2016 RV Trip - July - Brunswick - St. Simon's Island

July 2016 -  June was a busy month for us with lots of family activities as well as a couple of weeks for us to travel to the mountains to see family and friends. July 4^th was our first Independence Day Celebration where we could watch the fireworks from our dock, so we had all the family and extended family over for a big cookout and watching fireworks.  It was awesome and the perfect sendoff for our trip.  I posted those photos in a Facebook Album.

We left home Tuesday afternoon July 5^th, excited to be back on the road again.  We had do do a full “load up” since it had been so long.  I think this is the longest we’ve been without even a short trip since we started RVing in 2005.  We drove for several hours and I started to get hot and asked Earl if it was me or if the a/c was not working properly.  He asked me to go back and check and see if cold air was coming out of the vents in the front and back – nope, no air from either one!!! Sick feeling when it’s 100 degrees outside and you’re basically in a metal box in full sun!  We struggled with feeling unbearably hot until we got into our RV park in Brunswick, GA.  It was after 5:00 so we tried calling a couple of places, but no answer since it was after hours.  

This was a reminder for us when all this was going on..... I had purchased this on our last trip and we need the reminder on this day!

We ate breakfast at the RV park where we left the RV last night - this sign was posted.  I thought I'd like these people!  Ha

We decided to go spend the night in a hotel, as we couldn’t bear the heat! Wednesday morning, we started calling around.  I had also put it out of Facebook and we got lots of advice for places to go from various friends. One guy couldn’t see us until at least August! Several said it would be at least a couple weeks before they could see us!  We finally found a guy that said he thought he could fix us up, so we took the RV over to him at Glynn’s RV and Diesel Service, hoping for a quick response.  On Thursday morning we called and he hadn’t even looked at it yet!!!  Looooooong story short, he could only fix the dash a/c, not the other units.  He said it was working fine on shore power but once we put it on generator, it turned itself off.  We kept hoping he’d get the rest fixed but to no avail.  So here we were stuck here through the weekend at least.  So….we tried to just be happy and make the best of it.  I was definitely thankful to be in a nice hotel with awesome a/c!  Something we totally take for granted as a rule, but wow, when you don’t have it, you realize how blessed we are to have it!  We just played tourists and went all over the place – Jekyll Island and St. Simon’s Island – what a cool place!  And when it got too hot, we did what all respectable realtors do, we looked at historical homes! Ha...

One interesting thing we noted - they REALLY love their trees in Brunswick! On many streets, they just pave up to and then around the tree, so if you're going in one lane, and meet someone, you have to wait until you can go around!

Founded in 1886, Jekyll Island is now a treasured resort, and an award winning National Historic Landmark.

St. Simon's Island was our favorite - lot of fun shopping and dining options, and a very pleasant way to pass the time. We went over there several different times during our stay.

Our friend, Neil Shillington recommended that we go try Larry's New York Style Subs....says he comes by every time he comes through Brunswick, and it was indeed delicious! The signs says they sell over 15,000,000 subs a year!

Earl looked up Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives to see if there were any recommended restaurants nearby, and lo and behold, Southern Soul BBQ came up....and we headed out! Absolutely awesome BBQ, though not crazy about their cole slaw and I've also had better fried okra, but wowee, the BBQ they've got down! Just a "hole in the wall" kind of place.  Got there at 4:00 since we hadn't had lunch and it was packed!! Some people were even eating outside, but we chose to wait since it was almost 100 degrees outside!

These are just a FEW of the many magazine write-ups and awards on the walls!

 

For my fellow Hobe Sound friends, doesn't this remind you of Bridge Road?

And speaking of delicious food, our friend, Teresa Stienstra recommended we try Barbara Jean's on St. Simon's Island - YUMMY!! Awesome fresh crab cake, and Earl said his chicken was some of the juiciest best chicken he's ever tasted.  Definitely a winner!

 Some of the cute shopping areas on St. Simon's Island - this looks like a row of tiny houses!

Very interesting to see how protected the terrapins are here....check out the road barriers made specifically so they have room to cross the road!  We never did see any....

 My friend, Phyllis Wilkins told us about this beautiful church where the famous author, Eugenia Price is buried out back....very interesting stop.

In exploring the area, we came across this treasure.....Wesley Garden.  So cool. I love it when something totally unexpected captures our attention.

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to go over and check out Fort Frederica, a military town on the colonial Georgia frontier.  Just fascinating! The ruins there recall the struggle of living in the 1700's. Ancient rivals Spain and Great Britain both claimed the land between St. Augustine and Charleston, and so Britain planted this Georgia colony, the last of the original 13, here. James Edward Oglethorpe wanted to remedy the plight of thousands of poor people, petitioned the Crown for a land grant south of the Savannah River. Another reason was defense against the Spanish, so he found a strategic point on a sea island now known as St. Simon's Island. They built a fort here, and laid out 84 lots, most 60x90 feet. The footprint of these very small homes is still here along with a few artifacts found on site. When peace time arrived, Oglethorpe sailed for England for the last time in 1743. With no soldiers left the town could not prosper, and was soon abandoned, and fell into ruin.

 I found the following info quite interesting! Beatre doesn't sound like a very nice person! The threatened to kill John Wesley with a pair of scissors and a pistol! He escaped but only after she shredded the sleeve of his jacket with her TEETH!  Yikes!!!

On leaving the park, we were signing the guest register, and lo and behold LOOK WHO was there right before us!!  We went all around and back into the theater looking for Bud and Jane Hannold but did not see them anywhere.  Bummer.  What fun it would have been to surprise them and catch up!

Monday morning we called, hoping for good news.  Nope, he can’t fix it so in anticipation of this, Earl had called ahead (thanks Jeff Revis) to a Cummins dealer in Fayettville, NC as well as another RV guy there who we were hopeful could get us up and running.  At least we knew we had the dash a/c working which would make it bearable.  Just as we were loading up to leave the hotel, we got a call back from Robert of Southern Auto & Diesel who we had talked to last week, but he was on vacation until today. He just called to check and see if we were on the road (how nice of him, and thanks for the referral, Pam Burch!).  When we told him what had happened he said to bring it over to him and he thought he’d be able to at least properly diagnose the issues.  So we renewed out hotel another night, and took the RV over to him. Earl talked to him last night and he felt pretty confident he'd fixed the problem.  Found a little wire that had gone bad in the thermostat, so HOPING we'd be able to leave on Tuesday, we got pretty well packed up this morning. Earl called and nope, the LB is still coming on and a/c not working properly.  I'm about ready to call it quits and just go home. Hotel living is not nearly as enjoyable as RV living! We've renewed our hotel for yet another night.

So..... in light of all this, we're wondering at what point do we just go back home? We can leave the RV here and come back and get it when it's fixed.  EVERY day, we've thought this was surely the last day, but the saga continues.....so.....we'll keep you posted.

I've had lots of time to work on this blog since we have little else to do (sigh) but wondering if it is just as fun for our friends to just follow along on FB with a photo album rather than as a blog.  It's a lot less work. I started out blogging just for US to have a record of where we went and what we did, but wondering if FB is not sufficient. At any rate, we'll stay in touch. Thanks for making the journey with us.  I HOPE we'll soon be having lots more fun soon!