Day 4: St. Augustine, FL

Day 4 Miles: 81.9

Total Miles: 941

Day 4 Expenses: $110.52

Activities- $63.52

Food- $35

Lodging- $12

We highly recommend boondocking-- saved a lot of money and met a cool new person. And we couldn't have asked for a closer site to our day's activities! Woke up this morning after sleeping in a little, had some oatmeal and took our bikes on a short 5-minute ride to the Old Town Trolley Tour Welcome Center. Another trolley, another old town! St. Augustine is the "oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental U.S," established in 1565.

St. Augustine Hop-On/ Hop-Off Trolley Tour- $23.17/ ea. (9am-3pm)

We really just rode the trolley around and listened to the tour most of the day, hopped off & walked around a little but didn't really go in to many of the museums or other sites. The Old Jail was the one place we did go, and it was pretty fun.

(Old St. Augustine Village with cute cobblestone streets and quaint little cafes and shops)

(Villa Zoryada Museum-- really cool Spanish architecture. We decided not to go inside, but loved walking around outside & the other area buildings)

(Lightener Museum)

Lunch: Scarlett O'Hara's- a pretty popular bar we were recommended. We shared a Sliders appetizer and the "Ultimate BBQ Dinner"

(The Oldest House- the oldest surviving colonial home in Florida)

* Late afternoon we rode back to get the camper and headed out on another two hour trek through the middle of nowhere, through the Ocala National Forest. Our campsite for the night was "Big Scrub" at the southern tip of the Ocala Forest. It was a primitive site, super cheap, and popular with ATV riders. We were content with the peace and quiet as it was virtually empty.

 

For dinner we grilled out! Cheeseburgers, grilled corn on the cob, and some potato chips. 

- Overnight: Big Scrub Campground, Ocala National Forest, Umatilla, FL- $12

Day 3: Savannah Day 2 & Okefenokee Swamp

Day 3 Miles: 237

Total Miles: 859

Day 3 Expenses: $79

Activities- $39

Food- $40

* We got up early enough to whip up pancakes & sausage for breakfast, take a quick walk around the camp & then check-out to start our day! We drove back to the Old Town Trolley office for the daytime tour, our first experience with a "hop-on/ hop-off" tour. We "hopped" on the trolley at the Visitor's Center. There was a tour guide narrating all the different sites, and we were able to get off at several different spots, but we decided to stay on and just see everything from inside since we didn't have a lot of time, and we saw a lot yesterday.

(Forsyth Park fountain)

(Davenport House)

(Pirate's House- built in 1753)

(Historic River Street, with cute cobblestone streets)

For lunch we ate out yet again (we just wanted to splurge in what seems like a really good region for food!). Anyone we talked to about places to eat in Savannah said go to Clary's Cafe. It's amazing how this little hole-in-the wall cafe that used to be a drug store is so popular, and so delicious. We had Crab Cakes Benedict and a Country Fried Steak, and a chocolate malt shake-- so good!

* Back in the RV we go-- a two hour trek almost to the Florida state line to the Okefenokee National Forest. The Okefenokee Swamp is considered the largest "blackwater" swamp in North America-- basically a slow-moving river that picks up vegetation that makes it look "black."

We were able to get on a 3:00 Tour boat- a "Carolina Skiff" (like a pontoon boat) for an hour and a half ride through the Suwannee Canal. The guide told us all about the plants and wildlife along the way. We saw several of the same kinds of animals we saw Monday at the Plantation-- some egrets, some herons & ibis, an alligator, and we also saw a wood stork. It really was pretty and also quite relaxing.

 Okefenokee Guided Boat Tour- $19.50/ ea.






* We traveled on from there to our overnight destination in St. Augustine, Florida, another two hour drive. This was our first night trying out "boondocking," a little tip we learned from some other RV trippers. Through a search on "Boondockers Welcome" website, we found a lady in St. Augustine who opened up her driveway for us to park for free. She was so nice and helpful and chatted with us a little as we got settled, even offered us electric hook-up. This was also our first night to actually cook in the RV. We made some spaghetti with a salad. We got to enjoy a nice quiet night to catch up on journaling, play some cards, and just rest!

- Overnight: Boondocking: gail.schofield, Water Street, St. Augustine, FL 

Day 2: Charleston, SC & Savannah, GA

Day 2 Miles: 137

Total Miles: 622

Day 2 Expenses: $285.80

Activities- $190.80

Food- $40

Lodging- $45

Parking- $10

* Woke up around 8, had some scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast, outside at our site's picnic table. We packed up some sandwiches for lunch, then took a quick walk to the lake at the campground just to enjoy the view, then went to check out.

* 30 minute drive (11 1/2 miles) from the campground to downtown Charleston Parking Garage. Then it was a 15 minute walk to Liberty Square to get our tickets for the boat & carriage tour.

Fort Sumter & Old South Carriage Tour of Charleston, SC- $41/ ea.

9:20-10:30: 1 hour boat tour of Fort Sumter National Monument 

Did you know? The 1st shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861.

* By 11, we arrived back at the tour office to take our horse-drawn carriage ride, a fun 1st for both of us. The tour was an hour, and the narrator was very knowledgeable of the history of downtown Charleston. It was about 2 1/2 miles, maybe 30 blocks.

(not our carriage, but pretty much what it looked like)

(Aiken-Rhett House, built in 1820, one of the best-preserved antebellum mansions in Charleston)

* We ate our picnic lunch in the beautiful Waterfront Park near the famous Pineapple Fountain.

We wanted to stay longer but we also needed to get back on the road, for our almost 2-hour trip (102 miles) to Savannah, Georgia.

We checked in at our campsite, which was again uneventful & then loaded up the bikes for our trip to downtown Savannah. It was about a ten minute (6 mile) drive to the Visitor's Center, where we parked to pick up some brochures, then rode our bikes around town to see the sites.

Overnight: Red Gate Campground, Savannah, GA- $45 (Good Sam)- This is a somewhat unusual campground in that it was originally Georgia's oldest Jersey dairy cattle farm many years ago.  It is now basically owned by two families and has only a few sites, but they're pretty spread out and they have ponds for fishing and a really nice pool, although we didn't have much time to check these out.

Sites on our Savannah bike ride:

(Cathedral of St. John the Baptist)



(Lafayette Square)



(City Market- really old-- like 1700's old-- open-air market with lots of cool shops & restaurants)




(Flannery O'Conner Childhood Home)



(Candler Oak Tree- more than 300 years old, the oldest in Georgia-- sadly, it used to be used for lynchings)


*Then we went back and put the bikes back in the truck & drove to Paula Deen's Savannah Restaurant, The Lady & Sons. For less than $40 we both got the full buffet.

We had fried chicken, creamed potatoes, collard greens, black eyed peas, macaroni & cheese, and of course sweet tea, and some pecan pie for dessert!




* But the day was still not over! We had purchased this: 

Savannah Day & Night Tour Package- $54.40/ ea.
So at 9:00 we headed to the Old Town Trolley office & met our tour group for the Ghosts & Gravestones Tour. The tour guides were dressed as ghosts, which made for great ambience. They told us about an ancient cemetery we drove past, and an old battlefield from the Civil War.

1st stop: Andrew Low House- We got to go inside & see the beautiful ironwork balconies and hear the legends of how spirits dressed in old-fashioned clothes (including, supposedly, Robert E. Lee) walk around & furniture moves on its own. Andrew Low was one of the wealthiest men in Savannah around the 1820's and his wife was the Juliette Low of Girl Scout fame.



2nd stop: Perkin's & Son's Ship Chandlery

It was super late when we got back again so we headed straight to bed!

Day 1: Charleston, SC

Day 1 Miles: 485

Total Miles: 485

Day 1 Expenses: $317.50

Activities- $62

Food- $136

Lodging- $40.50

Groceries- $79

* We left home @ 7am. Our 1st stop, almost 4 1/2 hours later (284 miles) was for lunch @ South of the Border in South Carolina.

Did you know? The South of the Border neon welcome sign with "Pedro" is the "largest free-standing sign east of the Mississippi"...

Lunch: Pedro's Hot Tamale- $18

* After lunch, back on the road again, another 2 1/2 hours to Charleston, South Carolina (161 miles).

Next stop, the highlight of the day:

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens- America’s Oldest Romantic Garden; Ancestral Home of the Drayton Family (1676)

Our $31 tickets got us: a one-hour self-guided walk through the Gardens, a half-hour guided tour of the Plantation House and a 45-minute Nature Train ride (600 acres of marshlands, forests, and all kinds of habitats-- we saw an alligator, a heron & some egrets).

* From here it was only about a 20 minute (8 miles) drive to our first campground of the trip. We got settled in fairly easily, although it wasn't at all like we expected, and we were pretty close to our neighbors. Still a nice campground, though, with a pretty view of a lake. We only took about 30 minutes to drop the camper and get changed to go out to dinner.

* Overnight: Oak Plantation Campground, Charleston, SC- $40.50 (Good Sam Discount)

* 26 min. drive (10.9 miles) from campground to really fancy dinner @ Charleston Grill- $118 (Chef’s 6 Course Tasting Menu)- probably one of the nicest restaurants we've ever eaten at! Among the foods on the menu we probably would have NEVER ordered, but ended up being surprisingly delicious: Octopus Salad, Guinea Hen, Thai Fish & Passion-Fruit Chocolate Pate for dessert.

* Didn't get back to campsite till 10pm so we went straight to bed!