2022 Our Year In Review - Part 1
A Bull Elk from Smoky Mountain National Park hanging out in Front of the Cherkoee, NC High School
Before we kick off 2023 we felt that it made sense to first look back at 2022. As I begin to write this on New Year’s Day, we wrapped up another year, and what a year it has been. It has been truly a crazy year and one that had two clear parts for us. The first part of the year was spent getting ready for our big adventure. We made the leap and bought our RV in May. From there it was all History, if not an all-out sprint. Finishing the remodel of our kitchen, while prepping the RV, selling the house and our other car, and with both of us working full time. If my plate wasn’t full enough, I also had a bunch of leftover projects and maintenance that had to be done on the Jeep. It was all a complete blur, to be honest. But we somehow managed to get it all done. Even though we didn’t get done moving our stuff into storage until 1:00 am, we still began our voyage traveling almost three hours until we reached New Hampshire. We were officially off on August 6th.
Our journey from our start in Wilton ME through Clearwater FL where we celebrated New Years
15 stops and over 5,000 miles, not counting an unexpected 1,000-mile trip back to Maine from Shenandoah River State Park and then on to Statesville VA to deal with an issue with the sale of our house. Stays at KOAs, State, and National Parks. Mountains, forests, cities, and beaches. We have seen and experienced so much.
In our last post, we talked about North Carolina, our favorite state to date, so let’s take it from there. From Wilmington, NC we made our way to Savannah, GA, and the Savannah South KOA in Richmond Hill, GA. Savannah is a city that we always wanted to visit but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to, and it didn’t disappoint. Savannah is a charming city, with cobbled streets, oak trees decorated with Spanish moss, and abundant examples of Georgian and Gothic Revival architecture.
The many tree-lined parks are surrounded by some extremely good restaurants. We stumbled on one of our favorites by accident, Vinny Van GoGo’s New York Style Pizza on Bryan Street. Before you can even see Vinny’s the smell hits you first. Garlic, oregano, warm tomato sauce, and mozzarella fill the air. If you weren’t hungry before, you will be now. Try it by the slice, their slices look like they were cut from bicycle wheels, and they are enormous.
Kym devouring her monster slice from Vinny Van GoGo’s
One of our other favorite areas was River Street which runs right along the Savannah Waterfront. The cobblestone River Street separates the restaurants and shops on one side from the broad Savannah River on the other. Especially at night, it is a special place. Stay long enough and you will get to watch gigantic container ships pass by either on their way in or out of port. It feels like you can almost touch them.
One thing we were not aware of is that Savannah is considered one of the most haunted cities in the US, if not the world. It has experienced a confluence of events and factors that lead the city to be so haunted. Bloody battles including the Siege of Savannah and the Civil War. Yellow fever which killed over 1,000 people in 1820, and Massive fires in 1796 and 1820 ravaged the city and are said to have taken more lives than yellow fever. Multiple mysterious murders, including the one at the center of the story of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Savannah was also an important slave port.
Kym and I posing with the cast of the Savannah Underground after the Immersive Experience
The city takes its hauntings seriously and there is no shortage of ghost tours and experiences. We couldn’t pass it up and decided to partake in two separate experiences; the tour of the haunted Sorrel Weed House, and the Savannah Immersive Underground Experience. While we didn’t get to experience anything paranormal, we truly enjoyed both and can highly recommend them. I know what you are thinking, you live with your mother-in-law, aren’t you haunted enough? Well I guess I am just hankering for punishment.
The basement of the Sorrel Weed House during our tour
Savannah also access to some fabulous beaches, especially on Tybee Island where we spent a good amount of time. We seemed to visit at the right time as most of the beaches were almost empty which made it quite peaceful, and we still had the benefit of some very good weather.
Fishing boat under an early early rising full moon off of Tybee Island
The Savannah South KOA was a different matter. To be truthful it wasn’t one of our favorites. It had potential, the park sits right next to a lake that seems to be a favorite of local birds. Egrets, Blue Herons, and beautiful white swans among others grace the peaceful waters. Visit the lakeside at sunrise or sunset and you get a spectacular show as the birds rise and leave or come back home to perch for the night. The people were another matter. The park had a high number of long-term residents which gave it more of a mobile home park than a vacation destination. And the staff was the least friendly we have experienced so far, let alone the older woman who accused me of not picking up after my pets. It left a truly bad taste in our mouths.
The Egrits coming back to roost for night on the trees around the Savannah South KOA and hanging out with two of the lakes resident swan’s?
From Savannah, we continued south and started our extended stay in Florida, starting in St. Augustine Florida. St. Augustine is also a very charming city. St. Augustine is located in the Northeast corner of Florida, and its claim to fame is that it is the oldest city in the US being founded in 1565 by the Spanish. Even though the Spaniards are long gone, all of the Spanish architecture remains. The city sits right on the Atlantic Ocean, giving you beautiful views even as you just travel about the city. St. George Street, St. Augustine's most popular shopping district, winds its way through several brick-lined blocks of the city's center.
St. Augustine is also home to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park. Founded in 1893, it started as a small reptile exhibition and has grown today into an accredited zoo and major Florida attraction. While it houses a variety of animals from across the world, the main attraction is its over 800 alligators across the park. The multiple live feeding sessions throughout the day are a major draw. The feeding frenzy is pretty cool to watch.
During feeding time, the waters were boiling with Alligators as they climbed each other to reach the food
We were also lucky enough to be visiting during the opening night of Nights of Lights. The event runs from Nov 19 through Jan 31, where the city is lit by over 3 million mostly white Christmas lights coving almost every public building, space, and tree, as well as most of the local, restaurants, shops, and hotels. At night the bright lights create a festive atmosphere and make the view even better as the lights reflect across the water. While downtown if you are in the mood for Mexican we highly recommend Casa Reina.
The Festival of Lights in Downtown St. Augustine, FL
The St. Augustine KOA was simple but quiet and just what we were looking for. The people were also wonderful and what we have come to expect. Savannah and St. Augustine are cities that we can see visiting again, though we would pick one of the other KOAs in Savannah.
A statue of Chief Osceola on his horse Renegade outside of Doak Campbell Stadium
We then had a short stopover in Perry Florida at the Perry KOA. We were there for four short days over Thanksgiving, but were there for a specific reason, as it was located about an hour from Tallahassee Florida where we attended the Florida State Florida game the day after Thanksgiving. This was another dream come true for me. I have been a Seminole fan since I was a kid. I have attended a couple of FSU games at Boston College, but always dreamed of visiting Doak Campbell Stadium, the Stadium that Bobby built. The game was spectacular and finished with the fans storming the field while we watched from above. It lived up to all of my expectations, the environment was truly special.
The fans storming the field after FSU’s big win over the rival Florida Gators
Our next stop was a short week at the Lake Okeechobee KOA. Okeechobee is a sleepy little town as you may have guessed, situated right next to Lake Okeechobee. There isn’t a great deal to do in Okeechobee, but the park is nice. It has two separate pools, a family pool, and an adult-only pool. The adult pool also has a bar right off the hot tub which was an added benefit. The park is right on a golf course, we don’t golf but being backed right up to it gave us a pretty view from our site. We would definitely stay again, and next time look forward to exploring Lake Okeechobee more thoroughly.
If you are in the area we highly recommend Lightsey Seafood Restaurant. The food is fresh and delicious and the atmosphere is unique. The walls are covered in mounted heads and fish. The story goes that customers used to bring in mounts to trade for food and those are the same mounts you are looking at today. While it is a seafood restaurant primarily, they have fantastic steaks as well. Along with the restaurant they also have a small seafood counter and offer fresh-cut steaks as well. The stone crab was available and in season and we bought some along with steaks for our freezer. We also highly recommend the bacon vinaigrette, it is life-changing.
Two turtles sunning themselves in the small pond behind our site at Lake Okeechobee KOA
Florida had so much to offer that our adventures were just beginning. So much so that we needed to break this post into two. Stay tuned for part 2 where we finish out our exploits in Florida and wrap up 2022 with a bang!
