Jan. 30, 2014: We have been on the road for just over six weeks and we are still searching for warm weather. However, it was good that we decided to stop on Jekyll Island and then even better that we decided to stay an extra week; the winter storm that hit the southeast with snow, ice, and freezing temps this week caused all kinds of problems:power outages, bridges closed because of ice, and cars abandoned on highways, some of the communities don't even have a plow. None of these conditions affected the island; all we had was cold rain. One couple told me that they have been staying at this campground during the winter for fifteen years and have never seen the temperature and conditions this bad.

Jekyll Island is in what is called the Georgia Bight; it is the most western part of the east coast, almost directly south of Cleveland, Ohio. It has seldom been hit by hurricanes, and seldom, if ever, sees snow. We can see why so many northern retirees have moved here or spend four to five months here during the winter. 

Close to the campground, we visited the ruins of a house built in 1743. It was the second house built by William Horton, the first settler on the island,after his first house was torched by the Spanish forces from Florida in 1742. They attacked this area in an attempt to drive off the English settlers on St. Simon Island across the inlet. The Spanish were driven off, but destroyed Horton's house during their retreat. 

The material used to construct the house was a mixture of mortar, lime, sand, and oyster shells. The walls of the two-story house are still intact. This mixture was used for construction in this area until the late 1800's.

Jekyll Island was purchased by a small group of northern millionaires in 1880 from the plantation family that owned the island. These millionaires were the same ones that had "summer cottages" in Newport, RI. They formed an exclusive and private club to build a "winter retreat" on the island. They built a large hotel, a few of them built their own cottages--not quite as elaborate as their Newport homes--an infirmary, and other buildings to provide for their sport and hunting activities.

The island was turned over to the state of Georgia in 1947. Many of the buildings used by the millionaire's club are still in use. The hotel still operates. As a matter of fact, I asked the valet at the front door about the hotel's pub, but because of his attitude we decided not to eat at the hotel. It may have been our casual dress, or the fact that the pub did not open until 5:00 PM, that made him act a bit rudely. B said she wouldn't eat there in any case. A group of people were playing croquet on the large, well-groomed lawn in front of the hotel. They were all dressed in white outfits, which indicated to us a certain amount of snobbery exists amongst the hotel's quests. 

We walked the grounds to look at some of the buildings and then our plan was to find a nice place for some seafood. Near the hotel, a pier extended out over the water. It had a sign for a restaurant so we headed there. The restaurant did not open until 5:00 PM also, but at the end of the pier, two women, standing near some tables and chairs, waved to us to come out to the end of the pier, which we did.  Here we found a very small restaurant-bar called The Rah Bar. One of the women was the bartender and the other the cook. This was a casual dining place at its best. Instead of sitting outside, we ate inside at the bar. We  had a nice conversation with the bartender while we ate two excellent seafood platters: B had shrimp, mussels, crawdads with hot-sauce, I had a low country boil-- shrimp, crawdads, dungeness crab, sausage, potatoes, and corn. The shrimp were fresh local wild-caught and cooked just right.

The bartender told us that earlier in the day she had seen a large group of white pelicans on a sandbar, just off the pier. She showed us a photo she had taken of them. While we were eating, she suddenly said that two of the white pelicans were on the railing outside, behind us. I had my camera, but because what we were eating was "finger food," I couldn't, or wouldn't, pick up my camera to get a picture. White pelicans are not usually seen up in this area.

After our great meal, we continued our walk. We watched two helicopters land in another nearby grassy area. They were police helicopters. B found out from the pilot of the first helicopter that they were attending a conference for police pilots from the region during the next two days.

The only building we went into was the club's infirmary, a two story building, which is now a bookstore. The building now contains three less books and three less jars of local style preserves.

We continued our drive around the seven mile by one-and-a-half mile long island, looking at some of the well-taken-care-of homes--many of them owned by retirees from up north. Quite a few of the homes had "For Sale" signs--a result of nature's retiree recycling program, most likely.

Our last stop was at the Seaside Shops, a cluster of "trailer-style" buildings containing among them: a small grocery shop, a liquor store, a bank, a gift shop, a variety store, hairdresser shop, and a real estate rental/sales office. All of this right at the beach front.