2/13/22 St. Simon's Island, Kingsland Georgia.

 2/13/22 Sunday

Today we decide to take 82E over to St. Simon's Island on the east coast of Georgia.  We'd been to Jekyl Island before, so decide to try St. Simon's today. The day is a bit overcast and in the 50's.

First stop is Fort Frederica National Monument, the remains of a fort built by the British  in 1736,  seeking to lay claim to the area, as was Spain.  

 The Spanish invaded in 1742 but were turned back. There were about 1,000 people living here in the 1740's. We are in luck today because there are a group of re-enactors demonstrating blacksmithing, weaving, cooking. Families who settled here were given one year of provisions and then expected to be self-sufficient. 

He was cooking Bruswick Stew, named for the nearby town of Brunswick.  Brunswick was famous for its tasty tomatoes, which form the base of stew. Assorted veggies and whatever meat was available were also used.  They spun mostly wool, as cotton was extremely work intensive removing all those seeds before Eli Whitney's gin was invented.

After chatting with them for a while, we find that they are volunteers through the National Park service.  They are RVers who have been trained in different skills and travel to various parks doing demonstrations in return for free hookups and sometimes a small stipend.

Not much remains of the fort and the town that grew up around it, though they have identified the foundations of different buildings and who lived in many of them.  Much of the construction was done with a material called "tabby", that was a concrete-like material made from shells burned to ash and mixed with sand, lime and water. Lots of pieces of shell are still visible in the material. 

Huge oak trees draped with Spanish moss and a few orange and other trees. The Spanish moss was used to stuff mattresses.  Henry Ford actually used it in his first few vehicles, but quickly learned that it is a favorite home for chiggers and had to be treated before being usable.

 Next, we visit St. Simon's lighthouse and keepers' dwelling.   In 1934 it was converted to electricity and no longer needed a keeper.  It continues to be an active aid to navigation!

Nearby is a nice garden and cross dedicated to John and Charles Wesley, Anglican priests in Georgia and founders of the Methodism.

We stopped briefly at the remains of some slave cabins built by slaves in the early 1800's.  They were part of a cotton plantation named Hamilton. Each served two families, with a central chimney that gave each family a hearth.

En route to Kingsland, where we've reserved a hotel for the night, we cross the Satilla River and stop at the Still River Waterfront Park and walk a long boardwalk between the river and a marshy wooded area.

Greg thought the sign for this antique shop was kind of unique.  It was Shut (Not Open).

Tonight we head to the Sleep Inn in Kingsland, Georgia to do laundry, and join a family zoom call. We had dinner at a local bar-b-q place, which was pretty good, and then settled in to watch the Super Bowl.  Rams beat Cincinnati Bengals but it was a good game!  Nice, clean, comfy hotel.  Nice long hot showers!