Lake Aire Campground, Hollywood, SC

Monday: (04/08) Lou and Dawn were up just after 0600. We all showered and prepared to roll. I was at the office to get LPG at 0910 just after they opened. We headed up Highway I95 stopping near Brunswick at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast. After filling the RV gas tank, we continued North. Another stop near Savannah at a Camping World to return the vent cap I didn’t need. Also a visit to a Red Lion Market. We continued North stopping at a rest area in South Carolina for a nap. While I napped, Lou made some calls to RV parks and campgrounds. We continued on to Hollywood to the the Lake Aire Campground. We have two nights here with full hookups. From here we'll visit the Charleston area. Our campground is a bit muddy due to some heavy rains yesterday.
Lake Aire Campground in Hollywood, SC (Charleston), (GPS: 32.7770639,-80.1476788


Tuesday: (04/09) I made ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. We had leftovers for breakfast. Then we were off for the day. We headed out to the only Tea farm in the North America, the Charleston Tea Plantation. We toured the factory and sampled the teas and looked at the trees. The rows in the field look a lot like a vineyard and the harvester looks like a cotton picker. Interesting to learn how it’s made and the differences in Black, oolong and green tea is only in the processing. We then visited the Firefly distillery. They make some interesting moonshine. Then we headed over to the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. It is the oldest public gardens in the US (having opened in 1870) and the oldest tourist site in “low country”. The plantation has been owned by the same family since 1676. We had leftovers for dinner.

 

 The Magnolia Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in the US. It has a porch just like all the Cracker Barrel restaurants.

  

 

 Possibly the only tea harvester in the US and likely a one of a kind.

 

The dog above is quite friendly and roams the tea plantation. He has evidently been taken before so they posted the sign to say he isn't lost.

 

The Magnolia Plantation.

 

Wednesday: (04/10) Oatmeal for breakfast. We drove up to downtown Charleston. We visited the City Market area and walked the streets looking at buildings and houses. They have some grand, big, old houses. We had lunch at IHOP. Dinner at Poogan's Smokehouse. We shared one very generous sandwich and some sides. The sky was mostly clear except for some cloud cover and lighting in the afternoon. We visited the St. Philip's Church. One of the best looking church buildings inside, that we've seen. Fortunately the pipe organist practiced playing the organ while we were there. I love the pipe organ sound.

 

Walkabout RV Park, Kingsland, GA

Tuesday: (04/02) I walked over to the office and paid for four more days here. Lou made ham and eggs with potatoes for breakfast. Lou then reviewed our tax return and I printed and eFiled our tax return. Our oder problem seems to be better today. We had leftovers and a ham sandwich for lunch. After lunch we drove out to St Mary’s and toured the Submarine Museum and looked about the old town area. We walked around an old cemetery as well, met an interesting caretaker who told us about some of the history of the cemetery.  Back at camp we had more leftovers for dinner. After dinner we did our laundry and enjoyed a campfire with several other campers. We learned about the history of this RV park and its owner.

 

The submarine museum in St Mary's and a large submarine statue at the real submarine base.

 

A couple of pot bellied pigs at the park and some chickens.

Wednesday: (04/03) Granola with diced apple for breakfast. We took a walk around our campground in the morning. Eventually I had to get to work. I removed the toilet and checked for problems. It looked like the rubber gasket between the toilet and the flange was possibly not sealing tightly. I also sprayed the foam insulation into the wall where the vent had the draft. Then i needed to get parts so about noon I headed off to town to get a couple of things for the toilet fix. On the way I stopped at China King for lunch, the best egg foo young I’ve ever had. Then I picked up some things at Lowe’s. I needed a gasket for the bottom of the toilet and a valve and hose for the water to it. When I returned I determined the parts I got for the valve were wrong. We don’t need it anyway since we use the toilet dry with a spray bottle instead. I also trimmed up the gasket I bought to fit and reinstalled the toilet. I also reinstalled the wall panel I had removed when my foam cured enough. Lou was busy removing the tinting film from the driver and passenger side windows. Turns out we both needed some Goof Off to remove the sticky residue left by her film and my foam overflow. We returned to Lowe’s dropping Dawn off at the library on the way. By the end of the day we were back to normal in the bathroom. Lou made seafood salads for dinner. In the evening we joined the camofire.


Thursday: (04/04) Leftover Chinese fried rice with cheese for breakfast. We were off early to drive up to Savannah, Ga for the day. We rode the free trolleys and river boats and walked the streets looking at houses, plaques on statues and monuments, and visited the Colonial Park Cemetery. We had lunch at the Moon River Brewery. My broccoli soup was probably the best I’ve ever had. Because we drove over 217 miles to do this we arrived home well after dark. Nice day. Good weather, good time. We stopped on the way home and bought a wheelchair for Lou.

  

 

Friday: (04/05) Leftovers for breakfast. Ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Chinese food for dinner. Pretty much just relaxed at home all day. I visited Lowe’s and bought a sheet of plywood and had it cut to make a platform for the wheelchair in the rear of the Jeep so that it is stored at the bottom of the rear compartment and everything else sits on top of the box.

Saturday: (04/06) Breakfast at the RV Park clubhouse. Nice loquat pancakes and sausage quiche from eggs laid by the park chickens. Fortunately for the two park pot bellied pigs, the sausage was not home grown. I spent the morning assembling the box for the Jeep luggage area for the new wheelchair. It fits nicely though it does reduce the storage available for other things. We headed off about 1130 to try to get to a farmers market in Kingsland. It turns out it is a real farmers market held in the pavilion at the tiny park there. When the farmers have something to sell they show up there and sell it. Nobody there today. We did look around an estate sale nearby. All this made us hungry so we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Then we stopped off at home and dropped off leftovers then headed off to Woodbine to look around. We took a walk by the river there. Then more driving around. We stopped in St Mary’s to look at a couple of new model homes. And then a visit to Walmart before heading home. Leftovers for dinner.

  

The wheelchair box in the Jeep.

 

A boat launch, pier and trails in Woodbine.

Sunday: (04/07) Lou made salmon hash and eggs for breakfast. We drove about 25 miles North to Jekyll Island for the day. We took the tram tour of the Historic District and then took a walk on the beach. Today was the inaugural trip for the new wheelchair. It worked well and the storage box worked well, as well. Well, Well. The island was foggy all day so no great views.. We had lunch at the Wharf restaurant. Another shopping visit to Walmart to get water and a bike lock for the wheelchair. Lou made chili for dinner.

 

A couple of the "cottages" on Jekyll Island. These were only for occasional use.

 

Sago palm fruit? and the trail to the beach.

Interesting ghost beach on the island.

Kingsland Georgia and Walkabout RV Park

Monday: (04/01) Nice night at the Rest Stop. No neighbor trucks idling. Lou made a nice breakfast omelet. It rained hard all night and morning. Lots of RV’s pulled in tof the night and morning. While Lou and Dawn visited the Visitor Center, I made some calls and found an RV park nearby that had a space. I figured the storm might drive many of the RV’s from the road to wait out the rain storm. The RV park was just up the road six miles. We’re staying at Walkabout Camp and RV Park in Woodbine (near Kingsland), Ga. I removed a panel in the bathroom that covered the vent pipe. The vent looks good. I did notice a draft coming up from underneath by the tanks. That might possibly be the source of the bad odors. It might also be the anti siphon valve venting. I put some tape over the valve vent and stuffed some plastic bags in the hole where the draft came in. It’s raining too much to disable the RV toilet so I’ll wait until the rain lets up to remove it and inspect and seal the area. Lou and I went out shopping for some materials. We brought some soup home for lunch. In the evening we all went back to Kingsland to Sonny’s BBQ for dinner and a walk inside some stores. (GPS: 30.8405744,-81.6766272)

 

On Into Georgia

Sunday: (03/31) We left St Marks early. Breakfast at Golden Corral Buffet back in Tallahassee. We came back to Tallahassee to visit the Jackson Lake Indian Mounds. We then headed toward Jacksonville, mostly on Highway 90. In Jacksonville we stopped at Camping World and bought a new vent cap for our black tank vent. Also some chemical. I need to inspect our vent for a blockage or leak. We also dumped our tanks there. Still need to find water to fill our fresh water. We were in a rush to get dumped before they closed and we drove out of their automatic gate as they closed at 1700. Dumping was made more fun because their hose at the dump had a split and leaked and sprayed. We then stopped at Walmart to shop and spend the night. The same shopping center had a Cracker Barrel where we had dinner and a Lowe's for any other parts I might need for the vent. As it was, we were asked to leave by security about 2300. We drove up I95 stopping 1 mile into Georgia at a Rest Stop. Maybe Savannah will have any materials we need tomorrow.
(GPS: 30.7533566,-81.6497958)

 

 

Wakulla Springs And Fort St Marks

Saturday: (03/30) Another nice night at Walmart. Breakfast for all at Burger King inside our Walmart. We hitched up the Jeep and rolled South out of Town on Highway 319 toward Wakulla Springs. We caught the first boat tour at 0940. Very interesting tour with alligators, manatees, grebs, coots, osprey, and ? The spring is the deepest spring at 350 feet deep and the flow is up to 300m to 1b gallons a day. The water comes from the Wakulla- Leon Sinks Cave, which is the longest underwater cave in the US. It was also the setting for a couple of old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. From there we drove down to San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park. The fort protected the confluence of the Wakulla and St Marks revers. It is the location of one of the earliest Spanish settlements in Northwest Florida (1679). I’ve been using Google to guide us through the back roads and through the cities. It routed us onto a sandy dirt road for about 5 miles on our way from Wakulla Springs. Interesting. In the cities I’m always in the wrong lane to do what it wants me to do and then needs to reroute. After several of these reroutes, I’ll swear that it then deliberately tries to send us down dead end streets. We explored the Fort at the park and enjoyed watching the boats come and go at the boat launch there. We are planning on spending the night in the boat launch overflow parking area.