Hurricane Sandy in South Florida

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Okeechobee Florida is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in Southern Florida.  It is about 40 miles from the east coast of Florida.  We are thankful that Hurricane Sandy stayed more than two hundred miles from the coast.  As I am sure you have heard, Sandy grew in size as it headed north creating massive destruction along the New Jersey coast line as well as hundreds of miles to the north, south and west.

If you have been following our blogs, you saw that we were in Hatteras, North Carolina only a few weeks ago.  The outer banks of North Carolina were hit with high winds and tidal surge.  The tidal surge actually spilled over stretches of highway 12 that runs almost the entire length of the outer banks.  Had we been there, we would have been forced to evacuate.

Here in Okeechobee, for two days, we had wind gusts between 30 and 40 mph and rain that came in waves.  It would rain hard for awhile, then stop for awhile, then start all over again.  We did not have any damage or power loss here.  But, as Sandy moved farther north, the winds shifted out of the north in Florida and caused the fronds on the palm tree next to our 5th wheel to sweep against our bedroom slide roof.  Inside the 5th wheel, it sounded like a heard of large mice running across the bedroom slide roof making sleep almost impossible.  So, the next morning our neighbor cut several of the fronds off the tree, and we could finally get some sleep.



 

This is the tree that received a hair cut!

 
We are indeed thankful, that was our only issue with Sandy, and our prayers go out to all those who suffered in her path and lost their homes, and for some, their lives.

Arrival in Okeechobee, Florida

Friday, October 19, 2012

We left the Stagecoach RV Park in St Augustine, Florida and headed South on I95.  This 225 mile trip will be our last one this year pulling the 5th wheel as our plan is to spend the winter there.  The trip was very smooth getting here.  As we approached the Park, the GPS was telling me our destination was on the left.  I kept looking to left and didn't see it, so I looked to the right just in time to see Ancient Oak RV Resort as we passed it.  Randy and Debbie were standing at the gate waving as we drove by.  I was able to stop on Highway US 441 and back up enough to get in the front gate of the Park.  Randy jumped into the truck and directed me to our spot.

As we approached our site, I could see that this was going to be a challenge getting the 5th wheel into the site with the narrow streets allowing little wiggle room.  After looking the situation over for a minute, we decided we weren't going to fit in this site and we headed back to Illinois!  Ha! Just kidding. 

We drove around the block and came in from the opposite direction.  We were fortunate that no one was in the site across the street from ours, so we were able to head into it and back into our site.  After some jockeying, we were setting up and meeting neighbors at the same time.  In the 89 degree heat, talking with the neighbors was welcome relief from the heat.  We quickly realized everyone here is very friendly and not shy about introducing themselves.  Later, Kitty and I put our heads together and could remember the names of about half the people we met.  That proves our theory that our two brains together equals one normal brain!

 

 

 

 

Our site is paved and has water, electric, sewer and the shed in the back corner of our site has a washer and dryer.  That beats packing up dirty clothes and trying to find a laundromat.  The Park boasts a recreation hall, spa, heated pool, horseshoe pits, shuffleboard courts and boat docks.  There's mega activities here including bingo,cards, dance classes, craft classes, pool tournaments, aerobics, and water exercise.  It should be a busy winter full of activities.

 

For those who want our mailing address for this winter, it's as follows;

 

Craig and Kitty Simmons

c/o Ancient Oaks RV Resort

5348 SE 65th Avenue, Box 664

Okeechobee, Fl. 34974







St Augustine Florida

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

It's time to leave Skidaway Island State Park.  We really enjoyed our stay here.  The campground was great and Savannah is a very interesting town with lots of history and charm.  We are headed 180 miles south on I95 to St Augustine Florida.

We arrived at the Stagecoach R-V Park around mid afternoon.  This campground has 71 sites, mostly pull through sites, all with full hook ups.  The campground roads are gravel and the sites are grass.  We were all hooked up just minutes before the rain started.  The rain lasted a good 20 minutes, and typical Florida, the sun came out and you couldn't tell it had just rained.

We have been to St Augustine many times when we lived in Jacksonville several years ago and we were able to find the lighthouse and fort without using the GPS.  Now that we knew for sure what we wanted to see in the morning, we headed back to the campground stopping at a nearby Cracker Barrel for supper.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Since we are both fighting colds and had trouble sleeping last night, we decided to shorten our agenda for today.  The first stop is St Augustine Light Station.  This light station was established in 1874.

 

This view of the light is from South Ponte Verda Beach a few miles away.

 

Next, we drove by Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.  We didn't stop here since we had seen this fort years ago and we were feeling the affects of our colds.  So, Kitty, looking like a typical tourist, took these drive by shots.

 

 

Driving a few miles north, we stopped at South Ponte Verda Beach to relax and enjoy the ocean for a while.

 

 

 

Here's a short video of the beach.

 

 

 

Tomorrow morning we leave St Augustine and will arrive at our destination for the next few months, Ancient Oaks RV Park in Okeechobee, Florida, where we will join our old friends Randy and Debbie, Barry and Susan.  We have been looking forward to this since we made the reservations back in May.  Wow, what an adventure we've had getting to this point.  It's hard to believe we are almost there.  Please keep checking our blog as we plan to have much more fun in the sunshine state to share with you!

 

 

 

Uncle Bubbas and Tybee Lighthouse

Friday, October 12, 2012

Another great job by the weatherman.  Today was nearly perfect and we headed from
Skidaway Island back to Tybee Island about 20 miles north.

After running a couple of errands, it was nearly lunch time by the time we reached Uncle Bubbas.  Uncle Bubbas is owned by the brother of Paula Deen, the famous chef from Savannah.  She has her own cooking show on TV.  As you might expect from such a pedigree in cooking, the food was excellent. We ate way too much, but we couldn't stop ourselves.  I probably could have gotten in the car without moving the seat all the back if I hadn't had the key lime pie.  But, it was SO good and I was SO full, and it was still worth it!

If you are ever near Savannah, be sure to stop at Uncle Bubbas on route 80 just before the last causeway to Tybee Island.

 

After lunch we visited the Tybee Island Lighthouse located on the north side of the Island. This lighthouse was built in 1773 and was the third light house built on the island.  The first two were built too close to the ocean and were destroyed by tidal surges and erosion.  In 1861, the Confederates burned the stairway inside of light tower so the Union couldn't use it to observe troop movements on the island.  But, it didn't take long for the Union to rebuild the stairway to the top.  The light tower was rebuilt in 1867.  the bottom 60 feet are the original 1773 lighthouse, and the top 85 feet were reconstructed.

 

This is the head keepers house built in 1881.

 

 This is the first assistants house built in 1885.

 

 This is the second assistants house built in 1861

 

 This is the summer kitchen where most of the cooking was done in the summer time so the main house would not get hot from cooking.

 

 

 We were each packing an extra 20 pounds from lunch, so we only climbed to the second floor and took this picture out of the lighthouse window glass looking towards Hilton Head Island.

 

This view out of the second story window shows Fort Screvens which served as part of the America's Coastal Defense System until it was decommissioned in 1945.  It's the concrete structure in the center next to the ocean.

 

And so ends another great day on the islands!

 



Island Hopping

Thursday, October 11, 2012


Today the weatherman delivered a delightful day and we intended to take full advantage by heading to Tybee Island, seeing a lighthouse and a fort.  Kitty packed our lunch and we jumped in the car and headed a few miles North of Skidaway Island, then east on Highway 80 crossing the Intercoastal Waterway and followed the signs to Fort Pulaski.

Fort Pulaski is named after Count Casimir Pulaski, the polish hero of the American Revolution war who lost his life in the siege of Savannah in 1779.  You know this guy, the kids get a day off from school each year in his honor.  Anyway, construction on the fort began in 1829 at a cost of $1 million.  They used 25 million bricks building the fort and it took 18 years to finish it.  Much of the labor was supplied by the slaves.  It's walls are 7 1/2 feet thick and the fort was considered unbreachable.

On November 10, 1861, the Confederated abandoned their positions outside of the fort on Tybee Island and the Union quickly set up 11 artillery batteries and 36 guns on Tybee Island.  These were aimed at Fort Pulaski nearly a mile away.  The Confederates felt their position was safe at the fort because this fort was  believed to be unbreachable.  But, they had no idea the Union had experimental rifle cannons that could bore through the fortified walls of the fort.  After 30 hours of shelling the fort, the Confederates surrendered the heavily damaged fort, and 384 Confederate officers and soldiers were taken prisoners.  From this point on, the military would no longer make forts out of brick and mortar.

Here's the entrance to the fort.

 

 

There is a draw bridge entrance.

 

 

These are shots of the moat that surrounds the fort.  It is 7 feet deep and 32 to 48 feet wide.  Water is supplied to the moat from a canal that was dug from the Savannah River.

 

 

The next three shots were taken inside the fort from the upper level.

 

More of the outside of the fort. I enlarged the first picture so you can see some of the damage to the fort from the Union shells.  In fact, much of this wall had to be rebuilt when the fort was restored due to a gaping hole in the wall from the shells fired a mile away.

 

 

From the fort, we took a walking path to see the light house on Cockspur Island.  The path is 1.7 miles through cabbage palms, red cedar, spiders, snakes, and a hungry alligator.  Lucky for them, we didn't see any of the last three varmints mentioned! 

 

The Cockspur Island light house was built in 1856 and marked the entrance of the south channel of the Savannah River.  It was a silent witness of the shelling of Fort Pulaski in 1861.

 

We've seen dozens of lighthouses and this has to be the smallest.

 

 

 

Now it's time to hit the beach at Tybee Island.  It was very windy when we were there, but this is a very nice beach.  Check it out.

 





 

 

We ate our lunch on the beach and then took our beach chairs to the edge of the waves and enjoyed the surf pounding in and the birds pooping on our heads! Ha!  As I have said many times, you can not starve on the beach because of all of the sand-which is there.  I heard that groan!

 

This was a great way to end our day.  We went back home and fixed supper and went to bed with smiles on our faces.

 

 

 

 

 



Skidaway Island, Georgia

Wednesday, October 10, 2012


The weatherman lied today.  It was suppose to be in the high 70's or low 80's.  It barely got to 70 degrees by 2 pm.  But who's complaining?  I'll take the sunshine upper 60's most any time except when we had planned to be at the beach today.  It was a little chilly and we were a little slow getting started today.  We move like molasses when it's cool.  Besides, Kitty did a load of laundry and we had a nice conversation with a couple of fellow campers here at Skidaway Island State Park near Savannah.

Instead of going to the beach, we changed gears and explored Skidaway Island.  Outside of the state park, most of the Island is full of gated communities and a golf course.  As we mentioned yesterday, the stores are all designed to not look like stores.  We were looking for a gas station and drove right by it not knowing it was a gas station.  After filling the tank, we drove a few miles to the end of the island where land meets the Intercoastal Waterway.  Here's some pictures of what we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we decided to go back to the park and finish the trail we started walking yesterday.  We ran out of daylight and only walked 1 mile of the 3 mile trail.  We were going to finish the 2 mile section today while we still had plenty of daylight.  This section of The Big Ferry Trail includes a stop by an old liquor still from back in the 30's and some earthworks built during the civil war.  The Big Ferry Trail got its name because it is the trail the island folks would take to get to the ferry, which is no longer in operation.  Despite the dangers to our well being from vicious Bobcats, attacking alligators, slithering snakes, and chewing chiggers with big teeth, we forged ahead full of faith that our hiking skills would get us through this handicapped accessible trail!

 

 

This is the earthworks made by slaves during the civil war.  This was part of the Confederate defense position in this area.  Due to the difficulty of defending this position and getting supplies to it, it was abandoned before Sherman arrived to take control of Savannah for the Union.  Pardon my finger in the upper left

 

If Kitty stands there any longer, she will be covered in moss like these trees.

 

The next two pictures are what is left of an old liquor still from the 1930's.  Folks would cross the Intercoastal and sneak on to the island and fire up their stills - away from the "revenuers".

 

 

 

 

This trail is full of tree roots.  I managed to trip over everyone of them!

 

 

After the hike, we went back to camp and relaxed before fixing supper.  Another enjoyable day in the full timers life!  This is a beautiful campground!

 



Some Sights of Savannah

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The weather is a little better today, it's still cool, but at least the sun is shinning.  We headed out of Skidaway Island State Park with two stops in mind.  One at the island post office to mail some birthday cards and check on getting general delivery mail there, and the other stop is the tourist information center.  We decided to take Kallie along for the ride.

We mailed our cards and found out the island post office can not accept general delivery mail.  Then we headed to the tourist information center.  Now, this is not your normal tourist information center!  It is downtown Savannah in an old train depot that has been restored and converted into a museum, tourist center and restaurant where you can eat in a rail car.  It is also the starting place for the trolley tours of downtown.  The trolley tours are about 90 minutes long and make 16 stops throughout the city where you can get off and walk around and pick up another trolley and go to the next stop.  They are also pet friendly and Kallie got to take her very first trolley ride.  She was a very good girl and took in all of the sights and sounds of Savannah.  I think she enjoyed the trip, but she was trying to run at full speed when is was time to get off!

After the trolley ride, we walked a couple of blocks and took some pictures.

 

This is the deport/museum/visitor's center. When it was a depot, the trains would pull into this long building to load and unload passengers.

 

This is the restaurant with the dinning car on the left.

Here's some of the downtown area.

 

Many of the squares had fountains like this one.

 



 

Here's an old house downtown with some youngsters in front!

 

We are standing in front of James Edward Oglethorpe 1696-1785.  He lived to be 89 years old which back in that time was the exception.  But, he was a busy man in those 89 years.  He founded the colony of Georgia in 1732 and the city of Savannah.  He was also a soldier and philanthropist.

 



By now it is mid afternoon and we hadn't eaten lunch so we headed back home to fix a bite to eat.  Then we walked part of the Big Ferry Trail at our campground.  Since we started on this trail later in the afternoon, we only walked two miles of the 3 mile trail.  Here's what we saw.

 

 

 

We headed up the observation deck to take some pictures.

 

 

 

This is the Intercoastal Waterway.

 

You can see the marsh land between us and the Intercoastal.

 

We walked another mile through the forest.  I had one eye on the ground looking for alligators and snakes, the other eye looking in the trees for any overhead snakes.  It's hard to walk down a path when you can't watch where you're walking.  With Kallie in the lead, I had nothing to worry about.  No... I am not afraid of snakes!  What made you think that?  Ha!  More fun tomorrow!