The trip from Myrtle Beach to Savannah was one of our longest moves ever at 4 and a half hours but the drive went smoothly and the time passed quickly. We drove through some beautiful marshes and then pulled into Skidaway Island State Park. The drive into the park is a long and winding path surrounded by trees covered in Spanish moss. It was absolutely stunning.
Our site is spacious and looks out into a beautiful forested area. We were disappointed to find that we don’t have sewer connections but we are a short distance to the shower house which also has laundry facilities so it isn’t too bad. There’s lots of shade and a large flat area for our gazebo, grill and firepit.
Just before leaving Myrtle Beach, we realized that our license plates on the truck were about to expire. We had renewed everything last fall before we left and thought that we had everything covered through 2025 but somehow, even though the car and the house have expirations for 2025, the truck was only renewed through 2023. Because we are headed even further away from Ohio and wouldn’t be back in that area until after the plates expired, John decided to head back to Ohio for a few days to get them renewed and take some things to storage. He left on Sunday morning, arrived in our home town Sunday evening, ran errands on Monday, then came back to Georgia on Tuesday. He did manage to bring back a dozen donuts from one of our favorite bakeries so that made his return even sweeter!
Even though we have been together for over 20 years and spend almost every single day together, we still miss each other like crazy when we are apart. Harley also doesn’t take the separation well so it was a rough few days but we all survived. Harley and I spent a lot of time snuggling on the couch and also visited a nearby boat ramp area for a walk. We ate a bunch of junk food and watched some old movies but we were more than ready to end our single lady lifestyle when John walked back through the door Tuesday night.
We spent the better part of the week just recovering and taking it easy. John had done over 20 hours of driving in three days and Harley and I hadn’t slept well while he was away so it was nice to just relax and get back into our regular routine.
On Saturday, we were ready to explore again. We drove into town and had breakfast at Treylor Park Double Wide Diner. It was okay – nothing to write home about. We wanted to walk off some of the heavy food we had at breakfast so we strolled the neighborhood for a little bit. We were fortunate to be visiting during the Savannah Pride Festival so we checked out the vendor stands and made a few fun purchases. We also found a Byrd’s Cookies location and made a few purchases there as well. So delicious! I really enjoyed the peach cookies so we made sure to take some of those home.
In the afternoon, we drove over to Bonaventure Cemetery. We spent a few hours walking through the cemetery admiring all of the old headstones and monuments. The whole area was so quiet and serene. It was a warm afternoon but we were mostly shaded by the giant oak trees that were full of Spanish moss.
We had spent a ton of time at the beach during our stops in Virginia and South Carolina so we probably didn’t appreciate Tybee Island as much as we should have but we did drive over one evening just to say we had been there.
We visited an Eco Fair at our campground and enjoyed walking around the park often. The campground area was beautiful and we were also able to enjoy a few programs provided by the park rangers during our stay. John participated in a mushroom walk where they learned about various fungi in the region while exploring the trails and we both enjoyed a program about bats. While Harley did not attend any of the formal programs, she did have a few encounters with the small deer in the park.
Let me share my favorite story where we encounter a deer on our walk. I noticed it from pretty far away but Harley remained completely oblivious until we were basically on top of it. The deer stopped eating and stared at us. Just when I started to wonder if Harley had actually seen the deer or if we were going to pass by peacefully, Harley starts barking and growling and lunging at it. The hair on her back stood up and I was afraid that the whole damn campground was going to come after us for making such a ruckus. The deer, however, was completely unfazed by this ridiculous display of nonsense and went right back to eating grass. It continued to graze calmly while Harley simmered down to a constant, low rumble and I took some photos. Eventually, Harley turned and looked at me like “Mooooooom! Why isn’t this thing terrified of my big scary bork? That’s not fair! It’s supposed to cower before my ferocious roar!” We stood like this for several minutes with Harley looking back and forth between me and the deer and then I finally managed to drag her away so we could finish our walk.
We also spent a few evenings just driving around looking at Halloween decorations and admiring some of the beautiful old neighborhoods around town. We found some really cool decorations and John actually ended up ordering me a inflatable cat that I liked as an anniversary present since our wedding anniversary was coming up.
We had a ton of things we wanted to do in Savannah but, with John’s unscheduled road trip, we just didn’t find the time. Hopefully we will make our way back someday – for now, it’s off to Florida.
