Bugs

Today is a sad day. Lou and Davey are heading north and I am going south. We have been convoying for three weeks and it is time for each of us to move on.

Each year, after not using the RV for a few months, something is always bound to go wrong – something will not work. Davey has been my hero. He has that keen engineer's eye where he can just look at something and say – why aren't you doing this this way? – something that I would never have thought of. For example - I was having a lot of trouble with my tow bars – it was getting really hard to get my towed car disconnected. Davey says “Do this” and it is like a miracle – it is so easy now to disconnect my car. Sometimes I have some mechanical issue and Davey just walks into the RV and it is magically fixed. How does he do that?

Lou – she has special talents also – besides keeping me extremely well wined and dined, she pushed me onward. I probably would have chickened out on the zip line activity if she hadn't pushed me. She always made us walk the extra mile and made sure we knew what we were seeing as we wandered on.

Starting to sound sort of like a eulogy for these two folks so I will stop. It will be a big adjustment for me. It was great fun but as they say – Onward.

I headed south down I95 which is the main thoroughfare between Florida and New England. There are so many RVs heading north that I decided to count them. I took three samples – how many RVs would I pass in a three mile area. The answer – between 12 and 14. That is a huge number when you think about it.

I have been having a hard time finding places to stay. Every RV park has been full. Spring Break so that every park is full of families. And then there are the snowbirds who are starting their migration north. I wanted to hang out in Charleston for a bit, but every park I called was full until the middle of April. Ok, skip Charleston. Let's move on to Savannah. Same story there. No room at the inn.  I was a little bummed because even though I have been to both Charleston and Savannah in the past, they are beautiful cities and well worth spending a great deal of time in.

I got the very last spot in Colleton State Park in South Carolina. I could only stay there for one night because somebody else was coming in the next day. Nice park – it is right along the Edisto River and had some nice ( I think) trails – the trails I tried to walk were all under water and I really didn't feel like strolling through the muck.

I am now down on Blythe Island in Georgia. This is a regional park and the sites are amazing. My pull through site could easily fit three long RVs end to end. Lots of trees, lots of foliage. Each site is rather private. I have somebody from Minnetonka, Minnesota on my left side and somebody from Brainerd Minnesota on my right side. Beautiful trails and a beautiful park. Bad things are that it is super expensive and the Wi-Fi sucks. Oh well. I have wheels and will move on eventually.

I needed to go to Fort Frederica – on my list of National Places to visit. I also wanted to do another Junior Ranger – The National Park Service has unleashed a Junior Ranger monster, I tell you.

First, a little bit about the fort. This was a British fort that was built in the 1730s as protection against the Spanish. This particular part of now Georgia was a disputed region between the British and the Spanish. Since that time, the surrounding town and the fort has pretty much completely disappeared and has become a great favorite site for archaeologists.

This Junior Ranger program was pretty cool – they give you a haversack filled with articles that you need to complete all the Junior Ranger assignments. There was a spy glass, a old compass, a protractor and several maps. You had to figure out how far the cannons could fire on the river – deliver messages to various pretend town people and a whole series of other tasks. Whoever designed the Fort Frederica program really went out of their way to try to engage kids. I now have badge #2(I lost my Congaree National Park badge someplace – probably in the Congaree swamp) proudly displayed in the RV.

 

That moss can make anything look creepily majestic

 

This is all that is left of the fort and it is just the arms magazine

But they had a nice view of the river - that is a cannon in the lower right

All that is left of the town - the trees were not there though

Since I am so close to the ocean, Miko and I went over to Jekyll Island. You have to pay $6 to even get on the island and the we drove around the whole island. I was looking for Driftwood Beach which was listed on various websites as one of the most beautiful places on the island. It is also a dog friendly beach. We arrive just about sunset, the wind has died and the biting gnats have come out in droves. I am walking with one hand on the leash with a wave-crazed dog on the other end, talking to Tony on the phone and had absolutely no hands free to try to stay bug free. My ankles and wrists, my neck and hairline are all covered in itchy red welts.

The worst part is that Miko, in her wave mania, swallowed a ton of salt water. I had no idea that this was rather toxic to dogs. I pull her out of the water after about fifteen minutes, get in the car and start home. Me with a zillion bites and Miko throwing up half the Atlantic Ocean in the back seat. When we get home, I read up on what to do with dogs who have ingested salt water and they say that you should give her as much fresh water as she can drink because the salt has now made her severely dehydrated. Well, once she drinks a ton of water, that needs to be thrown up also. It was a long night but Miko seems to have recovered and is back to her old self.  Myself - I'm still scratching.

I am now not fond of the ocean in any shape or form. I'm leaving this place and heading inland. Enough of this sea to shining sea crap. I shall admire all future oceans from afar.

 

  

The beach

 

 

Besides this, there was only one other piece of driftwood at Driftwood Beach....well,Ok, then.