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Meteor Crater between Flagstaff and Winslow Arizona. (at Meteor Crater National Landmark)

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Crazy Fort Zion! Good ice cream, spoiled Llamas and and an obnoxious burro in their petting zoo. Bring carrots or be ignored! (at Fort Zion Restaurant & Virgin Trading Post)

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Old Route 66 right by the Corner of Winslow Arizona. (at Winslow, Arizona)

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3 hour hike round trip and well worth it. (at Lower Calf Creek Falls)

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Great time at Bryce Canyon. Next stop Zion National Park! (at Bryce Canyon National Park)

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Smoky red sun dawn morning in Wyoming. (at Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming)

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Did I mention we love to eat? Wine Vault in San Diego is one of our fav restaurants for wine paired dinners. Great food, great wines reasonable price. (at Wine Vault & Bistro)

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Phantom 4 shot of horses in Star Valley Wyoming over 1/2 mile away. They were very curious about the drone. Got some great video footage too. (at Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming)

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Always a good choice for an Irish toast! (at Tierrasanta, San Diego)

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February in White Sands New Mexico

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So close to Roswell NM! But not this trip. Maybe next year.

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President Trump endorsing our model coach being built at Tiffin plant: "These Tiffin RVs are making America great again!" (at Tiffin Motorhomes)

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Winter birds arriving in Florida when we in Pensacola a week or so ago. (at Pensacola Beach, Florida)

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There is a nearly forgotten historical significance to St. Simons Island, Georgia, both for the survival of the original fledgling British colonies and one that is oddly also personal for us. 

St. Simons Island is the site of Fort Frederica to the north and Fort St. Simons on the southern tip of the island, both of which served to guard Georgia against southern invasion by those pesky Spaniards who first settled Florida and felt entitled to lands further north.

Then there is Musgrove Plantation, a mysterious and remote plot of land near Fort Frederica, still owned by a member of the R.J. Reynolds tobacco family.

Musgrove Plantation hosts one of the country’s most exclusive resorts and crosses our family lineage somewhere in the dim (very dim) past through Mary Musgrove, who was instrumental in negotiating key indian treaties in the 1700’s, making initial British town settlements in the region possible.

I’ll talk about that later, but first, a little background about how this small island stood it’s ground in protecting the southern colonies that would later evolve into our southern American states.

Us standing with General Oglethorpe at Fort Frederica Museum, St. Simons

Georgia was the last of the original thirteen colonies to be established in America and was named in honor of King George II, by James Olgelthorpe, a British General and member of Parliament, who founded the colony there in part as a fortified buffer against Spanish incursions from Florida.

In the early 1700’s, Europeans referred to the land lying between British South Carolina and Spanish Florida as the “Debatable Land”. It’s important to recognize that America was first colonized from the bottom up, initially by an expansive Spanish land claim from explorer Ponce de Leon, which he named La Florida for the wonderful Spring flowers he found there around Easter time in the early 1500’s.

The first British colony came much later at Jamestown in Virginia in 1607.

The two forts of Frederica and St. Simons succeeded in rebuffing the Spanish in two major battles, at Gully Hole Creek and Bloody Marsh and on the road leading between them. The Spanish were sufficiently bruised and never returned, so the British claim on Georgia remained unchallenged.

Actually, America was established by a series of imperialistic land-grabs starting with the Spanish, then the British and later by the French. Imperialism has such a negative connotation, but in fact, most of the known world was civilized through imperialism, which hails from Latin and essentially means sovereignty obtained and retained through force. So these new British colonies were vulnerable and constantly under threat of seizure, particularly on the border between Georgia and Florida.

Fort Frederica stands in almost complete ruin today, but as we walked the old streets and park grounds we couldn’t help but be amazed at the hardship the British settlers there must have endured here on the then southern frontier of America.

Her silent cannons still guard the river, surrounded by mosquito and alligator infested swampland. But a sense of important history still hangs in the air around this national monument. You can get more info at the National Park Service website page for Fort Frederica.

Fort St. Simons is completely gone, now marked simply by a sign and one lone cannon.

It is better known for the site of the St. Simon’s Lighthouse. You can find more information on Fort St. Simons and the St. Simons Light house at: Fort St. Simons Historic Site – St. Simons Island, Georgia

But Oglethorpe a rich philanthropist, was smart to create the colony as a means to land ownership for Britain’s poor and he focused initially on those still residing in debtor’s prison.

Fetid swampland probably looked pretty good compared to jail and in return he received motivated residents who were willing to build fortifications there to boot.

Today, the upscale St. Simons Island along with it’s island neighbor Jekyll Island hardly offers a red carpet for the impoverished, which brings us to the second topic concerning Musgrove Plantation.

Mary Musgrove, nee Coosaponakeesa (good Jeopardy question), who was later married to John Musgrove, was half Creek Indian and related to members of their tribal leadership as the daughter of English trader Edward Griffin and his Creek Indian wife.

She and her husband John established and ran a successful deerskin trading post along the Savannah River in the pre-Georgia territory in 1716. Mary greatly assisted their business and Oglethorpe through her tribal connections and after her husband’s death she served as his principal interpreter in negotiating with the Creeks for settlement lands that became the town of Savannah Georgia and St. Simons Island.

By extension these laid the foundation for the crown colony through the stewardship of James Oglethorpe. Thus the state of Georgia, admitted 4th to the Union in 1788, owes a tremendous debt to Oglethorpe and the Musgroves.

In return for service to the British Crown the Musgroves were awarded over 500 acres of prime waterfront real estate. This, along with other previous and subsequent Musgrove land investments, made Mary one of the largest land owners in the region.

I had heard about the Musgrove Plantation through our family history of course and we traveled to St. Simons Island specifically to view this amazing resort. I had the misshapen idea that if we showed up on their doorstep and produced our “Musgrove” credentials, we might at least be granted access, or at best perhaps even discover they had been looking for the lost family connection to award us a shockingly huge inheritance!

Having hosted a US President and dignitaries from all over the world, one might expect a grand entrance to the estate, but the access road off Frederica Road was difficult to find and anything but ostentatious.

In fact, the access gate looked more like a padlocked service road to a dairy farm. Sigh.

However, one can apparently still book the resort for weddings and even Yoga retreats at the Musgrove Plantation website.

We enjoyed the journey here though and discovering the history of how one of our distant kin helped to found a state and (ahem) preserve a nation!

Embattled St. Simons Island There is a nearly forgotten historical significance to St. Simons Island, Georgia, both for the survival of the original fledgling British colonies and one that is oddly also personal for us. 

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All’s well that ends well! Life has a way of throwing you an occasional curve ball. It’s what you do with the ball when you get it that makes all the difference!

Happy landing! 15 minutes before we were to arrive at Lake Aire RV Park  in Charleston, South Carolina I got a call saying they made a mistake and didn’t have room for us! We’re heading into the weekend, there is a festival in the area, we are 40 feet and towing so finding a place to call home can be a challenge.

Scrambling to find a new place to stay I find that everything is booked for miles, so we pass on Charleston this time and head to Hilton Head Island. They are thrilled to welcome us at Hilton Head Harbor RV Resort & Marina! It couldn’t have been a better boo-boo! Everything works out! It is beautiful here right on the Intracoastal Waterway!

We have a gorgeous view of the marina from our site. We wake to a cool, clear morning and breakfast outdoors is calling our name. It just feels right being in the South, loving the Spanish moss hanging from all the trees, singing: “Do, do, do, lookin’ out our backdoor!” But where’s our boat?

The destruction from Hurricane Matthew was only 5 weeks ago and remnants of the storm still linger. We are so impressed by how this community came to together and cleaned up what one person we met described as “a giant waving his hands and randomly taking out large swaths of trees, rooftops, buildings and plants”.

The resort was lucky and only suffered minor damage. The storm surge was 8 feet in this area and took out the pool deck, washed up over the pool, a portion of the roof of the restaurant was ripped off and the newly repaired seawall took a hit!

Repairs are still being done but considering the storm, things are looking pretty good!  One of the pools out on the edge of the IntraCoastal Waterway has a beautiful view of the marina on one side and the waterway on the other!

Now it was time to explore the island! The further you get to the coastal tip of the island, the more residual damage you see piled up along the streets.

When we reached the tip of the island, we parked at the Harbor Town Lighthouse and set out on foot, meandering through the shops and park areas. We loved the girl with the hula hoop bronze along the path! And, of course, the Spanish moss hanging from the trees!

The lighthouse stands at the opening to the marina. The whole marina area is filled with shops, restaurants and ice cream parlors. Bright red rocking chairs are scattered around town in front of the shops where to can kick back and watch the action in the harbor. We could only imagine sitting here in the summer time, licking an ice cream cone and watching people ad yachts go by. But not today. It was quite chilly and soup felt more comforting than ice cream on a day like this!

We had planned to bike on the trails that wind all through town. Sadly, the Sea Pines bike trails were closed to everything but foot traffic, at your own risk that is. Downed trees still lined the streets.

So biking was out, but walking was not. A brisk stroll on the bike path lead us to the Shops at Sea Pines for lunch. Truffles Cafe was just the ticket with a steamy hot chicken pot pie capped in a buttery puff pastry. We’ve never had broccoli in a pot pie before, but it was a tasty addition.

Have you ever driven through a neighborhood, admired the homes and asked, “I wonder what these people do for a living?” or “I wonder who lives here?” Well now we know that in parts of Sea Pines, “Alligators may live here!”

Back for the evening at the resort we found the perfect spot for us to relax and unwind a bit. Right on the resort property was a fine dinning restaurant called Sunset Grille. After a day of wandering around the island we popped in for a light, fun sampling of appetizers, wine and dessert. Sometimes you need to eat off the favorite parts of the menu!

The dining room is small and intimate. It overlooks the marina with a fantastic sunset view, if you get there on time. It just so happens they had a huge bottle of our favorite everyday wine, Bogle Essential Red, on display from a wine maker dinner they recently held.

Our appetizer selections were: Basil Champagne Salad ~ Artisan greens, basil champagne vinaigrette, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, hearts of palm and white cheddar. Portobello Caprese ~ Portobello mushroom baked with tomato, mozzarella and basil oil. Lump Crab Cake ~ with a delicate lemon caper cream sauce.

What’s a little sampling without dessert? We finished off with a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and the rest of our Maggio Petite Syrah. Satisfied? Yes we were!

Incomparable Hilton Head Island All's well that ends well! Life has a way of throwing you an occasional curve ball. It's what you do with the ball when you get it that makes all the difference!

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Big fun at Peg Leg Petes a few days ago just before the big storm hit Pensacola! Good seafood! (at Peg Legs Pesacola Beach)

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Now under a Tornado Watch in Navarre Florida! (at Navarre Beach Campground)