Leaving Florida

Monday, July 11 - We had a busy day today and fortunately got off to an early start.  We were on the road by 9:00, continuing our scenic drive along the beach on A1A.  We went through the historic town of St. Augustine.  We drove past the remains of an old fort but didn't stop.

We drove on through Jacksonville and opted to take the St. John's Ferry to stay with A1A.

  Parked along the bank here was a good-sized boat that I was told is the one that discovered the Titanic.  This one is named Atlantis II, and I have not verified that story.

This route took us along marshland, rivers and bays.

We even saw a turtle on the highway along here -- it was in the outside of the white line so we declared it non-suicidal.  Along one beach where they had a turtle nesting site roped off, three women were fiercely digging right in the site.  They didn't look official but they were hard at it, so we assumed they knew what they were doing and that it was legal.  This was a pretty drive, with trees making a canopy over the road, and little traffic.

We got to Fernandina about lunch time and Joe found a parking spot right at the city park on the beach (with an ice cream snack bar), so we enjoyed our lunch with a great view, then walked down to the beach, where we spotted a pod of about 6 dolphins.

I, of course, had to sample the ice cream.  Then we were on our way.  We crossed into the State of Georgia about 1:30.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and picked up some information on Georgia State Campgrounds, Savannah and Augusta, then continued on our way.  We drove up Highway 17, marked as a scenic highway, and it continued through swamp and marshlands, with big live oak trees lining the road.  We crossed one really big bridge just south of Savannah, with a great view.

We chose Skidaway Island State Park to spend the next two nights, which was about 12 miles off the highway.  It is a barrier island billed as having Spanish-moss draped live oak trees, and I would have to say it lives up to its billing.  It's a beautiful park, with very large campsites, and in addition to water and electricity, it even has cable TV -- a first for a state park we have stayed in.  We got here about 5:00 p.m., so that was a long day for us, and Joe drove 245 miles. 

We are planning on "doing" Savannah tomorrow, but the heat index here is predicted to be 111, and the tour we think we want is an open trolley, so we are not sure about all that.  We plan to go directly to the visitor center in Savannah and check out all the options before we commit to that hot ride.  We've sadly left the beaches now, although Tybee Island is only 20 minutes from Savannah, and it is on the ocean.  We may have to seek that out if we do the trolley tomorrow.