Steve and Vicki took a mid-week trek from Hilton Head to Fort Pulaski, outside of Savannah to add another stamp to our National Park passport book.https://www.nps.gov/fopu/index.htm. The ride to Savannah was mostly on backroads, but all roads lead to the Savannah River (and the bridge that crosses it). The bridge is high so that cruise ships can get under it.
Fort Pulaski was built on Cockspur Island, and a young Robert E Lee oversaw the building. This started first with lacing the island with dikes and canals so the island stayed above water. And the fort itself was built upon wooden pillars driven into the earth.
While the Confederacy held the fort, the Union captured nearby Tybee Island and set up batteries of mortar and cannon to bombard Fort Pulaski. This bombardment included the use of rifled cannon shells, a new technology. And the rifled cannon shells breached the fort’s walls and threatened to blow up the fort’s munitions. This possibility led to the surrender of the fort to the Union army.
The exterior of the fort’s walls still bear the scars of the bombardment:
Steven had the opportunity to hike towards (not to!) the lighthouse on Cockspur Island:
After visiting the fort, we went to Tybee Island and stopped at the first restaurant we found for a late (2pm) lunch: Bubba Gumbo (https://www.facebook.com/bubbagumboslazaretto) which had great shrimp and the best Mai Tai’s outside Hawaii.
The trip home included a stop in Radford VA to visit Dennis and Margaret. They graciously allowed us to crash their tailgate party (i.e. we didn’t bring any food) for the Virginia Tech game against Vanderbilt (good game in the first half, not so much for the second half.) We got to witness the Hokies’ football team enter to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and the flyover of Air Force jets during the National Anthem.
We had a great time talking to our new friends, those that spent the night at Galecki Radford hotel no tell: Bob, Greg and Peggy, Rick and Beth; and those we met a the tailgate party the next day. The tailgate theme was Mexican, so there were tacos, quesadillas and some spicy sliders going around.
The trip home after Radford was uneventful. The home was in good shape with no surprises. The RV did not need any new repairs. And Lexie was happy to see us and allow us to let her go outside.