Day 22 - 287 miles
As we missed Clinch yesterday, we packed, road into town, ate a small but pricy breakfast in Fernandina, (the downside of quaint historic districts,) and returned to the park just as the exhibit opened for the day.
It's a pentagonal Civil War Era, brick fort. The CSA was building it to assist blockade runners, but the blockade was working so well they had to abandon completion, whereupon the Union took over, finished it, and aided their blockade efforts, brining the rest of the materials, primarily bricks, from Pennsylvania. The obvious advancement in artillery at this point is impressive, both in guns and gunmounts.
We headed north and detoured out to Saint Simons Island to see Fort Frederica. It's an archeological site and National Monument. It fell into disrepair and the supporting town was abandoned after a treaty with Spain where Spain ceded most of the 'original' Florida territory, which, of course, led to the eventual ceding of modern Florida. While the remains of the fort only hint at it's original size, and no where as large or splendid as Castillo San Marcos, the Georgians were the ones who prevailed. The visitor center has an excellent history presentation.
We skipped Fort Pulaski as we realized we would arrive after 5:00pm and all these parks seem to close at 5:00pm, and drove on in to Summerville to stay with our mutual SCA friend Barbara.
It rained on us again this afternoon. We pulled off the highway and put on our rain gear. It, of course, stopped raining by the time we were back on the road, the roads dried within minutes, and we felt like steamed clams on bikes.
When we arrived, you never saw two guys "shed their skins" so fast.
Total miles: 5900
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