Bee's Resort, Claremont, Florida

It was a nice 2 hour drive from Dayton Beach to our next stop, just north west of Orlando. We are getting to be old hands at setting up and it didn't take long after our arrival to relax for a bit. This is the first time since we left home that we were able to set up the satellite dish and get Canadian TV. It nice to see Peter Mansbridge again. We've been watching local US programs and watching them you wouldn't think Canada even exists.

Shortly after our arrival, we have visitors. These sandhill cranes must come and check out all the new arrivals to make sure they are suitable. They are big birds; they stand over 4 feet tall and come within a few feet of you if you're quiet. We've seen them every day since we arrived. They sure have the run of the place although they get agitated if someones dog barks at them.

There is a nice hiking trail through the camp. The area is full of pine trees and the ground is covered with needles. These needles are 6 or more inches long and would probably put your eye out, so we were careful when looking up.

The vegetation is so much different from back home. I find palm trees so exotic. They really make you feel far from home, in a good warm no snow kind of way.

Although we have been assured that all the poisonous snakes are hibernating and the alligators are sluggish, I'm taking precautions as I view this lovely lake along the trail. Its a nice little hike although not at all strenuous like some we did last winter in Arizona. But its a warm sunny day and the air is fresh so we are enjoying the hike.

While staying in RV campgrounds, there are always opportunities for entertainment if you keep your eyes open. This unfortunate fellow just down the lane from us forgot about the utility standpipe. As he backed up, he cut his wheels and ran the side of his coach into the water line, breaking it off. There was a lovely geyser of water glinting in the sun until they could get the water shut off, which took about 20 minutes to do. Of course, no one had water until it was fixed, about an hour later. Those of us who wheel these things around all dread doing something like that, but it happens. Unfortunately, he also put a big crease in the side of his unit.

 Well, today is American Thanksgiving and we are participating by joining the park members in a great turkey dinner. Thats the advantage of being Canadian down here; we get to have two Thanksgivings. The food was great and we tried some new dishes. Some we liked, some not so much, but how will you know unless you try them. We have found that at most campgrounds, these group meals involve bringing pot luck so there are dozens of different things to try. Love them pot lucks.

Beach Bums

We seem drawn to the beaches for some reason. Flagler beach, near where we are camped goes for miles and is nearly deserted.

But we've come down here to spend some time at Daytona Beach. We've spent many an hour on this beach over the years. We used to have a time share here and our resort was just up the beach a mile or so from here.

One thing we never did was drive down the beach. There didn't seem to be any reason to when we could walk out at our resort . So now we have an excuse. For about half the day cars are allowed to drive the beach; its closed due to high tide the other times.

Grammie and I found a spot where we could get some sun and use the car for shade a bit. Water and lawn chairs were handy here as well.

We spent the afternoon, reading, snoozing and paddling our feet in the ocean. Lots of vehicles drive by and a few bikinis walked by, which of course I never noticed.

It was hot on the beach and we made frequent trips to the water to cool off. We didn't bring our swimsuits because we found the water quite cold when we walked the beach the other day. Just standing in the water quickly cooled us off. It was a relaxing day; reading and dozing in the sun helped us to shed some of our stress. We do too have stress! Just not a lot :-)

Daytona Beach bound

We have enjoyed our time at Savannah but its time to move on. As usual we stop at almost all the rest stops along the way to enjoy the scenery and take a break from the drive. All the coffees we drink is only a small reason for stopping.

After only a couple of hours drive we arrive at our destination, Bulows Plantation RV Resort in Daytona Beach (actually its Flagler Beach, but who's ever heard of it, and they're side by side anyway). Doesn't the long entrance remind you of a drive into an old plantation?

Because we arrived early due to the short drive, we decided to explore the park. Its very large with lots of southern character. We came across this sign along one of the canals which wend their way through the park. I'm sure this is just to impress the rubes from the north, but it's a cute touch.

There are a number of canals like this in the park that have wooden bridges for crossing. There are fish to be seen as well as numerous cranes and egrets fishing for lunch. Very enchanting.

This is one of the ponds along the walking trails for taking your rest or contemplating life. Spending the day in these tranquil settings is the elixir for what ails you. And besides, it nice and warm here!

As we walked along the numerous trails we frequently stopped for photo opportunities. I'm not sure Grammie would have been quite so agreeable to standing beside the canal for this photo if she had looked across the water.

They aren't joshing here! Thats an 8 foot long Gator waiting for some dumb northener to dip his toes in as a snack.

That row of trees in front of Harvey is the canal. I'll bet you can guess who looked both ways before stepping out of the motor home now. They tell us that the gators mostly eat fish. MOSTLY!

As prudent adults, Grammie now has lots of space between her and the water when she's outside working on her crafts. I just happened to take this picture from inside, don't read anything into it.

Savannah Water Front

No trip to Savannah would be complete without exploring the waterfront and docks which was the main reason for its existence. All of the buildings at the docks were used to sort and store cotton for shipment to England. Empty ships would arrive full of stone ballast which kept the ship stable crossing the ocean. Once cotton was loaded the ballast was thrown on the streets because it wasn't needed. All of the streets in this area are made of that ballast (and bumpy as all get out, as well).

As we walked along the docks (which are beautiful), plaques tell about Savannah's history. Did you know Savannah is the busiest port in the US after New York? Well, neither did I. Far in the distance you can see some of the docks which are used to load ships bound for all over the world. Even clay from a small Georgia town is shipped to England because it makes the best porcelain in the world. Nice smooth toilets! The bridge in the background is new because as the ocean carrying ships get bigger, the bridge had to be raised to allow them to pass underneath.

One of the ships that call Savannah home is the barquentine "Peacemaker". Isn't that a cool designation for a ship? Barquentine. Just saying it makes you sound so knowledgeable. You're welcome to use it. Anyway, it was built in Brazil by a family of shipbuilders from Italy using traditional methods. The original owners sailed her to Savannah for final outfitting but for some reason nothing happened and it was finally sold 11 years later. It is now used to teach sailing to rich yuppies.

Tours are offered so, never passing up something free, we took our leave to visit the barquentine (just can't stop saying it). Carmen is inspecting the front (bow) and in the background you can see the tour boat we'll be taking shortly for a tour of the harbour. Her sharp commands "raise the mizzen mast" and "belay the yardarm" rang out. I was getting concerned we'd be either shipping out or sinking shortly.

I was relegated to the rear (stern) where my commands fell on deaf ears. You don't get much respect standing on the poop deck I suppose. I was careful to watch where I stepped, thats for sure!
This was a beautiful ship and immaculately maintained; I guess thats why they asked us to leave.

Eventually, it was time for our tour and we boarded our riverboat. Its not as authentic as the barquentine was but is better suited to carry 200 people I guess.

The buildings behind me were the cotton storage buildings and look as they did 200 years ago. Except for the trendy awnings of course. After arriving here, the cotton was graded and then run through Eli Whitneys cotton gin to ensure only bales of pure cotton were shipped to England. Nowadays most gin comes from the Juniper berry, but thats another story. The top floor of these buildings was occupied by factors who did all the grading, buying and selling of the cotton. Their harried existence led to the term factories. You can thank me later for any new knowledge you have acquired.

This is the other tour boat. You'll notice it had a paddle wheel, ours didn't, but we tried not to let that spoil our day. The dome in the background is Savannah's city hall (coincidentally, its at the end of Bull Street, read  into that what you will). The gold on the dome is now worth more than the original cost of  the whole building. It cost $200,000.00 to build the building in the 1800's; the gold is now estimated at $275,000.00.

The city of Savannah is a few miles away from the ocean up the Savannah river in a huge natural harbour. It is not a bay on the ocean so the strongest storms have little effect on this harbour. It is considered one of the best harbours in the world. You heard it here first folks!

Exploring around Savannah

Tybee Island is one of the most popular areas in Georgia to go to the beach so we didn't want to miss that. The Tybee Lighthouse was built in 1773 and is the oldest and largest lighthouse in Georgia.

Down the road is the tourist area where all the tacky stores and burger shops are. This is the first pier we've seen with concrete footings, usually they're wooden poles. Certainly looks sturdy. There were a few people fishing off the pier but not catching much that we could see. Still, it looked relaxing, in fact I think some were asleep.

We like long walks on the beach, holding hands and solitude. This beach at this time of the year fit the bill perfectly.

We found a nice quiet spot where we could relax and enjoy the view after a long walk on the beach.

The ocean was rough that day my friends. We sat and watched surfers attempt intricate maneuvers on their boards such as trying to stand up. It was quite impressive. That black object in the surf behind the surfer is not a shark, but another surfers butt. He did resurface eventually.

On I-95 just west of Savannah sits the Mighty Eighth Airforce Museum. I do love my aviation museums and I've seen the sign for this one every time we drove down to Daytona Beach over the years, and every year I said we've got to stop and see it. Well, finally we have our chance.

The eighth air force was formed during the second world war as that arm of the airforce tasked with taking the war to Germany by using large bombers to bomb military targets in Germany and surrounding invaded countries. At their peak, raids of over 3000 bombers were sent over Germany during the day. Because there were no fighters capable of flying that far, the bombers were unescorted for most of the trip and suffered huge losses. Some raids lost up to 30% of the planes. Once the P51 arrived, it could protect the bombers and losses dropped to 2 or 3% per raid.

This museum was formed by the pilots and crews who flew in the eighth air force. It is not an aviation museum, but an historical location where records and plaques about the eighth are displayed. There are only about 6 airplanes in the museum so I was greatly disappointed about that. But, there are rooms of well displayed actual artifacts from that era with stories and films. It very effectively explains the times and efforts taken to win the war. The loss in planes and crews was incredible, yet every day they would go out and do it again. A flight crew member had a 30% chance of surviving the 25 flights it took to get sent home.
This is a replica of a British country chapel where some went to worship during those years.

Its a beautiful building and is used for special events, memorials and even sometimes a veterans funeral. The stained glass depicts aviation themes rather than the standard saints etc. As a place to look at planes, a dud, but to get the history and feel of those wartime efforts, the museum was well worth seeing.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day (Remembrance Day) and the museum is planning a big event. As a result, there were flowers in holders all over the grounds with great big wreaths at some of the memorial sites. Lovely.

Beautiful Savannah

Our first order of business is to get out and see the downtown district of Old Savannah. Trolley tours are offered which show all the important sights and the guide tells about all the interesting facts. But, Carmen decided we should go anyway.

After an interesting tour, we decided to walk the areas which we found most interesting. This statue was high on the list. Don't read anything into the fact that my left hand is not visible.

The city was originally laid out so that every second block was a park, so we didn't have to walk very far before we came to a park where we could relax. This area was used as a dueling field. The southern gentry needed somewhere to go to settle disputes so this area was set aside to resolve these conflicts. One of the signators of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett died here after losing a duel. On the other side of the fence behind me is a cemetery. Pretty handy, just throw the loser over the fence.

This is part of the cemetery on the other side of the fence. The wispy tree behind me is actually covered with Spanish moss which make it look so lacy. During the American civil war, union soldiers camped here and destroyed most of the headstones.

Time for lunch so we stopped for seafood at the Pirates House. This has been used as a Tavern and Restaurant for over 200 years. Pirates used to hang out here. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, used to hang out here and stories say that he developed the plot by listening to the pirates tales here. The food was great and the stories even better.

Time to get walking again and wear off some of the grouper we had for lunch. The houses in the old part of town are all hundreds of years old and in great shape. This area was obviously where the wealthy lived.

House after house looked like this, or better. Between the beautiful houses and the lush parks, this is the prettiest city we've ever seen.

Here is the entrance to the main park. It is a huge park with wide paths and flower gardens.

The central fountain is lovely and on a hot day the cool water makes the area feel much cooler. Yosemite and I appreciated the coolness.

If you've see the movie, Forrest Gump, you will recall the scene in the park where he is eating chocolates and says "my momma says life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get". He was sitting on this park bench at the time. The church is behind me, from which the feather floated down and landed by him. Really cool to be here! What a great city to tour; we're glad we came.

On to Savannah Georgia

Although we enjoyed our time at Myrtle Beach, our schedule dictated that it was time to move on. The road from Myrtle Beach to Savannah follows the coast line. Being a professional RV pilot I was easily able to block out the distractions brought on by the ships and ocean views along the way.

Although a road that ends in the middle of the river was hard to ignore. We couldn't figure if they ran out of money or a ship hit it. Hmmm.

On the way to Savannah we traveled through Charleston South Carolina. We could smell it before we got there. If you've ever been through a pulp mill town you know what I mean. That big plant to the right is the pulp mill obviously.

As usual we managed to find some road construction. It doesn't seem to matter if we drive for 10 hours or 4, road construction always seems to add interest to the drive. This was OK, its when they put the cones 6 feet apart and we're driving an 8 foot wide RV that it gets interesting.

With my usual skill, and a little luck, we have arrived at our campground in Savannah. After setting up and squaring away, we have a quiet time allowing me to relax and recover from the stress of driving. At least thats what I tell Carmen to get her to bring me a refreshment. Now, lets see what there is to explore around here!

After relaxing for awhile we decided to take a walk around the campground. One end of the campground butts up to the Ogeechee River. There is a good boardwalk and dock to walk out on. The tide was coming in and you could watch the water level rise. This is considered a brackish area because salt water from the ocean is mixing with the river water because of the tides. A guy on the dock was fishing for catfish, one of the few fish that can live in brackish water.