There have been ructions in Reg about the division of labour in writing this blog so consequently a new author will appear on alternate weeks with a different perspective on our travels, let me introduce Reg (no, it’s really Matt, however the thoughts of a one tonne bus might be more insightful).

We left you with us moving on to Georgia, the Peach state, of which we sampled only one product containing peaches which was a small pie purchased, yet again (sigh), from Walmart, the product may not have actually contained anything more than peach extract, it was, however, very tasty.

OK, so we visited Columbus, a town also visited by General Sherman on his tour of the southern states during the civil war, and like several other of his destinations he refashioned it by burning much of its industry to the ground.  Even more devastating was that it was destroyed after the signature of surrender by confederate forces and consequently after the end of the war. After the war it was rebuilt with a number of large brick warehouses and factories that now host parts of the local university.  It also has a number of attractive houses in downtown and was overall pretty but boring on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

We decided to push on and drove on to spend the night in Arrowhead State Park, outside of Macon, Georgia.  Woke again to a view of a beautiful lake and a rather more difficult run around several hills around the park.  Visited Macon, the main thing to say is more slave owners’ houses and a crap lunch, moved on quickly to … Ocmulgee (pronounced Oak-MULL-gee as in the sub-continental Indian foodstuff).  Ocmulgee was worth the visit as it’s another example of the Mississippian Mound Builder traditions of the original Indian inhabitants of the Mississippi region that died out before Europeans arrived.  The Mississippian’s built a number of large mounds in the area that were still a sacred site to the local tribes when Europeans did arrive. Unfortunately the local tribes, named Creek by the British but continuing to call themselves Ocmulgeee, were again dispossessed and forcibly relocated by a series of lopsided treaties.  This resulted in the Ocmulgee Creek now having their reservation in Oklahoma, several hundred miles from their traditional homeland and the railroad digging cuttings across two of the most significant mounds.  The US did, however, conduct a large archaeological dig during the thirties which highlighted the significance of the mounds and discovered an Indian lodge with the complete floor intact, including a large Eagle relief.  The National Parks have an interesting museum and have recreated the roof to the lodge, including what I suspect isn’t the original air conditioning ducts on the mound.

From here we decided to drive rapidly across much of Georgia to get to Savannah, again arriving after dark at our campsite, Skidaway Island State Park.  The morning after we awoke to a vista of trees and much higher temperatures along with evidence of the havoc wreaked earlier in the year by hurricane Matthew (I know, good to be immortalised as the largest natural events to have affected the US in 2016).  Matthew had brought down a large number of trees in the park and torn up the boardwalk to the bird watching lookout and the pars service is still clearing up the debris a month after the event.  After walking around the trails of the park we went into downtown Savannah to sample the local hostelries as Alex had discovered you can park overnight in the visitor’s centre for eight dollars and consequently we could both have a drink and not worry about getting back to Reg!

Savannah is beautiful, a lovely antebellum city (again, unfortunately, built on the exploitation of slaves) with lovely houses, sophisticated shops and restaurants, and for once a sympathetic use of old warehouses along the river front for restaurants and bars.  We walked around the city, had seafood in a bar overlooking the river and watched an osprey drop down to try and catch fish in the river.  We walked back along Jones Street ‘the prettiest street in Savannah’ thinking it wouldn’t be a hardship were we to have to live here for a period.  We went to dinner in The Old Pink House, an old bank, painted pink that has an enormous (like the Tardis it is much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside!) series of dining rooms inside, all filled with local people.  We both had the same special of grouper stuffed with crab on a bed of mashed potato, and it was the best meal out we’ve had so far.  The only fly in the ointment was the typical rush that the meal was served in, we were in and out within an hour, and the bizarre over attentiveness of the wait staff culminating in one of the hostesses asking if there were anything else she could do to improve the already excellent experience! (her words).  After dinner we had a couple of drinks on the roof terrace of an old cotton warehouse overlooking the river and watched two large Americans get into their twin beds in the Hyatt Regency hotel next door and go to sleep around 9pm.

Waking up in a car park the next day, we set off to visit Tybee Island and to sample the ‘Breakfast Clubs’ breakfast as recommended in our Moon’s guide.  Tybee is similar to the Gold Coast in Australia, i.e. a strip of modern motels and restaurants with sunshine.  The breakfast was, by the way, not good and we’d recommend avoiding.  What shouldn’t be avoided was the absolutely beautiful sweeping beach that fronts Tybee.  On the way out we visited Fort Polaski, a fort built, with one Lieutenant Robert E Lee as the main engineer, to keep the British out, confiscated by the local Georgia militia at the beginning of the Civil War and pounded into submission after 30 hours by the Union forces on their arrival in 1862.  It was also pounded by Hurricane Matthew, experiencing the highest tidal surge in its history and remarkably already predominantly repaired after several boardwalks and bridges were destroyed.

From Savannah we drove south along interstate 95, completely missing the beautiful drive along US highway 17 as recommended in Moons in our desire to reach Florida quickly.  So, after driving for much of the day we arrived at Fort Clinch State Park, Florida, on the evening of the 30^th November.  Fort Clinch was another fort conceived as coastal defences against you know who, this time though it wasn’t deemed strategic by either side of the Civil War and was largely left to softly decay until being restored as part of the work schemes within FDR’s new deal in the 1930’s.

We drove south from Fort Clinch along US highway A1A which travels along the Atlantic coast and is quite attractive with large houses on the shore front, several exclusive resorts and the third largest US navy base, complete with at least one aircraft carrier, along the route.  The highlight though was the ferry across the St John’s River at Mayport where we drove Reg on and off while reducing the journey distance by 30 miles.  We arrived at our location for the next three nights, North Beach RV resort, in the evening and went for a walk along the beach.  Again the beach ranges for miles, has a plethora of birdlife, we saw sand pipers, pelicans and three ospreys, and exhibits a lot of damage from Matthew.  The damage is such that a large number of the properties along the beach are uninhabitable as the piles supporting them have been exposed by the tidal surges removing the sand dunes on which they have been built.

St Augustine proclaims to be the oldest town in what is now the US as it was originally settled by Spanish explores in the 16^th century, destroyed twice by us (including Sir Francis Drake) and now home to what is an unusual American city in being predominantly pedestrianised with nice cafes and gift shops (some of you may receive items from said gift shops in the not too distant future!).  We had a lovely dinner, apart from the mistake of thinking when asking for our fish to be fried it would be pan fried rather than the deep fried that it was actually was!  Dinner was accompanied by a local trio playing pop classics in the style of the Smashing Pumpkins (brilliant!).

So, next time we will be in Miami at the end of the first chapter of our journey.  Have a great week.

M x