Trip Report Part Two

As much as we enjoyed it, it was time to leave Stephen Foster behind.  After all, even the park literature admits Foster probably never saw the Suwannee River  made famous in his song.

In the deltas just southeast of Savannah, GA lies Skidaway Island, home to huge, moss covered oaks, subdivisions full of huge, expensive homes, Georgia University’s Institute of Oceanography, and Skidaway Island State Park.

We had seen great reviews of Skidaway SP, but were still surprised.  Our campsite was a full hook-up pull-through site that was easily 100 feet long – we could (and did) park our truck in front or in back of our trailer with plenty of room to spare.  It is the first state park we’ve ever seen where full hook-up includes cable TV, and the quality of the signal was better than most commercial RV parks that offer cable.

We did a lot of sight-seeing while we were here, and we took one day off.  If you haven’t taken an extended vacation, you may not realize that – no matter how much fun you’re having – after a couple of weeks you will need some down time. 

From our base at Skidaway, we visited Wormsloe Historical Park,

This is the site of one of Georgia’s first plantations, founded by Noble Jones, who came over with James Oglethorpe in the early 1700s.  There are Jones descendants still living on the property, but most of the plantation is now an historical landmark open for tours.

The “Tabby Ruins” is the site of the original homestead.  Settlers kiln- baked oyster shell to get lime, which they mixed with sand, water and unbaked oyster shell  to make concrete blocks they called tabby.  It worked pretty well, because after floods, hurricanes and 300 years of wear, much of the foundation and walls are still standing.

 You can’t tell from the picture, but our tour guide – the young lady inside the blacksmith shed – did the entire two-mile trip through the woods barefoot.  She explained that she was being historically accurate because shoes of the day were expensive, very uncomfortable and only worn on special occasions.

That’s just part of what we did in the area, but I’ll pick up again here tomorrow.