HAPPY 100 DAYS ON THE ROAD! can you believe it?
Ollie was cold last night because I trimmed down the blankets up in the bunk as it was warm yesterday and they seemed so crowded. Oops. Poor guy. Amelia slept in until 8am.
There was a flurry of activity over at the side of the parking lot where John's buddies were setting up canopies and huge smokers/bbq's and tables. Turned out to be the set up for a chilli cook-off and celebratory tailgating for today's football game.
Jonathan made pancakes with whipping cream and berries for our celebration 100 days breakfast. Oliver had some rad tunes cranking on our stereo and spirits were good.
After our yummy breakfast feast, we set the kiddos up on our table outside to do the dishes. This sweet dog, Meatball, and her owner wandered over to say hello. Meatball was a real sweetheart... loving the pets from Amelia. Meems made some bracelets after her chores. Ollie hung around and tried his best not to sound bored. Jonathan set to work on taking off the rear wheels again (with my support and "surgical support team" of passing tools) to replace the rear brake pads with the correct pads.
From 9:30am to 12noon, Jonathan worked and replaced the rear brake pads on both sides. At one point he needed c-clamps to get the pistons squeezed in enough on the caliper to get the new thick pads and and managed to get a set from one of John's buddies at the bar. Another friendly rv'er walked over and asked if we needed any help (I was checking the brake fluid levels under the hood)... turns out he was a mechanic! super nice guy, and headed in the same direction as us... south! Jonathan did all the work like a boss! So great!!!!! very impressive.
for the records... 117260km = new rear brake pads.
Before we got packed up to leave, we wandered over to the guys with the smokers/bbq's and asked what was happening. One enthusiastic guy wanted us to be the taste tester/judge of which bbq chicken was best. We said in hushed tones that we were vegetarian and not to let it out, haha... and of course he announced it to the rest of the crews that we couldn't be testers because we didn't eat meat. Kinda funny!
We walked the 15+minutes down the road and over to the historical Bonaventure Cemetery. Popped into the gift shop/fortune reading and we bought a Savannah sticker for the rig. I had my eye on a copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and ended up running back and buying it before we entered the cemetery. The statue on the cover of the book was on loan at the moment to a university. We donated a few dollars for a little pamphlet/map of this historical cemetery and wandered amongst the majestic old live oaks dripping with spanish moss (the oaks, not us). We visited the 125yr old grave site of Gracie... and while looking at it, an older local gentleman came over and started chatting. He told us about how over all the years, kids would come and bring Gracie a small candy or coin as an offering, and he asked if he could give our kids a penny to offer Gracie. Both kids gave Gracie their pennies at her gate. They had to gate the monument because she was getting worn down from all the visitors rubbing her face. The gentleman also highly recommended that we find ourselves some boiled peanuts to try. It's a very southern thing to eat and we've yet to find any. Admittedly they don't sound super awesome, haha... green peanuts boiled in the shells in a big old vat until soft. Best obtained from a roadside stand. We'll see if we can find any here in the south. He also highly recommended we get some "shrimp n' grits" :)
It was a hot walk back to the RV along the back road to the Sports Bar and fudgesicles were in order for on the road. Left Coaches Corner around 2pm. Stopped at a Kroger to fill up with diesel ($84) and we were on our way to our next destination : Jekyll Island, Georgia... part of the Golden Isles in the south.
By 3:50pm we were driving onto the historical Jekyll Island through a vast expanse of marshland on either side of the road. Jekyll Island used to be an exclusive hunting club/winter destination for millionaire families : Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, Baker in the late 1800's. It was once a private retreat and their clubhouse they built is now a historic landmark and one of the largest preservation projects in the southeast. 75 years ago it became a State Park.
https://www.jekyllisland.com/
The exclusiveness of the island shows when we drove onto the island... it had a very fancy entrance way with the original old "gate pillars" and lined with palm trees like an exclusive resort. You could imagine the Rockefellers rolling up in their fancy cars back in the day. Nice boats were moored at the yacht club, and the signage for the park was very nicely done and everything very well groomed.
There was an $8 entry fee to get through the toll gate and we drove to the other end of the island, admiring the beautifully landscaped roads and bike paths with the live oaks and palm trees. Felt like a tropical resort destination. There was a little "village" of sorts and a fair sized convention centre as well near the entrance. People riding by on bikes and golf carts.
We got to the state park campground at the far end and were given site G15... we had booked this site online and then another different site for the next night because there were none available for two nights in a row. We asked the lovely older lady/camphost at the front if it might be possible and she said no, which wasn't a bother... we'd just move the next day... happy to get a spot at all here on the beautiful island. We settled into our site and soon after, the lady came by and happily told us that she had gone into the computer system and managed to get us this same site for tomorrow night. Yay! no need to move... we could get the hammock stand out and settle in for a couple days. (this feels long term for us, haha... two nights! wow!). Soon after that, her husband drove by on the golf cart to tell us the same thing. He had two little weiner dogs on his the golf cart. Super cute! He drove back to the office to get our new hangtag and when he came back I asked if the kids could come out and say hi to them. He said they'd love that... they love people and getting attention. Kids were in the rig and ran out to say hello and give the dogs ear tickles. Their names were Beanie and Stelle and they were super sweet.
Jonathan went for a shower and the kids set up all our Halloween decor... scary ghoul lady that lights up, skeleton (Skelly) and mini Skelly and our big hairy spider. We hung out and kids did some art until Jay came back, then he and Ollie went over to the office/campstore but it was closed. Oliver loves looking in camp stores and gas stations and stores of any kind.
Relaxing, reading and hanging out soon got tiring. We hopped on our bikes to explore the little trail to the fishing pier we saw signage for across from the entrance to the campground. A short little ride brought us out to a beautiful beach, long concrete fishing pier and the start of an amazing sunset! So awesome. We hung out on the pier, chatted with a couple girls who were hauling up blue crabs in their traps. The fishing store had a very fun 3D sign of a shark above it. Then rode bikes down on the hard packed beach sand. Saw some people riding horses on the beach, too. Beautiful sunset for our lovely 100 day!
Back at the rig, we prepped all the fruit and chocolate for our celebratory dinner : CHOCOLATE FONDUE! This seems to be our little family's celebration feast for any special occasion (christmas eve, solstice nights, new years, etc). Everyone helped wash and cut the fruit and Jonathan made the best chocolate he's made yet. So creamy and delicious! we ate every last bit! yum.
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