Cumberland Island and back home

Our last stop before returning back to Hilton Head was Cumberland Island, one of the many barrier islands at the east coast. It is located right north of the Georgia-Florida state line and is protected as a "National Seashore" by the National Park System.

Except for a few private properties - including a large upscale hotel - the whole island is an undeveloped wilderness, consisting of a 17 miles long sand beach and a large Live Oak forest that covers most of the area off the beach. Cumberland Island is also famous for its wild horses.

The only way to the island is by a ferry boat that travels twice a day between St. Marys and a landing at the southwestern side of the island. The are no commercial activities (except the aforementioned hotel), so all visitors have to bring their own drinks and food. It is possible to rent bicycles, and this is what we did to be able to see a bit more than what would be feasible by just walking. We saw lots of horses which, apparently, live in families, at various places on our bike tour.

 

 

The ruins of a huge, four-story tabby mansion are located at the south end of the island. It was built by Catherine and Phineas Miller at the end of the 18. century with money made by harvesting live oaks to be used for ship building.

 

On the ferry back to the mainland

Our campground in a state park close to St. Marys



Back in "our" RV Park at the north end of Hilton Head

This concludes the blog about our RV road trip across the United States of America. We travelled about 24,000 miles (38.000 km) in 6 months to 20 states and 2 Canadian provinces, and visited 12 national parks and monuments, plus countless state parks. It was an incredible experience for all of us, full of challenges brought upon us by the uncharted territory of three individualists being confined to live on 400 sf with no place to hide. But at the end, we all are saying: IT WAS WORTH IT!!

And that's what counts.

 

Hilton Head Island - what a nice place to live

 

 

 

 

 



New Orleans

On our way to the next destination, New Orleans, I needed to make a nostalgic, quick stopover by my first employer after university, BASF.

BASF operates a 2,640 acres (10,5 qkm) site at the Mississippi in Geismar, Louisiana. But the chemical giant is just one of over 40 chemical companies that are lined up along the river here in Geismar, forming one of the largest chemical complexes in the US.

New Orleans is as touristy and crazy as ever, also outside Mardi Gras or the Jazz Festival. Silke and I enjoyed it, but Benjamin was more scared by the craze...

 

A wedding march in Bourbon street, led by a jazz combo



Bourbon street

 

Antebellum Mansions at the Mississippi

It's been a while since I posted the last time - mainly due to bad internet connections in many of the RV parks we stayed in.
From Carlsbad, we went eastward on I 20 to Dallas, where we spent the Easter weekend and Silke's birthday. We stayed in a beautiful state park campground south of the city, and enjoyed the nice spring weather and an opulent birthday/easter breakfast.

We even had the luxury of our own, "private" garden behind our RV, where the Easterbunny could hide easter eggs and other goodies.

From Dallas, we drove further westward to Natchez, Mississippi, place of the largest number of undestroyed antebellum houses. Natchez is located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, and became the home of a number of very wealthy planters that owned vast cotton and sugar plantations in the surrounding river plains. Most of them survived until today and are now a major tourist attraction.

 Left: Melrose estate is now a national historic park, administrated by the national park service.

Stanton Hall

Dunleith house, now an upscale restaurant

Most of these houses were built between 1840 and 1860, and almost all of them in the Greek revival style, except the Longwood mansion, the largest octogonal house in North America. The interior was never finished because the war started and workers returned to their homes in Pennsylvania where they were from.

Longwood Home with an octogonal, 30,000 sf (2.700 qm) floorplan

Of course, wealthy Mississippi planters had built their mansions not only in Natchez. Further south, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is the home of the largest of all antebellum homes in the US, Nottaway Plantation.

It was owned by the descendants of the original family until 1970, and then sold to an Australian billionaire who runs it now as a hotel and a venue for events like weddings.