail from yesterday. She accidently left the door slightly open and their new dog, Tasha took off. We all went looking for her. Jackie found her on the golf course, behind their house.

We watched Guardians of the Galaxy, and ate a great dinner. Thank you to both Jackie and Dr. Bob for their hospitality! We had a great time and it was awesome to visit with them again!

Monday- Moving day. We left Statesboro a little later than we usually leave as I had a 10 AM phone call. We drove southeast on Rt. 301 to I-95. We stopped for lunch at the rest area, then proceeded to the Kings Bay Submarine Base. We settled into the nice FamCamp. $19 for FHU 50 amp.

When we arrived the electric pole was not working right. One arm did not have electric. Bob went to the camp host who came over to check the pole. Because it was so hot, we ran the generator while they were checking things out. When Bob had checked the electric, the one arm had no electric. When the camp host checked he found that both arms had electric. So they checked the MH. We had full service. So the camp host checked the pole arms again and this time no electric in that one arm. So he took the part out of the site next to us, and put it into our box. Now we had electric.

By this time it was almost 4 pm, so we settled in, ate dinner, and watched TV.

Tuesday- We left and went into town to the Post Office. We stopped in the little town of St. Mary’s. There was enough to see there that we could have spent the day, but we had made reservations for a tour of St. Simon’s island.

We stopped at the visitor center. The gal gave us a list of sites. In the visitor center they have a radio museum, so we stopped in to look at the old radios.

We crossed the street and looked at the historic Presbyterian Church. The ceiling was made from an old ship bottom, so it has the curvature of a ship.

We stopped and looked at a historical marker, which talked about a tsunami that had come through in the 1800’s. That was interesting, as we were inland a bit.

We left and traveled north on I-95 to to St. Simon’s Island. We went to lunch at the cafe. We both had really nice salads. We wandered over to the pier, then down to the lighthouse. We wandered into the gift shop and small museum. St. Simon’s had been the site of a G8 Conference when George W was president.

We wandered through the expensive stores, then boarded the air conditioned van for the tour. Our tour guide was not very good. He usually does the Ghost tour, and was covering for the usual guide.

The tour took us to the site of an old plantation. There had been 12 plantations on the island. This one is now a famous golf course, the Sea Island Golf Club. The buy in for this course is 150K per year. It is a training facility for the Pro’s. This picture below is of the  Avenue of the Oaks, at the entrance of The Lodge, which has been there since it really was a plantation. Lots of weddings occur in these trees.

Our next stop was at Christ Church.

This is a very pretty little church with a lot of history. Several presidents have worshiped here. The wood is very interesting, it is Carolina Heart Oak. The wood is from the center of the trees, and has a lot of sap, which is weather resistant. The wood has never had any care done to it. It’s color and shine are all natural and it resist termites and other vermin.  The window on the left is Tiffany, installed by Tiffany.

We wandered through the cemetery.

We saw lots of local gravesites. This one is of author Eugenia Price. Next to her was her companion, also a writer.

We left and continued on to Ft. Fernandia. This was a very large fort situated on the curve of a river. It was located there so that if the Spanish came up the river, they had to make a sharp turn, putting them in the way of the fort.

It is a National Park, and free. So we wandered through with out guide. He talked about the old fort. All that is still standing is the ammunition building. But all the streets are marked and there are the ruins of some of the old buildings. Over two hundred people lived here. The guide told us stories about various people and battles that occurred.

We stopped at the lighthouse, then returned to the car and drove home.

Wednesday– Moving day. We left around 10:30 and drove south on I-95. A few miles into Florida, we stopped at the Welcome Center. We picked up a lot of fliers for the state. We also purchased 2 of the Sun Passes for the toll roads. One for the MH and one for the car. They were $5.31 each. Bob loaded them up in the evening.

 

We drove east to Ft. Clinch State Park. When we arrived there was a MH ahead of us and by the time we checked in there was a 5th wheel and a trailer behind us. We ha to quickly disconnect the car and try to get out of the way. Our site was not vacated yet. the folks had 15 more minutes. So we went to the beach parking lot. We dropped off the MH and drove the car to the site, passing the folks who were late leaving.  Below is part of the 3 mile long Historic Canopy Road from the state park entrance to the campground.

We set up and ran to Walmart. We sat outside as it was very nice out. We ate dinner, and sat outside some more until it was too dark to read.

Thursday-  We left and traveled out to I-95, about 16 miles. Then we turned south onto I-95 and drove to Jacksonville, about 15 miles. We went straight to a Speedway gas station/convenience store to the Amazon lockbox. I had ordered some sandals and they were there! How cool! I ordered on Amazon Prime and they sent me a code for the locker. I put the code in and the door popped open.

Our next stop was the visitor center. We talked to the lady there. There is not a lot to do in Jacksonville. We had only put 30 minutes on the meter, so we walked back to the car and drove a few blocks over to another parking space. We took the monorail both directions just to see the city.

We left the train at Hemming Park,

where we had gotten on and walked over to Sweet Pete’s a candy factory. We had not signed up for the tour, so we did not get to assist in making candy, but you can do that. We managed to get out of there without buying any candy!

We returned to the car and went to Jacksonville Beach. We ate lunch at Seachasers. I had a wonderful shrimp burger with grilled zucchini and summer squash, and a vinegar and ginger coleslaw. Sooo good! Bob had the fish burger and rice, which was the only thing that did not have bell pepper in it.

We left and drove up A1A to the ferry. We took the ferry across to King George Island. $6. We drove up A1A back to Amelia Island.

We returned home to thunderstorms. We ate dinner and watched TV.

Friday-  We decided to go to the lighthouse we could see from the park road. We round the entrance but it is a working Coast Guard station, so we could not enter. We had wondered why there  were not signs.

 

We drove south again on A1A to Ft. George Island to visit the Kingsley Plantation, a NP. It is in about 2 miles in by car. We crossed a lot of swamp and realized that the only way anyone would have gotten to the planation in the old days was by boat on the river.

Kingsley was a slave trader and owner of about 42,000 acres on 5 plantations. He had over 200 slaves. He married a woman from Senegal who he had taken as a slave and she ran the plantation, as she had run her business in Senegal prior to capture. Kingsley seemed to be a little bit different from the other plantation/slave owners. While the Spanish owned Florida, free blacks had rights and whites could marry blacks. When the English took over, the laws changed. At that point, Kingsley sent his family, including Anna his wife, to Haiti where they could be free.

Above is the front of the house from the river. The windows face the ocean to get the ocean breezes coming thru the windows. Below is the back.

Above is a two handle cotton gin. Below is a Tabby floor. Tabby is a cement  made from oyster shells.

The slaves worked in this room in winter and summer, cooking the food. It must have been really hot! The slaves on east Florida plantations worked at daily tasks. If they finished their task, they were done for the day, although many days were 12 to 15 hours long. On the western Florida plantations, they worked in gangs from sun up to sun down. Below is an original scythe.

 

These are what are left of the slave cabins. There are 25 of them which housed between 60 and 80 slaves. Bob measured and they were 30×30 ft.

We left and went to the Ribault Club.

This was built in 1928 and was various clubs over the years. They had a small museum which we visited. As we were leaving we had to stop for these peacocks.

We left and went to lunch at the Sand Dollar restaurant. I had a seafood salad with shrimp, scallops and crab. Bob had the crab cake sandwich.

We left and returned to the MH. We took a short nap, then Bob and I went to the state park beach. We sat out enjoying the sun and surf. We returned at 5:45, ate dinner and drove out of the park to the Ferdinandia beach, taking the dogs with us. The dogs are not allowed on the beach in the state park, but are allowed in the town park.

The dogs had a blast, digging in the sand. Bob walked them up the beach, but they returned and sat on our laps watching the people and the water.

We returned home, read, and watched TV.

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