The first trip solely for visiting parks
I finally headed out on my second National Park trip in early November. It was a bit longer than I had hoped between the end of Trip 1 and this start, but I got a lot of the planning done. This will be the first trip specifically for visiting the parks, as Trip 1 combined a visit to family in Iowa with a few stops at parks on the trip home.
For this trip, I selected a group that was fairly near to my home in Florida. That way, if something did go wrong, I was not far away. This would be a good shake-down trip to see how my plans held up over a two-week trip.
They held up fine! This group introduced me to several forts along the southeastern Atlantic coastline. Prior to this trip, I knew nothing about any of them, save Fort Sumter. I mentioned in a prior entry about learning something at every park on my first trip. That trend continued for this trip.
I consider myself a history buff and thoroughly enjoy visiting sites with historic significance. I was embarrassed, though, to discover how little I knew about the history of this area in pre-revolutionary times.
I not only learned of the battles between England and Spain over the region (and briefly France until the Spanish massacred all of them), but of the cultural differences in the two societies including treatment of slaves.
I was able to slip in a few non-NPS side trips to two Georgia and one Florida State Parks and visit an old plantation in Charleston.
Originally, seeing no more than the site names, I presumed all of the forts were contemporaries of each other. Nope. The historic times of the various forts and settlements (including the state ones) ran from the late 1600s through post-Civil War years and, in the case of Fort Moultrie, up to World War II!
Perfect autumn weather followed me for almost the entire trip. I had a slight drizzle start while at Fort Moultrie but not enough to dampen the experience.
With a very successful trip complete, I’m already looking forward to my next trip over the coming winter.
Steve
