We spent this morning on St. Simon Island and found that we enjoyed it over Jekyll Island. Aside from the village on the southern tip the island it is far less commercial. The northern end reminded me of the nicer parts of Hilton Head, SC. There are not as many gated communities, but the homes are for the most part upscale.
We visited Fort Frederica, a pre-revolutionary war English settlement and fortification. James Oglethorpe created it in 1736 to protect Savannah and the southern flank of the English colonies from the Spanish who claimed Florida. The Spanish concept of Florida included most of what are now Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Oglethorpe brought settlers with a mixture of trades and skills. These were common people looking to establish a life better than what was available to them in England. The settlement remained viable through the war of 1812, but ultimately succumbed to a large-scale fire. The site was abandoned and much of the salvageable building material was taken to aid in rebuilding elsewhere.
Today you can still see some remaining structures of the fort such as remnant of the magazine and barracks. Foundations of many of the houses in the settlement have been excavated. The layout of the streets is marked and the moat that surrounded the forty-acre settlement is still visible. One of the things we enjoy most about these trips is visiting historical places such as this. Barbara is having a great time collecting the unique ink stamps in her National Park Passport.
The southern portion of the island, with its lighthouse, was where the majority of hotels, restaurants and shops were. It was too touristy for us, so we did not hang around much longer than it took to get an ice cream to cool off. It was very hot and humid again today. Staying in both the shade and breeze was critical.
After St Simon Island we drove to St Marys, GA. We visited the Cumberland Island National Seashore Museum. It might have been that it is Sunday, but there was very little happening in downtown St Marys, and it did not look like there was enough to draw us back.
Since we now had extra time we elected to drive to Fernandina Beach, FL just across the river, but nearly fifty miles by road. While there we did a quick drive through of Fort Clinch State Park campground to see how well our RV would fit. It was encouraging, and the park seems quite nice. We will likely return to camp here.
We had dinner at the Crab Trap restaurant for our last night on the road. I wish I could report that it was great, but alas, it was mediocre. We walked the main district for a bit, but it was still 91 degrees, so we packed it in and returned to the coach.
Tomorrow we break camp and head for Orlando. It has been a great trip, and we have seen some new parts of the country. MN, WI and MI are certainly on our list of places to return to.
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