Brunswick, GA

Thurs., Dec. 27th to Sun., Dec. 30th, 2018

We left Nottingham on Thursday to winter in Brunswick, GA. We had left our “tiny home” in Brunswick across the street from the campground where we would be wintering. Convenient! Soooo this meant we were staying in hotels as we traveled down. We weren’t in a huge rush so we made three stops on the way down, Wilkes-Barre, PA; Roanoke, VA; and Walterboro, SC.  We had some rain on the drive down but no snow, and traffic was heavy but not awful. Mostly it was Northerners heading south and folks returning from their Christmas getaways. We took 81 South to avoid the 95 craziness and then connected further down the coast to 95 via 77S. It made for a longer but more scenic trip with various National Forests and the Shenandoah Mountains in the background and rolling hills, cattle grazing, and dormant crops in the foreground. A somewhat stark landscape with the trees devoid of leaves but quite magestic. 

An uneventful trip down other than a few comical things. We now are down to one vehicle… namely Gary’s Chevy Silverado dually truck, which is now OUR truck. The lease was up on my (mountain air blue… loved that color!) Honda CRV so that got returned to the dealership in December. We’re sticking with one vehicle rather than leaving a second vehicle parked in our driveway for months when we’re gone. I haven’t driven the truck all that much so I’m getting used to. I volunteered to drive on Day 3 of our trip down (yeah, I know, I could have volunteered on Day 1 but I didn’t). We had stopped for a restroom break, switched drivers, and I got behind the wheel. 10 minutes out we see a sign for construction for the next 30 miles. Wonderful. It was a trifecta… heavy traffic, constant lane switches, and jersey barriers. All my favorite things. Plus Gary had the bright idea of stopping for lunch in Charlotte at a cool bbq joint we had discovered for dinner on our trip back home in November. I managed to get us off the highway and parked at McCoy’s Smokehouse without incident. Lunch was delicious!

We landed that night in Walterboro, SC. We’re checking in behind a woman who is chatting up the clerk saying that she’s traveling from FL to NH. I, of course, had to tell her we’re from NH. That started a conversation that she has family members living on Nottingham Lake and is visiting her daughter in Brentwood (a town near us), and she used to live in Epping! Small world!  We chatted another few minutes and I learned she was a widow for 4 years, just sold her home in Englewood, FL, wanted to spend summers in a camper in NH, and was looking to buy into a 55+community in FL because she liked to talk. Yep. I can see that. She was lovely and will do very well in a 55+ community. 

We arrived on Sunday, the 30th, in Brunswick in the late morning. Our “tiny home” was as we had left it in the storage facility. We hooked up, went across the street and backed into our site with a great pond view. We did a nice job of backing into the site. Yay! We’re looking forward to staying plunked for several months in one location and exploring this “Golden Isles” area. The rest of the day was spent unpacking the myriad bins we brought from home and getting situated.

New Year’s Eve, Mon., Dec. 31st

Still had a little more unpacking to do today plus a grocery store run. We were sitting outside in the late afternoon and a gentleman came by with his dogs and asked where in NH we were from. Turns out he was the building inspector in Northwood for about 16 years, and he lives on Bow Lake in Strafford. Once again… small world! OR maybe it’s because NH is so small and most residents live in the southern part of the state. Therefore if you’re from NH, chances are we all live within an hour of each other! He and his wife (and the dogs) were headed to Beverly Beach in FL for the winter. 

We made a nice dinner for ourselves, did an evening walk around the campground and settled in for a campfire and listening to music on this New Year’s Eve. We were treated to fireworks going on all around us… just outside the campground. Apparently they’re legal in Georgia. These seemed to be homegrown fireworks but quite impressive. We could certainly hear them and some we could see above the tops of the surrounding trees. A few went off right behind us in the campground which scared the crap out of me until I realized what they were. A woman had shot off some ground displays behind us. Very pretty… once I realized I wasn’t in mortal danger. All the fireworks in the surrounding areas finally ended a few minutes past midnight. One of the few NYE’s we actually stayed up until midnight!

New Year’s Day, Tues., Jan. 1st, 2019

We started the morning by wishing various family and friends a Happy New Year. Then headed out to do a little exploring of Brunswick. There is a downtown historic district which has some beautiful old buildings but, unfortunately, is struggling. We saw more than a few shops closed. There’s a Farmers Market 3 times a week held at Mary Ross Waterfront Park. We’ll have to check out the Farmers Market but in the meantime we saw the “Peacemaker,” a 3-masted schooner that’s for sale. There’s also wooden percussion instruments set up in a bandstand area that anyone can play. Very cool! And a bunch of little biting mosquitoes who liked our Northern skin!

We visited nearby Blythe Island. We had camped there in 2000. An 1,100 acre county park with fishing piers, marina, picnic area and… believe it or not…. a bunny sanctuary. Anyone can drop off their bunnies and they will be cared for. They are everywhere and quite friendly!

Wed., Jan. 2nd thru Friday, Jan. 4th

We headed over to Jekyll Island to get a lay of the land. Jekyll Island is the southernmost island of the four Golden Isles. It has 10 miles of beaches, 20 miles of bike trails, and an acclaimed historic district. We figured we’d be coming over here a lot so we bought an annual pass. You’d think that would be easy except that we had to make three runs back and forth to the visitor’s center before the pass (that THEY attached to the window) actually worked! 

We brought over a picnic lunch and then walked on the beach for a couple of miles. We also discovered they have Christmas Lights on display on Jekyll Island through January 6th so we ended up going back Thursday night to enjoy those. Very pretty particularly in the historic district where all the live oak trees are draped with white lights. The largest live oak is about 375 years old and is huge with the branches draping the ground. We’re looking forward to going back in daylight and exploring the historic area again. 

Friday was a gloomy day with rain. We ended up doing some year-end admin stuff and preparing to head to Hilton Head, SC for a few days to visit family!