May 31, 2011 South Carolina to West Virginia

Another long day of travel.  We took an alternate route to avoid Columbia and Charlotte.  It wasn't much longer mileage wise, but because part of the route (US 220) went through small towns, it took longer.  We left at 5 am and stopped at 3:30 having traveled a little under 600 miles.  The landscape with farms and rolling hills sure looked like we had left Florida, but that was questionable judging by the outside temperature.  We even wondered if we had somehow ended up in England with drivers on the "wrong side of the road".

Seriously, folks, that is a trailer cab being hauled by another truck, but it sure made for a great visual!

Our stop for the night is at the Lazy A Campground, which is what we felt like after all those miles.  Turns out it is the home of  "Pickin' in the Panhandle", West Virginia's annual state barbeque and Bluegrass festival...I guess that's the southern equivalent of Woodstock.  For more information on the Pickin' event, which is held in September, you can check their website: www.panhandlepickin.com
We'll stay here for the night and then continue north.

Yemassee and Old Sheldon Church, SC

On the way back from Hunting Island, we took Alternate 17 and ended up in the old part of Yemassee.  On the way back to our campground, we caught a glimpse of what at first looked like an American Stonehedge.  Bob found a place to turn the truck around,  and we went back to the site which turned out to be the ruins of the Old Sheldon Church.  There was a spectral feel to it,  probably due to the old tombs in the hallowed ground. The grave of William Bull, who helped plan Savannah, and who was the Lt Governor of SC in the 1700's, was inside the church, and others were around the property.

Hunting Island State Park, SC

We didn't want to sit around the camp all day, but we didn't want to run into Memorial Day parades, so we headed south of Beaufort to Hunting Island State Park.  We thought we would check out the campground that is on the beach there, but when we got to the gate,  the gestapo wouldn't let us do a ride through because it was so packed.  We stopped at the fishing pier for a quick look see, and then headed back north.

Heading North for Albert's Wedding Trip...first stop South Point, SC

We left at 4:30 am Sunday, May 29th, and drove about 10 hours and 500+ miles to South Point, SC, about 25 miles north of Beaufort, and stopped at an RV park called The Oaks at South Point for a two night stay.  We thought that we would avoid the Memorial Day traffic that way, and then continue our trek north on Tuesday.  The park is very pretty, with lots of oaks and Spanish moss, a nice hiking trail to a lake...very quiet, and not crowded at all.

Getting Ready to Rumble

About a week or so before going on our next trip, we played tourist around town, going to Arcadia to a blueberry farm and then  Lover's Key State Park where we found that herons are really fine feathered friends if they think there's a chance you might have a fish on your line.

Eden Winery in Alva, Florida

Wednesday, May 11th, we decided to go to Alva, a little town off Rt 80 east of Fort Myers to visit Eden Winery, which has been there for over 30 years.  We've often seen the signs, but never stopped.  The winery is located on about 23 acres of "old Florida"...huge live oak trees with Spanish moss and ponds.  The first thing we saw next to the wine tasting room were two "free range" cows.  We wondered if maybe they were the grape stompers!  Inside, there were two bull mastiffs who looked like they tasted one too many bottles.  For a very modest cost of $2.50  per person, we  tried 6 wines which were very tasty.  No wine tour was available, but the livestock made up for that!

 

Eufala, AL

On Friday, we drove about 22 miles north to the town of Eufala.  The web searches we had done showed that there were flea markets and a botanical garden at Fendall Hall, an old mansion in town.  The flea markets turned out to be individual "we buy gold" type of stores, and there was no botanical garden at Fendall, atlhough the tour of the old house was really enjoyable.  There was only one other couple on it, so we had an almost one-on-one exchange with the volunteer docent.  There are about 63 homes in Eufala that are on on the historical register.  It was a booming cotton town prior to the Civil War.  Now, Hardee's, KFC, Church's Chicken and the ilk line the highway.  On the way back, we stopped at Pelham House, one of the oldest settlements in the area of Abbeville.  On Saturday,  the morning fog over the water made a lovely backdrop as we packed up to head home.  But,  like a bookend trip, we found we had another damaged tire when we stopped at the first rest area in Florida.  Once again, Bob had to use our spare, causing us to have to buy yet another when we got home!  Well, guess that means that we will be "well shod" for our next road trip at the end of May!

 

Providence State Park, GA

After we got the tires in Panama City, we headed into Dothan, AL, and from there to Hardgrove Campground, a park operated by the Army Corps of Engineers on the Chattahoochee River.  We were about 10 miles from Abbeville, and just across the GA state line.  The campsite was right on one of the lakes created by the dam.  It was very windy on Wednesday, but thankfully, none of the tornadoes that ravaged the south headed our way.  On Thursday, we drove into Georgia to Providence State Park, known as having "the Little Grand Canyon".  It was a disappointment inasmuch as the canyon was not very visible.  We took a trail to the bottom, but when we got there, we still couldn't see the canyon walls.  The trail was very steep, so we decided to head back the way we had come.  The best views of the canyon that we could get were from a picnic area.  The canyon was formed by poor agricultural methods in the 1800's. There was not much else to see in the park.  When we left there, we drove into Lumpkin, which was like a ghost town.  The towns along the way were about 20 miles apart, and there was very little thriving in any of them.

Silver Anniversary Road Trip April 2011

We left early Easter Sunday and had our "sunrise service" on I-75, ending with a blow out on a trailer tire when we were just north of Tampa.  Thankfully, a road ranger helped Bob change the tire. Since we didn't have a spare after that, and tires stores were closed for the holiday, Bob drove very slowly.  It took us almost 12 hours to get to St Joe State Park, a beautiful place on a peninsula south of Port St Joe.  Our RV site was a hop, skip and a jump to the boardwalk over the dunes to the Gulf.  The park also had a very nice picnic area near the boat ramp on the bay side.  Bob's knee still wasn't completely healed, so he didn't want to try getting into "Ducky",and it was very windy, probably from the storms further inland.  We fished from shore, but as usual, no luck.  Didn't matter...the views were gorgeous. Tuesday, we went into Port St Joe to see what was there.  I had to get a new cell phone, and it took the tech geeks two hours to get it right.  We tried to find a nice waterfront restaurant, but the closest place was in Mexico Beach, about an hour from the park.  The nearest place we could get tires was Panama City, so we made arrangements to get them on our way to Alabama on Wednesday morning.