Moving on To Skidaway

From Site 14

Skidaway Island State Park

Outside of Savannah, Georgia

We did “slightly” better on this move day but are grumbling about this time table that requires us to go 1000 miles in 2 weeks to make the 90^th birthday party in Largo Florida.

I was up and out the door to run into the sunrise on the wonderful Huntington Island Beach.  Not much color before the blazing orange orb showed up but when it crested the horizon there was again a wonderfully blue sky and puffy white clouds so the rays shot through from the sun upwards in a fan.  Sorry I can’t share that picture with you.  I don’t generally run with my camera  so I didn't even think of it.  But now wish I had put my it in my small waist pack so I could have gotten that  picture.  A Blazing orange fire ball with white rays streaming up into the clouds.  It was spectacular.  

Of course I’m not totally sure where the small waist pack is but I will go on a search tomorrow even though I won’t have a beach to run on at sunrise for some time.  Although who knows what other things I may discover that will deserve a picture as I run a new route every few days.

I finished 4 1/3 miles and found my way back to the path I’d come in on.  Thanks Garmin!  So I took off my shoes and my Garmin does everything watch.   Slipped it in the shoe, sock in to cover it up and went running out into the water dressed in my running clothes.  I thought wow an easy shower and rinse for my sweaty clothing.   It was great as always.  Perfect water temperature.  Perfect waves.   I could have stayed all day.   But nooooooooooooo  I have to get on the road to make our destination in 8 days.

With a big SIGH I said good-bye to this really perfect place and walked back to the rig for a breakfast of eggs and sausage and the routine of getting everything packed up, stowed away, checked, rechecked, unplugged, unhooked or rehooked as the case may be.  Even though we had not gotten much out after bringing Winona back from Larry's at 5:00 the night before, it still took 2.5 hours to do it all and we were finally on our way by 11:30 am.   We were able to cut it back from 3+ hours and really must get it down to one hour on the day we leave so we can be on our way by 9 or 10 am and still be able to eat breakfast.   That’s the goal.  I’ll be reorganizing our departure list into Day before and Day Of lists to see if that will help. 

If any of you full time motorhomers have great Departure Lists, I’d love to see them.

(Short aside) about my Garmin does everything watch.  I haven't actually figured out everything it can do but here's what I use it for without reading much of the manual.  I know, I know.  I will read it next time it rains.  :-)  When I run, It tells me my heart rate, the distance I've gone, my pace, the number of calories I've burned and the amount of time I've run.  When I bike it tells me my speed, distance, time I've been biking and time of day.  It will actually tell me any of about 40 choices and will allow me to record several exercise sessions and a whole lot more I'm sure.   But today it enabled me to get right back to where I'd started out and recognize the path back to the coach along a beautiful unspoiled beach with no markers but sand and sea oats.  I ran 2.17 one way and turned around and ran 2.17 back and wouldn't you know it, there I was.  Here's the little beauty herself.  I have a very small wrist and the watch looks huge on me but the band is designed so it will fit any size wrist and with my fickle eyesight these days I actually love it being this large. 

Back to my moving tale.  Off we went down Route 17 AGAIN but this time on the section we hadn’t traveled a dozen times.  Slow going since nearly all the trip was on 17, a 4 lane rather local coastal road, until we picked up 95 outside of Charleston.  By the time we arrived at Skidaway, we had traveled 209 miles and it took us 4 hours and 40 minutes.    I hope most of that was due to Route 17 but still 4 hours is at least an hour more than either of us want to travel in any day. But we had to do it since I’d had no idea the South Carolina parks would be totally full during September.   Nancy Mills told me September and October are the most popular months in South Carolina but I was too late to reserve a spot at Hunting Island State Park.  This popularity is apparently not the case for Georgia.  Who knows why.  When we came to Skidaway just outside of Savannah, there was plenty of room and we would not have had to make reservations. 

And after running, packing, traveling, I am beat.  Skidaway is a very nice low country park and I’ll leave you with one picture of our large pull through site #14, before anything but the relax chairs were set up, as a teaser for more tomorrow when a good night's rest will rejuvinate us both..