Page-8b

Johanne & Ed's
Continuing Adventure

After Myrtle Beach we moved down a short ways to Charlestown, South Carolina.
We found that Charleston was very congested and did not enjoy driving into and out of the city. However the old build- ings and mansions were nice to see, Narrow streets and tight traffic patterns would have been impossible with the RV.

These houses, most were constructed in the 1800's, have all been modified/reinforced to withstand the occasional hurricane that slams the Carolina coast.
The mansions along the waterfront were very impressive.

Page 8b

Well, we are 40 miles south of Aunt Peggy's and it has been a prob-lem in that we are using a lot of gas. We need to leave early or drive in the dark and we can not get involved in the happenings as much as we would like. That said
we made reservations at an RV park just outside The Villages, for December 28th.

   This Brings us to Savannah, Georgia. What a nice city this is, like Charleston, there are many old homes and narrow streets but not nearly as congested..
      Savannah is one of the oldest citys in America and has a rich history of Revolutionary and Civil War Battles. It also has the largest National Historic Landmark District in the US including many homes, churches, monuments and parks.
       In our two day visit to the area we only saw a drop in the bucket. I would someday hope to spend more time in Savannah and get to know the city better.

This is a picture of Johanne in Forsyth Park, one of many such parks throughout the city. It is named after John Forsyth (1780-1841), a 19th century US Secretary of State under Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, Ambassador to Spain and Governor of Georgia. Also elected to numerous terms as the US Senator (D) from Georgia.
For History buffs.

Our next stop, St Augustine, FL makes the 41st sticker placed on our map, leaving the following states for some future visit.
MA * DE * NJ * KY * AR * MO * ND * AK * HI,
but not much hope for the last two,

St Augustine is the oldest European settlement continuously inhabited in the US. Founded by a Spanish explorer in 1565 it has been under Spainish, English, Confederate and US rule at various times in it's continuous history.
   For more on St Augustine....

     While there we visited the very old fort, Castillo de San Marcos that defended St Augustine through it's long history.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Castillo and would recommend St Augustine as a vacation stop. But, be prepared once again for narrow and highly congested streets. On the other hand there are the famous Florida beaches and sun and sand and surfers and sunsets.

At this point we were just 100 miles from our destination, which is the Escapee's Park, Sumter Oaks, in Bushnell, FL. Our plan was to spend a couple of nights here and look for a park that had more amenities, like cable TV since we still do not have a TV satellite dish (only internet).
We settled in and the next day drove all over the area and found that nothing was nicer than what we had, weighing price and amenities. So here we stayed.

Now it is a National Park Service Monument. A truly fascinating place!

Our motive for staying in this area is to spend some time with Johanne's Aunt Peggy. She lives in "The Villages", a fantasticly marvelous community of gated villages, shops, churches, bowliing, theaters, restaurants and two town squares that has live music every night, yes, I said every night. In addition there are 28 golf courses within The Villages. I have personally seen a dozen villages and know there are more and growing.

We had Thanks giving dinner at Aunt Peggy's.
Pitured is Johanne
Aunt Peggy, her friend Arnie, her sister Jeannette and Jeannette's husband Fred.
I am in the mirror.

    Recreation Plantation is the name of the RV park. Check out the "facilities" page and you will see that the extra money is well spent and we will save a bundle on gas money.

     Coming on Page-8c will be some of our adventures while we have been here at Bushnell, our vist with Brother Tom on the yacht "Astra Dee", our visit with daughter Patti and her special friend Craig during their vacation trip to Florida and our upcoming visit to Brother Tom's home for Christmas

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From Myrtle Beach, SC, Savannah, Georgia, St Augustine, Florida to our arrival at Bushnell, Florida