Charleston & Hurricane Isaac

It was raining when we arrived in Charleston set up camp and headed out to stock up on some essentials.  The next morning we headed out to Drayton Hall one of the only original plantation homes in the area that is a preservation not a restoration. This home saw action during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and still remained in the Drayton Family. One of the rooms is recreated in a scene from "The Patriot"  where Cornwallis set up his office. Mr. Drayton after the Civil War abandoned the home to move to Mexico since he didn't like the outcome of the war, but he still managed it as a working plantation.  There is one of the oldest African American Cemetery still in use today on the plantation, the most recent burial was in 2009.  Mr. Bowen was born on the plantation as a slave and ended up being a caretaker and historian until his death.  His wife is still alive and her place is reserved next to him.  To date they have been able to locate 40 unmarked graves.

The front of Drayton Hall, there were two out buildings with breezeways to the home when it was originally built.  One fell during an earthquake the other during a hurricane.  

This is the main room you enter into the home, it was were the family would've have met there guests.  The original fireplace mantle was stolen sometime before the home was given to the historical society, the decision was made to not replace it in the spirit of preserving the home and not restoring it.

This less formal fireplace was in the family parlor.

The main staircase up to the second floor is maghogany, but the newel post was replace sometime during the family's history with pine.

The balcony at the top of the stair goes into the ballroom.

This is the ballroom which is on the second floor of the home.

The basement, where the kitchen and storeroom were.  The columns you see are thought to be the original ones for the front of the home that had to be replaced after a hurricane early in the family's history.

 This is the fireplace in the basement where all the cooking was done, you can actually stand up inside of it  

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This is the privy, the tides from the river cleaned it out.  Later it became the management office for the plantation.

View down the driveway to the plantation.

"Leave 'Em Rest" quote over the arch to the slave cemetery.  This was actually made after the death of Mr. Bowen by a local iron worker in his memory.

After leaving Drayton Hall, we attempted to head to Magnolia plantation which was Mr. Drayton's ancestral home (he was 3rd Son so didn't inherit, but built his own down the road), but Hurricane Isaac had other plans for us.  Bands from the Hurricane reached all the way to Charleston and dropped 6" - 12" of rain on Charleston in two hours.  They were actually closing roads behind us as we tried without success to get into downtown Charleston.

Oh well spent the rest of the day in the camper!

After leaving Charleston we are headed for Aiken to see my childhood friend Denise Duncan Courtney.  Made camp at Aiken State Park and headed down to Denise's, she only lives right down the road.  Denise took us downtown to see the Aiken Brewery and eat at her favorite place "The New Moon Cafe", she really had us pegged, good beer and good food.  We walked around downtown, now this is what I call a quaint, beautiful little town.  Afterwards she took us on a tour of Aiken to see the lovely polo horse farms and pretty old houses, what a fantastic afternoon. Went back to Denise's and sat at her kitchen table to enjoy her "Chocolate Cola Cake" and talk for hours on end.  All of the sudden we remembered that we hadn't seen the Ranger before leaving the park and weren't sure how to get back into the gated campsite area....LOL  Fortunately, Southern Hospitality prevailed and the ranger had left the gate unlocked for us, knowing that we didn't have the combination.  It was a little eerie staying in a campground with only the camp host on the grounds.  As we were driving to our site one of the biggest owls flew across the road.  Next morning we arrived back at Denise's to enjoy a breakfast of eggs, bacon, grits, toast & hash browns, best we have had since our trip began.  Unfortunately we have to move on from here.....Asheville, NC is our next stop!

 Beautiful, amazing Denise & Me

Denise, Me & Trey

Georgia here we come!

We have finally seen the last of Florida for a little while, don't worry we will visit again.  Driving to our destination of Savannah, we became a little tired so decided to stop for the night. Navigation and looking is  for places to stay is my job. Thanks to iPhone app RVPark Finder and Google maps, my job is pretty easy. This time it found a beautiful GA State Park, in Ocmulgee.  They have a golf course, a lodge and beautiful campground.  So for those that don't like to "Rough" it, they can always stay in the lodge.

Since we were only staying the night we didn't venture out of the park, sat by the campfire and consumed our growler of beer.

Swamphead IPA

Sitting by the fire having a little chat with Hope.

This park was so pretty we decided to get up early, watch the sunrise.  Rode our bikes to the hiking trail for another 2 mile hike.

 Sunrise in the Tupelo Swamp

Good Morning Everyone!

There isn't much to post in regards to our trip into Savannah, to tell you the truth I was a little disappointed to find out that it was very touristy, even with the beautiful old buildings.  It is a real shame when they let all the t-shirt shops, haunted tours, etc. set up in them.  We stayed on Tybee Island, which was just like every other tourist destination beach town in Florida.  On our way out of Tybee, we stopped at Ft. Pulaski, our first stop on the National Park Tour.  

 This beautiful deer greeted.

Entrance to the fort

 Entrance to the underground ammunition bunkers.

 Inside the bunker.

 The moat around the fort.

 I just love doors, you will see a lot of pictures of them.

 Parade grounds of the fort.

Goodbye Savannah, Hello Charleston!

St. George Island

St. George Island is our destination after leaving the Gainesville area.  This State Park is definitely a Florida gem, you have fishing, kayaking, hiking, and for those of you that just like to relax on the beach they have that too!   

We spent the first morning out on our kayak.......

Apalachicola Bay

 We kayaked as far back on this tributary as we could go.

This Osprey decided to pose for us

 We disturbed this Egret, but what a beautiful picture

Found out the hard way that when birds are seeming to stand on the water, watch for OYSTER beds!

After Kayaking for about two hours, we went back to the camper and hopped on our bikes, to ride about two miles to the hiking trails......

 This is a view of our kayak trip from land

 This was our reward after a 3.8 mile hike in the blistering heat!

 The fiddler crabs parting like the red sea!

 The biggest hermit crab I think I've ever seen.

This looked like a hermit crab condo!

The best park of the secluded little beach we found, dolphins playing in the surf.

The hardest park was knowing we had to trek the 3.8 miles back, cycle 2 miles to the camper before we could rest.  Was really looking forward to Oysters and a beer by then.

Beautiful sunset, we enjoyed after our oysters.

The next morning Isaac chased us off the island so we headed to Georgia.

On the Road Again, Next Stop Ft. White

We setup camp at O'Leno State Park, it was late when we arrived so didn't do anything more than sit around the campfire. We were very disappointed to find out the the river was at flood stage and the conditions were too dangerous to put the kayak in the water.  We were really hoping to take the 15 mile trek we took last time we were up here, flooding is way worse than the river being too low and having to get the kayak over rocks.

This little guy came by our campsite just a few minutes after we arrived

This suspension bridge over the Santa Fe is usually up pretty high from the river as you can see, the river has come up a lot.

This is the flood marker for the river, the blue line is how high the river was after Charley, Jeanne & Frances.  At that time the river was at flood stage, I hope that Isaac doesn't make it worse than that.

So instead we decided to head to Gainesville for the day, of course we stopped at Swamphead Brewery.  Had a beer or two and picked up a growler for our journey.  State of Florida is so funny with their growlers you can only buy a 32 oz. or 128 oz, no 64 oz. like most states.  Oh well we went with the 128 oz., surprising I know!

Met Dad for a pre-drink dinner at a new English Pub in Ft. White, had a beer then headed over to our favorite restaurant Great Outdoors, enjoyed a wonderful dinner and a few more beers than we should have but oh well! That's life.

Dad & I

Local Brew, Named for a squatter at Lily Springs

Broke camp the next morning, stopped in to say a quick goodbye to Dad, then headed to St. George Island in the Panhandle.