Wednesday, November 17, 2010 (Fort McAllister State Park, GA)

We woke to clear blue skies this morning. Yesterday’s forecast for rain hadn’t really amounted to much...just a few sprinkles. This is actually too bad as they desperately need rain according to the locals. After exercises, showering and breakfast, we were ready to go just after 10:00 a.m. Steve tried calling Ronny at Roberts Truck Center to see if the part for the truck had arrived but after being put on hold twice, he decided to hang up...we will drive up to the Park office and use Skype on my IPod with the free Wi-Fi...why waste our USA minutes on the cell being on hold.

The part hadn’t arrived yet but was expected any time now so we decided to head there anyway...it would likely be there by the time we arrived. Thankfully the truck has run perfectly without the new flow switch! It was shortly after 11:00 when we got there and yes, the part had arrived...it shouldn’t take too long.

Well...2 hours later, we finally were on our way to Tybee Island! I had (again) packed a picnic lunch with the intension of finding a nice picnic area by the beach but a lady at Roberts (while out having a smoke break) had mentioned The Crab Shack. It sounded quite unique as she described how it started off as just a small Tiki Bar then had was added onto...now it is quite large and has exotic birds and an alligator pool. It didn’t take much to ditch the picnic idea and go out for lunch. It was, after all, quite possibly our last chance for fresh seafood since the next State Park we were staying at was away from the coast.

What a very cool spot...unfortunately, the pictures just don't do it justice...

We shared the ‘half and half plate’ which was ¼ pound of shrimp and 5 crab legs (and a small bowl of coleslaw)...it was very good but the crab legs were just too much work for me!

After lunch we carried on down the main street of Tybee Island to the Pier/Pavilion where we parked the truck in the public parking lot. One thing we noticed is that all the streets have paid parking that is strictly enforced...that must be a good source of revenue for the community. After paying $1.50 for one hour...and noticing it was 3:13 p.m. already...we were ready to onto the huge pier. As we were leaving the truck, Steve happened to look up and noticed that the bolt (on the driver’s side) holding the boat loader on was gone...and upon checking the other side, noticed that the nut was off so just the bolt was holding that side on. He checks them regularly because they often come loose as we travel, so he couldn’t believe they had come right off. Well, that kinda put a damper on things...now we had to find a hardware store to buy replacement bolts.

We took a walk down to the end of the pier and I took pictures...very beautiful! And that’s the wide-open Atlantic Ocean out there!


Back at the truck, I pulled out Serena (GPS) and punched in “hardware”...the closed one was 11 miles away just off Tybee Island as you head back into Savannah. Well, if that is the nearest one, then “Ace, the hardware man, it is”. It was located in a small strip-mall with plenty of room to pull out the ladder and replace the missing bolts. Steve had an issue with one side...he couldn’t tighten up the nut, but it wouldn’t come off either. So after “screwing” around with that for a bit finally decided to just leave it...it was going onto 5:00 by this time, the sun was going down and we still had about an hours’ drive back to the campground...through rush hour, of course.

One thing that is very evident down here is the preparation for the ‘Christmas Season’ which starts next Thursday with Thanksgiving. Decorations are going up everywhere...there’s something wrong about seeing a snowman display when its 75 degrees and you’re in shorts and sandals! We even saw live Christmas trees being sold already!!

We stopped at Kroger’s to fill up with diesel. It had the best price...$3.00/gallon...but if you had a Kroger’s card, you got 3c off...making it $2.97. We didn’t have a card, but the attendant still gave it to us at the reduced cost anyway...thanks!

It was almost 7:00 by the time we got home. We decided not to have a campfire tonight; instead, we just went inside. Steve read while I prepared chicken fajitas for dinner. Unfortunately, the only fajita seasoning mix that I could find was McCormick’s, not the usual Old El Paso, and they weren’t very good. The seasoning was totally different.

After dishes, we decided to go for a walk around the campground...Steve was wearing his nifty headband with the light in it to guide the way. We saw racoon “eyes” staring at us everywhere as we made our way around the loop. I’ve never seen so many racoons...more than a dozen and I swear, there is a squirrel for every tree in the campground!

After our walk, settled in to watch a movie. Suzanne, we watched Temple Grandin. It was very good...I quite enjoyed it...very interesting... Thanks, again to Dennis for the movies...hopefully, we are able to get satellite at our next campground because we have run out of movies now!

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