Georgia - Day 19 - Brunswick and Crooked River

Crooked River State Park, St. Marys

Tuesday, 11 April 2023

today's route

Google said today's drive would take about 3 hours, including my preference for the scenic route south, using US-17 that passed towns with names like Shavetown Community and Freedman Grove Community.

At one point I saw a man walking along beside the road carrying a full-sized cross.  Easter has passed, so I'm not sure what this was supposed to be about.  I looked it up online and saw multiple photos of men carrying crosses along roads - not always the same man - and none of them looked like the man I saw.  Apparently there are lots of men in America walking many miles carrying crosses.  We live and learn.

I can report that "El Cheapo" is a brand of gasoline that's common in the southern half of Georgia.

I came across another string of towns that all seemed to run into each other: Riceboro, Chatham Community, Retreat Community.

Unexpectedly I passed a sign pointing to the "Smallest Church in America."  I could just see it in a grove of trees: it looked small, white, about 4' x 5', and the door looked short - the whole thing looked like a child's playhouse.  I found a brief article with a photo of the church.  It also shows a bell tower, which I don't remember seeing, and the photo shows a lot more people going into that building than I'd've thought it could hold.   https://www.exploregeorgia.org/smallest-church-in-america

I passed roads with names like Bacontown Road, Hattie and Harvey's Road.

The town of Darien was founded in 1736, making it a pretty early settlement in the New World.  In the creek there I saw 8 or 10 fishing boats - shrimpers? - docked.

I passed the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, a state historical site.  The farm and house were built in the early 1800s, when the Brailsford family used enslaved labor to create a thriving rice field from the local marshlands.  I've found myself very reluctant to tour these old plantations, knowing that the lovely houses and the healthy crops were all built by the enslaved people who were forced to live here.  Admission to this plantation is $7.00 for seniors, so I gave it a miss.

And then we came to Brunswick and the Old Town Brunswick Historic District.  I was here for a specific reason: the dispute over the origins of Brunswick stew.  I found this interesting article in Southern Living that explained the situation very well.   https://www.southernliving.com/brunswick-stew-history

My family visited Williamsburg (VA) when I was 11, where we had Brunswick stew at Chowning's Tavern.  My momma bought The Williamsburg Cookbook, and now and then made that version of the stew, and I've continued making it since I left home.  So in my mind, there's no question where Brunswick stew comes from, but I was willing to take a look at what Brunswick (GA) had to offer.

see Southern Living article

Sorry, but it takes a lot more than this hearsay statement, unsupported by any evidence, to convince me.

This kettle is in a park that included a large covered area for a Farmer's Market, where someone was out on a Tuesday with fresh veggies for sale.  But I didn't figure he'd want Dext around, so we walked elsewhere around the area.  The park included this attractive building.

An old style, but I think it's a new building.

Just on the other side of that building is a waterfront, where we found this boat tied up.

You may not be able to see the awning on deck, let alone read its sign, but it says: "Facts Over Fear."  Well, these days that could mean almost anything and, though I was curious, I was a little afraid to ask.  But my curiosity finally overcame my fear and I asked a guy on deck "what facts and what fear?"  It turns out the ship's crew is doing research on white sharks (endangered and decreasing in numbers) to gain information that will help people overcome the Jaws effect.  

I saw that movie only a few years ago, on a rented videotape, and the dated special effects were easy to see.  And despite those drawbacks, I felt real fear.  Steven Spielberg, even at age 27, was a spellbinder.  So it's that fear that these research folks are hoping to dispel to save the sharks.

With my back to the research vessel, I took this photo of Brunswick Landing Marina.

Note the small forest of sailboat masts.

From the park, I wanted to go to St. Simons Island, but Google's directions turned out to bear no resemblance to the streets I encountered and I got lost once again.  I drove around for a while, though, seeing more of Brunswick than I'd planned, and eventually found my way to the causeway.

I learned a couple of things about that causeway: first, that it crosses multiple rivers - Back River, Little River, the Mackay Intracoastal Waterway, Frederica River; and second, that those elevated bridges got pretty scary today because of a very strong wind that made it hard for me to stay in my lane.  But we made it over to St. Simons Island in one piece - and then immediately got lost again, because the island's streets didn't in any way match Google's directions.

I was looking for the St. Simon's Lighthouse, which I've heard is an iconic landmark here and one of the beach access points (in case dogs were allowed).  But I just could not find the streets Google said were there - or the rotaries or the landmarks.  I wandered around for a while and didn't even see the lighthouse, let alone find it, but I did find a beach.  We were all of us ready for a break, so I parked in the very large parking lot (apparently this is a popular beach on a weekend or in the summer).  And signs told me dogs are banned from 9 AM-6 PM from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  But they're allowed now, so Dext and I headed toward the sand.

On the way we met a guy with 2 large dogs who were happy to make Dexter's acquaintance.  But they were bigger and bouncier than he is now and, though he wanted to stay with them, I figured he (and I) wouldn't be able to keep up with them.  Instead we sniffed the jasmine and I read the signs near the beach entrance.

state marine mammal, now slowly recovering

details enlarged below

fascinating life cycle

hard to tell the shells from the chicks

It never occurred to me that light would bother turtles.

And then we started on the path to the beach.  It's a beautiful beach.

The Atlantic Ocean -
lots of people on either side of this shot -
I don't know how I got an unpopulated photo.

Dext and I walked a little way along the sand, but he wasn't as frisky as he used to be at the beach (with Gracie) and he didn't want to go near the water, so we didn't stay long.

I saw lots of black-headed gulls, which I'm guessing are Laughing Gulls because of them being the only species that has a head that's fully black (some have the black just partly covering the head) plus being the most common type of black-headed gulls in this area.  And I saw quite a few pelicans on the wing.

At other beaches, I've seen boardwalks to protect the dunes, but here they use a different kind of walkway.

looking toward the land

a closer view of the path to the parking lot

No trash cans on the beach, but they had quite a few at the beginning of the pathway.

At the other end of the parking lot was an old building that looked very much like a Coast Guard sort of building.  It's now a museum.

A WWII "Home Front" museum.  I would love to see what they've got here and will plan to come at another visit.  (If I can find this place again, since I only stumbled on it in the first place.)

There was a historical marker in front of the building describing a U-boat attacking 2 US ships right off our coast, which was something I didn't know.

And finally, I saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot and it made me smile.

I wonder if this group has copyrighted this slogan, because it's certainly a sentiment that should be spread around the country.  Helen Reddy died a few years ago, but I'm sure she'd have approved.

I thought I could take us back to the mainland the same way I got us here, but I missed a turn I'd made earlier in the day and ended up lost again from the route I'd taken when I'd been lost in the first place.  Getting lost in Georgia is beginning to be a theme for the month.

I saw a Georgia license plate that said: LOL MORE.  Probably good advice.

Speaking of turtles (as I was earlier), I saw quite a few signs around that announced: "It's Turtle Crawl Y'all!"  This turned out to be an annual fundraiser on nearby Jekyll Island to benefit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  It's a race held to mark the start of sea turtle nesting season.  Certainly sounds like a worthy cause.

I eventually found and crossed back over the causeway, skirted the town of Brunswick and crossed a very high attractive bridge south of town.

Sidney Lanier Bridge over the East River

This is a new bridge - built 2003 - replacing the original, which had a vertical lift section to accommodate large vessels.  That bridge was hit twice by ships, once causing the bridge to buckle and killing some motorists.  On the other hand, it was immortalized in the movie The Longest Yard, where its vertical lift helped Burt Reynolds escape the police.  This new version of the bridge is the longest spanning bridge in Georgia and is 480' tall.

We got back on US-17, but I can say that Georgia's road direction signs are definitely inadequate and often nonexistent.

We passed lots and lots of trees - mixed woods - and many bodies of water, all very full.  Such a difference from what I saw in the western US, where everything's parched and water levels noticeably low.

A sign at a business said they offered "Dead People's Things for Sale."

I saw historical markers all over, everywhere I went, many of them about the Civil War.  It's really no wonder the folks down here can't move on from that time, since it's thrust in their faces any time they drive down any road in the state.  Unless they see moving on as being taking up the "cause" and forgetting about the "lost" part of it.  And I'm guessing many of these markers were written a while back, when accurate views on that war and society were missing or glossed over, making the moving on stuff even harder.

I crossed the Crooked River and noted it is indeed crooked - it seemed to flow in a constant "s" pattern.

We made it to Kingsland ("The City of Royal Treatment") and St. Marys, which I visited at the beginning of our stay in Georgia.  This time, I was headed not for the KOA but for a state park.

A sign told me to turn for the Historic Sugar Mill Tabby Ruins.  So first off, I thought "tabby" had something to do with the coloring of a cat.  I've now learned that it's the same stuff that's called "coquina" in Florida.  The Georgia Encyclopedia says it's a mixture of lime, water, sand, oyster shells and ash.  (Wish I'd known this when I was at that fort in St. Augustine.)

The sugar mill was invented (I think) by a Floridian who moved north after his plot to take eastern Florida from the Spanish and give it to the US failed.  His version here of a cane mill was the first horizontal mill worked by cattle power.  During the Civil War the works were used to produce large quantities of arrowroot starch.  Apparently there are still quite a few intact ruins at the site that show clearly what "tabby" is.  I didn't stop today.

We passed the entrance to NSB Kings Bay (Naval Submarine Base).

Near the entrance to the campground, I saw a sign warning "Gopher Tortoise Crossing."

And we were in our campsite by 3:30 after having dumped the waste tanks.