April 23 - May 3  Coastal Georgia RV Resort - Brunswick, GA

We're doing it again.....staying at a resort that we visited earlier in our trip.  We were here back in January when the weather was cold and we were in a time crunch to get to Port Charlotte, FL.  Because of the time crunch, we weren't able to visit a couple of the sights we'd hoped to see so we came back.  Besides that, we liked the resort and felt that spending a few days here would be great!

We wanted to see Jekyll Island which is off the coast of Georgia. 

When we stopped at the Visitor Center, we heard people talking about Driftwood Beach and as we were driving around and trying to get the "lay of the land", we spotted a sign for it and thought we'd take a look. All we can say is WOW !!!  

 We walked down a path about 100 yards and were surrounded by greenery......then we hit the beach with every conceivable formation of driftwood.  With all the driftwood, it was like stepping from a technicolor world into a black and white world -- only the sky added any color to the scene.  Jekyll Island has beautiful oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and has a historic district with buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.   What a fascinating place to visit and it has such wonderful bike trails around the island that we came back a second time and rented bikes.  On bikes, we could explore in more depth and not worry about parking the car.

Another day, we visited a near-by island called St. Simon's.  The remnants of a fort (Fort Frederica) built in 1736 (that's nearly 300 years ago!) and the town around it are on this island.  During the pre-revolutionary war period, Georgia was in an area designated as "debatable land".   Both the British to the north and the Spanish from the south were interested in this territory and Fort Frederica played an important role in keeping the area under British control during the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742.   

We also enjoyed seeing the light house and climbed to the top (129 steps).  One trip up and down was enough for Jan, but Bob made 4 trips up and down to help us capture the moment in photographs.

 
The most popular building material used in

the early years on Jekyll Island and St. Simon's Island is called "tabby".  It was made of equal parts of sand, lime, oyster shells and water mixed into mortar.  The lime used in tabby was made by burning oyster shells which were abundant in the trash piles of early Indian tribes of the area.  The formula for this material was brought to America in the 16th century by Spaniards and was African in origin.  It was such a durable material that it was used even as late as the 1890's.

Seeing Fort Frederica sparked an interest for us in the fort used by the Spanish during the period of the battles at Fort Frederica.  Castillo De San Marcos is located in St. Augustine, FL and is only about an hour south of  Brunswick, GA.  This was an amazing fort.  Built between 1672 and 1695 and most of it is still standing.  It's the oldest masonry fort in the continental US and it's in the form of a star.  It's made of a stone called coquina (small shells) that are bonded together to make a material similar to limestone.  Possession of the fort changed six times over the years (always by treaty or ruling)  but because of it's solid construction, it has never been breached.  It's truly incredible to see structures like this that were built without all the technology available today and that have survived for centuries.  It was so impressively designed and positioned to protect the eastern coast of Florida.

During our time in Brunswick, GA we watched the weather closely.   Weather always plays a big role in travels via motorcoach.  It's unpredictable (even though the forecasters try) and a force that's not to be taken lightly.   Areas of Alabama (near where we had visited) were threatened with tornadoes and the panhandle of Florida was devastated by flooding.  Route I-10 in Alabama and the panhandle of Florida which we had driven only two weeks ago was actually washed out in places.  Out of respect for the weather, we extended our stay in Brunswick, GA by a few days.

In spite of the threat of rain, the first of our extension days started out looking very nice, so we ventured out to visit Fort King George which was only about 1/2 hour away near Darian, GA.  Fort King George is a recreation of the oldest English fort remaining on the coast of Georgia.  It's structures include a blockhouse, officers' quarters, barracks, a guardhouse and moat.   There are also remains of three sawmills and tabby ruins.  From 1721 to 1736 (nearly 400 years ago), Fort King George was the southern outpost of the British Empire in North America. 

 We also found a local place to buy fresh seafood.  Not as big as Joe Patti's in Florida, and with a very small selection, but the fish was really, really fresh.  We truly enjoyed  eating a lot of wonderful seafood during our stay along the Georgia coast.

As it turns out, we had very little bad weather.  A little rain and some wind were the extent of the storms by the time they reached the Brunswick, GA area.  When we did have rain, we took time to do some work around the coach.  Laundry, cleaning, home improvements and the budget.... also the blog and pictures for the blog are always waiting to be done. Next stop on our trek is Hilton Head Island, SC.