Debugging

Our big news is that we bought a new (to us) RV! A used RV came up for sale near us that was very similar to our first RV. That one had a few problems but we liked the size and layout. We spent a lot of time inspecting this RV before buying it and spent more time checking it out while it was in our driveway. HOWEVER, we found plenty of things to fix in the RV after a debugging overnight at a local state forest.

The big thing was a water leak in the walls behind the outside shower. There was no way to valve it off so we ended up with no water in the RV. John was able to run a hose with a valve so we could flush the toilet. We found quite a few other issues with things that needed “tweaked” or items we forgot. We were both glad it was for only one night.

On the better news, the campground was quiet and relaxing. It rained overnight so things were a little damp. At least there were no leaks in the RV. 

It was sunny the next day. We walked the loop at the campground and I did my morning walk. It was wonderful to get out and hike even if it was a bit wet.

In honor of the holidays…Christmas lichen!

Congaree National Park

Congaree National Park is on every list for the least-visited national parks. It’s been on my to-do list for years. We finally made it and it is our 156 national park/monument/etc! It isn’t super easy to get to and you don’t want to visit during the hot, humid, and buggy southern summer (which is much longer than a northern summer). They even have a scary sign rating the mosquito activity but luckily we visited at the right time. We can see why people might not visit as often but it is a very nice park.

We walked the 2.4 mile boardwalk loop. The trees average over 130 feet in height so that Congaree is one of the tallest deciduous forests in the world. Bigger trees include former state champion loblolly pine. It’s former since a part of the top fell during a storm. We saw cypress, pines, tupelos, and other species here.

Lots of bald cypress trees and their knees.

The boardwalk made it easy to see a variety of habitats including the ever present sloughs.

We finished our visit with a hike of the 2.2 mile Bates Ferry Trail to the Congaree River. The hike is very easy along an early road. This road had to be a lot of work to make since the dirt was built up along the length of the road so you could travel it even with some flooding. Just cutting down trees for the road must have been a large job.

The ferry was started back in the 1700s. A few pilings are left of what used to be a bridge that replaced the ferry in the early 1900s.

Nice park!

South Carolina Weird

I like the weird “ball of twine” places (yes, we’ve seen two balls of twine). South Carolina had several cool places to stop and all were free. The best stop was the UFO Welcome Center. The house is right in Bowman SC. I’m sure the neighbors love it?

Scrap materials were assembled into two flying saucers. The top is supposed to be unattached from the bottom so it can take off using alien technology. The plan is that aliens are welcomed here as their first stop on Earth.

The side yard has a rocket, two cars, and a control panel. I’m not sure of the purpose of all that but hey, you do you, UFO guy.

Old Sheldon Church was a cool stop. The ruins of this church are pretty outstanding. The history is also fascinating. The British burned the mid-1700s church during the Revolutionary War. The church was rebuilt in 1826 and then burnt during Sherman’s march during the Civil War. It is a big church for what looks like a sparsely populated area.

Fort Motte Jail has some fascinating history but I have to say there isn’t much to see.  The location started as a plantation, then a British military outpost and depot during the Revolutionary War. The site was considered for the capital of the new state of South Carolina before Columbia was picked. The former jail is the only thing we saw that was left.

The Kazoo Museum was a quick but fun stop. We didn’t go on the factory tour but wandered the small museum. There was discussion of the music written for kazoos and performances using kazoos. Did you know the biggest kazoo performance in the world involved 5,190 people playing kazoos in the Royal Albert Hall in London? There were old kazoos.

And different designs.

And a flag display of kazoos.

Georgia Historic Sites

We’ve been to lots of museums and historic sites over the last 10 years but there is always something to learn. At Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site, we did the home tour, which was both interesting and a bit unsettling. The plantation used enslaved labor (350+ at one point) but the film about the rice plantation history only discussed the problems of the owners. The amount of work on this plantation was mind boggling. Over 7,000 acres were cleared of cypress trees and converted to a rice plantation with channels, dikes, and floodgates. Growing and harvesting rice involves a LOT of work in a hot, muggy, and buggy marsh. I think that work was more difficult that the financial problems of the plantation owners. 

The tour guide said the slaves were “treated well” (really?). The owners left the plantation during the summer to avoid the heat and mosquitoes. They also added screens to the big house (one of the first homes with window and door screens) to prevent mosquitoes getting inside. The enslaved workers were left to work the rice fields in the heat but supposedly had no problems with malaria because they had sickle cell anemia. Online, I found that sickle cell does reduce malaria infection but by only 29% and also causes major health issues and early death. Plus, I am pretty sure not everyone had sickle cell anemia. The only building left of the slave homes at this site had half the building converted into bathrooms for us tourists. 

The guide also was indignant that the US government asked Southern soldiers for an oath of allegiance after the Civil War. The guide again emphasized the financial problems of the plantation owners after the slaves were emancipated. The tour guide highlighted the rich mahogany furniture in the home. She didn’t mention that enslaved workers in Caribbean and Central America were used to do the logging or that mahogany trees are widely separated in a forest so that the environmental damage is greater to log these trees than most trees. I was just surprised that in 2021 an historic site had such a limited point of view.  

On a better note, the trees here were gorgeous. Some of the live oaks were over 800 years old. 

I thought the vaseline glass was interesting. It uses uranium in the glass and glows under ultraviolet light. 

We found the second place better. Fort King George State Historic Site shows a reconstructed fort (the southernmost British fort). There are several buildings within the fort area that you can see. It was built in the 1720s to protect the Carolinas from the Spanish and French but no battles were fought here. 

There are stories of the soldiers who lived and died here. Apparently the older and infirm British soldiers were sent here and they were totally unprepared for the heat, humidity, and bugs. Other problems like river flooding, lack of food, alcoholism, and even (possibly intentionally) fires in the fort.

The museum had lots of artifacts that had been found here. 

 

Along with some unsettling medical displays. Hey, every doctor needed a bleeding bowl to do some bloodletting. 

 

The site also had information on saw mills and tidal power used back in the late 1700s. The water from a tide was stored in a pond and then used with a water wheel to power the saw mill. Sounds like a very sustainable energy source!

Ralph E. Simmons Memorial State Forest

Now that the weather is cooler (meaning 80s and sometimes as low as 70s for the high), I am hoping we can do several small trips. Today was just a short hike (3.25 miles) at a local state forest. The trail was wonderful. It is wide enough so we could walk side-by-side almost the whole time with just a few muddy places.

 

Most Florida hikes are extremely flat. This one actually had some elevation. The loop dropped 90’ and then climbed back up. As a comparison, the hike at Cumberland Island had just a 21’ change over the whole trail. We’ve done much higher. Lost Mine trail was 1,131’. Picacho Peak is 1,961’. Flatiron Trail was 2,641’. So, it wasn’t difficult just a little different.

The trail goes through different areas. Pine trees changed into live oaks and scrubby oaks and upland sandhill oaks (those last two I’ve never heard of before).

There was a swamp area but it's not very big and it hasn’t rained lately so it was mostly dry. The far point of the loop is along St. Mary’s River.

This is the same river we traveled to go to Cumberland Island, just upstream. But the colors are still dark from the Okefenokee Swamp origins.

 

Lots of purple, yellow, and white wildflowers were along the trail.

It was a nice day and place to hike! While I’m adding pictures…here are pictures from our backyard of an eagle, hawk, and turkey vulture.

Cumberland Island

The reason we were visiting St. Marys was so we could visit Cumberland Island. It takes some planning. We reserved ferry tickets online which were close to being sold out a week before our visit. Our hotel was across the street from the ferry which made things very convenient. This is a picture of the ferry coming in the day before our trip.

And here's our view during our trip. The river starts in Okefenokee Swamp and travels 126 miles to reach the area. St. Marys River is considered a blackwater river since tannins from plants make the water dark. You can see the color in the wake of the boat. We also saw a dolphin on our trip but didn’t get a picture.

As soon as we got off the ferry, we saw the wild horses that populate the island. There were many more horses than we expected. We sat and watched them chase each other across the fields. They wandered wherever they wanted.

The majority of the horses were in the large grassy areas but they visit the beach area and we even found evidence of their travel on a boardwalk. Personally, I was OK with sidestepping the piles on the trails but it seems to me that boardwalk should be out-of-bounds for them. Apparently the horses don’t agree with me.

The wild animals on the island are used to being around people. We were warned not to approach any of them and we kept our distance. We heard or saw several armadillos in the brush that kept mostly hidden. However, one armadillo scared me as he approached me when I took this picture. Are there attack armadillos?

We hiked the 4 mile loop trail. The trail starts with a wide oak tree lined path.

The big draw is the Dungeness Ruins. The mansion was built by Thomas Carnegie back in the 1880’s and it burnt down in 1959.

A major part of the trail is walking on the beach. We picked up a few shells including a sand dollar, saw lots of horse crab shells which were too big to carry, and saw quite a few star fish.

Other sights on the trail were the gravesite of General (during the Revolutionary War) Henry Lee, father of General Robert E. Lee, an old wash house, and these absolutely gorgeous trees. A very nice day!