This RV resort happened to share a boundary with Barefoot Landing, a large outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants. When we took our morning walks, we wandered throughout the mall and easily did about 2.5 miles each time.
We did a lot of exploring of the various fishing piers all over the area. One day we drove north into North Carolina. We didn't find the perfect place to fish, but we did find a great lunch.
We were able to find a great sports bar where we could watch the Sunday Denver Bronco games. This place even had individual TVs at some of the booths. So we were able to see and hear it all, one win and one ugly loss.
We went gambling a couple of times, once on the SunCruz ship which we didn't really enjoy that much. The second time, we took the Big M. It's a smaller boat, but much nicer. Plus, we actually made money on this jaunt, so we really did have a good time.
After talking with a guy who was working on the landscaping at Barefoot Landing, we found the place he recommended for fishing. It's a public park with boardwalks out to the Intercoastal Waterway. So we took our fishing poles and gave it a try.
We both got several bites and Julian actually caught a couple of crabs. But in the end, we didn't bring anything home. We really did enjoy the time spent out there, though.
Another day we went to the beach and tried surf fishing. Julian has good form, don't you think?
Julian did catch a fish, but it was too small to keep. Seems to be the story of our life! We also tried fishing from one of the piers on another day, but that proved fruitless as well.
On October 2, we got up early and headed south again. Our next stop was at King George RV about seven miles north of the Florida-Georgia border. It was a very long drive, but uneventful.
We took a drive to Jekyll Island, a place I've wanted to see for quite some time. It turned out to be a really beautiful place - one that we will return to again one day. We had lunch at the restaurant on this little pier and it was very good.
We drove to another part of the island where we found this fishing pier.
It is made of concrete and was so inviting! One of the fishermen out there commented that we "would be back". He said once people see Jekyll Island, they always return. I know he's right in our case.
Our neighbors drove their coach up to stay in the same park for the weekend. So on Saturday, the four of us went to St. Mary's for the Rock Shrimp Festival. We got started with a parade - not unlike those we'd seen in other small towns earlier in the summer.
I don't know if the main target of this photo is the dog or the hottie walking towards the photographer (aka Julian).
There were booths with all types of arts and crafts, but interestingly there was no place to actually buy rock shrimp - the thing that the festival was about! However, we did get some in our dinner, along with peel-n-eat shrimp, fried fish, cole slaw and hush puppies. It was all pretty good.
That night I shot this picture from the restaurant where we had our final dinner out.
It's a fitting final photo as it really was the sunset of our trip.
We drove the remaining 180 miles or so, and arrived home at about 12:30pm on Sunday, October 5, 2008. In 109 days, we drove through 12 states and about 3500 miles.
So, until next time, happy trails to you all.
