Saturday’s rain gave way to a cloudy Sunday with some hints of sunshine. We left our hotel in Kenly, NC after a hotel breakfast of waffles and Poptarts, and headed south. On our first day of driving, we crossed five states (PA, DE, MD, VA & NC). The second day we added two more: South Carolina and Georgia.
We pulled into Skidaway Island State Park, just outside of Savannah, around 3 p.m. The entrance way is dramatic, a scene from the old south, as the road creeps under a canopy of oak trees and Spanish moss.
We checked-in in the office/gift shop, got our assigned spot and a map of the campground. As we were exiting, my eye caught a park t-shirt with a sloth on it.
“You have sloths here?” I asked the park ranger incredulously.
No, they did not.
The ranger explained that the bones of ancient sloth were found on the grounds of the state park, but the marketing folks couldn’t find an image of an ancient sloth. So they used a modern day sloth illustration and it became the unofficial mascot of the park.
We needed water and sewer hook-ups in order to de-winterize the trailer, so we upgraded to the premium sites which had the added benefit of being a pull-thru site. In theory, that would make parking the trailer a lot easier.
In reality, it took us a couple of tries to get it situated just right. At first I pulled in where I thought I wanted the trailer, only to find that the sewer hook-up was to the far front of the site. Our sewer hook is located near the back of our trailer and even connecting two sewer hoses was not going to reach.
I looped around the campground again, re-entered the site and positioned the trailer closer to the sewer drain. It wasn’t until we had unhitched the trailer from the truck and nearly completed the entire set-up that we realized we didn’t leave enough room for the slide to open.
We had to reverse the process, hitch up again and make another loop around the campground to the amusement of our camping neighbors.
It was getting dark, so we had a quick dinner and worked on arranging only what we needed to get a good night’s sleep. Monday would be a day for organizing.
It was a cold night, and in the morning, I rose before Mrs. 123. Since electricity was free I plugged in our space heater instead of using propane to take the chill off. I plugged in the electric kettle to make some tea, and rather soon after we lost power.
I figured we might have tripped the circuit breaker, so I went outside to reset it, only to find it was still in the proper position. I checked the fuse box in the trailer and reset all the internal breakers as well. Still no power.
It took a while to realize we had tripped the GFCI plug in the bathroom. Once reset, I could enjoy a quiet breakfast and prepare myself for the day ahead.
Today was mostly an organizational day. We had plenty of things still packed in boxes and we needed to figure out where to stow everything in the trailer.
Around noon, we decided to take a break and go for a walk. Skidaway Island State Park and about 10 miles of hiking trails. We walked through the campground to the nearest trailhead and hiked about a mile to an observation tower. The two-story tower has views over the broad grassy waters that separate the island from the mainland.
We continued along the loop trail until we ran into a couple from Maryland. Just like us, Chuck and Lynn had driven down through the storm the day before. And just like us, they were headed for Florida. We compared notes and found that we’d be staying in some of the same parks. They were curious about our plans to snorkel with manatees in Crystal River, so we exchanged phone numbers and I later texted them details about our tour.
By late afternoon, we realized we needed a couple of storage bins to stow our extra cleaning supplies and toiletries, so we made a Walmart run and filled the truck with gas for the next day’s drive.
We fired up the air-fryer to make fish tacos for dinner and somehow managed to find a spot in the trailer for nearly everything. We’ll have to make another visit to Skidaway Island to better explore the park and see Savannah. But for now, Florida awaits.
Days: 3
Miles traveled: 697
Next stop: Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, Florida
I love your detailed description of parking the trailer a few times! Brings back some funny memories of our similar adventures! You’ll become an expert after a few weeks of travel!
I assume you know that for some stay-overs that you didn’t anticipate and don’t have a campground booked, you can park overnight in many Walmart parking lots. We did that on our maritime trip in one, and it gave us a chance to do some shopping the next morning before heading out.