Our Travel Blog

This is becoming quite acceptable; again we awoke to clear blue skies and temperatures in the lower 60’s

Today we begin our fourth week here, doesn’t time fly when you don’t have to clear snow? Being Thursday means it’s grocery shopping day so we headed out to our local supermarket to stock up. We also dropped off at the local hardware store to buy a piece for the trailer. The trailer suffered a little wind damage yesterday; one of the clips that holds open one of the outside storage compartment doors was damaged when a gust of wind caught the door.

While Lyn was packing away the groceries I went and replaced the door clip, in the process of doing this I noticed a wet area under the trailer, this had the potential to be a little more serious than a broken door clip. Luckily the problem was caused by a worn quick connect hose pipe fitting that brings city water into the trailer. A new fitting should cure that.

After lunch Lyn headed out for some solo craft shopping, so I alternated between sitting in the sun with the Sudoku puzzle and waxing and polishing some more of the trailer.

This evening we treated our selves to a meal out at one of the local steak houses.

Another reasonable day, dry and mild. Wake up temperature was in the mid 50’s climbing to the low 60’s later on.

The morning was spent lazing around as usual, then after lunch we headed out to Jekyll Island again. This time we planned to visit the old historic district and the Sea Turtle Sanctuary. As you may remember from our last trip here, Jekyll Island was the play ground of the rich and famous at the turn of the 20th century. The centre of the activities was the Jekyll Island Club, now an hotel where one must still wear “whites” to play croquet.

If the men wished to escape from their wives there was the men only rooms across the road, this building was home to six apartments.

The First Man Cave?

There are a number of smaller cottages in the area for those families that wanted a little more independence!

The whole area is very well treed with the trademark Spanish moss hanging from the branches.

Spanish Moss on Trees

Last time we were here there was a Christmas market set up in the grounds.

We had been to the Turtle sanctuary before, but we both wanted to go back there. It is set up to treat and where possible, release injured turtles back into their natural habitat, as well as displaying a lot of information on turtles and the aims of the sanctuary, it is also possible to see a number of the turtles in their recovery tanks.

Back at the trailer the weather was remained good enough to have our second barbecue in a row!

After day and night of torrential rain we got up, and there was more rain! The rain finally stopped mid morning and blue skies and warm temperatures returned. We had between 3.5 to 4″ of rain ( for you Northerners that’s about a 90cm snowfall!).

First order of business was to empty and flush out the septic tank, the panel showed it as being full yesterday, but it was deemed too wet to go outside and do anything about it. Previous experience has shown there is normally another 24 hours of available flushing once the full light comes on!  It all worked out OK.

We then escaped the trailer and went for our walk once the rain had stopped, and despite the downpour, the roads had dried up within the hour and no sign of flooding, although the grass was pretty sodden.

Lyn headed out to “her” craft group, there were two new members today so she was pretty happy. Later in the afternoon I went over to the office to pick up my new toys. Three 40lb boxes later I was back at the trailer unpacking and re-arranging the contents so that they could be stored out of the way for the next few weeks.

The day stayed dry so it was back to barbecuing for the evening meal.

and it rained and it rained etc

A little disconcerted to hear the furnace come this morning, but it was only for a few minutes. The outside temperature was 64°F and I guess it was just a little cooler inside causing the furnace to kick in. We reached 77°F later in the day.

Lyn went off to do the laundry after breakfast, and I headed over to the office to pick up some quarters for the dryer. While I was at the office I checked the mail, as according to the post office site two parcels were delivered yesterday, but I only picked one up. There was no second parcel, and the girl in the office confirmed that only one was dropped off. More later.

While Lyn was laundrying (new word?), I moved one of the antennas around as it was interfering with the awning. Next it was time do do a little more waxing and polishing.

The day was sunny and clear, so once I had done my allotted amount of waxing it was time to sit out in the sun and soak up some rays while battling with Sudoku.

After lunch we gave the bikes some rare exercise and managed to do over 3 miles around the local area.

Back at the campsite we were sitting around when the phone rang. Normally I don’t bother to answer if I don’t recognise the number, but this time I did. On the phone was the receptionist from the previous campground we were at in Alabama. It turns out that a parcel was delivered there for me yesterday!! As is usual we take advantage of e-Bay when we are in the US, and somehow I managed to get the wrong address on two orders  I am not sure how that happened as the address process is automatic; both these orders were placed on the same day, but all orders before and after these two were addressed correctly.

After all that confusion it was time for a little more relaxation before the start of the work-week tomorrow.

Temperatures and humidity were much the same as yesterday, but the skies looked a lot more threatening today. Again we took our walk in the morning while it was a little cooler.

As it was the week-end I forewent the washing and waxing duties and instead I did some work on the radio antennas, assembling and installing one that I hadn’t used yet this year. Managed to get some strange looks as I put it up on the roof!

Lyn was busy doing quilting “stuff” which included a quilt jig-saw which seems to be testing her patience.

This afternoon I spent some time checking that I had ordered all the stuff off e-bay for my latest toy / hobby. I think I have it all under control now, and have started work on the software side of things.

Tonight I risked a BBQ even though the weather was still looking threatening, this time two things happened 5 minutes after I started cooking; the heavens opened and Amanda and Noah called us on Skype. Mr, Murphy is doing a good job.

Once the rains started they got heavier and heavier and we finally got some thunder and lightning. Three hours later there is still some rain about.

Woke up to 66°F this morning with the temperature climbing to close to 80°F by noon. After breakfast we decided to take our daily walk around the campsite before it got too hot. The campground clears out quite a bit during the week making the place look a lot larger. We are slowly increasing our walks by doubling up on some of the lanes we walk up and down, we are over a mile a day now which is good for us. There is another couple we see walking each day, and they must be over the 5 mile mark judging by the number of times they walk around the park.

After we got back from the walk I bit the bullet and did some more waxing and polishing of the trailer. Unfortunately I didn’t get as much done as I wanted as the humidity was a little too much for me. Still on track to get it all finished before we leave though.

This afternoon was another sit back and relax time. There was a line of thunderstorms heading our way so it was time to pull in the awning in preparation. Actually there is no need to check the weather forecast here for storms, just look around the site and see whether other people have taken in their awnings and flags!

The rain held off for the afternoon, and then put in an appearance just as I started to barbecue. Thank you Mr. Murphy

A cooler wake up this morning, and the furnace came on overnight. The reason for this is the evil cold winds you Canadians keep sending down here. Not only does it keep us cooler than we would like it also blows the fumes from the paper mill a few miles north of here right over us. Please cease and desist.

Being Thursday we headed off to do the weekly shopping, this week we headed into Brunswick rather than shop in the local supermarket. By the time we got to the store the weather was beginning to warm up nicely.

After lunch I spent some time on the second installment of waxing and polishing the trailer. With any luck it should all be finished by the time we leave here in 4 weeks!

Next we headed out on our daily walk and met up with another husband an wife team who were radio amateurs so we spent quite a while talking with them.

After all the excitement of the day it was time to head back to the trailer for some well earned rest!

The temperature continues to yo-yo. This morning was around 10°C climbing to around 15°C by mid-afternoon. We decided it was time to have lunch out so we headed north to the town of Darien about 25 miles away.

Friends of ours had stayed at this campsite recently and told us about a small restaurant that had good shrimp meals. The plan was to go up on the I95 and after lunch we would drive around the area and come back on the local roads.

We reached Darian and our first thoughts were that the place had seen better days, it looked as though the economic downturn was not kind to the town. We found the restaurant, which we had been warned about not looking the greatest, and went inside. It was surprisingly busy for a lunch time but we eventually ordered the shrimp basket. We had been advised to go for the baskets rather than the meals as they were pretty large and the meals were really large!

The baskets had 1/2lb of shrimp, which was plenty and delicious. Once the meal was over we headed out to find the waterfront park that Lyn had read about, from the description appeared to be a large park with a boardwalk along the river. We finally found the place, it was about 100ft x 100ft with a play structure in the middle and no sign of the boardwalk.

Next we headed north to try and find some fishing villages that were mentioned in some information on the local area. As we headed out of town there was a real mish-mash of housing along the road from beautiful bungalows to run down trailers, unfortunately the latter were more prevalent. We took a turn off the main road into what appeared to be a luxury sub-divison under development. The house there were large and well cared for, but there were far more empty lots than houses, and no sign of any construction.

The fishing villages were just a group of reasonable sized houses close to a launching ramp and small harbour. Nowhere near the character of fishing villages in NZ, Scotland or Cornwall!

Back at the campsite we sat out for while enjoying what warmth was left of the day, then the breeze dropped and the pesky no-see-ums came out to play. Time to head in.

Nice to wake up and not hear the sound of the furnace. Outside temperature was around 60°F, rising to 68°F later in the day. After breakfast and the usual checking of e-mails and blogs it was time to start on the dreaded waxing and polishing of the trailer. The good news is the wax compound was very good at removing stubborn marks, aka airborne road kill, from the surface, the bad news was my arms got a real good work out polishing the wax off. I got the whole of the front cap done before the showers hit!

After lunch Lyn headed over to her craft group, another new person arrived, so at least there is some interest. The showers persisted which (sadly) prevented me from doing any more waxing. The issue I had with the internet box here has been solved, after discussing the issue with the manufacturer the software was downloaded from them into the box and all is as it should be.