We camped at Cherokee KOA after a long drive, made longer by our stop at Ninety Six National Historical Site. It was fun leaving the flat coastal areas we had been visiting for three weeks and heading inland to start our next goal of; “Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway”.
Got the stamp at GSMNP Oconaluftee Visitors Center. This is the Eastern entrance to GSMNP just outside of the town of Cherokee, NC.
We stayed in Cherokee because the Blue Ridge Parkway ends (or in our case, starts) in Cherokee as the Southern terminus of the BRP. We had a day to rest before starting the BRP so we drove into GSMNP. The RV did great motoring up to the top of Newfound Gap and the views were wonderful out the big front windshield.
View of clouds on the mountain from our campsite this morning. Reminded me of Smoky Mountain backpacking adventures in younger days.
View from the Oconaluftee Visitors Center.
There was a chicken wandering around loose at the Visitors Center. I stopped worrying about bears.
We made it to the top at Newfound Gap. That’s our Axis RV in the parking lot. The only RV in the parking lot, hmmmm…
Admission to GSMNP is free but there is now a ‘parking fee’ if you are going to stop and park anywhere in the park longer than 15 minutes.
The Appalachian Trail (AT) mostly follows a mountain ridge inside of GSMNP. Here at Newfound Gap the trail crosses the road and picks up again on the edge of the parking lot. Only 1,972 miles to the Northern end of the trail at Mount Katahdin in central Maine.
Views from Newfound Gap
At the bottom of Newfound Gap Road, near Cherokee, the road follows along the Oconaluftee River. The water is so clear!
This area of the woods was full of white flowers blooming
Ending this post with a bunch of beautiful butterflies. There were a bunch of bees too so I didn’t stay long. Someone had spilled something sugary on the pavement-not very natural but the butterflies were cool… (maybe pipevine swallowtails?)
Ninety Six is a town. We had no idea what we would find here but it was a place to get a passport stamp and it was along the route we were taking from Santee to Cherokee.
Got the stamp and read some interesting history but because we still had a long way to go (and there were bugs and bees) we didn’t do the hike back to the fort. Glad we stopped. Interesting to learn more about “the South” on this trip.
Artists rendering of the fort from the internet. It was a British fort, built by slaves, and defended by British loyalists against patriots in the first land battle south of New England.
The hike we could have taken, but didn’t…
That’s it for Ninety Six. Wish our historian friend Steve Elder had been with us! He would have enjoyed this stop. I feel like I should have at least heard of this town somewhere in my history schooling. Maybe I did but forgot. History was not very interesting back then…
Trivia: The nearby town of Greenwood, SC is the home of Park Seed Company. The largest mail-order seed company in the world.
Sad to leave Jekyll Island but now we can look forward to next year. We headed north to Santee but on the way took a trip across the bridge to St. Simon Island and the National Monument at Fort Frederica.
So much history of southern states that was not in our northern textbooks. Lexington, Boston, Paul Revere, we heard about those. I also got the Gullah Geechee stamp because the coastal areas are where the Gullah and the Geechee developed their own subcultures and languages. I need to learn more about them.
The remains of Fort Frederica. Love the British flag and brooding live oak tree. Easy to imagine troops guarding the “debatable lands” between South Carolina and Florida, against those pesky Spanish in Florida. The cannons guard the Frederica River. Frederica, the town and river got it’s name from Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales. This remaining fort seems tiny but at the time (1736) it was the strongest fort built by the British in North America. Not seen in this photo is the entire colonial town behind the fort that supported the troops and townspeople. The entire town was enclosed in a palisade wall and raised earthen embattlements with a dry ‘moat’ to repel attack by land.
I was eager to go to Fort Frederica to; 1. Get the stamp for my National Parks Passport book, 2. Learn about history I missed, 3. Visit a place called Frederica… my great grandmother’s name was Esther Frederica Albertina Zigler Dart. I don’t know why that seems like a connection but it’s something…
Plaque mounted on the fort wall. Horton (who settled on the neighboring Jekyll Island) sailed with Oglethorpe.
What’s left of the mounded “Town Wall” is directly in front on this photo. The Town would be to the right and the “dry moat” is to the left.
One last massive spreading live oak tree with Spanish moss before we leave the warm coast and head back inland toward home.
From Fort Frederica we headed due north to Santee Lakes KOA. We didn’t know it but leaving Jekyll Island let us avoid a big rain they got that night. We had a little rain but nothing like the downpour they got.
View of the beach and dock from our campsite. They described this as “on a bluff overlooking the lake”. I guess when you are close to sea level even a few extra feet of elevation qualifies as a bluff.
That’s our RV, up on “the bluff”. This KOA could be nice, but it’s way overpriced and pretty run down. We won’t return but at the time we were making reservations all the State Parks were full. It turned out to be an ok place to sit and read. Becky got a bunch of quilt blocks sewn and I got the four days at Jekyll Island post done.
As anticipated, the 2023 Jekyll Island Axis/Vegas Meetup was the high point of our trip. We had a great time reacquainting with the folks we met last year and meeting lots of new Axis/Vegas folks this year.
Driftwood Beach Sunrise; Jekyll Island State Park. This beautiful, unique beach is within walking distance of the State Park Campground.
An iPhone selfie ‘we were there’ pic. Scruffy, didn’t shave, it was my Birthday. Becky got up early with me to see the sunrise.
Above: Looking left and looking right on the beach. There is a lot of “driftwood”. This beach is at the north end of Jekyll Island (which is also where the campground is). The north end of the island is gradually being eroded away by the generally southerly ocean current along the coast. The south end of the island is growing. This used to be a forested area. Storms, erosion, and tides kill the trees along the shrinking edge which creates the wild landscape.
While not officially ‘wood that has drifted’, it looks very much like classic weathered driftwood.
It’s hard to tell but there are about 20 Axis/Vegas RV’s very similar to ours in this photo. Other adjacent streets had similar line-ups of Axis/Vegas RV’s for about 48 total. We see these very rarely when traveling so it is reassuring to have confirmation there are others “out there”. Anson Adams, a representative of Thor Motor Coach, also attended the meetup. He said this was the first time Thor had sent a representative to a meetup that was not for the larger more expensive diesel motor coaches (all Axis/Vegas have Ford gasoline engines and Ford E350 or E450 chassis). Anson also noted that this Ford engine/chassis design is primarily aimed at the UPS/FEDEX delivery van/box truck market.
That’s our RV behind the “Red Bug Motors” golf cart. We rented the golf cart to get around the island while Becky recovers from knee replacement.
Another cool thing at this meetup was when everyone with a e-bike brought them together to share and answer questions.
We enjoyed learning from each other. On left is TJ showing off his handcrafted “pullout pantry drawer with LED lighting”. He (and lots of others) have made wonderful modifications to their rigs. We also had great food and treats at “pizza night” and at a pitch-in supper (including these delicious RV sugar cookies from Geri).
The Jekyll Island logo is everywhere
We went on a group trolley tour of the historic area. The tour is primarily the Club House and “Cottages” where millionaires like Morgan’s, Rockefeller’s, and Vanderbilt’s vacationed during January, February, and March each year to escape the northern cold climate.
Entrance to the Jekyll Island Club House (the Millionaires Club). Care for a leisurely game of croquet?
The Club House. Original building on the left, later expansions on the right
The first visit was to Moss Cottage. The cottage was built for William Struthers Jr. and had the date of completion crafted into one of the attic dormers in sea shells. Struthers was the first club member to bring a “gasoline automobile” to the island. It was not well received and he had to send it back to Philadelphia. The cottage was built of all local materials, including cypress shingles and was named because of the profusion of Spanish moss hanging from the surrounding trees. Struthers was the retired owner of the Philadelphia John Struthers and Son Marble Works Company. The cottage was later owned by George Henry Macy, tobacconist of Hudson, New York, who became president of Union Pacific Tea (later the chain of A&P grocery stores 1859-2015).
Our tour group for the 1 1/2hr tour.
One of the front rooms of the “simple” cottage
In keeping with the “simple” lifestyle at Jekyll, custom plates were on display in the kitchen. Most meals were eaten at the Club House. When the owners of the cottages wanted a meal at home they did not prepare it. It was prepared at the Club House and catered to be rewarmed, plated, and served at the cottage. From Moss Cottage, we moved on to Mistletoe Cottage.
Mistletoe Cottage: was named for the mistletoe that grows in the Spanish moss (or maybe grew, we didn’t see any). This was built for Henry Kirke Porter in 1900. Porter studied theology to become a pastor until his father gave him $20,000 to do something that would make more money. He started a small machine shop with a partner called Smith & Porter Machine Works in Pittsburg. This grew into a very profitable company; H.K. Porter, Inc.
The Photoshop “stitching” of several photos didn’t work very well on this image; if you look too closely you’ll find wonky stuff, but, it’s the best shot I have of the Front Room where visitors were often entertained at this cottage. The three front doors open out onto a big patio.
The back porch at mistletoe cottage, a simple affair…
The metal protective light globe and the (reproduction) stenciled ceiling. The entry door was placed on the side of the house so that horses and carriages would not park in front where those being entertained had room to spread out with the beautiful views looking west toward the sunset over the river and marshes.
This was the possibly the first “condominium” in North America.
This large watercolor painting is on the wall of the Mosaic Museum, just outside the restrooms. I think it says “Jeckyl 1925” I didn’t see any information on the painting or painter. Hope it’s ok I took a pic.
We visited The Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Everyone is talking these days about the “terrible” Sargasso seaweed washing ashore on the Florida beaches. I thought it was a bad thing but learned the baby turtles swim straight for the Sargasso Sea seaweed patch in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The females live and grow in the protection of the seaweed for over 10 years before venturing back to the same beach to lay eggs. There was an awesome moss covered Live Oak tree just outside the Sea Turtle Center. It is so awesome it seemed like a Disneyland artificial creation.
The remains of the Horton House. William Horton traveled from England to Georgia with General James Oglethorpe in 1735.
Interior of Horton House ruins and a closeup of “Tabby” construction (like concrete but using clam shells instead of gravel)
Interesting historical stuff. If interested click to enlarge and read – or skip it…
Pelicans skimming along the water at the pier.
The shoreline from the pier. That is St. Simon Island in the background.
Pelicans coming in for a landing.
Ending this post with a brilliantly colored flower we found blooming on the way to the pier.
PS. One more interesting thing we learned about Jekyll Island. A secret meeting of millionaires, bankers, and Senate Republican leader Nelson Aldrich, was held here in 1910 with a goal to improve the US banking system following the banking panic of 1907. A centralized (national) banking system, with a uniform interest rate, was determined here at Jekyll Island. This meeting was the conception of what in a few years would became the Federal Reserve System.
Interesting that today the Federal Reserve admitted the collapse of Silicon Valley Band (SVB) was (in part) a failure of oversight by the Federal Reserve System….
Our last stop on the way to Jekyll Island was awesome.
Edge of Manatee Spring.
The spring is beautiful. They have added steps and guardrails to help swimmers enter the mucky edge. The water out in the middle is crystal clear. Good swimming if you are not afraid of alligators and snakes.
This guy and several of his siblings were sunning in the muck just downstream of the spring where a bunch of people were swimming… not me
Also just downstream from the Spring… Someone told us this was a cottonmouth?
Becky searching for a Manatee.
Everyone told us April 21 would be too late to see a Manatee but we did!
The Suwanee River does not have any flood control dams on it so it floods fairly often. The post shows levels of flooding that inundate the area. The plaque is a 1774 description of the spring.
A White Ibis flew by. What an incredible beak!
Yellow Crowned Night Heron.
A sequence of Night Heron landing on sunny branch.
A different Yellow Crowned Night Heron – with a more yellow crest/crown and doing the one-legged heron thing.
Night Heron hunting crabs.
Night Heron’s love crabs and crawdads. They got one but it happened so fast I had no idea what they got until getting a look at photos.
Our campsite had an Orange Tree!
And a Brown Anole threatening us with his throat thingy (Dewlap).
1. Three Rivers State Park – on Lake Seminole, which is formed by the convergence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers.
2. Suwanee River State Park – is THE “Swanee River” of the “Way Down Upon Swanee River…” minstrel song by Stephen Foster in 1851 (also known as “Old Folks at Home”). My dad used to sing that song all the time on family vacations. It has been stuck in head now for about a week.
Taken from the dock at Three Rivers State Park, Florida. That’s Georgia in the fog on the other side of the river.
Not much to photograph at Three Rivers State Park. If you are a fisherman it would be a great place to hang out. Otherwise there’s not much to do here. The trees in the area where decimated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. This is a small campground and the long ‘asphalt’ road back to the campground looked like it had been carpet bombed. Very slow going dodging potholes. We stayed here because Florida cancelled our reservations at Falling Waters State Park. We were happy to move on to Suwannee River State Park.
Suwannee River State Park was a big improvement over Three Rivers. This panorama is of the Suwannee (which is flowing from right to left) at the point where the Withlacoochee River joins with the Suwannee. There is a railroad bridge at the very left of the photo. The railroad bridge and a busy ferry crossing at this strategic location during the Civil War caused an interesting historical feature of the park.
The remains of the Civil War Earthworks. An earthen “fort” is still easy to imagine.
Gears from old paddleboat and old paddleboat “wheel”
Clear water from Little Gem Spring flows into the Suwannee. Hiking a trail along the river sure is a lot different in Florida than it is in Indiana…
River edge of the Suwannee. As the water gets deeper it turns orange, then red, than dark coffee colored from lots of tannins in the water.
Becky got out her sewing machine and knocked out some quilt blocks
Rich Reflections
Cyprus Knees. This is probably boring stuff to Southern folk; but fascinating to Indiana folk.
Wow, what a campground… The fanciest, most resort’ish campground we have seen.
Our campsite at Topsail. Sites are highly landscaped and semi-private from adjacent sites. Short walk to the bath house. There is also a shuttle to the beach for people like us with no bicycles.
Favorite pic of a Brown Pelican. These are big, majestic birds. The were floating in “squadrons” along the beach; just using the heavy winds to move them along. More pics below. They were fun to photograph…
The beach at Topsail with “double red-flag” blowing. That means don’t get in the water. Dunes are roped off to preserve turtle and bird nesting areas. The waves were coming all the way up the beach occasionally. I was looking up shooting pictures of pelicans flying over when a big wave filled my shoes with sandy water…
The Dunes
A Least Tern soaring overhead
Ruddy Turnstone’s: so named because they turn over stones looking for yummy stuff
We were excited to be first timers at the Gulf State Park we had heard so much about. We had camped once last year along the Atlantic Coast at Jekyll Island but we had never even been to the Gulf Coast. Everything was great; the campground, campsite, friendly campers, and friendly wildlife including several smallish alligators…
Juvenile Bald Eagle. The nest was nearby. John and Pam had shown us the location of the nest the day before. The next day they let us borrow Pam’s eBike and I rode back to check the nest again when this one appeared. I didn’t carry the big camera on the bike so this is an iPhone shot.
This is the view from the overpass that crosses over the highway between the campground and the beach and pier. The eBike was awesome as it powered up the ramp going over and again coming back from the beach.
Not many photos from this part of the trip but we had a great relaxing time at Gulf State Park. We especially enjoyed visiting with John, Pam, and Tim; sitting around John’s propane campfire pit, the visit to the pier with double-red flag warnings due to high surf, and lunch at “Lambert’s” – home of the throwed rolls!
From here we headed to Topsail Hill Preserve State Park which is also along the Gulf Coast. Just a note that the sandy beach here at Gulf State Park is much ‘wider’ and open to the dunes behind the beach. At Topsail the beach is narrow and the dunes are roped off.
On our way to Topsail we found our way to the Pensacola Beach bridge and Fort Pickens, FL. We stopped at the Visitors Center and got a stamp for the Gulf Islands National Seashore which stretches across eight barrier islands along the Florida and Mississippi coast. It was starting to rain so we didn’t stay to explore the fort. We will come back sometime for that and maybe camp at the nearby Ft Pickens campground. Fort Pickens is at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island. Built by slaves using 22 million bricks and completed in 1834 it was intended to defend Pensacola Harbor. Even during the Civil War it remained a Union fort.
As we hustled back to the RV amid sprinkles we spotted this beautiful Great Blue Heron hanging out in the grass.
Stamp in National Parks Passport book
The US Navy Blue Angels are stationed at Pensacola and practice at Fort Pickens area. We heard them a lot and saw them occasionally as we traveled from Gulf State Park to Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.
Monte Sano is an interesting park, on top of a mountain, adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama. We enjoyed some relaxing time at Monte Sano even though it rained off and on nearly the entire 2 days we were there. Monte Sano in Spanish means “Mountain of Health”. It was freakishly quiet with just the dripping rain or if it wasn’t raining the drip of mist falling from tree branches. I used the time to finish a series of blog posts from our Newfoundland trip last summer and Becky did some sewing of quilt blocks with her new sewing machine-proving that it can be done in the RV on a rainy day.
Except walking around the campground we only went on one hike when there was a break in the rain. The hike was an enjoyable, magical, mystical, walk in the mountain mist to a Japanese Garden with a Tea House on the park property. The first photo is of the RV in the mist. All the rest are of the Japanese Garden/Tea House hike. All photos are iPhone.
Bamboo bordered path and Japanese Tea House
Azaleas
We left Monte Sano and again headed south on 65 from Huntsville to Montgomery, Alabama. Turning off at “The Old Selma Road” we arrived at Gunter Hill Campground, a Corp of Engineers campground on the Alabama River.
1 of 13 Jekyll Island Trip. Early spring trip April 4th to May 8th. 34 days
A little post-trip analysis: 2,749 miles by RVparky planned routing, 3,025 actual miles (10% additional) 271.26 gallons of gas. $904.27 for avg cost/gal $3.33 10.735 Avg miles/gal
The 2023 Jekyll Island Meetup is the main goal of this trip. Revisiting with friends we met at last year’s inaugural meetup. Last year there were about 24 Axis/Vegas RV’s. This year there will be about double that and a representative of Thor Motor Coach (Anson Adams) will be attending.
We enjoyed it last year. Jekyll Island State Park is a beautiful place and we learned a lot about our new RV from friendly people having similar experiences. Becky’s sister Jennie had done similar meetups with her Winnebago View RV and enjoyed them.
List of Overnights: numbers match the map tags above 1 – Bowling Green KOA, KY – 1 night 2 – Monte Sano State Park, Huntsville, AL – 3 nights 3 – Gunter Hill Park, Montgomery, AL – 1 night 4 – Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, AL – 3 nights (visit with John & Pam and see the park everyone talks about) 5 – Top Sail Hill Preserve State Park, Santa Rosa Beach, FL – 2 nights 6 – Three Rivers State Park, Sneads, FL – 3 nights 7 – Suwannee River State Park, Live Oak, FL – 3 nights 8 – Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL – 3 nights 9 – Jekyll Island State Park, Jekyll Island, FL – 4 nights 10 – Fort Frederica National Monument (in-route Passport Stamp) 11 – Santee Lakes KOA, Summerton, SC – 2 nights 12 – Ninety Six National Historical Site (in-route Passport Stamp) 13 – Cherokee/Great Smokies KOA, Cherokee, NC – 2 nights (begin Blue Ridge Parkway) 14 – Oconaluftee Visitors Center-Great Smoky Mountain National Park (in-route Passport Stamp) 15 – Asheville East KOA, Swannanoa, NC – 2 nights 18 – Boone KOA, Blowing Rock, NC – 1 night 20 – Fancy Gap/Blue Ridge Parkway KOA, Fancy Gap, VA – 2 nights (jump off Blue Ridge Parkway) 21 – Babcock State Park, Clifftop, WV – 2 nights (near New River Gorge National Park)
Then keep following the forward arrows (arrows pointing right →) at the bottom (of the white portion) of each page OR: use the Tab: “PLACES: WE’VE WANDERED” at the top of each page.
These are sometimes called “Flowerpot Rocks” or “Sea Stacks”. We arrived at Hopewell Rocks on an afternoon when the tide was in (up). After spending the night nearby we returned again in the morning when the tide was out. Tides vary daily but there can be as much as a 52′ difference in the water level from tides in the Bay of Fundy area.
View from our campsite – there were more than a few mosquitoes here
Flowers at Hopewell Rocks and at entrance to our campground
Tide IN
Tide OUT (mostly, this was not full lowest tide)
It’s an odd feeling walking around where you know in a few hours the tide will come back and submerge everything. This happens twice a day (in/out, in/out every 24hrs) so it’s relatively rapid; you can stand and watch the water level change.
Jennie & Roni
Me
When the tide is out, it is Way Out
Kayakers heading out as the tide comes in far enough to float them
That’s all the photos for this trip. We went from Hopewell Rocks to St. John, New Brunswick for the tour “dismount” festivities. However, more than a few of the group had Covid at that point so we said our goodbyes and headed for home.
On our last day in Gros Morne National Park we visited the town of Norris Point and we drove around the East and South “Arms” of Bonne Bay to the towns of Bonne Bay and Woody Point. The photo below is from a little roadside gift shop along the way to Norris Point. The foreground is a hedge of rose hips, Bonne Bay in the middle and Tablelands in the background.
A kinetic whirligig sculpture commissioned in 1997 for Gros Morne National Park as part of the Canada 150 Celebration. It is located at the same gift shop. Sculpture originally had movement but tough Newfoundland weather has taken it’s toll… Scenes of local nature, including giant mosquitoes.
The Bakery: We were told there was a bakery we should not miss in Norris Point. We found the bakery and got some fresh rolls. It is the most “Newfoundland’ish” store. This homemade sign hung above the checkout counter. It’s not a joke. It’s just an honest declaration of business hours in the local way of speaking. The place to visit is “C&J Rumbolt Ltd”. It doesn’t look like much on the outside. Go in the door that says “Rumbolt’s Bakery”, you won’t be disappointed. Surprised maybe, but not disappointed.
Woody Point Lighthouse
There is a Discovery Center at Woody Point. We learned throughout the trip that Moose Nose was a “thing” to eat in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Early settlers in Acadia ate Moose Nose Soup. I was happy to find a recipe at the Discovery Center on how to prepare a moose’s nose for a special family dinner.
Moose were common and natural on the mainland in Nova Scotia but were never on the island of Newfoundland until brought there around 1900. With no natural predators they have flourished and now outnumber the people of Newfoundland.
Above and Below: Gros Morne Mountain towers over all the local landscape.
Gros Morne looming behind the town of Rocky Harbor
Gros Morne from Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse
That’s it for Gros Morne National Park. If you get a chance to visit this awesome place, plan to spend at least a week here.
Our last night “on the rock” of Newfoundland we traveled to a campground near the ferry at Grand Codroy. The following morning we loaded back up on the ferry at Port aux Basque for the much shorter (5 hours) trip back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
While at Grand Codroy I tried some sketching and painting of the lighthouse we had seen at the beginning of our trip (Portland Head Light, Fort Williams Park, Maine)
A beaver, dragging a branch of pine tree upstream
A parting sunset over the Grand Codroy River for our last night in Newfoundland
DADart Photography 