Charleston to Florida

Charleston has one of the last lighthouses built in the country at Sullivan Island. Built in 1962, it is quite unattractive in its modern style but has an elevator and air conditioning so the light keeper did not have to climb all those stairs. The other lighthouse nearby is the Morris Island Lighthouse located on Folly Island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor.

Morris Island Lighthouse

Sullivan Island Lighthouse

 Our camp was at James Island County Park which is the location for their holiday lights festival with fantastic light display along a 3 mile drive through the park. We are also finding campers go to the trouble of putting lights around their camp and campers and many have the laser projectors that shine green and red beams into the trees. All very pretty and we were intimidated to buy a few lights and hand them on the rig. Really gets one into the spirit.

 On our way south found a lovely campground at Edisto Beach State Park in South Carolina. They asked if we would mind a site by the beach and our camp was about 10 feet from the beach walk and 30 yards to the water. We could hear the ocean all night. We were fortunate to have great weather, lots of shells on the beach, and many walks on the beach - very delightful.

 We arrived in Savannah on November 30 and visited Fort Pulaski National Monument built to protect Savannah Harbor. It is a fairly large and one of the few forts we have seen with moats and a draw bridge. We hiked here to see the Cockspur Island lighthouse and drove to the Tybee Island lighthouse. We walked for three hours along the Savannah riverfront and around the city with its huge, old, stately homes and beautiful parks throughout. The weather turned worst on us and we had heavy rain and even a tornado watch but nothing developed. We had never spent any time in the Savannah area when we lived on the east coast and enjoyed spending time in this beautiful city.

Fort Pulaski

Fort Pulaski

Savannah River Front

St. John the Baptist Catherdal

Forsyth Park 

 After 91 days on the road and 9600+ miles on the truck (still trying to figure how it is 3400 miles from home to Florida and that many miles on the truck? … all those side trips I guess!) we crossed the Florida State line and into the Sunshine State stopping at the Florida Welcome Center for information and orange juice. Unfortunately it isn’t the fresh squeezed variety I remember from trips in my youth but still a Florida welcome. We will be traveling around the state through early February.

Our first stop in Florida was Saint Augustine - the first and oldest continually occupied city in the North America. We camped at Anastasia State Park. We first drove to Fort Matanza that was built by the Spanish to protect the southern approach to the city. It is quite small as forts go but persuaded many British and French ships from entering.

We also visited Castillo de San Marco which was the main fortress for the city. It has been nicely restored and made out of local limestone called Coquina that would absorb the canon shots so it was never taken by force.

 We walked around St. Augustine to see the many 500 year old buildings and several hotels from the 1870’s to entice visitors from the north. I wonder if they regret that now?!?

Flagler Hotel now Flagler College

Flagler Hotel now Flagler College

The city is decorated for the holidays in white lights on all the building and bridges so we drove around that night and it is indeed very beautiful. We also lucked into the St. Augustine Maritimer Museum’s Luminary Night that is a once-a-year open house at night to visit the grounds and climb the light house tower. This lighthouse was built in 1874 replacing the shorter tower built in 1842 and is located on the site of Spanish beacons in the 1500’s. We climbed up the 14 story tower and could see all the lights around St. Augustine. We could also watch the light beams like spokes on a wheel.

We are now camped at Myakka State Park east of Sarasota. Lots of birds and great hiking and biking trails. More to come.