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| A return to the scene of the proposal - Tybee Island - 8 years later:) |
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| The original engagement picture... A slightly colder day! |
Monday, April 20th
WOW! The rain has finally stopped. We woke up Monday morning half expecting the campground to be a lake after the heavy rain last night. Between the loud patter of rain on the roof of the RV, constantly checking out phone for tornado storm alerts, and a small puddle of water collecting on Anne's "nightstand", it was not the best night of sleep. But luckily no tornado, the leak has dried up and we don't need a canoe to get out of here.
As we're having lunch, Amazon calls to say that they are at the campsite with our new bike rack. Yay!! Neil installs the rack while Anne does research on where to go biking today and finds the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. We load the bikes up... Thankfully, this rack feels solid and we won't have to look back every 5 seconds to make sure our bikes are still there.
The Wildlife Refuge is a 4 mile paved drive with a few trails. It is home to 350 different species of birds as well as alligators, bobcats and armadillos. Cool!! We'd love to see any of those! As we bike through, we see lots of birds, but as we are not birders, we are only able to ID the cardinals and vultures circling overhead. We have the road practically to ourselves and get to the end of the 4 mile drive, then turn around to loop back to the entrance. We venture off the main road on the airport loop trail, which is the runway from the old airfield that used to be here to train pilots in WWII. On this trail, Neil yells out "Armadillo"!! It scurried into the bushes before Anne gets a glimpse. All Neil saw was the Armadillo's butt - which seems kind of fitting.
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| Ready for a bike ride! |
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| Neil took this while biking - he deserves to have a bug to fly in his mouth. |
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| This is one of the best state laws ever |
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| Anne is going under 20MPH, we promise |
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| Pretty cool that we rode on some old runways! |
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| Would be a great spot to fish... Mullet anyone?! |
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| Are you supposed to have a bike on the dock?!? |
On the drive "home", we pass the smallest church in America, so we have to stop for a photo!
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| They hold services in here - only 18 seats! No social distancing in here. |
Tuesday, April 21st
We have a book "the Most Scenic Drives in America" and one of the drives is the Georgia coastline. One of our goals this trip is to check out as many of the drives from this book as we can. We get moving a little earlier than usual, pack a lunch and are out the door by 11 (yes, this is early for us! The RV bedroom is like a cave).
We drive to St. Mary's, the southern coastal town in Georgia. In fact, looking out from the docks we can see Florida and all those Jacksonville beach-goers! Ok, maybe not the beach-goers. We find a picnic table near a fountain and watch the birds splash around in the water while we eat our lunch. We walk the shoreline, looking for manatees, but there are none to see today, as it looks like it's a pretty low tide. It's a cute, little coastal town and that ice cream shop looks soooo good right now... Darn Covid!
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| There are worse places to have lunch... Right across the river is Florida! |
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| A nice fountain in the Cumberland Island National Seashore Park in St. Mary's, GA |
On to Jekyll Island for some biking, which our book tells us used to be owned by the likes of Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and other wealthy families in the late 1880's. Upon exiting the highway, there is an impressive sign and gate welcoming you to the Island - There definitely seems to still be some money on this Island! There is even a stop before you enter the Island, where we are required to stop to pay for parking. We park and hop on our bikes towards the historic part of town. The wealthy owners of the Island had built "cottages" (aka mansions) around the posh Jekyll Island Clubhouse.
We continue along on the amazing bike path around the island and at about mile 8, see a sign "beach access", so decide it's a good time for a beach break. We lock up the bikes and cross the wooden steps to the beach - Wow, what a view. The steps lead directly down to the water and we are enjoying the view for about 30 seconds before... Ouch!! Are you getting bit? I'm getting bit?! No-see-ums!! We are being eaten alive... back to the bikes, pronto! The last few miles are along the beach shore and a beautiful ride, but we are exhausted and sore after doing 10 miles yesterday and another 10 today. Back to the car for our next stop...
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| Yeah, we can't afford to stay on this island for very long I bet... |
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| Jekyll Island Clubhouse - Currently operating as a hotel. Doesn't look cheap! |
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| One of the many "cottages" surrounding the Clubhouse. I'm sure the Crane's were in the low rent district. |
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| LOOOOOKOUT! |
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| These steps literally end in the ocean. Cool - except the bugs! |
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| Quick - take the photo!! No-see-ums!! You should see Neil's arm - they got him good :( |
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| Watch out for the no-see-ums!! |
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| Quite a nice bike trail on Jekyll Island - right along the ocean |
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| Also part of the bike trail - pretty cool to bike over these wooden bridges! |
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| Pretty nice intersection, Main and Ocean... |
We do a quick driving tour of St. Simons Island. It seems like another cute, coastal town that in non-covid times, we'd enjoy strolling, eating and shopping, but there are a lot of people walking along the shore, so decide to head home for BBQ!! We have been cooking in for most of our meals, but we are really excited to get some good old southern barbecue. Per our scenic drives book and Yelp, the best barbecue is at the local gas station, so when in Rome... YUM!
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| Ribs, anyone? |
Wednesday, April 22nd
Beach Day!!! It is a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day, so where better to spend it than strolling the beaches of Tybee Island where we got engaged. With the sand and water beneath our toes and miles of shoreline, we easily walk 4 miles, passing the occasional walker, beached jellyfish, sand dollar and seagull. This beach is huge. The police are out patrolling on four-wheelers to ensure social distancing is being followed and telling the sun bathers to move along as the beach is open for exercise only.
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| Our feet are in the Atlantic Ocean! |
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| This beach is HUGE. We yelled to that person behind Neil that they were too close. |
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| A full sand dollar! Maybe they would take that on Jekyll Island? |
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| Panoramic shot from end of the Island - the sandbars appear to go for miles. |
After our beach walk, we decide to try out the frisbee golf course on Tybee Island. What a great little, short course - a perfect course to boost our confidence as frisbee golf players.
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| Neil looks like a football lineman - but can he throw a disc? |
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| Anne shoots a birdie (her first)!! Woohoo! It was like a 30-40 foot shot around a tree - best shot of the trip so far. |
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| Neil digging his frisbee from the swamp... No gators here hopefully! Just like regular golf. |
Thursday. April 23rd
Today's forecast looks rainy, so we decide to head to Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. It's a 5 mile driving loop with a few side hikes that we can explore if the rain holds out. Plus, it seems like a good spot for an alligator spotting! Fingers crossed, we head out. When we arrive it is not raining, so decide to walk one of the trails for a bit. It ended up raining quite a bit, but was a really cool spot, and we got to see a bunch of gators! We even got to see a few on the move from the shore to the water. We also got to see some that were just cruising the river - just like the Frogger video game.
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| Alligator!! We have a sighting (from the safe distance of our car)! |
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| The stick looking thing out there in the water is a gator... Neil asks: "you think he can see us?" |
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| Tortoise crossing.. Don't hit this guy. |
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| Gloomy day, but cool views... |
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| This dude (or dudette) is talking to us! |
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| Lots of gators out there - eek! |
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| Not the best hiking trail, but pretty easy... |
We've loved our time exploring Savannah and the coast of Georgia, but it's time to move on. Tennessee state parks opened up today and the weather forecast looks good for the next week, so we've decided to check out the mountains around Chattanooga. And we're off! It's a nice, sunny day and the drive is uneventful. We arrive at our KOA in Chattanooga and get settled in our new spot to call "home". Neil's got this RV set up down... In less than an hour we are grilling and ready to chill!
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| Our new spot in the Noog! |
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