Florida through to the Carolinas

Once we left Navarre, we headed due east to another stop in Florida, we knew that Florida was long north to south, just didn’t realize how wide, west to east it was.

Randi (GPS) decided to take us the scenic route, through heavy stop and go traffic in Destin and the coastal islands east of there through Miramar and Santa Rosa Beach communities – and lots and lots of stop lights. ‘Arvey, toad, Connie, Rusty and especially I do not like that kind of traffic. We tend not to trust Randi now, should have learned after Jack Mountain in Arkansas.

Our next stop was at Kelly’s RV park in White Springs, Florida – again Randi let us down leaving I10 one exit too soon and taking us along a ‘nice’ winding side road. We really need to take a look at a map before we leave for the next stop.

Kelly’s is a small campground in a really rural setting, with a lot of long-term, permanent residents. Not a lot to say about this place and only one photo through the windshield. We met a few of the other residents walking their dogs. It was a little tight getting in, around and out but ’Arvey and the toad survived. We’re back on the road again, out of Florida, through Georgia to our next stop in South Carolina.

We arrived at the Camp Lake Jasper camp ground, and fairly quickly realized it was not designed by someone who went RVing. The first clue was the very narrow entrance off a small country lane – a little tight due to the huge island in the middle of the entrance. The next clue was the packed sand site that wasn’t too level – not as sloped as a place we stayed at in Cedar Creek last year. We were lucky we had levelling jack pads, which are supposed to be mandatory. It’s a nice enough park, clean showers and laundry which we used, and a fishing pier over the lake. The first day the heavens opened and the camp turned into a muddy mess which took another day to dry out.

A trip to Savannah in the heat and humidity during the week had us running (AKA crawling) for shade and AC, luckily some of the shops on the river front allow dogs in, where we cooled down while browsing. Lunch on the sidewalk at Huey’s was really good (apart from the heat), Connie had shrimp and grits and I satisfied my need for sweet with a sticky Pain Perdu – New Orleans style French toast. While we were sat there a huge container ship went slowly up the river – amazing sight with the old cobbled streets and tram tracks in the foreground.

Charlotte was just as hot and humid so we decided on a Palmetto Carriage ride around the historic areas – our two mules that pulled us around were called ‘Shrimp’ and ‘Grits’, Rusty had to be carried onto the carriage – baby.

We took a couple of smaller trips, one to Tybee Island and the lighthouse, then to the farmers market in Bluffton – where a we had a welcome cold beer in the shade – Rusty had water.

The next stop was at the Lazy Acres campground in Fayetteville, North Carolina a 2 day ‘rest’ – didn’t even unhook the CR-V just walked around the lake a few times.

Saw the largest pine cones ever – well the largest we’d ever seen. Rusty really enjoyed the smells on the trails. Next stop Williamsburg and the historic triangle of Jamestown and Yorktown.