World United States Georgia Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

On the Road Again

Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge Mar 26, 2012

From Crooked River State Park in St. Mary’s GA …

Monday, March 26, 2012

After a pretty lazy weekend, we decided to do some exploring today. So we drove about an hour to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Before leaving, I walked up to the bathhouse. On my way out, I heard an RV honk their horn at me. I turned to see a woman getting out of the RV and yelling, “Yoo Hoo!” to me. I went over and she wanted to know if I could help her get her water hose disconnected from the RV. The hose was laying loose in the driveway while still connected to the RV. She said if she couldn’t get it off, she was just going to drive away with it dragging behind her. To say the least, she was quite a character. I asked her if she was traveling alone, and she said yes. She was quite overweight and had a hard time getting around. Several tears and large dents on her Class C RV revealed that she obviously didn’t take too much care in parking or driving it. I was not able to get the hose off for her, but I did fold up her wheelchair and pack it away into her tow vehicle. Her Jeep had not been hooked up to the RV yet, and I later wondered how in the world she was able to do that on her own. You meet some interesting people along the way.

After an easy drive we arrived at the Refuge. We first stopped in at the Visitors Center. It was very nice and informative. We watched a 15 minute film about life inside the refuge which we really enjoyed. The building next to the Visitors Center is called Okefenokee Adventures where you can rent different types of boats, and I believe they offer boat tours. I wish we had gotten there earlier so we could take advantage of that, but we will have to do it on our next trip.

We then decided to drive our car through the Swamp Drive. This is a 7.5 mile loop road which you can either hike, bike, or drive. I have been a bit under the weather the last couple of days, so I didn’t feel up to biking that much today. But if we went back, I would take the bikes.

The drive was really pretty, but unfortunately we didn’t see as much wildlife as we had hoped to. We walked on a couple of the various trails they have. There are parking areas on the Swamp Drive for you to leave your car.

I will let my pictures tell the rest of the story of our visit there. But we did really enjoy it. I do think that the Refuge is probably best enjoyed by exploring the swamps by boat.

On our way back to the state park, we stopped in Kingsland for some “linner” (lunch/dinner) at an Italian restaurant called Antonio’s. The food was decent, service very good with a nice clean atmosphere.

Back “home” at the RV, we did some work on our taxes for a couple hours. That will need to take priority as soon as get back home.

We did take a bike ride around Crooked River State Park this evening. We rode down to the river and watched the sun set.

We have decided to head home a few days early. One of Charlie’s prescriptions is running out. We have reservations to stay until April 1 but we are planning to leave on Thursday and drive straight home from here. It will be a long day, but we would rather do that than travel for two days.

We called and made reservations to take the ferry over to Cumberland Island National Seashore on Wednesday, and we’re really looking forward to that.