Georgia on my mind!

Let's start with Cumberland Island National Preserve, where we first stepped on Georgia soil.  They have wild horses there and Don was so happy to get a picture of them foraging there for their food and just leisurely walking around.

The linage of these horses date back to the 1600's when the Spanish first explored this area.  They have reproduced, lived and died on this island for almost 400 years with little or no interference from man.   There were about a dozen horses in the herd we saw. The white colt in this picture is about two weeks old.  The island is Federal property and can only be reached by boat.  We anchored several hundred feet off the island and took the dingy ashore.

This island also has the Dungeness Ruins (what's left of the Carnegie family's summer estates.)

The Carnegie's made a fortune in steel production in the late 1800's and are considered to be one of the last Robber Barons.  This mansion burned down in 1949 and is owned by the government.

We never tire of the Spanish Moss - we see it everywhere in Georgia!

St. Simons Island Lighthouse and grounds.  It's a lovely island and we had an awesome shrimp dinner there!  Walked on the beach and relaxed in the park.  The Marina there delivered 2 fresh muffins and the newspaper in the morning!  All right!!

A broken propeller (this happened not far beyond St. Simons).

As you can see one of the blades flew off due to metal fatigue.  This happened at about 3600rpm's and scared the crap out of me.  We were concerned that the sudden imbalance may have caused problems to other parts of the out drive so we had the boat hauled at a marina in Savannah and check out.  Everything was okay. 

Isle of Hope, just south of Savannah, where we spent several days, including Easter.

Lovely vacation homes, friendly folks and very southern.

Next Port - Savannah, GA.  A beautiful city with many historic homes and several historic parks and churches.  This is the riverfront Cotton Exchange building, which was the center of the community in the days when cotton was King!

Savannah is the 2nd busiest harbor on the eastern seaboard.   We were tied to the wall on River Street and these huge (and I do mean huge!!) ships would go by a hundred or so feet from us.  This picture is the back of a container ship that had just passed us.  Don't know how long it was but seemed to go on forever. I couldn't help but wonder what was in each of those semi size containers.

We found that being on the riverfront in Savannah was okay for a day or so, but then it got very tiresome with the big ships going by and the tugboats and the ferry boats, so we were ready to leave again Sunday afternoon.  It was good access to a lot of the downtown sights and sounds of River Street - artists, performers, shops and restaurants, but also many tourists, noise and much rocking of the boat due to the boat traffic.  We met some nice folks and will have some good memories of Savannah.  TB

On Sunday morning we attended services at the Independent Presbyterian Church which was established in 1755.  They have a large and very beautiful building.  The service was very traditional.  Many members have ties to the old Dutch Reformed Church.  These folks were very friendly and one of the congregation pointed out the separate doorway and stairs to the balcony were the blacks attendees had to sit back before integration. 

Savannah has a lot of history like so much of the East Coast.  One can spend weeks and see something new everyday.   We barely scratched the surface after several days.  But it was time to move on.   We traveled up the ICW on Sunday afternoon past Hilton Head where the Heritage Clasic golf tournament was still in progress.  Saw the MetLife blimp overhead taking pictures.  Maybe we brought Zach Johnson some luck.  He came in 2nd and won $615,000.  Not bad for an Iowa boy.  Tonight we're in Port Royal,SC.  We'll probably stay a few days and catch our breath.  DB