New friends and Skidaway Island

One last beautiful sunset over Strom Thurmond lake

Pam, John and Vic

We left Petersburg Campground last Monday but not before we made some new friends. On Saturday morning there was a knock on the door and one of our blog readers had come to let us know they were also in the park. Pam and Vic (the Big EZ Travels) were just over on the next loop. I have also read her blog but lately I’ve done more knitting than reading so I didn’t realize they were there. We talk for awhile and later had a great campfire and happy hour. It’s always fun and remarkably easy to sit and chat with other full timers and when they are fellow bloggers you kind of feel like you know them already. We were both headed out on Monday and ran into each other at the dump station Monday morning so got to say farewell. They were going to Hilton Head SC and we were on to Savannah about an hour south of there. I got an email from Pam saying how much they are enjoying Hilton Head so tomorrow we are going to check it out and ride bikes around the island with them. So glad we have met two more fun people on this crazy journey. 

Our site at Skidaway Island SP

We arrived Monday at Skidaway Island State Park just past the southern edge of Savannah.  This park is very interesting, with some huge pull throughs with FHU but for just a week we opted for the water and electric sites. Most of these site are the “pull-over” version of a pull through and as you wind around the loop you need to go slow as there are lots of trees and it can be pretty tight. My only real complaint is it’s hard to see where the drives are going into these sites but we found one that looked like an easy in and out and got settled. We are just across from one of the bath houses that has a small laundry (1 washer & 2 dryers) which is a real plus as we definitely needed to do laundry. The site we are in also has cable TV, as do most (but not all) the sites here. The longer we have been here the more I like this park. It is filled with Live Oaks just dripping with Spanish mosss. There are 3 nice trails all great for walking and one that works for biking as long as you don’t have those skinny tires. 

The Salt Marches of Skidaway Island

Sandpiper Trail

On Thursday we attended a fund raiser for the park called Brews & Bites. This one had the Moon River Brewery and a BBQ place providing food. Normally we would find this kind of thing a little pricy but we like to support the parks so decided to go. It was lots of fun. We got to meet several of the rangers and others involved in the development of the park. We also got to meet one of the brewers and of course talk beer for awhile. I’ll post later about our trips into Savannah but one thing we did was eat and have a beer at this brewery. You know us and microbreweries, we hate to miss any. There is another one that has started in the city but isn’t open for tasting or tours yet unless, of course you are our friends Jeff and Sheryl who visited the week before us and got a special private tour. You’ll have to check out their blog (Brights Wheel House) to read about it.

The first day here we biked the Big Ferry Trail. As I said earlier it’s definitely doable and not that hard but you are going over tree roots etc. so a bigger tire bike is what you want. We have hybrid bikes so it was ok but definitely a little bumpy. Then the last few days we have walked that trail and also the Sandpiper Trail and the Avian trail. This is a big spot for birding even though we did not see many birds. I think the time of day and actually the time of year affects that but they were still beautiful walks. This island is part of the salt marshes so though surrounded by water and truly an island it’s not the type that has a beach or where you can see the Atlantic ocean.  We were going to go to Tybee Island to see the ocean but now we are going to Hilton Head instead. I wanted to get on the Atlantic ocean so we could say that we have been to both oceans and the gulf all in the same year!

This park is also just about 20 minutes to the historic district of Savannah and I have much to say about that but I am going to make that a second post. I will probably write it tonight but post it tomorrow before we leave for Hilton Head.  I can definitely say we are still enjoying Georgia. So for now...

Happy Trails.................