In early November we poked around a tiny bit of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida visiting friends & family and just “hanging out”.   The weather was more often than not grey and or rainy but we had fun anyhow. We recommend Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island, Florida. For our RV friends the beach loop is very nice. There’s a very long fishing pier that affords not only the opportunity to cast a line (you have a good shot a catching a shark apparently) but also lots of ospreys to see.

We also walked around the fort for which the park is named. Construction by the United States began in 1847 but with the beginning of the Civil War the fort was seized by the Confederates early in 1861. Needing troops in more important locations, a year later General Lee ordered the fort abandoned and the Federals took it over and held it for the remaining of the war. Restored in the 1930’s by the CCC and now a Florida State Park this was perhaps the best fort display we’ve ever been to, and we’ve done quite a few. Stocked with period pieces and replicas the barracks, kitchen, laundry, store rooms, etc are extensive and done very well clearly showing how life was lived. If you have any interest in this time period especially it should be on your MVL (Must Visit List).

We spent a couple of days at Edisto State Park, Edisto Island, SC where we meet a few other Minnie Winnie folks (owners of small Winnebagos like ours). Having chatted via Facebook with several of them, it was nice to actually get to know them in person. Edisto is an OK park but not a place we’d likely spend more than a night.

The highlight of this blog posting however was a place I have wanted to see every since I was a child, Pogo’s home, The Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia/northern Florida. Directly across the road from the entrance on GA 121 is the Okefenokee Pastimes Campground, and we had it all to ourselves this time of year 🙂  Being the only tourists in the park, probably because it was a grey, on again off again rainy day, we took the short boat tour (90 minutes) with the cute and knowledgeable Jenn, who has lived there all her life.

Technically the Okefenokee is not a swamp but rather a bog and the source of both the St. Marys River and the Suwannee River. The majority of the area is protected as both a natural wildlife refuge and a wilderness area and in 1974 was declared a National Natural Landmark. While some might consider it forbidding and dangerous (and it is with 770 square miles of mostly unmarked waterways, Cyprus islands, peat mats, methane gas, alligators and black bears) the place is incredibly beautiful and I would love to spend a year exploring it. Maybe, someday…in the mean time put it on your MVL

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If you’re a bug these two plants will bite you too…