There was a Crooked River

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Our fun on Jekyll Island came to a close and it was time to move on. We weren’t going very far, just over 50 miles to Crooked River State Park in Saint Marys Georgia. It’s just a few miles from the Florida state line. The campground has about 60 sites and the majority of them are quite large. Some of the sites have full hookups and there are many pull thru sites. Our spot was a back in site with water and 50 amp electric. Since we are only here for 8 nights, not having sewer hookup won’t be a problem. It did seem odd to see some of the small pop up trailers in a 90 foot pull thru site but our spot was more than big enough for us. We got a short walk in after getting situated. There are lots of trails that meander through the park.

The next day we loaded the bikes on the rack and drove into downtown St Marys. The plan was to bike around the area to get a feel for the town. Before starting on the ride, we walked over to a geocache near a cemetery just a few blocks away. On our way back to our car, another car pulled up next to us. The driver asked us where we are from. He could tell we weren’t from here since our walking pace was faster than the typical local. Turned out the guy is the mayor of St Marys and he welcomed us to town and hoped we enjoy our stay. I guess we found ourselves in a friendly small town. We hopped on the bikes and did a random bike ride around town checking out a few sights and finding several geocaches. 

Along St Marys River

Waterfront Stage in Park

We headed south to Florida the following day. Fort Clinch State Park is just across the river from St Marys. We decided it makes sense to by an annual Florida State Park Pass since we will be in the state for more than 4 months. This park has a fair amount to check out. We start the morning by riding the 6 mile mountain bike trail loop. Being Florida, there aren’t any really serious hills. But there are some sections with lots of tree roots making for a challenging ride at times. It is all single track and fortunately the trail is configured to be one way so we don’t have to worry about oncoming traffic. The trail basically parallels the park road on either side of the road. When we got to the halfway point closer to the park entrance station, Chris decided she had had enough of the loose sand and roots and would just ride the park road back to the main parking lot. I continued up the trail and made pretty good time since I didn’t have to worry about how Chris was doing. I did nearly do a face plant at one point when I discovered a hidden root under the loose sand that steered my front wheel right into a bush. 

When I got back, we had lunch and changed out of our cycling gear to do a hike or two. We headed out a trail that takes us to the beach along the St Marys River on the outside of the old fort. We noticed something in the water quite a distance away but initially couldn’t identify it.  Could tell it was big and thought it might have been a dock but then we realized it was moving, and heading our direction. Turns out it was a submarine. Our campground is right next to the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay - part of the US Navy. I guess this sub was heading home. It was impressively big and given most of the thing is underwater, we can hardly imagine its actual size.

Submarine Passes By

Beach at Fort Clinch State Park

After the sub passed by and we concluded the walk around the outside of the fort. We decided it was worth the extra $2.50 per person to actually tour the inside of Fort Clinch. We have visited quite a few historic forts during our travels. Fort Stevens on the northern Oregon coast and Fort Worden on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State are two memorable ones from 2017 and more recently, Fort Knox in Prospect Maine. This one is is definitely worth the admission cost but it isn’t quite as large or elaborate as these other forts. They do still have a handful of the old cannons positioned around the perimeter. The stone and brick work is definitely impressive. There are curved stairs leading to the upper level at each of the five corners. They are roughly S-shaped which must have made for very difficult construction, but they have held up quite well given the Fort was built in the mid 1800’s. Many of the rooms are open and furnished as they might have been back in the day. From the descriptions, the jail was mostly used as a sobering up spot for the soldiers after a bit too much drinking.

River Side of Fort Clinch

Entrance to Fort Clinch

Tunnel into Courtyard

Curved Staircase

Overlooking Interior of Fort

Ready, Aim, Fire

Fort's Wall

Ferns Taking Hold

Soldier's Clothing

 

S Curved Staircase

Laundry Room

Interior of Jail Cell

The following day we did a more leisurely bike ride along the trails to the east of the park. Before getting to the Sempervirens Trail, we pass 11 cabins that are much bigger than those you find at most campgrounds. They can sleep 8 to 10 people and look like they would be ideal for a family getaway. We discovered that there are many more trails than the park map highlights. We try a few side trails but seem to always run into loose sand or downed trees forcing us to retreat. We eventually made it out most of the way to the Bay Boardwalk Trail but needed to bypass the actual boardwalk since it is in disrepair. 

Overlooking Crooked River

Boardwalk Needing TLC

We headed back into St Marys the next day to check out the Submarine Museum. Before getting into town, we stop at the main entrance to the Submarine Base. There is a small parking lot prior to entering the military check point. The only thing for us civilians to see there is the retired USS George Bancroft. This sub was first launched in 1965 and retired in 1993. The tower (or fin) from the sub is now mounted in the ground to appear as if the submarine is submerged in terra firma. It was pretty neat to see. There happens to be a fairly new geocache hidden nearby this sub, but from the descriptions of other geocachers, the MPs at the nearby entrance gate aren’t too keen about strangers wandering around and looking suspicious. One cacher was detained for 45 minutes while being questioned about what she was doing. We opted to not push our luck. We don’t have to go for every geocache.

USS George Bancroft

The museum is right on the main street in St Marys. While it is a rather small place, it was packed full of all sorts of displays and memorabilia from everything submarine related. Surprisingly we spent nearly 2 hours looking it all over and watching a video on how submarines work and what it’s like to be a submariner. Possibly the neatest thing there is the actual periscope from a retired sub. It can be turned and focused on boats in the nearby river. I even managed to get a reasonably good picture through the eyepiece. Some people may find the museum boring or ho-hum, but we made the most of it. 

Display at Submarine Museum

Interesting Drawing

Suit Up

Model of USS Grayback

Unique Propulsion Method

Submarine Controls

Up Periscope

Picture Through Periscope

The next couple of days were slow from a tourist standpoint. On Thanksgiving Day, we didn’t do a whole lot but Chris did make a very nice dinner. A new cheesecake recipe has made it to the top of our desert list - pumpkin cheesecake is better than pumpkin pie! Black Friday was quite rainy so again we didn’t get out for much more than a short walk in the campground. 

On our last full day in the area, the weather was dry so we drove a bit north of camp to the Georgia Coast Rail-Trail near White Oak Georgia. It turned out to be quite a nice walk. Much wider than most trails like this and about 8 geocaches along the couple mile section of the trail we walked. After this, we checked out the old tabby sugar works building right across from the submarine base. We have now seen tabby buildings in a couple locations but this place is much bigger than the house on Jekyll Island. That’s because this used to be a sugar processing plant back in the early 1800’s. It’s in reasonable shape for a building that is nearly 200 years old. 

Nice Wide Rail Trail

Old Sugar Processing Building

Worn Interior Wall

Close-up of Tabby Wall

Crooked River was a nice stop, but admittedly there weren’t that many things to see in the area. We might have been better off using some of the 8 nights we spent there and pushed them back to extend our stay on Jekyll Island or move them forward to our next stop at O’Leno State Park in High Springs Florida. But part of the fun with our lifestyle is learning these things for the future. 

Stranded on Jekyll Island Georgia

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Friday was our travel day from Skidaway Island to Jekyll Island. It was going to be an easy one. It’s just under a hundred mile drive and the check out and check in times would allow us to eat lunch before we head out and get there early afternoon. Chris took advantage of the open morning to run a few errands since stores are more convenient at Skidaway. As she drove back from the last stop to the campground, the Jeep started to sputter and had no power and the dreaded check engine light came on. She made it back to the church parking lot about a mile from camp and walked the rest of the way. Since our bikes were already on the car, I didn’t have an easy way to go investigate myself. I discovered there was a Jeep dealer in Brunswick Georgia, a short distance from Jekyll Island. So we finished our packing chores and simply drove the motorhome to the Jeep. I checked a few obvious things and drove the Jeep around the parking lot and didn’t have any symptoms other than the check engine light. So we hitched the car up and headed out using the motorhome as our tow truck. Chris scoped out a Lowe’s and Target shopping plaza with a good sized lot that was a short walk to the dealer.

Fortunately the dealer wasn’t too busy, and they could look at the car right away. I also asked them to check into a clicking noise from the rear end that has been occurring for several months. We found a spot in their parking lot that I could fit into and got a ride back to the rig and towed the car to them. We headed back to the rig to wait to see if there was something quick to be done. We still had 20 miles to get to the campground and really didn’t want to arrive in the dark. So we decided to just leave the car with them and put the bike rack on the motorhome so we would at least have our bikes on the island. There is a fee to drive onto the island but it isn’t a manned station. Chris needed to get out of the rig to access the automated kiosk. It’s $10 for oversized vehicles and $6 for passenger vehicles. We made it to the campground just about at sunset and being the Friday of a holiday weekend (Veterans Day), the place was packed. Our spot was reasonably easy to back into since there was an intersecting road just in front of our site. We haven’t needed to setup in the dark in quite some time and hope to avoid it in the future. 

If there was a place to be stuck without a car, Jekyll Island is nearly the perfect spot. From our island literature, there is a paved bike lane around the perimeter of the island that is roughly 15 miles long. Our first morning, we headed out for a bike ride to survey the island. The campground is near the northern tip of the island. We took a right and headed clockwise along the bike path. We were a bit surprised with just how populated the island is. There are plenty of homes and lots of condos. At the commercial district along the beach, there are lots of small tourist shops and a fair number of hotels. 

Jekyll Island Club Resort

One big section of the parking lot was blocked off and we could see something was going on, so we went over to investigate. There were dozens of kids and adults walking around with the same colored polo shirt with a TSA logo on them. There were about a dozen “cars” being driven around a loop in the parking lot. It was pretty clear the TSA didn’t stand for Transportation Security Administration so we stopped one of the adults to ask what was going on. The Georgia Technology Student Association, is a group dedicated to teaching students about technology. They were having their race today. We didn’t get the complete details, but each group had built an electric vehicle and the contest was to see how many laps each one could complete in a one hour period. We had arrived about 15 minutes into the event. There were a couple different general design styles. There were four wheeled, race car like vehicles with the student driver either sitting upright or nearly laying down. Or there were three wheeled, reverse tricycle designs with bicycle wheels. The amount of money spent was clear as well. Some had sleek fiberglass shells over tubular metal frames while others we boxy plywood contractions. I timed one of the quicker vehicles and found each lap was about 48 seconds which would equate to 75 laps assuming the battery didn’t die before then. We didn’t stick around to see the finish but it was a fun diversion from our bike ride.

Getting Ready to Pass

In for Pit Stop

Patriotic

Boxy

Near the southern end of the island, we discovered another large crowd. This time we found a youth soccer tournament in progress. Since we don’t think there are any schools on the island, the fields are likely setup for mainland teams as a destination. Just south of the soccer complex is Saint Andrews Beach. We stopped to check it out and get a nearby geocache. It was a nice area and not very crowded for a weekend day. With all the side trips to see sights or get geocaches, we ended up doing a 17 mile ride. The good thing is that the island is pretty flat, so there are really no hills to deal with making it a reasonably easy ride. 

Distant Bridge

Mossy Oak

St Andrews Beach

Nearing Sunset

The weather the next day wasn't great but good enough for another bike ride. This time we go counterclockwise in order to see some of the sights we zipped by the previous day on our way back to camp. We do seem to see lots of birds along the shoreline - herons, pelicans and egrets. I don’t always have the right lens to get great pictures but sometimes the birds let me get fairly close. The river side of the island is the “fancy” side. The Jekyll Island Club Resort is pretty fancy and besides the main building, there are many other homes on the surrounding property that appear to be rented out or used for large events. The croquet court in the front had people that looked like they know how to play. They even offer horse drawn carriage rides around the paths. 

Fancy Carriage Ride

Perched Birds

Jekyll Island Marina

Further down on the river side is a water park. It’s closed for the season but based on the looks of it, I suspect it’s a popular spot in the summer months. We bike out an old dirt road to a few geocaches. One of them wasn’t going to be accessible since it was just about high tide when we arrived and it sounds like it can be a challenge even at low tide. We had brought our lunch along and found a very secluded spot along the water to sit and enjoy the view. This ride turned out to be just over 17 miles but saw a lot of different sights. 

Water Park

Our Lunch Spot

Windswept Trees

 Not every day is sunny and nice. We knew rain was predicted but we headed out for an early bike ride hoping to be back before it started. This time we stayed on the north side of the island but headed inland. There are numerous old roads that wind around the woods in the interior of the island. We had a few geocaches to go for. Beyond the vehicle gate, the grass and weeds were kind of tall but the road condition was okay. It took a couple wrong turns before I got reasonably close to the one cache. The warning signs about alligators wasn’t real comforting but I kept on the lookout as I headed past the small point the remaining few hundred feet to the cache. Of course, the sky’s opened up before I even got there. By the time I found it and got back to the bikes and Chris, we were wet so we did one more cache before heading back to camp to clean the bikes and ourselves. After the rain passed, we walked up to the fishing pier at Clam Creek.

Covered Fishing Pier

View from Pier

Nice weather returned the following day and for the fourth day in a row, we hit the bike trails. Some of the caches that have a high number of favorite points on the island are what is known as a night cache. The premise is usually the same for each night cache. Go to the posted coordinates when it’s dark and using a strong flashlight, look for small “fire tacks” or reflectors on trees along the trail. Head toward the fire tack and look for the next one. Since we didn’t have our car, we realized it wasn’t likely we would be able to get to these at night so we figured we could try during the day. We aren’t always successful finding night caches during the day but it was worth a try. The one we stopped for turned out to be quite well done and extremely easy to follow during the day. Instead of thumbtack sized fire tacks, the reflectors were large and many of them were glued into the eyes of plastic skeleton heads. The cache container was nearly the size of a steamer chest! The cache owner put a great deal of effort into this one. It would have been fun to do at night. On the way back, we took some of the interior gravel bike paths rather than following the road. It turned out to be just a 16 mile day.

Interesting Mushrooms

Heron on Prowl

Hundreds of Crabs

Tree Sculpture

Beach Scene

Reflectors for Night Cache

Night Cache Pirate's Chest

Ornamental Lion

Later in the afternoon, I went for a solo walk with my long telephoto lens hoping to see some wildlife. Directly across from the campground entrance is a road to Clam Creek Picnic area. It’s about a 3/4 mile walk to the fishing pier. After checking that area out, I headed along the beach to the east for about 1/2 mile before it curves around and heads south. There were numerous birds out in the shallow water along the shoreline. Some would let me approach surprisingly close while others wanted nothing to do with me. Once I get away from the pier, there are hardly any people. The shore along here is called Driftwood Beach and for good reason. There are countless large dead trees scattered all along the shoreline. Some are still standing upright although several feet of their roots are exposed. Obviously those trees were brought here by a storm so I suspect all the trees used to live along the shore. It was an interesting walk but down at the far southern end of the beach were dozens of people. There is parking along the main road and a path to the beach and lots of people like to come out here to relax or explore. I headed back the trail to the road and then back to camp. The total walk is about 3.5 miles although the beach was firm enough that it probably could be accomplished as a bike ride.

Elaborate Fishing Boat - Patricia Lee

Posing Snowy Egret

In Search of Food

Ready to Fly

In Flight

Pelican Flying By

Lighthouse on St Simons Island

Beached Jellyfish

Along Driftwood Beach

Still Standing

All Lined Up

Shorebird on Prowl

We were getting tired of biking everywhere so we picked a few caches that were just south of the campground and headed for them the following day. There are a few dirt roads that even have a handful of houses on them that we hadn’t really explored yet. We discovered that they led us to other trails that were definitely nice to walk on and they did lead us where we wanted to go. Horton Pond is a small pond with a nice wildlife viewing platform. While we were there, we spotted one alligator, one turtle and one owl. None of them were very close, and I didn’t have my long telephoto lens with me. It was a very peaceful setting once we convinced ourselves that the alligator, that had been in the pond but had come up on land, wasn’t headed our way and going to trap us on the viewing platform. In the middle of the pond is a large floating deck which was where the turtle had come to to catch the sun. 

Horton Pond

Reflecting Pond with Owl

Rather than backtracking and risking a run in with our alligator, we headed out to the main road and followed the bike path up to where Driftwood Beach starts. Chris had yet to experience it and although the tide was high and the wind was quite strong, the water hadn’t covered enough of the beach to prevent making it to the fishing pier. Not as many birds were out during this walk. Although we did see a group of 6 pelicans fly by in formation just above the water. After lunch back at the rig, we took the short walk over to the Horton House. The place is old, very old. Built in 1743. All that remains are the four walls of the home - no roof, no windows, no doors. The walls are quite thick and made of tabby. I’ll admit I had not heard of this before. It’s basically a type of concrete made from burnt oyster shells which produces lime and mixed with sand, ash, broken oyster shells and water. Obviously it is rather robust as a building material given this home is 275 years old! 

Stump on Beach

Foamy Water

Six Pelicans in Formation

Horton House

Close View of Tabby

Heron

Nearly a week into our 8 night stay, we finally got word back from the Jeep dealership. The issue with the engine was remedied with new plugs and replacing a damaged coil. The clicking noise was finally isolated to the transmission! Definitely not what we wanted to hear. Since the main warranty period is over, I figured we would just live with it, but then I remembered the powertrain warranty is for 5 years and we have about 3 months left. The service manager realized we have a time constraint with our travels so we will need to follow up with another dealer at one of our longer upcoming stops.

It was nice to get the car back and the following morning, we used it to head to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. This turned out to be a pretty interesting stop. They have a decent size facility with a visitor center that has all sorts of displays describing the life cycle of sea turtles as well as the work they do to help injured turtles. We were fortunate to be there while the doctor was in. There is a big glass window looking into the examination room. When a patient is brought in, they hang up a whiteboard with the patient’s name, reason for being at the center and what the doctor and nurses will be doing to the patient. A small green sea turtle was brought in and the nurses weighed it before drawing some blood. It’s a bit strange to be watching the activities but the one nurse even got on the intercom to give a bit more detail. So much for doctor/patient confidentiality. 

"Let GO!"

"How Embarrassing!"

Out back is another building that houses the patients while they are here. There are 8 or 10 large holding tanks. If there is a patient in a tank, it has a name tag out front so visitors can identify who’s who. There were a lot of empty tanks which I suppose is a good thing since it means they didn’t have too many patients. When we came back in to the main room, there was a new turtle being cared for. This guy was a box turtle and had some sort of infection under the shell. This one needed to have a plastic cup placed over its head to prevent the nurse from getting bit. Based on how much the turtle was squirming, it was definitely not enjoying the doctor’s bedside manner. The strangest thing we saw was when he probed under the shell and brought some small piece of something out with the tool and instead of looking at it intently, he smelled it! We probably should have knocked on the glass to ask what was going one since now we will never know. If you make it to Jekyll Island, this should be on the list of stops.

Patient in Holding Tank

More Holding Tanks

Box Turtle Waiting for Checkup

Even with our car back, we decided to get one last bike ride in since the weather was great and it was going to be our last full day here. We had several more geocaches we wanted to attempt. The first stop was back on the very southern end of the island at Saint Andrews Beach. There were two geocaches we hadn’t gotten although both of them were not accessible via bike. So I left Chris on the beach with the bikes while I tried to find my way to the caches. I managed to find both but Chis pointed out my bloody leg when I returned from the second one. Such is the life of a geocacher.

Chris Waits in a Tree

On the way back up the river side of the island, we stopped at the Tidelands Nature Center. It was close to closing time, so it wasn’t clear what goes one there. There is a large pond that had a dirt road around the perimeter and we followed it to find another geocache. It was quite a nice place on this late afternoon. Several birds were on the dock and in the water near the cache but they didn’t seem to mind our being there. This ride ended up being our longest at 18.5 miles. I’ll have to admit, I really enjoyed our stay at Jekyll Island. Since we didn’t have a car to explore what there is to see and do back on the mainland, we cannot really comment on the rest of the area. Many of the campers at this campground are seasonal residents that will be here for the rest of the winter. When I checked on the historical temperatures for the area, I found them to be fairly warm during the winter months. Not Key West warm but not too bad. I could see us putting this onto our list of winter hideouts in some future year.

Reflecting Bird