We visited Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island in Georgia. When we think driftwood, we think logs, but this beach has whole trees.
An interactive map:
Driftwood Beach:
An interesting place.
Crooked River State Park trails
While staying in Crooked River State Park in Saint Marys, Georgia, we enjoyed frequent walks in the park.
Trail map:
Info sign:
Alligator country:
River:
Trail:
Tortoise:
Another trail:
Nature center:
Boardwalk trail without a boardwalk:
The trail was somewhat flooded, but we did it anyway:
Observation tower:
Swampy:
The boardwalk has been removed:
Pond:
A nice park.
Crooked River State Park
We stayed at Crooked River State Park in Saint Marys, Georgia. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A pleasant stop on our way north.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-03-09
- Check out: 2025-03-16
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly sunny, some rain
- High temps 62-76°F, lows 48-62°F
- Some wind, gusts to 32 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Little neighbor noise
Site:
- #62, back-in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Mostly level site; a little high on rear passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 20 feet wide
- 30 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- 75 feet to road on driver side
- Trees and shrubs between sites providing good privacy
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Lantern hooks
- Tall trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 20 feet, front facing due West
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, fairly conveniently located
- 45 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 28-38 Mbps down, 9-10 Mbps up, 32 ms ping
- AT&T: 115-127 Mbps down, 13-20 Mbps up, 50-85 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- River
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Lovely state park
Not all campsites here have full hookups, but we were lucky enough to get a reservation for one. Our back-in site was plenty long enough for our 40-foot motorhome and tow vehicle. All the connections were good, and the campground hosts were on the ball, cleaning sites as soon as they were vacated. The campground is peaceful, with lots of nice, easy trails to enjoy. Note that the boardwalk has been removed from the loop behind the nature center, and we had to hop around some very large puddles to get around. Despite signs warning of snakes and gators, we saw neither, but we did see an armadillo, which was exciting as I’d never seen one that wasn’t roadkill. We camped at Crooked River State Park in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Jekyll Island (Driftwood Beach) and Fort Frederica National Monument are both worth a daytrip. Locals Dockside had excellent seafood, and historic St Marys is a cute little town.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Pollen on our truck:
Other sites:
Bathrooms:
The first time we’ve seen a live armadillo:
Venomous snake country:
Little library:
Mini golf:
Cabins and screened picnic area:
Shelter building:
Dangerous cliff:
A nice park; we’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 273 miles from Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia.
Travel from Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia
We drove our coach 273 miles, about five hours of driving, from Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
A tight corner leaving the campground, made more tricky by vehicles parked close to the road, but we didn’t have any difficulties:
I-4 East:
Rest area:
Heavy traffic and an RV on the side of the freeway:
Traffic cams with our coach:
Passing downtown Orlando:
I-95 North; we appreciate road markings on lanes to make it very clear where we need to be:
Snuggly Paladin:
Handy rest area truck parking spaces available sign:
Rest area:
I suspect they don’t want anyone parking there:
Fuel stop:
$296.20 of diesel, before our discount:
Rainy:
The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward bridge aka Dames Point bridge in Jacksonville, lost in the clouds. Apparently some Floridians are scared of this bridge, because it’s so high (and Floridians aren’t used to high places, being such a flat state!):
Thank you for visiting Florida:
Welcome to Georgia, state of inconveniently-placed poles:
Sub outside Kings Bay Sub Base:
Crooked River State Park:
Our site:
Peeking behind the wet bay
As previously mentioned, I had my wet bay modified to integrate the water filters and water softener, plus add valves and connections so I could regenerate and backflush the softener without having to remove it. Very handy. But it wasn’t hooked up quite right, so I pulled apart the wet bay to investigate. I determined that the pipes were reversed from how I wanted them, but the good news is that I was able to flip the water softener around (so the input and output were reversed), and change the labels on the valves and connectors, and now the system works properly. Yay!
Anyway, I thought I’d share some pictures of the complex hoses back there:
Fascinating stuff.
Baseball: Baltimore Orioles vs Tampa Bay Rays spring training
We attended a spring training game at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida, between the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Selfie:
Lineup:
Bullpen:
Ballpark:
BBQ:
Chick-fil-A:
Surfside vodka beverages:
Did somebody say roadtrip?
Dippin’ Dots:
Spring Home of the Baltimore Orioles:
Final scores:
Thousand Trails Peace River
We stayed at Thousand Trails Peace River in Wauchula, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We had some concerns about staying here, based on reviews, but were pleasantly surprised.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-03-02
- Check out: 2025-03-09
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny, a little rain
- High temps 68-82°F, lows 43-63°F
- A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH
Noise:
- Negligible road noise
- No train horn noise
- A little neighbor noise
Site:
- #C50, back-in, grass
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Very level site, surprisingly; used hydraulic leveling
- Grass site about 55 feet long by 40 feet wide
- Just grass between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Somewhat clean site; a bottle and a few other bits of trash (TT doesn’t clean sites)
- Elevation 40 feet, front facing North
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 45 PSI water, conveniently located
- No sewer connection; pump-out service available (one free per week, $15 for extra)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 10-26 Mbps down, 11-16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 290 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- AT&T: 435 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- River
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Better than expected
We were somewhat skeptical before our stay here since the reviews weren’t all that great, but we decided to try it anyway and were pleasantly surprised. There were sites available in the full-hookup section, but opted for a w/e-only site since they offer one free pump out per week. The full-hookup sites are smaller and at the front of the park, closer to the highway and noise. The sites closer to the river were much quieter and spread out, so the slight inconvenience of no sewer was a fair trade. Since the hurricane that blew through a few years ago, all sites have been upgraded to 50A (the previous lack of 50A was our main hesitation based on earlier reviews). The campground got a bit busier and noisier (up in the full-hookup section) on the weekend, but it was otherwise a peaceful stay. We camped at Thousand Trails Peace River in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site, in the non-sewer section; more spacious and quieter than the sewer section:
Utilities:
A squirrel on our picnic table:
Towards the end of our stay the waste tanks were getting a little full:
We wanted to empty them for our travel day anyway, so we went to the office to schedule the free honeywagon pumpout; they gave us this sign to put in our window:
The pumpout truck; quick and easy:
Aerial views of our site:
And the campground; you can see the more tightly packed sewer sites closer to the road, and much more spacious non-sewer sites closer to the river:
Office:
Playground:
Pool:
Courts:
Walking path by the river:
Bridge, river, kayak:
Kayak on the river:
There are a couple of dump stations, but on the wrong side of the road for non-sewer sites to use when leaving, weirdly (without looping around):
Cabins:
Other sites:
As I said, we were pleasantly surprised. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Clermont to Wauchula, Florida motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, just 68 miles from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida.
Travel from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida
We drove our coach 68 miles, about 1.5 hours of driving, from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south (though we actually took the route closer to Lakeland):
An interactive map, showing our actual route:
Pulling out of our site:
Line to leave TTO:
A gate ranger collecting site tags:
Can only turn right out of TTO, so we needed to do a U-turn to head south; we’d done it before, so know it’s easy for us:
Another RV doing the U-turn:
Us doing the U-turn; doesn’t look like it here, but there was heaps of room, didn’t even need to go into the bike lane:
Passing an accident:
I-4 West:
Route 570 toll road:
Route 98 South:
Turn:
17 / 98 South:
Paladin on the dash:
An interesting building in Bowling Green:
Arriving at Thousnd Trails Peace River:
Check in line:
