GEORGIA'S ANSWER TO THE "GRAND OLD OPRY"

Last Sat. evening, we wandered up the road, about 17 miles, to a small town about the size of Lake City, called Woodbine. It's home to a every weekend Opry made up of local musicians and anyone else who would like to sit in for the evening. They also have a open mic and people can walk on and add personal vocal to the entertainment. What a beautiful piece of a hidden gem in the south country. At one time I counted 11 musicians on stage at one time. They play acoustics on Friday nights and amplified on Saturday nights. Also Friday is bluegrass & gospel, and Sat. is country.
They played from 7:00 to 10:00 and every song was awesome. These guys are good! They also have a few local gals that during the night would come down the isle and interact with the crowd,
These guys all play for nothing, and the whole purpose of the Opry is to raise funds for the restoration of the old High School in Woodbine. (which is where this all takes place. The Opry is held in the auditorium of the old school. (hold about 200 people) There is no charge to go there, but donations are accepted, and encouraged. They also sell tickets for cake raffles and a 50/50 drawing, which is held at 9:00. I did win a blue-berry pie. Had it for brunch with the neighbors the next morning.
This place is is a big hit for both locals and travelers. I will post a link to their web-site. Check it out.
http://www.woodbineopry.com

This is the place.

Just a small school auditorium.

They hammered out 70's & 80's country hits.

Could have listened all night.

This guy could really pic um!

They say the guy on the left is Jimmy Carter's cousin. (Don't quote me on that one, although he does resemble him.

Some of the local entertainment.

What a show!

NOT "BIG AIR" YET!

He's not ready of TV competition yet, but he's still a champion in our hearts.

It's not the flying leap, but he's gaining on it.

FOR ALL YOU GUYS OUT THERE. (REAL MEN!!!!!)

DAD SAYS, YOU GUYS HAVE TO SEE THIS, (and Mom gave him permission to say so.)
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO TURN THE PLAYLIST OFF.
ALSO, TURN YOUR VOLUME UP, YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS ANY OF THE WORDS!
ITS HILARIOUS
HOW TRUE, HOW TRUE!

OKEFENOKEE SWAMP

The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000 acre (1,770 km²), peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia-Florida border in the United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee Wilderness. The Okefenokee Swamp is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia.
A wildfire which began with a lightning strike near the center of the Refuge on May 5, 2007 eventually merged with another wildfire which began near Waycross, Georgia on April 16 due to a tree falling on a power line. By May 31, more than 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) had burned in the region, or more than 935 square miles (2400 km²), "an area greater than the State of Rhode Island."

Monday, Jan 14th took a day trip over to the Okefenokee Swamp with another couple from the campground, Dennis & Jane. They are from Lansing, Mi. Very nice people and we enjoy their company.

It was a little on the cold side, so we didn't see much in the way of wildlife except for birds, but what a neat place. I didn't miss the snakes, nor the alligators for that matter, but it would have been fun to have seen some. (From a distance.)

It is a beautiful place and has so many different types of flora. Pine forrest to water swamp, and everything in between.

Entrance area.

Boats weren't going out today.

Original Chesser homestead back in the swamp. The Chesser family raised 7 children at this home.

Sugar Cane processing shed, where they made syrup.

Sugar Cane Mill.

Friends, Dennis & Jane.

One of the many bays or ponds within the swamp.

Sandhill Cranes flying around.

Flock of Sandhill Cranes.

Another view of the vastness of the area.

More cranes off in the distance.

Better view, zoomed-in.

ST. MARYS

We took a short drive to St. Mary's (about 7 miles) and spent 1/2 day just walking the streets of this quaint little town. The 1st thing that caught my eye was this street sign, (Rob, this ones for you).

It quite streets were very picturesque and it had a neat harbor. People were fishing from the docks, using shrimp for bait and they were catching blue crabs.

Had a short snack (ice cream), walked around the city park and hit a few of the shops before heading back.

We will probably go back there another day & catch a ferry out to Cumberland Island National Seashore. Its a uninhabited island with a lot of wildlife and a lot of wild horses.

Had to get this shot for Rob.

Love these old living oaks with the moss.

A bed & breakfast. Neat!

High & dry! The tide was out.

These were close to edge at low tide.

Beautiful city park.

COUNTRY OAKS CAMPGROUND

We left Savannah on Jan 3rd and moved southward toward the Florida State line. Stopped just 1 mile short of getting into Florida at Kingsland, Ga. We are staying at a campground called Country Oaks Campground. Its a well laid out campground with lots of Oaks, Palmettos and a nice size fishing pond. We stayed one week in what I call transit's row. Every night that area of the park fills up (mostly big diesel pushers) and the next morning they all take off again. People heading for Florida for the winter. The rest of the park are more long term campers, (monthly and seasonal). We liked the park and the people are so friendly, we decided to stay for a month. There is a couple staying here from Lansing, Mi., and another couple from Maine that have made us feel right at home. The whole park of long-term campers makes it feel like a community. They do things together and for each other. Its great and very relaxed. Sam loves to go for swims in the pond chasing a ball. Haven't had much success in getting him BIG AIR yet but we are working on it. Last Sunday they held an open potluck brunch in the large office area of the main building. It had a Mexican theme on the dishes. That was very good! The owners live on the property and they have 2 horses (Spooky & Blackie), a donkey (Jack), and a dog (Trigger, He's a Jack Russell Terrier) that wander anywhere in the park. I mean anywhere. We have walked out the door of the camper and one of the horses might be just the other side of your truck. When they do get up into the camping area Trigger comes along and chases them back towards the barn and pond area, which is where they stay most of the time.

Last friday we took a day trip to Jacksonville, Florida. Mom wanted to look up some quilting shops, looking for material and I hit a RV Supply store for some odd and end camping supplies.
Its only about 15 minutes down I-95. Again, thank goodness for the GPS. but really don't care to go back and fight that traffic again. I guess I'm a country boy!

This is where we will be till Feb 10th.


Very large and pretty main building.

Love the big country porch. It wraps all the way around the building. Nice bathrooms and showers and a clean laundry room.

Our 1st weeks site in transit's row.

The fishing pond and dock area. The pond has a artisan flow. Catfish, Bass and Bluegills in the pond.

Sam after his ball. He just never wants to quit.

What a guy. We are trying for BIG AIR off the dock. The 1st time we tried it, he ran right up to the edge of the dock, came to a dead stop, looked at the ball as it came down out in the pond, did a U turn and ran back up the dock, around the edge of the pond and dove in and went and got his ball. The 2nd time was better, he came to a stop at the end of the dock, but he did leap in. We are working on this. Will keep you all posted on the progress.
Nice paved streets for walking Sam, or that meal off. Three times around the park is a mile.

Our new site for the month. Not much of a move when we changed sites, about 200 yards.

Spooky or Blackie? Not sure which is which. They are never out at the same time.

TYBEE ISLAND

While we were at Savannah we took a day and went to Tybee Island. We also took a drive out onto Hilton Head Island and just drove around. I wanted to see some of the lush and beautiful golf courses on the Island. Really couldn't see much of the courses, as they were well tucked in behind the entrance areas, but the whole island was very pretty.

Anyway, Tybee Island is just SE of Savannah and is made up of the City of Tybee. All the beach area belongs to Tybee and they have commerical parking lots all along the outer edge of town when you can park (metered) and walk out on the shoreline and go swimming or shelling. They also have it posted, "No Animals on the beach", subject to a $250.00 fine. We had taken Sam so he could go for a swim in the Ocean, but when we saw the sign, decided to leave him in the truck. Mom & I took off for a stroll and some wading, but we keep running into people with their dog with them. After about 20 minutes or so, I told Mom to heck with this and went back to the truck to get Sam. When I got back to her, she said we had better hurry and let him have his fun because the beach patrol had just gone by on their rounds and had kicked people off that had dogs with them, and they would be coming back. Anyway, Sam had his fun, he just loved it, and I got him back to the truck before they came back. We spent a couple of hours just walking and wading and shelling. It was a blast! First time either of us has ever seen the ocean.

A pavilion with a long pier out in the ocean.

The better view of the pier and beach area.

Mom getting her feet wet!

Sam said my wading pool back home needs to be bigger!

Would have loved to taken the plunge!

Don't think my boat is big enough for this water.

SAVANNAH

Well, we finally are getting back to blogging, (I know, I know, about time).

We got to Savannah on Dec. 27th, and spent a week in the area. Stayed in a park called Hardeville RV Park, which was just 7 miles N of the Savannah River in South Carolina. It was a easy drive into Savannah, except we had to cross a tall bridge each time to get there. (I hate high bridges.)

What a lovely city. We both fell in love with it. It is well laid out and easy to get around in. Very beautiful city with parks all over the place. We felt very comfortable walking anywhere in the city and the people were so friendly.

The first thing we did was take a trolley through the whole downtown area. The driver pointed out many to the local attractions, which gave us ideas of things we wanted to go back and walk through. You could also get off the trolley and pick it up again anytime, which was nice.

Cute sign in front of one of the shops in the City Market area of town.

Open plaza near the City Market.

One of the many carriage rides available.

More open areas with sidewalk cafes.

One of the homes in Old Savannah.

This park is the one used in the film "Forrest Gump", when Tom Hanks was telling his story.

This is the bench in the Park that Tom Hanks sat on to tell his story and said"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get".

One of the old stately homes in Old Savannah.

Street musicians playing on New Years Eve in a waterfront park.

We had dinner at a waterfront restaurant on New Years Eve and had a terrace table. During dinner we were treated to a view of an ocean freighter moving down the Savannah River heading for the open water of the Atlantic. These things are huge. When it was straight out from us, I couldn't get the whole ship framed in the camera.