Today we headed to our final vacation destination–St. George Island State Park. The morning was hot and sticky and full of sugar ants. We packed up as quickly as we could amid several discussions with other RV’ers and made our way to a Walmart for a pick up before we headed to the island.
When we were pulling into the Walmart parking lot, Google Maps which has had a few snaffoos this trip lead us into a very precarious situation. We ended up turning into a bank with very small turning radius (which is not great with the trailer). As we were about to begin backing the trailer up and being a real annoyance to almost everyone trying to go to that bank, we thankfully figured out there was an exit going the wrong way through the drive-thru tellers. Phew! That could have been very stressful.
We parked at the back of Walmart and Keith went to stand in the pick up lane this time after picking up some Subway sandwiches. We loaded up the trailer with our fresh goods and headed toward a brewing storm, questioning if we were able to get to the island because it looked pretty nasty.
As we were driving through the Apalachicola National Forest, an email came through telling us that one of the houses we had applied for might be a scam. Keith is very responsible with his information usually and applying to rent homes is often very stressful for us because they seem to want to receive all your information just to get in the door to look at one. So, we were obviously upset to find this out and we missed our exit and had to drive a mile down the road to find a place to turn around. Once we turned around we were on our way in the drissel with no service to potentially problem-solve the scam situation. Crossing the bridge to the island was not treacherous–the water was choppy but calm. I wouldn’t want to be on the water, but driving over the bridge was no big deal. Once on the small island we drove through the main city to the other side of the island, through a gated entrance, to the state park–about 15 miles. Once in the park there were white sand dunes peppered with trees, roots, and bushes on both sides with little moments you could peek the ocean. We found our site and set up in the rain.
Our site was covered in vines and had a bit of swamp (not great for the bugs, but it looked like fresh water not muck, so that was good). After backing in and setting up, the girls and I headed to explore the campground–find ice (which the rangers at park check-in had mentioned was available through the campground hosts), and check out the playground. At the playground it was 4:11 pm and then all of sudden it was 5:18 pm. Weird! Time went so fast!
We headed over to see if we could get ice from the hosts. One host had a sign that said they were closed, and the other did not respond to the doorbell-which was how he requested to be contacted. So we walked around the rest of the campground and back to the trailer and by then Keith had put in place several identity theft precautions to make us feel a little better about being hoodwinked. Insert curse words here.
We then hung out in the trailer–the girls read and complained and fought–while I made dinner (Turkey Burgers & Roasted potatoes with cheese and spinach). After dinner we headed out on a hike we found with a trail head near the playground. The map said the hike was a mile, but it seemed longer than that as the sun was setting knowing we had to get back the same way we went. The trail was sandy and wet. The first part had fitness features, then there were some big puddles, and occasional bridges. The whole time there were a lot of bugs buzzing in our ears and a beautiful sunset. We finally made it to the beach–having saw a frog on the way–the girls were VERY excited about the beach but we couldn’t stay long because daylight was waning.
The way back began at a swift pace. Anna was scared–she didn’t like hiking in the dark. I wasn’t too fond of it either. But we had each other, flashlights, and the trail was very well marked so we made it back in under an hour. After washing off the sand and mud and getting cozy. We snuggled up and listened to Keith tell stories about his boy scout days when they dropped him off in the woods in the dark with a compass and a map and he had to find his way back to camp.
See photos/videos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7CD2ib2rDKXdLQpQ7
Nice photos. We used to own a beach house on the west side of the island. When I was a kid we went over to the island by ferry. Back in the 70s the place was really deserted. It has grown alot but still sparse. Nice sunsets. The ocean is ok but for beautiful sand and surf color check out Destin beach.