2016 through to Virginia
It’s been a while since we put an entry in our travel blog, and as we’ve been on this East coast journey for 5 weeks we thought it was about time. This post covers the Carolinas and Virginia.
We left our sticks and bricks in East Texas on April 23rd and made a ‘mad dash’ across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to Carrollton in Georgia just west of Atlanta. We did 2 overnight stops in Monroe, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi – main reason for the ‘dash’ was that we had already travelled this route in 2014 in Arvey Senior – to see if we could travel full time. If you read our last post Early 2016 post you will already know that we had a few changes in our lives, anyway on with this post.
Even though we were just outside Atlanta we didn’t venture in, just took 2 days to chill before we travelled to Hardeeville in South Carolina. We stayed at Lake Jasper 2 years ago in the middle of summer not a great time to visit Savannah, just stop on the river front, eat and melt in the heat then a quick dash back to the car and the air conditioning. This time the temperature was much better and we had a nice lunch at a Greek restaurant on the river front and then took a trolley tour around Savannah.
We also took a few side trips to see a really old plantation building and the Spanish moss covered trees around the homes in Beaufort. On our last day we toured Tybee Island, took an impromptu Dolphin cruise and walked around Fort Pulaski – a great last day in South Carolina. We were told that the defenders of the fort stocked the moat with alligators – we saw one that had been left behind.
The next stop was near Jacksonville, North Carolina for 5 days to explore the beaches and Fort Macon. On the way back from Fort Macon we bought a pound and a half of head-on shrimp – Connie said NEVER AGAIN, there is so much work involved in removing the head, the shell and not to mention – the poop.
Whenever we get near a beach Connie has to go paddling
Virginia was our next stop and an amazing tour of the 1862 Seven Days Battlegrounds for Richmond, where General Robert E. Lee with 45,000 confederates pushed back the union army of 100,000 troops to the banks of the James River. Then with victories at Cedar Mountain and Bull Run he marched towards Maryland to start the first invasion of the north.
One of the things we find ourselves looking for is waterfalls, so when Crabtree Falls appeared in Google maps we went. This is one of the rarest pictures – me and Connie and the waterfall. It was a cold and damp day so we found ourselves descending through some light clouds – amazing views though.
You have been reading my thoughts! Getting concerned at not hearing from you and going to e mail you. Sounds like you are having a great East Coast journey continue to enjoy and we will await the next instalment. Take care Audrey and Douglas