Project Choose Your Own Adventure

[ScottyB]

catching up from a journey we took that i forgot to post about.

we made a run for the coast mid June.  its been a longstanding tradition every year that we join family at the beach for a week and obviously those plans were erased this year due to the COVID risk.  my son in particular loves the beach and that vacation is the only time of the year he gets to enjoy it.  we decided the camper was a chance for us to go do our own trip, in a new way, away from the typical hotel or rental home.  we knew we were taking a chance with visiting a sub-tropical island in June in a non-airconditioned camper, but the hell with it.  turns out in a massive stroke of luck, we had unseasonably cool weather.  Low 80's during the day, mid 60s at night.  don't know how it worked out like that but we're sure glad it did.

we had a chance to visit Jekyll Island here in GA a few years ago and loved it.  really quiet, well maintained place that is essentially a big nature park.  we noticed they had a campground and kept that info in the back of our minds, and realized now was a great time to check it out.  

i'm absolutely not attracted to most campgrounds that i would normally describe as "RV Parking Lots", where everybody fits in a slot and the view is a slab of motorhome to each side of you.  Jekyll's campground is borderline that, yet it was really peaceful, under a canopy of incredible live oaks, and spaced out enough you felt like you had room to breathe.  i thoroughly enjoyed it and the access to biking trails and interesting beaches was fantastic.  

a shot of the entrance (this is us leaving, but you get the point).  we had a pretty easy ride, and cruising down I-95 at about 75 the teardrop did just fine.  you'll notice we added bike racks to the top!  i bought these Yakima Aero Raptors used for cheap, did a little refurb work and added our own lock cores.  i also had to get some larger bar mounts made for mounting off road lights, to mount one rack to the passenger side where the bar is too large for Yakima mounts (the rack has 2 different sized crossbars that slide one into the other so you can adjust the width to your vehicle).  ah the fun of having to find custom solutions for your peiced-together camper....anyway we're glad we took them.  chucked our son's little bike in the 4Runner and i bet we probably did 10 or 20 miles on the trails.

the setup.  no need for a screen room this time, we didn't have any bug problems and the pup was boarded because his fur + sand and ocean water would be a complete mess.  we did bring a box fan and plugged it into our extra outlet, and made hanging out under the awning really pleasant.  after touring the campground, aside from the tents, i can tell you we were without a doubt, the smallest camping rig there!  made for a lot of fun conversations.  people were very cool and we generally kept our distance while talking.  

have a look at those trees!  spanish moss everywhere.  truly a unique experience.  you could bike for days around this place.  my wife said it felt like touring Jurassic Park.  



Driftwood Beach on the north end of the island is probably the only place of its kind on the east coast.  can you imagine having to tell someone you had a surfing accident where you ran into a tree?


how weird is it that these were everywhere, AND the only shells on the beach at all?  strange.

its a natural rule of law that any dinner tastes better over hot coals.  

the beauty of the marshes....



if you can go, do it sometime.  i'd recommend the campground too, they do a nice job with it and the sites towards the back are quiet and pretty, and you can't beat the access to trails.

camper performed flawlessly.  i was nervous about all the weight on the rack and stability at highway speeds but things worked as they should have.  we dipped a bit in MPG's with the bikes on there, they make more drag than i'd expected but otherwise you wouldn't know they were there.  still love that awning and would recommend it to anyone building a small camper like this.

posting this in hindsight, i'm really glad we went when we did.  as of the last 3-4 weeks the COVID cases have exploded down here and we would have had to bail entirely if we'd settled on a later July or August attempt.