Day 22 - Hilton Head Island

Today was our last day on the island. My inner athlete got the better of me today. We started with 2hrs of kayaking. The highlight was that we got to see a pod of dolphins swimming around. Pretty cool. After that, we headed to the pool to cool off and get the salt off of us. 

We had an early lunch and then grabbed our bikes. I have this issue when someone tells me I can't do something, well, guess what? The issue this time was that I wanted to see Harbor Town. If you read my post from a couple of days ago, it was going to cost me $25 vs. $5 for a regular car to drive there. My first thought was heck; we'll ride our bikes there. Well, not quite directly. I asked the guy at the kayak place about riding the bikes there and he said the guards would not allow that either, BUT, if we went to the beach near there, we could ride our bikes down the beach and then cut up beyond the guard shack. Bingo! The plan worked like a charm. The icing on the cake was that Cathy and the boys loved riding on the beach. I thought it was pretty cool too. In case you're wondering, it was hard sand all the way. The downside was that the whole ride was pretty long (~3 hrs.) and it included going up over a tall bridge on the way to the beach. Like I said, Cathy and the boys did great. Harbor Town was pretty cool, so it ended up being a good call. 

We rode back to the main town area. I decided to let Cathy and the boys only ride to there, while I rode back to the campground and got the truck. Good calls as the ride back took me another hour and I wasn’t riding slow either. Faithy was my co-pilot on the ride back into town.

We got back to camp and of course a couple of beers were in order! After a steak dinner all was well with the world. I'm pretty sure everyone will sleep well tonight.

I didn't think about it, but Saturday is moving day on Hilton Head Island. The traffic was crazy getting off and on the island.

 As an update, my golf day yesterday was very fun. I played Palmetto Dunes - Robert Trent Jones course. I ended up with just one other quy, which was very cool. Nice guy too. I played ok, but the I had a few too many mistakes to shoot a good score. Fun day none the less.

Tonight we got the trailer mainly ready for travel. Tomorrow we'll simply disconnect the water and electric and be on our way. We head to Myrtle Beach. The boy should enjoy that. Greg may have an ear infection. We see and we may have to find an urgent clinic tomorrow. Hopefully it is something minor.

 It has been nice being in one place for 4 days. Tomorrow we start a 2, 2, 2, 1 string where we'll be staying at the next 3 locations for 2 days each. Travel between each is fairly small too, which will be nice.

Here are a couple of pictures from our kayak outing.

Day 21 - Savannah

Today, while Jim played golf, the boys and I went to Savannah.  During parts of this trip, they've given us a hard time about sightseeing so I anticipated the same behavior when I proposed the drive into Savannah.  To make them more agreeable, I invented a bingo type game where they would need to look for things on their cards, such as flag poles, historic houses, cemeteries, boats, souvenir shops, pubs, pizza places, statues, etc, and get 5 of these items in a row (like traditional bingo) to win money.

I'm happy to report that it worked like a charm!  They each got a city map from the visitor's center and they set the course for our walking tour of Savannah.   Other than the heat/humidity (you'd think we'd be used to it by now... not!), we had a ball:)  I had two willing tour guides and it cost me $14 (4 bingos for Greg and 3 for Connor at $2 each).  We added some things to our list for next time as we walked around today.  I definitely see us using this new game as our trip progresses.

The older part of Savannah has squares at the intersections of streets and they are placed every two blocks or so around the city.  Some are like gardens, some have fountains, some have statues.  We visited Franklin Square, Ellis Square, Johnson Square, Warren Square and Washington Square, to name a few.  They are beautifully done and we really enjoyed exploring them.  We wandered through a cemetery that is now a park and saw headstones from the 1700s... We also wandered through the City Market and had a delicious lunch on River Street.

The first two pictures are from different squares.  The third picture is the boys at a fountain on River Street.  The Savannah River is behind them. 

I have to admit that I was nervous driving into a new area, especially with our big butt truck, but, all in all, it was a very fun day with my soon-to-be teenagers!

 

 

 

 

Day 20 - Hilton Head Island (4th of July)

We spent the day wandering around the main village on the island.  Stopped in a few shops, had lunch, checked out the beach, etc.  We bought a new parrot for the trailer.  He sits on a perch.  Not sure where yet I want to hang him.  I also picked up a couple of new bike tubes, given the issues we had yesterday.

One funny thing.  We tried to drive over to Harbor Town (another village on the island).  It is inside a privite community and you had to pass through a security gate to get there.  They charge $5 / car for folks who are not living/staying in the community (Sea Pines).  The guard was pretty funny.  He asked if I wanted the good news or bad news regarding going to Harbor Town.  The good news was that we "could" drive to Harbor Town but the bad news was that since I had 6 wheels it would cost me $25 vs. the $5 other cars had to pay.  I didn't really want to go that bad, so we turned around.

We then headed back to the campground.  We went to the pool for a while.  The campground was hosting a BBQ that night, so after swimming we headed back to get ready.  I packed up our little wagon with a cooler, chairs, my Bose box, camera, and a few munchies.  They had things setup on the tennis courts near the bay.  Nice location.  When the call came for folks there was a mad dash, by many there, to get in line for their free food.  I still don't understand that mentality.  We sent the boys to stand in line, while Cathy and I sat at the table.  We ended up switching places with them and met a very nice couple from Augusta, GA.  Fun chatting with them.  The folks we shared the table with were also very nice.

There we supposed to be a firework display at 9:30pm.  We setup our chairs near the bay, but nothing happended!  No one was quite sure what happened so we headed back around 10:00pm.  Cathy took the dog out for a walk around 11:00pm and a few fireworks were going off at that point.  One person who walked by Cathy joked that they much have thought they were on Central time.

I got my golf back and gear out in preparation for my outing on Friday.  Looking forward to that.

Here is a picture of the boys goofing around at the BBQ and another of us sitting in a tree while walking around.

Day 19 - Jacksonville, FL to Hilton Head Island, SC

Today was a pretty short travel day, only 165 miles.  We got going around 9:30am, which is a little later than normal for us, but I'm (Jim) not feeling 100% at the moment so sleeping in a little was a good thing.

Before we left, we put on 4 more state stickers on our door.  We added Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  Tomorrow we get to add Georgia and South Carolina.  The map is getting more colorful!

We stopped and picked up some Georgia peaches along the way.  Pretty yummy!  Overall the ride was uneventful, which is always a good thing.

The campground is just over the bridge as you head onto the island.  Very nice campground and people.  One interesting twist is that when you make a reservation, you reserve a "space".  Once you get here, they hand you the keys to a golf cart and you drive around and pick any of the open spaces.  If there is someone else looking, it could become a race to see who gets back to the office first!  We ended up with a very nice space on a corner so there isn't anyone next to us and we are just across the street from the sites that back up against the water.

Once we got setup and had lunch, we headed out on our bikes for a ride.  They have a pretty extensive set of bike trails here on Hilton Head.  We were headed to one of the main villages until Greg got a flat.  I was a dumb ass today and didn't put a hand pump on my bike so we were up a creek without a paddle, so to say.  Cathy did a search on Google for a bike shop near by and it indicated there was one about 1/2 mile up the road, so we all walked.  The downside is that the bike shop was no longer there, but the good news is there was a pub next to a boat storage site.  I spoke to one of the workers at the boat facility and he said they had a compressor with a tire attachment.  Fortunately I did have a tire repair kit and once we found the leak, patched it, I then went back to the boat storage site and filled it up.  While I was doing this, Cathy and the boys headed to the pub, which overlooked the inlet.  Once I finished patching the tube and putting everything back together, I joined them for a well-deserved beer!

On the ride back, we rode past a small shop selling fresh veggies and shrimp.  I picked up 1/2 lb. of shrimp for myself, since I'm the only seafood eater in the family and then we headed back to the campground.  As luck would have it, Connor got a flat too.  Fortunately we were not too far from the campground so we just walked back.  Not sure what caused both flats. I'll take a closer look tomorrow when I fix Connor's tire.

After dinner we took a stroll around the campground.  Very nice.  The temp tonight is only around 81 degrees, but the humidity must be around 90%, which makes it feel much worse than it should be.  The wind died down this evening, so that's not helping either.  Let's just say, I am very happy I installed the 2nd AC in the trailer!  It has been a life saver so far.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July.  Not sure what we're going to do yet.  Maybe we rent kayaks and paddle around a little.  I'm playing golf on Friday.

One thing I noticed today, I think there are as many churches as golf courses here on Hilton Head!

Here is a shot Cathy took while we were riding our bikes today.  Pretty place.  One thing to note, there are a number of very expensive homes here, but also quite a few rather poor places too on the island.

Day 18 - travel from Destin to Jacksonville

It's July 2nd and we spent the day traveling from Destin to Jacksonville.  Word of the day was Panhandle because we pretty much saw all of it on Hwy 10.  The shot below with all of the greenery is pretty much what we looked at all day.  Very beautiful but not much in the way of changing landscape or points of interest.  We hit a few heavy rain areas, and man can it rain here... wow.  Makes Oregon seem tame, seriously.  We could hardly see the cars in front of us.

We stopped near Tallahassee for lunch (no idea if I spelled that right... :)) and I took a picture of the rig.  Jim is twitching because the trailer has not been washed since we left Oregon.  Good thing for the torrential rain we drove through!  We crossed the 4,000 mile mark today.... all of it driven by Jim.  Hard to believe we traveled that far in 18 days!

We got to the campground in the early afternoon, except we lost an hour because we are on east coast time now... lol!  This is a beautiful place, gorgeous lake, nice rigs, cafe and rec room, etc... but we think the people here are regulars and we crashed their party.  Everyone is driving around in golf carts and they are very well settled in as far as their camps are concerned.  Our spot backs right up to the lake, as you can see below in the picture of the boys.  Unfortunately Faith cannot swim in it... WTH?  In any case, we took a walk around the campground, which is huge, and then had dinner at the cafe.  We interrupted a bingo game... apparently bingo is big here.

One fun note... we were sitting on the patio waiting for our food when the boys noticed turtles in the water... they swam up as soon as we sat down... I had no idea turtles could beg:)  We've never seen so many turtles in one place.  The cafe puts stale bread aside so the kids and I had a ball feeding them.  That was the highlight of our day:)

 

 

Day 17 - Destin, FL (Pensacola area)

On July 1st (today!), we rented a pontoon boat and explored the area... wow what a great idea this was.  The weather was gorgeous.. not too hot.. and we got on the water earlier than most.  Jim was thrilled with the military fighter jets doing touch and goes while the boys kicked back like kings of the boat.  We saw dolphins and hung out on Crab Island, which is really a big sand bar that everyone takes advantage of. We all swam and Faith exhibited her dock dog talents.  She really wants a pontoon boat now:)

After the boating, we chilled back at the trailer for a while.  Jim and I headed into town for some groceries and ended up buying the boys boogie boards (not sure if this is the correct name...?).  When we got back to the trailer, we suited up again and walked across the street to the beach.  The boys and Jim had a ball trying to surf with the new boards.  It was late afternoon at this point, which is our favorite time on the beach.

We checked out the pool at the Ramada resort, which had a waterfall, and then headed back to the trailer for dinner.  Since we are leaving for Jacksonville tomorrow, we took a ride into Destin and tooled around the pier there.  Again, lots of vacation resorts here so there is lots of activity.  It was fun wandering the shops and checking out the boats.  We cannot afford any of these boats, unless we want to trade in our house...lol!

Day 16 - New Orleans to Pensacola

On June 30th, we left New Orleans (with me kicking and screaming...!) and headed for the Pensacola area.  It was unique to travel and cover 4 states in one day.... extremely difficult to do on the west coast for sure.  We need to have another ceremony and get the decals added to our US map!

This day was a wonderful travel day.  We initally started off on Hwy 10 but then Jim cut down to the coastal Hwy and we enjoyed the gorgeous views along the gulf coast.  Wow, there are some gorgeous beaches in this area!  I really had no idea. We will definitely explore this area again in the future.  The photo below with the umbrellas was taken in the Biloxi MS area.

We arrived in Destin in the early afternoon and were thrilled with the RV park.  Our spot was near the harbor and right next to the pool.  So Faith finally had a chance to swim:)  The boys immediately hit the pool.  Jim and I joined them after Faith was done with her swim.  Met some very nice people from St. Petersburg.

After dinner, we took a walk across the street to explore the "boardwalk".  Of course, we had gelato and explored the shops. This is a very busy vacation area so there are resorts all around us.  After our gelato, we took a walk along the boardwalk and onto the pier.  The sunset picture below was taken there.

Jim and I popped up to the Crab Shack for a drink while the boys played on the beach.  It was a wonderful and relaxing evening!