Going Coastal
First a bit of an update. Sprinty arrived home in early September and planning was underway to put him in deep storage for the winter including being winterized for the first time in over three and a half years. However, Darrell, the procrastinator, approached the chore of preparing Sprinty for long term storage with the attitude: "we will do no task before it's time".
In late-September, Sprinty attended a Roadtrek rally in Cleveland, GA. We enjoyed seeing our Roadtrek friends and meeting new people.
Also in late-September, Hurricane Ian slammed into the west coast of Florida impacting millions of lives. As well as the RV park where we have wintered for the previous three winters. By one estimate, about half the RVs in the park at the time were blown over. Combined with heavy rain and the river rising, all the overturned rigs were totaled. Fortunately, our fifth wheel was not blown over.
After about 3 weeks, Sprinty and Darrell traveled to Port Charlotte to assess any damage to the fifth wheel. Sprinty leveraged his membership in Boondockers Welcome to mooch dock nearby as the RV park had no electricity or sewer. Fortunately, the fifth wheel was fine.
The RV park is working hard to open by 1 December. An ambitious target for sure but that is about 3 weeks later than we had originally planned to head for Florida for the winter. Having finished our routine medical checkups and a couple of unexpected items (replacement of a dental bridge), we decided to interrupt the home routine with a short RV adventure to the Georgia coast.
Hurricane/Tropical Storm Nicole postponed the start of our adventure by a few days. And provided the incentive to get creative. Last January, Darrell bought another ebike, a Dolphin by Qualisports. Readers may remember Sprinty connected with Jim and Carmen of "Living in Beauty" in Shenandoah National Park last year to test ride their Dolphins. A key feature is that they are over 20 pounds lighter than the our previous eBikes, RadMinis. And in September, we found a Dolphin for sale in Atlanta, and bought it for Kris. We decided for this trip, we did not want to have them ride on the back of Sprinty in the rain - so we folded them up and put them inside Sprinty, something that was not possible with the RadMinis due to weight and size. One rode on the bed, the other in the aisle.
Friday, 11 November
On the tails of Tropical Storm Nicole's rain and wind, we headed south on a Friday with no reservation for the night. We decided to see how bad traffic was through Atlanta before deciding. As well as the rain.
"We will make no decision before it's time"
Traffic through Atlanta was heavy, with at least four accidents. At our first rest stop near Macon, it was still raining. We then set our sights on a city campground in Vidalia, GA. When we got close, it was still drizzling, so we called Laura S Walker State Park Campground to see if they had a site for the night. They did. As we continued on towards Waycross, GA, the drizzle finally stopped.
Laura S Walker State Park Campground is the same campground Sprinty visited exactly four years ago - on Veterans Day 2018. Reviewing our photos from that trip, our site four years ago as all of about 100 feet from this visit. Our recollection of that visit is murky at best - my trip notes document that we did the hike around the lake and played golf at the park golf course.
After seven hours of driving, we needed some exercise and chose to hike the Laura S Walker Lake Boardwalk Trail - a 2.4 mile out-and-back trail. Probably not the best choice after a tropical storm event as some parts of the trail had standing water. Wet enough we decided to make it a loop trail by continuing on around the lake on the road back to the campground.
After the hike, with no rain expected for several days, the Dolphin eBikes were moved to the bike rack.
Saturday, 12 November
After breaking camp, we stopped for breakfast at a diner in Nahunta, GA, then headed on to Jekyll Island. Our first stop was the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, a reptile veterinarian of sorts. While their main patients are sea turtles, they also nurse birds, alligators and snakes when necessary. The Center had a number of exhibits on sea turtles. Of the seven species on sea turtles worldwide, five are found along the Georgia coast.
At 11am, we attended a program on their rehabilitation of sea turtles. Bandit, a juvenile green turtle, was the main focus. She had a spinal injury, likely from a boat propeller, and was paralyzed such that her hind legs were not functioning.
A very worthwhile stop - highly recommended if you ever visit Jekyll Island.
We wandered the Historic Area, checking out the shops, and getting lunch at The Pantry. After lunch, we broke out the eBikes to ride the Jekyll Island Bike Trail, which came highly recommended by Matt and Lori.
We rode counter-clockwise, and stopped at the St. Andrews Beach near the south end of the island.
We continued on to the Beach Area, where Kris wandered in some of the shops. As we were leaving, we saw what looked like go-carts doing laps in one of the parking lots. So we went to check it out. It was a high school competition of electric carts which were built by the students. The race was an hour long, the winner being the cart with the most laps. Fun to watch.
Leaving the Beach Area, we were but about halfway around the island. We continued on, including a side trip to the fishing pier at the north end of the island.
After the bike ride, as we were putting the bikes on the rack, we noticed the rear brake on Kris' bike was no longer working. Just another educational opportunity.
We checked into the Jekyll Island campground - and were reminded once again that camping under large oak trees this time of year also meant acorns landing on Sprinty's roof and the nearby aluminum picnic table.
Sunday, 13 November
One of the seven named beaches on Jekyll Island is Driftwood Beach. Driftwood Beach is somewhat iconic for dramatic photos. As the beach was less than a half mile from the campground, we decided to get up before the crack of dawn and watch the sunrise at Driftwood Beach.
Upon getting up, we saw the skies were overcast. While we had our doubts for a sunrise, we figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. The cloudy skies made for a different type of dramatic than we had hoped for.
After the non-sunrise, we walked back to the campground for breakfast. As Kris' rear brake malfunctioned after our ride yesterday, we set out for a local bike shop on St Simons Island who had a brake caliper. Unfortunately, he only sold them in an entire brake set - and we only needed one caliper. Fortunately, Darrell was able to repair it enough for riding on flat terrain.
We explored St Simons Island by bike for 15+ miles at an exploring pace. Our turnaround point was Fort Frederica National Monument which looked interesting enough we decided to visit it after the bike ride.
The fort was built around 1740 as one of several coastal forts built in the disputed territory. Spain claimed what we know as South Georgia - everything south of the Savannah River. England claimed the demarcation was the St Mary's River, some 112 miles further south. St Simons was where one of the British-Spanish battles took place. Not much remains of the fort, but the National Park Service has done a fine job of providing exhibits, a video and interpretive signs on the significance of Fort Frederica in American history.
Monday, 14 November
While yesterdays sunrise was far from epic (photographically, as every sunrise is epic, especially as one matures), we decided to try again. Despite 50 degrees and 15+mph winds. We were rewarded with a nicer sunrise.
We broke camp and headed south for Kingsland, GA, to play golf at Laurel Island Golf Course. Kris opened up with a birdie and was playing very well on an unfamiliar course. Until the 10th hole. When she teed off, she hurt her right shoulder - the same shoulder she had pain on last summer. The same shoulder she had been going to physical therapy for. Hurt enough she could not raise her arm, triggering concerns for a torn rotator cuff.
Our campsite for the night was at Eagle Hammock Campground at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St Mary's, GA. Darrell worked at the submarine base in the late-1980s overseeing many of the construction projects as the Navy built the base for the Trident submarines. The RV park on base was very nice - certainly better than most base RV parks.
Tuesday, 15 November
With Kris limited with her shoulder injury (no golf, no bike riding), we filled the day with a 3-mile hike at Crooked River State Park nearby.
After our hike, we drove around Kingsland and St Mary's reminiscing on our 4+ years living here (1987-1990 for Darrell; 1987-1991 for Kris). Much had changed, and things that were new in the 1980s looked old now. The paper mill closed years ago. Some areas like out by the interstate were vastly different.
Wednesday, 16 November
We had an early start to drive to Savannah. After parking at the Savannah Visitor Center - $20 for day parking for RV, we signed up for the Land and Sea package with Old Savannah Trolley Tours (www.oldsavannahtours.com). The Land portion was a hop-on/hop-off narrated tour of Savannah. We have found trolley tours are a great way to learn about a city
We stayed on for most of the 90-minute tour, getting off near the riverfront for lunch before boarding the Georgia Queen for a river tour.
As we cruised downriver, we got to see bulk cargo ships being loaded and unloaded on the Savannah River and learned about the port. Savannah is the third busiest port in the United States. Although we have visited Savannah several times, the port operations were a bit abstract until we could see it from the riverboat. A little chilly - still a fun day on the water.
Our campsite for the night was at Skidaway Island State Park. Originally planned for two nights, we changed our plans to one night to get home to have Kris shoulder looked at (she has an MRI scheduled for Monday). With low temperatures at home expected in the 20s, we took advantage of the warmer (than home) temperatures to winterize Sprinty for the first time since November 2019.
Thursday, 17 November
We departed Savannah right after breakfast to pass through Atlanta at mid-day. An uneventful drive home.
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