Final Post from Brunswick, GA

Gascoigne Bluff, St. Simons Island, GA
Monday, March 18th

With our time growing short in Brunswick, we’re looking to explore the few areas we haven’t seen yet. One being Gascoigne Bluff, a historic site that is adjacent to the Frederica River and was once the Hamilton cotton plantation and then the site of a lumber mill and a shipping point for timber. Live oak timbers milled here in 1794 were used in building the U.S.S. Constitution, better known as “Old Ironsides,” now residing in Boston. In 1874, timbers were cut here for the Brooklyn Bridge.

None of that is in evidence now except for two tabby slave cabins from the plantation era (which were locked), and brick lumber mill arches, remnants from the lumber mill era used for burning wood to run a donkey engine. (I don’t know what a donkey engine is, and I don’t think I want to know.) Today there’s a fishing pier, marina, and 24 acres of green space with a frisbee (disc) golf course and a beautiful grove of live oaks. 

What we were more amazed by was what was next door, Epworth by the Sea, a world renowned conference and retreat center owned by the South Georgia United Methodist Church. How they obtained such a large tract of waterfront property is an interesting tale… in 1945 South Georgia Methodists decided they wanted to establish a religious center. They searched 4 years for a site. The Sea Island Company offered to sell them 43 acres of what once had been the Hamilton Plantation overlooking the Frederica River. Cost was $40,000 which, not surprisingly, the church didn’t have. The bishop at the time asked 9 laymen to join him in signing a bank note for one tenth of the purchase price. Each man was responsible for $4,000 and the dream of a retreat center became a reality. One might say they made the deal of a lifetime. The center is amazing…. a hotel, conference center, dining facilities, children’s camp, one-mile walking trail along the river, gorgeous live oaks throughout the property all with dedication plaques attached to them, a lovely historical church, and an even more beautiful small prayer tower made out of tabby with 5 or 6 pews inside framed by three beautiful stained glass windows. Doors were open so I went in, sat and said a prayer to our loved ones who are no longer with us. The bells above the prayer tower can be heard ringing every 30 minutes, at least while we were there. Just a magnificent property!  Then that started a conversation between Gary and I regarding what are the differences between the methodists, lutherans, and episcopalians…. another question for google. 

Laura S. Walker State Park
Wednesday, March 20th

Today we took a drive to Waycross, GA which would put us near the Okefenokee Swamp to visit another state park. We packed lunch. The plan was to do a hike and check out the campground while we were there. The first sign of trouble was the prescribed burn we encountered not far from the park entrance. This might make a hike less enticing. We checked in at the visitor’s office and were told that the burn was not on park property. Are the hiking trails still ok to use? The response, “they” would have advised us if any were impacted. 

Ok. Let’s hope “they” know what they’re doing. 

We first did a drive through the campground. Some lovely sites along the river. We marked them for a future visit some time. 

We had lunch, because I don’t do well without food, then we did one of the hiking trails that would bring us through a wooded area and over a long boardwalk over the Okefenokee Swamp. There were several signs along the way advising that alligators were present, then a couple of lovely signs explaining about cottonmouth snakes, bats, and something called an alligator turtle that can grow to 200 lbs. Thankfully we saw none of the aforementioned creatures during our visit. We did enjoy a great hike and did not smell any smoke until we were getting to the end of the hike where across the road we could see the firefighters managing the burn. About then we decided to turn around and go back the way we came. Although the residual smoke did make for some interesting colors in the air….

Thursday, March 21st – Sunday, March 24th

Throughout our three months here, we’ve done a lot of walking on the various beaches at Jekyll and St. Simons Islands and have managed to walk every beach that was available to us. It’s been great fun because depending on the tide and how remote or touristy the beach is, the landscape is different at each beach and even different depending on the direction you walk. We’ve covered miles and miles, and revisited some of our favorites this week. One day I was transfixed by the sand dollars. I had a few in my hand when we stopped to chat with a couple with their dog and she said “you know, they’re still alive if they have those hairy things on the end of them.” OMG I picked up live sand dollars! I quickly dropped the poor things back in the water! Lesson learned. 

Bike ride on Jekyll Island
Monday, March 25th

Today was a beautiful day for a bike ride at Jekyll. We covered 10 miles sometimes with the marsh on one side and sometimes with the beach as our view. We made a few stops…  one chatting with a couple from Minnesota also bike riding, and a few stops wandering down various cross streets trying to see if there was a beach area we had missed with our previous walks. 

That’s when we came across the Shoreline Rehabilitation project on the Northern end of Jekyll Island just south of Driftwood Beach. The task is to construct an upgraded revetment (a massive rock structure of armor stone) approximately 10.5 feet above normal average high tide. This revetment spans a distance of over 9,000 feet in length. It’s necessary for this area on Jekyll because of massive erosion from several hurricanes hitting the area over the last few years. This first phase was recently completed this past December. Phase two will be to add sand backfill toward the landward area along with native plants and additional egress to the water via timber decking and stairs to span the improved revetments. Currently there are only three entry point locations that have water access and definitely not walkable unless it’s low tide.  There’s a pic of one down below. I feel sorry for folks who have condos and homes there. They’ve lost their view to the rocks, but I guess better that than having their homes and land washed out to sea. 

Towards the end of our ride, we stopped for lunch at Tortuga Jacks, a Mexican restaurant on the beach, and sat at the bar with a view of the ocean and split some chicken wings for lunch. I had a virgin pina colada as I don’t drink and drive and that includes bike riding. 

Tuesday, March 26th – Friday, March 29th

The rest of this week has been spent doing more beach walking. We had a nor’easter come through here on Tuesday into Wednesday. A little different nor’easter than we’re accustomed to up north with a foot of snow accompanying it. This one meant higher winds than usual… a constant 15 to 25 mph and a dip in temps down to the low 60’s. Poor us. Although that could be why we had to watch where we were stepping on the beach one day because there was an unusual number of dead jellyfish.

We visited a couple of our favorite restaurants one last time. One being Skipper’s Fish Camp in Dairen on Wed. night. I had blackened shrimp that was out of this world. Gary had bbq chicken that was equally out of this world. That was after a day of finishing up our taxes. Dinner out was our reward. Thursday we did bbq take out from our favorite hole-in-the-wall here in Brunswick called Gary Lee’s. He’s only open 3 days a week. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Friday night we headed to the beach for “burgers on the beach” as Gary called it. We brought the grill with us and did one last walk on the beach and had a beautiful view to enjoy our burgers. 

We leave tomorrow, Sunday, the 31st to slowly start the trek home. First stop is three nights in Charleston. Stay tuned….