Tybee Island November 2013

I guess I should start these things sooner. Here it is December 2nd and I'm just starting the November blog. Well, we are still roaming around the countryside, enjoying the sites, sounds and taste of Georgia. One of our latest trips took us to Fort Morris. There are so many forts in the area, mainly due to the water approaches to the many towns. Most were to guard against attacks by way of the many rivers in the area.  Fort Morris isn't what you would think of as a fort. No high or thick walls made of brick or stones.

As you can see the walls were just earthen mounds surrounding the guns. The walls were only about 6-7 feet high with depressions in them  for the guns to be able to fire at the enemy ships. All of the trees inside the walls were not there during the time the fort was in use. The only thing inside the walls were the cannons. The trees have all grown there since the civil war and the fort was deactivated.

It's been quite windy lately so we decided to walk down to the Atlantic Ocean and walk the beach back around to the river mouth and back to the campground. How windy you ask? Well the picture to the left is a whole lot of seagulls that thought it better to hang out on the beach rather than fly.

When a beach walker from the other direction got too close they all took to the air. Made for some interesting pictures. After taking the one below, I got to thinking that looking straight up at a bunch of sea gulls that were just chased off the beach might not have been the best idea. But it is a cool picture.

We also found a nice shell and a horseshoe crab. I think the shell dropped out of someone's gift bag...it was too nice to have washed up on the beach, but you never know. That isn't the whole crab, just the shell. The seagulls got to him first. It was a nice walk. The waves were breaking on the shore and the sand was blowing across the beach, making some very interesting patterns. I tried to get some pictures of the blowing sand but they just didn't do it justice to the handy work of Mother Nature.

We had a Thanksgiving potluck for the campers and volunteers. We had around 75 people come and everyone had a great time. We had a lot of food and desserts. Everyone had their fill and there was very little food that went back to the campers in pans or bowls. Most of it went back to the campers "inside" the campers. We had room for 36 people in the river room where we set up the food tables but we had plenty of room out side in the pavilion where we have patio heaters and  a large projection TV that was showing football games. Let me tell you, the people down here love their football. Weekends here have people sitting outside watching tv, with a fire going and a cooler of beer and steaks on the grill...Just doesn't

get any better then that.

At the end of the day the cleanup crew had their work cut out for them. That's Tammy, one of the host and the lovely Holly (pictured below) working at the dessert bar, taking care of the few leftovers. Joe (Tammy's husband ) and I took care of the table and chairs and some of the left over dessert.

Our friends, Jacki and Larry from New Mexico arrived in time for Thanksgiving and are staying for a month. It's nice to have friends stop by and visit.  We haven't seen them since they were touring Michigan. We're having a great time showing them the sites of Coastal Georgia.  We've enjoyed many meals together eating seafood and Low Country cooking.

Well that's all for now, we're excited to be going home this year to spend Christmas with family. We wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Peace and love to all. See you all again next month.

Tybee Island October 2013

Here it is November already. It is hard to believe that we have been on Tybee Island for 2 months. I didn't think that we were very busy but after looking for pictures for the October blog, I realized that we've been out and about a lot...either that or someone else has been using our camera. We went into Savannah and took a trolley tour. It is a great way to get an overview of the city and the plus side is that they make several stops along the way and you can get on and off as much as you like. We did get off at the Pirates House which is a restaurant where Holly made a new friend and we had lunch. This used to be a tavern years back and was frequented by the undesirables and pirates. It is rumored that more then a few men went to have a night out and a drink and woke up the next morning on a ship bound for places unknown.

Our next stop was River Street. These buildings originally were warehouses for the docks. There are now shops and restaurants and bars all along the river. We did a little shopping, had some ice cream and sat along the river and watched the boats. Savannah is one of the busiest ports in the states. After all of this we headed back to visitor center and caught the shuttle back to the Island. The trollies are mostly open sided so you get a great view and like I said earlier, it's a great way to get a quick look and then go back and explore at a later date.  

Another trip we took was to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. It's a good thing the museum is privately funded as we went during the government shut down. The Mighty Eighth flew B-17 bombers during WWII. They have done a really nice job of showing what led up to the United States entering the war and what part the bombers played in it.

The museum is huge. They have several great displays and they are also restoring a B-17 inside the main hall. I was just amazed at the actual size of the plane and to think that it had a crew of five plus all of the equipment and guns. Not a lot of room left inside of one.

October also brought out the pirates. Pirate Fest is the last big event on the island. It is said this is when the residents of Tybee take back the island. It's a three day event and people dress up in their best pirate attire.  We had a number of pirates and wenches in the park that week end. As you can see, we now have our own Jolly Roger.

The big parade on Saturday was full of pirates, scoundrels and scallywags. I had to work but Holly went down and took some great pictures and came home with a lot of beads. I'm just curious about what she did to get so many.

We went to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, which is about 45 minutes from here. Holly found an empty beach chair and couldn't resist sitting on the beach for a moment. Tybee Island doesn't allow pets on the beach but Hilton Head does and Brutus sure was glad they did. He misses being on the sand by the ocean. They even have times during the day they can be off leash. We kept him on his due to the fact he is a little bully and there were a lot of people and dogs on the beach.

We climbed the light house, even though it was built in the mid-90's and was privately funded. It is not an official aid to navigation but does mark the entrance to the harbor.

Speaking of B-17's  the Memphis Belle was in Savannah giving rides for $400 each.  It flew over the island several times which gave me a chance to get several nice pictures. Those four big engines were very noisy and that gave me plenty of time to go outside to see it fly over.

Our long time friends Jack and Lynn stopped by with their motor home on their way back to Florida. We had some time to visit and see the sights together. We went into Savannah, walked around the town, saw the many squares and fountains, walked on the river front and saw some of the great old buildings that I didn't notice the first time I was there. We had lunch by the river, then ice cream (don't forget the ice cream) and then came home.

That's right we finally climbed the Tybee Light House. The light tower is 145 feet tall and has 178 steps to the top. It was very windy at the top but the view was great. Holly volunteered to run down and take a picture of me, Lynn and Jack at the top.  It has a first order Fresnel lens. The lens is 9 feet tall and 6 feet across the bottom. The lower picture sort of gives you an idea of how big the lens is. The light can be seen 18 miles out to sea. Most of the original buildings are still there. It is considered one of the most complete light stations in the U.S.

The last day they were here we drove to Charleston S.C. and took a carriage ride. We saw a part of the old historic district. The homes were just fantastic and so well taken care of. We went to the market area where there was a little bit of everything for sale. We had lunch by the bay and enjoyed a great view along with a very good lunch.

This is Bubba Gumps in Savannah. Some of the move "Forest Gump" was filmed here. We saw the restaurant where Jenny worked and the town square where Forest sat and waited for the bus. The bench he used has now been moved to a museum.

This is our carriage and our guide for our tour. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the area. It was a great day to be out with friends. It was nice to see them again. Too bad they had to go home...some people just don't get to have any fun.

We went to a local game refuge that is only about ten miles from here. We were able to see some animals native to the area. I was able to sit and relax and think about the good old days when I grew up in a log cabin and studied by the light of the fire place and grew up to be president. Oh ya that's right, that wasn't me; it was my friend Abe. Oh well, I did get a nice picture of Holly.
Our last trip of the month was to Darien which is a town about 90 minutes south of us. The fort was closed that day, the plantation was closed as well, but we did have a nice lunch and I was able to get some shots of the shrimp boats. Well, that's about it for now... I guess we were busy. See ya'll next month.

Tybee Island September 2013

After four months of being home waiting for our new knees to heal, we are back doing what we have learned to love. We are now at River's End Campground and RV Park which is a city park on Tybee Island, Georgia. We left home on September 3rd, arrived on the 5th, and started work on the 9th.  I work in Operations which includes doing maintenance around the park (no bathrooms!) and escorting campers to their site.  Holly works in the office taking reservations and checking campers in.

River's End was a private park that the city of Tybee bought in 2006. It's the only campground on Tybee Island and has about 140 sites and 6 cabins. We're about 14 miles from Savannah and we're within walking distance of two beaches and one very tall light house. When we arrived here the weather was hot and not just hot, I mean HOT and humid. It stayed that way for the first two weeks that we were here. We were miserable.  It has finally cooled off some and we're finally able to shut off the AC which had been running 24/7.

As I said, we have two beaches.  One is on the Savannah River where it meets the Atlantic Ocean (thus the name of the park, River's End) and the other is on the Atlantic Ocean which is called North Beach. We were at the river beach a couple of days ago and saw several dolphins swimming and playing in the water. The picture to the right is of the river beach. We enjoy going to North Beach at sunset and sit and wait for the stars to come out and listen to the waves.

There is a shuttle that runs from the island to Savannah and at $3 each one way, it's a great deal. We went into Savannah the second week we were here (when it was really hot and humid). We walked around the Historic District for the afternoon and saw a small portion of the city. We visited St. John the Baptist Cathedral. Very beautiful and very large. We walked to River Street and had lunch, walked around a little and looked at a few shops then walked back to the visitors center and caught the shuttle back home.  We decided it wasn't a good idea to have made that trip in the heat of the day.

This is a shot of the Tybee Light House from North Beach,   taken on 9/11. We haven't explored it yet but will before we leave. We do know that it is 178 steps to the top and houses a 1st order Fresnel lens. More on the light after we visit and make it to the top. I just wanted to use this picture because I really like it.

This is our spot in the park. We are located under three huge oak trees that are hung with Spanish moss, which is neither Spanish nor moss. It's an air plant that is apparently a distant relative to the pineapple (what?) As lovely as it looks, it is home to chiggers. We are not fans of chiggers! Thank goodness they stay in the moss.  We have a palm tree right next to us and about a zillion acorns that are constantly falling on the roof of the motor home. Our space is large and the envy of all who come here!

One of our trips took us to Bonaventure Cemetery, the largest municipal cemetery in Savannah. One of its claims to fame is it was featured in the novel "Midnight in the Garden of  Good and Evil".  Many graves are from the early 1800's. There are quite a number of military personnel from the Civil War buried there as well. We saw graves from the 1800's to the present.  A big draw is the grave site of singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer.  Moon River and Days of Wine & Roses are two of his many compositions.

We drove to St. Simons Island and visited their light house. It's a nice restoration and we climbed the 129 steps to the light tower. This confirmed our decision to wait to climb the Tybee Island Light (178 steps) as a good one. While at St. Simons Island we also went to the Maritime Museum which is in a former Coast Guard station. They built a new station because the build up of sand between the station and the water caused the station to be about 300 to 400 yards away from the water.

Savannah is a busy shipping port and being right on the river, we get to see some very large ships coming and going. This is a shot of a container ship coming from the Atlantic and heading up river. As you can see, they come in very close to the beach so we get a good look at them. I'm still waiting to get a shot of the shrimp boats coming in. There's a spot not far from here where they tie up and unload their catch.

We dedicate this month's blog to our little Cairn Terrier, Reggie. He was suffering from congestive heart failure and died on Sept. 26. He was a rescue dog and he brought so much joy to our lives. He loved to travel and go for rides when we went out to explore. He is missed by both of us and his buddy Brutus. Rest in peace little friend.