Chuck and Naomi Adventures in RV Land

March 2: We were sad to leave Laura S. Walker State Park and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, where we had met a lot of nice people and had a great time.

A cold front swept through in the early morning, bringing rain that kept us both awake.  However, by morning, it was quite cool but clear.  We headed south beside the swamp to Florida and an RV dealership.

We were quite pleased at the dealership to learn that our air conditioner is fine – a wire had disconnected from the control and was easily reconnected.  As well, the technician noticed that our fridge, which is supposed to automatically convert from electric to propane when the electricity is disconnected was not doing so. This proved to be another electrical problem, which he fixed.  Finally, he quizzed us about our (non)use of our electrical generator, and advised us to ward off potential problems by running the generator while traveling – this also keeps the fridge running and allows us to run the interior air conditioning on the generated power.  All in all, we had a much better experience than we expected and happily do not need further repairs in this round.  Thank you to the technician (whose name we sadly did not get).

Rumple also had a another new experience today, the DQ “Pup Cup”.  I don’t know if this is common practice, but our DQ server brought Rumple a small cup of vanilla ice cream.  I think most dogs like ice cream, but Rumple was not impressed.

The Payne Prairie State Park near Gainesville was highly recommended to us by our friend Anne, but had space for only one night.  Instead, we headed for the Travelers Campground in Alachua, north of Gainesville.  This campground has some eccentricities.  For one thing, the office features a large aviary with about a dozen very large, colorful and noisy parrots. They were quite raucous during the afternoon, but settled down in the evening.  As well, around the perimeter of the campground is a menagerie including: 1 emu, 2 donkeys, one painted pony, 3 goats, 1 peacock, 1 white peacock and several cows.  (The photos posted by the campground are better than any I could take: http://travelerscampground.com/safari.html).  I guess the owners like the birds and animals, as there does not seem to be any commercial purpose to these creatures.  Another odd thing about the campground is that the RVs are parked on long one-way lanes.  It is not clear to me how the RVs in the interior lanes are supposed to get in and out.   Our campsite is on the edge of the campground, close to the emu, donkeys and pony.

Alachua is only 20 minutes by road to UFL, so it has been a good choice for us.

 

 

A friend asked us to take her through a virtual walk-through of the RV.   So here it is.

Our RV is a “Class A” which essentially looks like a bus. Ours is build on a truck chassis.  RVs made from bus chasses are super-expensive. We recently camped beside a real bus RV.  Chuck looked up the list price – about 2.5 million dollars new!

 

The cab has the driver and passenger seats, a huge front windshield that serves as our “picture window” when parked, and two large side windows. In this photo, the sunscreen is down – without this it is so bright I could not take the photo.

Above the windows is shelving which is convenient to store things like maps, books, etc that we might want during the trip.We tend to keep light-weight objects there, just in case a sudden stop sends thing flying. Above the cab is a drop-down double bed. The white “ceiling” in the photo is the bottom of the bed. This is our preferred sleeping area for guests, as the bed can be lifted already made up during the day.

The passenger dashboard has a flip-down desk which is my office. Several electrical and USB outlets make this a very convenient space.  Chuck works at the kitchen table.

I particularly like this space because of the view.  However, when it is very cold outside, the cab can be quite cold, too.  In that case, I either put an electric heater right beside me, or move to the table.

Most campgrounds have wifi.  However, we also use one of our cell phones as a wifi hotspot.  Chuck brought a cell signal amplifier in case the signal is not strong enough – which has happened.

Behind the cab is the living/dining room. On one side we have a sofa which flips down to become a double bed. Both seats in the cab swing around and become lounge chairs which are part of our living room. The blanket thrown over the back of the sofa keeps small objects from dropping from the window ledge into the space behind the sofa – which has plenty of storage space but is very hard to access.

The sofa faces the dining booth and wide screen TV.  The benches lift up and there is storage beneath.  As well, the table can be dropped to bench level – the bench backs then become a mattress and we have another double bed.

The dining table has 2 cup holders, although we usually have junk like the TV remote rather than cups in them as we do not sit at the table while moving (although the benches have seat belts).  We keep some temperature monitors on the table so we have the inside and outside temperature, as well as the temperature in the storage compartments that hold our water and sewage tanks.

Most campgrounds have cable.  As well, newer motorhomes (like ours) have an antenna that will locate the local satellite channels.  However, we often just use Chuck’s cell phone to stream Netflix.

The table can also be see behind the kitchen in this photo.

When we are packed to travel, I often leave a laundry basket on the bench with things we might need for the trip (e.g. my knitting).

Behind the living/dining room is the kitchen. In these pictures we are packed to travel, so some items are stashed in the sink, along with a washing tub and a drying rack.  As you can see, counter space is tight.  The propane stove has 3 burners and an oven that is about twice the size of a toaster oven.We also have a built in microwave and a fridge which can work on electricity or propane. Here is what the kitchen looks like when it is actually in use.  It is very cluttered – in part because most of the counter space is behind the sink and so can be used only for storage (while stationary).

 

The fridge is quite shallow, so it is even smaller than it looks. The freezer compartment is full depth however.  Along with the built-in appliances we brought a toaster oven, slow cooker, electric hot pot and electric kettle. We pretty much cook the same way we do at home, except that we cannot roast a whole chicken. (We find those roasted chickens from the supermarket to be very convenient.)

 

Behind the kitchen we have the bathroom with a full-size shower, sink and toilet. It has a very good fan for ventilation in the roof. Hot water  is heated in a very efficient propane water heater.

Across the corridor from the bathroom are the bunk beds. The top bunk is usually piled high with Naomi’s junk – primarily knitting and reading material. It folds up to allow a clothing bar to fold down – turning the area into a full-sized wardrobe. The lower bunk is Rumple’s space and the home of our laundry basket.  As you see here, Rumple is no longer excited about having his own bed, and usually grabs a nap on one of our many floor mats.

The final section of the RV is the bedroom, with a queen-sized bed, wardrobe, dresser, TV, additional shelving,  slide-out desk and another big fan (which is very efficient and also quiet).  The bedroom has direct access to the bathroom, but can be isolated from the rest of the RV.

 

 

 

Outside the RV we have multiple storage compartments, propane tank, electrical generator, and our electrical, water and sewer connections. If you look closely, you can see two of the storage compartments behind Chuck at waist level. We also have a large electric awning (with LED lights) which is the black frame in the picture.  There is also an exterior TV below the large side window, which we guess is for tailgating.  Most campsites offer a picnic table and fire ring or grill.

So what is missing? The dishwasher is Naomi. We do laundry at a laundromat at the campground.  (RVs are available with both dishwashers and washer/dryers.)

Before we started the trip, we thought we might want an occasional hotel break.  Now we realize that it would take a pretty luxurious hotel room to beat the RV.

 

Since this blog is as much a souvenir of our trip as a way of letting our family and friends know what we are up to, readers will have to have patience with the large number of photos in this section.

Okefenokee National Wildlife Reserve, not to be confused with Okefenokee Swamp Park, is a large chunk of Okefenokee Swamp.  We spent parts of 3 days there and highly recommend it for alligator, turtle and bird watchers.

Our first trip was rather disappointing.  As Chuck worked in the morning and the day was warm, we went in the cooler part of the afternoon.  Unfortunately, we found that the Visitor Center is closed Sundays and Mondays in the winter, there is no shady parking where we could leave Rumple, and they want kayaks out of the water 1.5 hours before the park closes (which is 5:30 in the winter – we arrived at 3:00).

Our trip was not a complete waste, however.  The Visitor Center sits on a branch of the Suwanee canal that is quite popular with big turtles and big gators.  We saw many, many dinner-plate sized turtles and 2 very big alligators.  According to Wikipedia, alligators eat the turtles, which may explain why the gators like to hang around the Visitor Center but does not explain why the turtles do.

 

 

We also took a scenic drive that included a stop at a small pond, inhabited by at least 5 baby gators and their mama.  This photo is a close-up of a baby that was about 18 inches long and much more colorful and lizard-like than the large alligators.  (The large ones look like logs in the water and like bronze sculptures when sunning) A young man impressing a girl friend splashed at the side of the pond, which send the babies into the water in a rush to be with mom.  Fortunately, no “accidents” occurred.  (My sympathies would have been with mama gator.)

 

The apex of the drive had a long boardwalk through the marsh, ending at a tower overlooking a lake well-populated with large swimming alligators.  A good picture of the wildlife would require a telephoto lens.

Near the Visitor Center is another hike along the canal to a swamp  “prairie” which is a wetland filled with swamp reeds and grasses.  Although we did not see any alligators in the canal during the hike, the prairie was filled with large birds including herons and Sandhill cranes.  Again, good photos are hard to get with just a phone camera.

On Monday, our friends Ron and Judy volunteered to watch Rumple while we kayaked in the swamp.  We headed for a closer entrance to the Suwanee, King Fisher Landing, where another friend, David, had told us he had seen many alligators.  It was a very pleasant paddle, and had the advantage that, unlike the main park entrance, kayaks were allowed on the water until sundown.  This area also had a lot of alligators and turtles.

 

On Tuesday we returned to the Visitor Center fairly early in the morning for a very satisfying experience.  While it was still cool we left Rumple in the car and kayaked the canal.  We saw lots and lots of alligators – mostly waiting in the water for prey, but also a few that swam along-side the kayaks or sunned on the banks.
There are also a lot of large birds including herons, cormorants and ospreys, while the call of the Sandhill cranes (which sound like very large frogs) can be heard throughout.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of unique plants, including large pitcher plants and the odd “Neverwet” plant in the photo,  which looks like a cluster of birthday candles.

 

 

 

As it was a foggy morning, the zillions of perfect spider webs on the bushes glistened in the morning sun.

 

When it got too hot to leave Rumple in the car, we returned to the Visitor Center to find that the canal just outside the center was filled with big gators.

Later 2 of these, covered with algae, climbed up on the bank as if posing for a photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To accommodate Rumple, we visited the Visitor Center individually.  As always, Rumple attracted some admirers, including one of the center volunteers,  who stopped to chat.  She and her husband have been living in their RV full time for 15 years.  They spend half the year as park volunteers at various parks and the other half touring – all in their original RV.  (See end note on park volunteers.)

We also visited the Chesser homestead, a farm on an island in the park.  One would think that between the alligators and the bugs, the swamp would not be an attractive place to live.  However, there were isolated farms that cultivated sugar cane and a few farm animals, as well as harvesting fish and wildlife from the swamp.  The buildings still remaining were built in the 1930s, although the farm itself predates this.  It is interesting to image what life was like on an island in a swamp miles from any road.

All in all, we had a very nice experience in Okefenokee and saw a very satisfying amount of wildlife.  A better camera and binoculars would have been useful.

Park volunteers: Both the state and national parks have volunteer programs. For some number of hours of work weekly (depending on the park but at least 24 per couple), volunteers get the use of the campsite and some amenities.  In Laura S. Walker, for example, the volunteers can golf for free.  At Okefenokee National Wildlife Reserve, the volunteers get full hook-ups and propane.  One big perk is that volunteers can have (or may be required to have) extended stays, while the casual camper has a maximum stay of 2 weeks.  While the economics of it does not make sense (if you consider the weekly cost of the campsite and amenities the volunteers are making much less than minimum wage – even the golfers) but the volunteers I spoke to were all happy with it, as they saw it as volunteer work, rather than a job.  The ones I talked to all have favorite parks to which they return on a regular basis and have friends among the staff and other volunteers.  As well, they know other people doing the same thing and exchange news about good places to volunteer.  A fairly  complete list of opportunities can be found at https://www.fws.gov/volunteers/volOpps.html.  Volunteer positions range from staffing the Visitor Center to helping maintain the campsites and landscaping to cleaning the bathrooms.   The lovely woman I chatted with at the Okefenokee Visitor Center has been volunteering at the center and gift shop for 14 years.  Sharyn, my friend at Laura S. Walker, comes annually with her husband to golf and then goes off to other opportunities.  They prefer landscaping duties.

 

Feb. 23: Okefenokee Swamp, home of the Pogo comic strip, is a national park in Georgia.  We decided to camp in the Laura S. Walker State Park, which has a small lake.  Actually, it was a bit of a mix-up: the Okefenokee Swamp Park, which is a private non-profit, is close to the State Park, while the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is quite a bit further down the road.  However, we have really enjoyed our time here.

Since leaving North Carolina, most of our trip has been through the Atlantic coastal plain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_coastal_plain).  This area is low-lying and pretty flat.  The soils are sandy, as befits land that was once seashore.  There are a lot of marshy areas, including Okefenokee and Congaree, as well as the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina, which we visited in 2013.  Traveling through this area, it is easy to imagine that relatively small changes in sea level could dramatically affect the southeastern landscape.

Laura Walker State Park has the possibly unique feature of incorporating a championship 18-hole golf course, as well as the lake and hiking trails.  It is far from any major light sources, so with clear skies and a new moon, we have had spectacular night skies.  It is also quite warm.  This park seems to be the northern edge of the winter range of the invasive Canadian snowbird – in just a couple of days we have met several people from various parts of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba.

State parks have some pros and cons as RV campsites.  The campsites themselves tend to be larger, prettier and (sometimes) more private than private parks.  They generally have only a couple of dozen sites.  As well, because the sites can only be occupied by the same camper for 14 days in a season, they attract recreational campers, both local and touring.  This tends to make them more social.  On the con side, the parks seldom have sewer hookups, which means that we have to be careful with water use or face packing up so we can go to the dump site.  We decided to use the campground showers, but this proved to be insufficient.  For the last few days of our stay, we tried to minimize dishes and I washed the ones we did use in the laundry facility.

With daytime temperatures reaching the mid-80s, we can no longer leave Rumple in the car when we are sightseeing.  Unfortunately, we discovered here that the RV air-conditioning does not work.  The RV heats up more slowly than the car, but it still gets 5 – 10 degrees above ambient temperature.  So, until the air-conditioner gets fixed, our daytime activities have had to be dog-friendly.

With alligator warning signs on all the lakes, we are a bit leery of taking Rumple in the kayak.  A circuit of Laura Walker Lake takes about an hour, so we are kayaking in the late afternoon, when the temperatures are cooler (and Rumple is ready for a nap).

We have made a number of friends here.  Judy and Ron live in Grimsby ON on our regular route to Toronto, and we will likely visit them in the summer.  They were kind enough to watch Rumple one warm afternoon so we could kayak at Okefenokee. David is a former symphony percussionist, later a high school teacher, and most recently provincial curling coach and canoe builder from NS.  We hope to visit him, as well.  And Sharyn is from Restoule in northern ON.  We also had long chats with Brad and Connie from Oregon.   The warm weather and the calm lake seems to encourage people to chat.

 

   Feb. 20: We headed northeast of Savannah for the beach resort and historic town of Tybee Island in the Savannah River estuary. Although Tybee is slightly to the north of Savannah, it seems to have a milder climate, based on the vegetation.  As I type I am looking at bottlebrush and rose bushes in full bloom.  In Savannah, it was spring, with the azaleas just starting to bloom and a lot of pansies in pots.  In Tybee everything seems to be blooming at once: azaleas, roses and camelias, lantana, hibiscus and snapdragons.  There are citrus trees full of fruit, palms and their relatives and the ubiquitous live oaks and loblolly pines.

Tybee Island is rather unusual as beach resorts go.  For one thing, the town is rather far from the water, because there are large dunes above the high water mark which are protected wildlife habitat.  For another thing, Tybee Island has had military installations by the water to protect Savannah harbor since colonial times.

The first lighthouse in the US was built on Tybee Island in 1736.  Unfortunately, it was built too close to the wave action and was soon destroyed by the sea.  A second lighthouse suffered the same fate.  The third lighthouse was built further inland.  It stood during the Revolutionary War during which the British successfully fended off the Patriot troops.  During the Civil War, it was burned by the retreating Confederates, who were worried that it would be an asset to the Union troops.  Fortunately (for the Union and for future generations) the concrete building withstood the fire – only the wooden interior stairs were destroyed and they were quickly rebuilt by the Union forces.  The old base was used to build the more modern structure that remains and is now a museum, along with several of the buildings that housed the lighthouse keeper and his family around 1919.  Although the lighthouse itself was closed for repairs to the stairs, the outbuildings were quite interesting, containing many of the furnishings from the family that lived there in the 1930s.

During the Spanish-American war (1899) parts of the land surrounding the lighthouse was commissioned to form Fort Screven.  The resulting battery (upon which I am standing in the lighthouse photo) now looks like a huge beach fortification, protecting the town from moderate storm surges.  While much of the fort is now privately owned (and it looks like condos are being built on top) a section has been incorporated into the town museum and has interesting historical artifacts.  The town also served as training areas for US troops during the 2 world wars.

The dunes are nesting places for shore birds and sea turtles and are therefore protected habitat.  Long board walks stretch from the roads to over the dunes to the beaches.  At the Marine Science Center we learned from the docent that the beach itself is now too wide for the sea turtles.  After the mothers have completed their laying, the nests are routinely moved by staff to more sheltered locations in the dunes if necessary.  The nests are carefully watched by volunteers until hatching.  Finally, after the hatchlings have left the nest, stragglers may be transported for rearing in the Center.  If an egg-bearing female has been killed while searching for a nesting site (e.g. if she was struck by a car) her eggs will be taken to the Armstrong Atlantic State University for incubation.  The Center had a number of baby diamondback turtles and a 2 year old loggerhead when we visited.  All are due to be released to the wild quite soon.

An interesting thought from the docent at the Marine Science Center: In some reptiles, including sea turtles and alligators, gender is determined not by genetics, but by the temperature at which the eggs were incubated.  Global climate change could therefore threaten the gender balance in these species.  In particular, warmer weather would favor female turtles and male alligators.  (https://conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-threats-climate-change/).

Tybee Island is perfect for biking, as most of the roads are quiet and the entire town is less than 3 miles long.  We used our bicycles as the vehicles of choice while sightseeing.  We biked all the bicycle paths.

The Savannah River estuary is basically a large salt marsh with a few drier islands.  Because of this, Tybee Island also offers some very nice kayaking, although there are some hazards for people like me who are not that familiar with the effects of tides.  Our kayak route started from the just inside the inlet at the south tip of Tybee.  When I first launched, I was swept rapidly towards the salt marsh and had to fight the current to get back to shore.  Being swept into the marsh is not a huge problem, but when the tide goes out, an equally strong current takes you out to sea.  I learned that when ocean kayaking it is essential to check the tide tables and time the trip appropriately.  As it happened, we launched when the current was strongest.  By the time we returned, the tide was high and there was almost no current at all.  The tides here are 7 to 10 feet, which is considerable.

Our kayak route took us into the first creek going back north into the marsh.  The salt marsh is fed by many meandering creeks, which have a basic flow towards the sea, but which are usually reversed at high tide.  Most of these are now lined by homes with docks, which means that the creek beds have been stabilized.  I could not help but wonder what the long-term environmental effects of this will be.  The current configuration did survive Hurricane Matthew this past October.

The salt march is full of birds – especially herons and egrets.  As well, there are plentiful oyster beds.  At one curve we saw a colony of tiny crabs.  Clearly this is an important wildlife area.

Although the town is full of cottage rentals, it lacks another beach town feature.  There are only a few touristy shops as you enter the town, and hardly any downtown.  There are a lot of eccentric restaurants/pubs, however.  At the advice of a long-time visitor, we went to Huc-A-Poos, which takes this to the extreme.  The outside veranda is decorated with a mish-mash of interesting stuff.  The interior has a ceiling lined with vinyl album covers, at least one wall of old license plates, a bar lined with signed one dollar bills, old stuffed animals tacked to the beams, an old gas pump, etc.  The shot above is part of the wall and ceiling – note the dollar bills, license plates and general junk.  Huc-A-Poos also has very good food.  In fact, the nachos (pictured) are second in my experience only to Happy Valley Brewery.  We highly recommend it.

Rumple spent more time than usual in the RV here.  We cannot take him when we bike, and we felt that kayaking might not be advisable in case he had not learned his lesson about jumping out.  Dogs are not allowed on the beach.  However, there are 2 large dog parks beside the RV park which he did enjoy.

One interesting thing we noted at the RV park was an abundance of very small RVs, some elaborately decorated.  I chatted with owner of Nana’s B&B (below) who told me that there was a group of about 30 women who meet several times per year – no husbands, offspring or pets allowed – at various RV parks.  They host RV interior tours to raise money for charity.  Since we were leaving before the tour, she invited me in for a peek at her own very elaborately decorated mini-RV.   It had all the amenities in a tiny space, and every inch was covered in needlework, arts and crafts.  While the “Bookmobile” was painted by a professional muralist, Nana’s was the work of the owner and resembled a weather-beaten shingle house – all hand-painted including the wood grain.

 

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we chatted with our neighbor who had an enormous 5th wheel RV, which he and his wife use to transport 4 horses for trail riding.

 

Feb. 19: While we have spoken briefly with quite a few people – fellow RVers, dog walkers, people whose kids stopped to pet Rumple – to date we had not really socialized with anyone.

Today, however, we met two couples with whom we spent the day and have suggested meeting up later on the road.  We were also reminded once again how lucky we are to be able to do this trip while we are still in great health.

Our RV neighbors, John and Pam, are from Maine.  She was a marathon runner, coming in 15th in the Boston marathon about 30 years ago – until she developed nerve degeneration.  Now she needs a walker to walk – but she is still running with the walker!

Tom and Candice, who are in their 40s but have their own health issues, saw Pam running with her Rollator and decided to meet her.  (Tom is the most outgoing guy you could imagine.)   They drove over with their Ford, and after they had chatted with John and Pam, Chuck came over to ask about their towing set-up (which turned out to be similar to ours.)  After much conversation about various RV and personal details, Tom suggested lunch.

To make a long story short, contact information was exchanged and we hope to see both couples later in the trip as we head north again.  John and Pam live near Augusta, Me and we will get in touch when we are there in May for our nephew’s graduation.  (As usual, we forgot to take photos!)

 

 

Feb. 15: Our trip from Lake Marion to Savannah was somewhat exciting.  After the tree was cleared from the road and we were able to proceed, we got onto I 95, a very major multi-lane north-south route.  Despite the rain, traffic was moving well.  Suddenly, our phones began to wail – tornado warning!

What do you do in tornado weather when you are going 60 mph on a major road in a large RV (which feels every gust of wind and passing truck) towing a car which has 2 sail-like kayaks on the roof?  I was in favor of pulling over, even though there was no shelter.  Chuck was in favor of carrying on.  I anxiously scanned the skies for funnel clouds but it did not even look particularly cloudy.  The weather app continued to insist that there was a warning, and in fact the phones howled again.  (Since then, I have been told that stopping under an underpass is best, when feasible – I am not sure this would work on I 95.)

When we finally got to a truck stop, the skies were blue, the rain had stopped and wind was minimal.  However, the person who was in charge of the propane told us that he could not open the pumps due to the storm conditions, and that he had watched the tornado front move parallel to I95 but about a mile to the west on a weather radar channel.  There had been consider tornado damage in Georgia a couple of weeks earlier, but this time the storm did not touch down.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful.  Our KOA campground has a small attractive lake with many domestic mute swans, lots of Canada geese and cormorants.  The lake is lined with alligator warnings, but no alligators so far.  The campground also has many, many dogs.

Our campsite is on the opposite edge of the campground from the lake, and overlooks a new growth woodland owned by a hunting club – no signs of hunting, however.

Chuck has been working mornings, so we are spending only the afternoons and evenings on sightseeing.  That seems to work well for Savannah, however, as eight hours of being tourists is sufficient for us, and Savannah is hopping in the evening.

The Savannah tourist information bureau is in the old train station, along with the Savannah History Museum.  It has a huge parking lot.  Uniquely, it allows RV overnight parking.  We did not take advantage of this, but it is a very convenient location in the heart of the historic city (no utilities, however).  The train that appears to be entering the Visitor Center is used as office space.

This beautiful mural with historic scenes is the first thing that greets visitors inside the Visitor Center.

Just across the road from the Savannah Visitor Center is the Distillery, a brewhouse restaurant in a building that went from pub to drugstore (during Prohibition) and back to pub.  It seems to have a great selection of beers.  For us the attraction was that we could sit outside with Rumple.  Not only were they fine with Rumple, on our first visit he was served 4 little dog biscuits on his own plate!  We had lunch there every day we visited Savannah.

On our first visit, we went to the Historical Museum, which had a fine historical display, as well as information about industry in Savannah and of course the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.  The Patriots suffered a devastating loss in Savannah, and it continued to be occupied by the British well after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.  During the Civil War, Savannah surrendered to Sherman, thus escaping the destruction suffered by Sherman’s March to the Sea campaign.

An interesting exhibit at the History Museum documented the life of Juliet “Daisy” Gordon Low, the founder of the American Girl Scouts.  A southern socialite, she married well and moved to England with her husband.  When he turned out to be an unfaithful louse, she divorced him.  In the meantime, she had developed a lot of practical skills, including both those typical for a woman of her status at the time, like painting, and atypical, such as artistic blacksmithing and nursing.  When she met Sir Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, she became enamored of the idea of working with the Girl Guides, the sister organization started by Baden-Powell’s sister.  After organizing troupes in Scotland and England, she moved back to Savannah where she started the movement, and renamed it Girl Scouts.  (In Canada, it is still Girl Guides.) She encouraged the girls to gain practical skills while having fun, and with her wide interests provided many opportunities.  The headquarters of the Girl Scouts of America is still in Savannah.

Historic Savannah is beautiful – there is no other word for it.  There are mature live oaks, spreading massive branches over gardens bright with azaleas.  

 

 

There are beautiful old state houses and lovely row houses.  There are many old big churches and synagogues.  And there are two restaurant/night life districts.

 

 

Savannah was constructed so that each neighborhood was built around a commons – now a square, with residential units on one side and “trust” lands on the other.  Originally there were 4 squares laid out – then 6.  Currently, there are 22 of these squares, mostly laid out in a grid so that the connecting streets are all interrupted by the squares, and the major roads run unobstructed between them.  All of the squares have gardens and benches – many have historical monuments or fountains or other points of interest.  Both the squares and the major streets are shaded by massive live oaks.  Many of the squares also border beautiful old houses of worship and huge stately homes (some of which are now open as museums).  It is all compact enough to handle on foot.

This house is likely not historic, but I liked the ironwork.

 

 

 

 

The city sits on a cliff over the Savannah River.  The river bank is now a park, while the cliff face houses touristy shops and restaurants.  At the street level above, a couple of blocks inland, is the City Market, which comes alive at night with outdoor restaurant seating and live music.

 

 

 

 

 Another feature of the historic city is the Savannah College of Art and Design, which seems to occupy just about every large building, particularly the historic ones, including a former synagogue (below).
There are many, many shops selling beautiful artwork, presumably by SCAD students. And a cute SCAD coffee shop.

Once we were “museumed out” we walked around downtown, through the lovely squares and also along the river front.  During our walk, we discovered an Irish pub that offered nightly music, so we went back there for dinner.  The singer was very good, with a repertoire that was clearly Irish or Irish-Canadian, but covered mostly songs we had not heard before.  He was also very entertaining between sets, and could have done fine as a stand-up comedian.

Day two in Savannah was somewhat of a repeat of day 1.  We started at the Railway Museum, which turned out to be the repair shops that serviced the trains.  We did two tours – one of the workshop for the freight cars, which included a tour of actual freight cars, and the other of the executive carriage cars which were used by the railway executives for their trips and to entertain clients.

It was striking that at least some of the design features of our RV date back to these luxury cars.  Unfortunately, the RV does not come with valet and cook.

 

 

This is the chimney in the train repair yard.

 

 

 

The remainder of the day we just enjoyed the ambience.  We had dinner outside at the City Market and enjoyed the music.  We enjoyed peach sangria as the evening fell.

On our final day in Savannah, we decided to just walk around, finishing with dinner at the Irish pub.  Savannah was having an Irish festival, and the singer at the Irish pub had noted that it was likely that many performers would be coming back in the evening for a pint and an informal session.

We decided to split up for our walking tour, as Chuck wanted to go to a book fair, and I wanted to see the synagogue.  My walk took me past several of the large churches as well.  Since it was the weekend, the synagogue and all the churches were closed to tourism, but it was still interesting to see the buildings.  If I had not deliberately set out to see the synagogue, I would have assumed it was also a church, as it had no artistic or architectural details that indicated otherwise.  It can just be seen through the trees in this photo.

We deliberated on the optimal time to put Rumple in the car and head to the pub so that we would be eating our meal late enough to keep our table for the show.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) we miscalculated – no tables were available.  We meandered around the tourist district and found that on Saturday evening in Savannah, waits of over an hour are the norm.
Finally, we ended back at the restaurant of the previous evening at the City Market, with the same singer providing background music.  However very soon, it was not background music at all – he started playing dance tunes, and the crowd was very willing to join in.  After dinner we joined the fun – it was like being at a very big outdoor wedding, with everything except the chicken dance!  We had a blast!

We love Savannah!

To be honest, if you had asked us before the trip, we would have said that Rumple was going to be one very unhappy mutt. He is terrified of traveling in cars, afraid to wade into a stream of pond even to get a drink and at an overweight 14 1/2 not a great candidate for 3 hour hikes.
For the first 10 years of his life, a car trip reduced Rumple to a shaking, drooling practically catatonic mess. After our attempts to entice him by trips to parks etc failed, we resigned ourselves to drugging him whenever we needed to take him anywhere. When he developed allergies in 2012, we discovered that Benardryl calmed him down in all sorts of ways, including making it possible for him to ride in the car without further medication. But it was still an ordeal and usually once in the car he could not be budged (e.g. to get a drink or relieve himself) until we were at our final destination.

However, Rumple has not had any problems at all with the RV. He no longer uses his bed much, preferring to be closer to his humans. But he is relaxed, and gets out to have a stretch when we do.

National and state parks and our friends are all pretty pet-friendly, so Rumple can traipse along with no difficulty.  Museums and indoor restaurants are not so welcoming. So far, it has been cool enough to leave Rumple in the car, and he has tolerated that well, too. When we get to the real hot weather, we will likely have to leave him in the RV, which has air-conditioning.  On the other hand, we have found that in the south many restaurants that have outdoor seating are very dog-friendly, bringing a bowl of water for the dog and sometimes even treats.

Since Rumple does not like to wade, he has never been swimming. In fact, before this trip, the only time he has been in the water was a memorable Mother’s Day hike when we ended up wading across an icy waist-deep stream. Instead of following us, he stayed on the shore crying until Chuck went back and carried him across. So we were not certain whether he would like kayaking.

To get Rumple into the kayak, we lift him in from shore and then push the kayak into the water. Since he is pretty much sitting in Naomi’s lap, he tolerates this for about an hour before getting antsy and looking for a means to get to land. The other day he mistook a floating patch of duckweed for land and took a flying leap into the water. Our kayaks being pretty much rafts, the boat hardly rocked. However, Rumple got the shock of his life as he discovered that he was unable to touch bottom.   Fortunately, this elderly dog with no swimming experience still had an instinct to dog paddle.

Naomi still had the leash, but could not paddle with one hand. And Rumple was totally disoriented. After a couple of minutes, we decided the best idea was to let go of the leash and hope that he would follow us to shore, because lifting him back into the kayak from the water did not seem feasible.   Fortunately, he made it to shore, and the alligators rumored to inhabit lovely Lake Marion did not make an appearance. Fortunately as well,, the shoreline muck was not slippery. However, once again Naomi got to kayak with a muddy dog in her lap. No photos of Rumple swimming – we were too concerned with keeping him from drowning.

Rumple has always enjoyed several short walks during the day, and often walks of an hour or more one the weekend. However, we are serious (if slow) hikers while traveling. Sightseeing in a city or town, we seldom walk for more than a couple of hours without stopping. Sometimes we have been able to enjoy a snack in a park or cafe with outdoor seating where Rumple can join us. At other times, he waits for us back in the car.

In the woods it is another matter. We have hiked for as long as 4 hours without a real rest stop. We have found that he (and we) do best if he is off leash, as he likes to sniff around and then catch up. We are not too worried about his bothering the wildlife – at his age he cannot catch anything faster than a snail – but we do keep an eye out for larger animals, particularly other humans with their dogs. As we move farther south, we are running into more people on the trails, especially on the weekends. The first couple of hikes led to a very tired dog for the rest of the day. However, Rumple, like his humans, is getting more in shape.

There are advantages and disadvantages to having a dog on our trip. The biggest disadvantage is that we always have to figure out where he can stay when we are going some place that is not dog-friendly. Besides that, Rumple has always been very insistent on night and morning walks. It is quite impossible to sleep in when he is around.  Naomi, who is the morning dog-walker, has seen several sunrises that she would have otherwise missed, and even some earlier walks.  The advantage, however, is that Rumple is a conversation-starter. Lots of people want to pet him or talk about their own pets.

Rumple’s biggest networking triumph to date was to get us a campsite on MLK weekend, when all the campgrounds were fully booked. A neighboring camper stopped to pet him. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that her husband had just gotten a job, as a result of which they had just decided to leave a week early. We went to the office together, and the next thing we knew we were able to keep our campsite.

Feb. 13: After leaving Columbia, we decided to spend a few days doing more  “wilderness” activities and headed for Santee State Park on Lake Marion, SC.  Like many of the lakes in SC, this is a man-made lake, with a highly crenellated shore.  It is really quite lovely, as you can see from the view from our window.  It was also lovely at sunrise (and no thanks to Rumple for getting me out of bed that early).

So far, we have tried to park close to major highways, because the RV is rather unwieldly, especially when towing the car.  But although the Santee State Park is not far from I95, there was a fairly long haul on smaller roads.  As a result, we got to try out an untested piece of RV equipment – our roof ladder.

The RV is 12 ft high.  It also has a number of items on the roof, including the TV antenna, air conditioner and fan vent openings.  It can be a bit difficult to remember this when driving.  Smaller roads have trees closer to the edge, as well as low-hanging branches.

Fortunately, we were not going very fast when we heard the scraping of branches on the roof.  We were able to pull over, and Chuck climbed onto the roof to untangle the antenna, which undoubtedly would otherwise have been damaged.  Once we were parked, I climbed up again to make sure there was no damage.  (There wasn’t.)

The biggest challenge in the park was negotiating the park road and maneuvering into the campsite.  Once this was done, we were able to appreciate the relative solitude, including an unobstructed view of the lake, our own private cliff and tiny beach.  The campsites have electricity and water, but no sewers, so we decided we would use the campground showers.  Otherwise — nirvana.

Chuck pulled out the lawn chairs, a book and a soda and enjoyed the ambience.  I hopped on my bike and cycled the 5 miles to the other campground, which has a small store and the park office.

Here is a selfie at the other campsite, along with an artsie shot that I took accidentally while trying to take a selfie 🙂

There was a surprising amount of traffic, so on the return, when I saw the entrance to the off-road bicycle path, I decided to try it out, despite the “closed” sign.  Although the path was both wide and flat, a lot of potholes and tree roots make it more suitable for mountain bikes.  However, it beat being on the road — until almost a mile in, when the route was blocked by a large deadfall, which had taken a lot of smaller trees down with it.  Given our recent kayaking experience, I decided that dragging the bike over or around the blockage was a bad idea in case the remainder of the path had additional blockages.  The wisdom of this was shown the next day when we walked the trail in the opposite direction.  Miles 1 -3 on the trail had multiple blockages.  Walking it was possible to go over, under or around.  Dragging the bike, it would have been extremely tiring.

The next day was sunny but extremely windy.  Kayaking was out of the question and even biking seemed iffy.  We decided to walk along the lakeshore to the other campground.   We soon found the other end of the bike path, and followed it instead.  The photo shows Chuck at the other campground which features a fishing dock, store  and wifi lounge (the latter 2 being closed during the week in the winter.  We came back via the road.  The entire hike took 4 hours.   We are all in much better shape than we were when we started the trip, but we were still pretty tired by the time we got back to the RV.

Tuesday was sunny and calm, so we were finally able to kayak.  Although the original plan had been to camp in a spot where we could launch from the campsite, the trip to the other campground revealed two attractive features: a large sheltered bay and proximity to the “sunken forest” of cypress trees that had been flooded when the lake was formed, but continued to grow.  Chuck felt that this forest would be a hot spot for wildlife.  We loaded up the kayaks and Rumple, and headed to the launch spot.

Once at the campground, the sunken forest did not look so close to me.  Chuck checked with some people fishing off the dock, who estimated the distance to be at least 3 miles across open water.  With the wind beginning to pick up, we decided that exploring the shoreline was a better bet.

The campground has many cabins which look large and comfortable.  Some are built right on the dock over the water – ideal for fishing.

On this cove, most of the shore has cypress swamp for at least 10 feet into the water.  There were a lot of birds and many many turtles, which slide into the water with a loud “plop” as we approached.  (Look on the branch coming out of the water.) Often we could see their comical heads lifted above the water as they swam.  Oddly, there were also a lot of paper wasp nests hanging from the trees – mostly they seemed to be abandoned, but we did not take any chances.

Although Rumple seemed more comfortable getting into the kayak this time, he got restless after about an hour.  “Beware of alligator” signs on the shore, plus our recent experience with the mud at Congaree, discouraged us from disembarking.  However, when I paddled through a patch of floating but dense duckweed, Rumple thought he saw his chance and leapt from the boat.  He got the shock of his life when the apparently solid ground turned out to be water! Luckily, even though at 14 1/2 he had never before been water over his ankles, his swimming instinct took over.  (No picture of this – we were too busy making sure he did not drown.) Since we were unable to get him back into a kayak from the water, we guided him to shore.  Then I had the unenviable task of getting him onto dry land, giving him a chance to roll around in the leaves to get some of the water and mud off, and then getting myself and a wet, muddy dog back in the kayak for the return trip.  Luckily, no alligators or even wasps made an appearance (and the Lake Marion mud was less slippery than the Congaree mud). A very tired Rumple slept soundly that night.

Our final Santee adventure occurred as we left the park in the pouring rain the next morning.  We sat immobile on the road for 30 minutes as crews cleared a large tree that fell across the road.  Those big deadfalls don’t just happen on bicycle paths and creeks.

 

We decided to spend our last day in the area in downtown Columbia.  When we arrived at the center of town, we found the main street blocked off for a street market/food truck rodeo.  It was much too hot to leave Rumple in the car, so we joined the hundreds of people and dogs and strolled along to see what was going on.  Since Rumple is a nervous mutt, we had never tried anything like this before, but he did well – quietly socializing with the other dogs and the occasional friendly person.

We had an excellent food truck lunch and then strolled to the end of the street where we walked around the grounds of the State Legislature – an impressive building.  Tours are offered, but we decided that the hassle of parking Rumple was not worth it.  

 

There were lots of commemorative plaques and statues on the grounds – many of the relevant to a revolutionary war book that Chuck is currently reading.

 

 

 

The camelias were in full bloom.

 

We strolled down Gervais, a street with many stores and restaurants.

 

 

 

 

We also stopped at a historic church to stroll through the graveyard.  This touching tombstone documents that this family lost 4 children under the age of 5 on 4 separate occasions (i.e. not due to a single epidemic or other event).  I always remember that the “good old days” were not so good before we had modern medicine and nutrition.

With the afternoon cooling enough to leave Rumple in the car, we ended out visit with the SC State Museum, which is a combination natural history and industrial museum.  We were not able to see everything, but it was a fascinating museum with exhibits on (e.g.) the land transportation industry, weaving, shrimping, sharks, SC habitats, mining, optical illusions … It really had a large selection of topics, all well done (although some of the signage was difficult to read).

We took advantage of the warm evening to eat dinner outside for the first time on this trip.