Our Travel Blog

The weather Gods must have known we were ready to head north. The high was around 7C today and going down to -4 tonight.

The day  for me was spent dismantling my antennas and the satellite dish, packing up all the electronics while Lyn looked after clearing out the trailer and packing. Everything is now ready so that we can get up tomorrow, bring in the bedroom slider, lift up the front legs and go.

We ent out to dinner at the local seafood house, the same one we went to just after we arrived, and had a great last supper!

The plan is to be out of here by 07:30 and take the trailer to storage, the off to get some breakfast. Should be on the freeway before 09:00 for a 595 mile trek to Fredericksburg VA, overnight there and then 605 miles to home Wednesday.

Life looks hectic once we get there, lunch Thursday, opticians Friday, party Friday, party Saturday, Christmas tree hunt and Catriona’s birthday party Sunday. We’ll be in need of a vacation by Monday!

Next installment will be sometime in the 1st week of the New Year when we head back south to Florida

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Barry & Lyn

Time has caught up with us. Today we went back to Jekyll Island for a walk along the beach. The tide was going out, leaving plenty of shells on the beach. We found numerous sand dollars which had not been easy to find up until today.

The temperature is still on the cool side with a fairly strong NW wind, and the days are forecast to get cooler, highs of around 7c on Tuesday!

Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning up and packing, not sure how long the Internet will be on for, I’ll try to get one or two more entries in before we hit the road gain in January.

I have also added a few pictures for some of the recent entries.

Today we headed north to visit a couple of historical sites, the first was the Hofwyl Broadfield Plantation. This was the site of a 1250 acre rice plantation that started in 1807 was in use until 1915. After that it was used as a dairy until the mid 40’s. From then until 1973 it was the home of one of the owners descendants, and on her death it was left to the state. All of the furniture, tools etc were the original ones, rather than pieces bought to make the house look right.

Next stop was lunch at Mudcat Charlies, it was recommended by the guide at the plantation, and we had to go there for the name alone! It was a great place right on the river with great seafood.

Next stop was Fort King George which was a reconstruction of a British fort that was originally built in 1721. The site became a sawmill in the early 20th century, which destroyed what was left of the original fort. The fort has since been reconstructed from drawings and descriptions found in old records.

Both sites were well worth the visit, and what suprised us was cost  (or lack thereof) for admission. Parking was free and admission was $5 each!

I’ve almost got rid of the cough/cold, now Lyn is coughing away merrily.

The lack of gas situation has been resolved, the site sells Propane so it was easy! Whats more the price was good, fI illed 2x30lb tanks for $39, as opposed to $11 at Costco for 10lb.

Lyn got all the Christmas cards written today (my contribution was printing the labels!) and we mailed them locally. Saved quite a bit as it is only 98c for Europe vs $1.70 something in Canada.

Starting to think about packing up now, we booked the storage this afternoon so all we need to do is work out what we want to bring back (and where to put it) and what to leave and where to put it!

So, it’s 0C outside heading down to -3, and the furncace died! This was a little disconcerting as this afternoon I replaced the el-cheapo thermostat with a digital one. Anyway, a little snooping around pointed to a lack of gas as the problem! Guess I should check the tanks more often.

Today we headed south to the Georgia – Florida border to a place called St Mary’s. Turned out to be a very picturesque little town on the river that is the State boundary. There were many 19th century mansions there all in good repair and the place was already decorated for Christmas. Something is not right when it is sunny, relatively warm and there are Christmas decoraations on Palm trees.

There were plenty of antique shops for Lyn to wander around, and we did a little more Christmas shopping before we left. Thankfully we get a large duty free allowance coming back into Canada.

Yesterday we were cooling the place down, then last night a strong cold front went through, we got a little bit of rain and very strong winds. Further inland there was more serious weather with flooding and even tornadoes. This morning it was down to about 5C, with a high of around 11 which was about the same as Ottawa. The temperature is now down to 2C with a “Freeze” warning in effect, which means the temp will drop below 0C for 2 or more hours tonight. You just have to love global warming.

We drove to St Simons Island this morning, as Lyn realised we would be leaving soon and that she had better do a final check of the quilt shops! We also checked out the ocean hoping that the strong winds had whipped up the waves. This wasn’t the case though as the island provided shelter from the wind. In fact it was too cold to do much walking until we got to the beach, so we took a farewell stroll along the sand.

We were driving the truck the other night, and I noticed a number of the buttons on the Climate control were not lit, guess we hadn’t noticed before as the truck has seldom been driven after dark. After raiding 2 of the local radio shacks for spare bulbs, I managed to strip the unit down, remove the old bulbs and solder in new ones. Total cost < $10 and a few expletives! Cost from a GM dealer ~$600, as they just strip out the old unit and put in a new one. I knew there was a good reason to bring the toolbox(es) with me. Maybe I should start a new business, it’s easier than building basements!

A quiet, at home today here listening to a local radio station which is playing a lot of Xmas music. It just doesn’t seem possible that it’s that time of year, we’re still wearing shorts and T-shirts and  the air-conditioning is on because the temp. in the trailer is 27C. Where’s the cold and snow? We’ll have that pleasure next week when we drive home to Ontario

The campsite has really emptied out now, probably about a dozen vehicles left, I think they’re probably all here on a long term basis like ourselves. Seems this park isn’t too well known, it’s only into its second year of operation.

Barry has almost recovered from his cold, and getting back to his usual annoying self!

Lyn