Saturday, May 21, 2011

Tybee Island, GA

We spent most of the last two days getting to and from Tybee Island and enjoying some of what it has to offer. 
We went there Friday to check it out and as we were getting ready to pay our lunch bill our waiter asked us if we were going to take part in the World's Largest Water Fight that would shut down the main street from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.


Our waiter was a young man and I thought he might be exaggerating a bit when he said that thousands of people all armed with squirt guns would take part.  But at 1:30  (4 and 1/2 hours before the fun begins) people were already setting up.  We saw a pick up truck parked on the main drag on which the owner had lined the cargo bed with heavy plastic and filled the bed with water. 

water tank
This guy is carrying a huge water supply. (Photo above and below courtesy of Kate Stratman)
look out
Here an unsuspecting dry pedestrian is about to get very wet.
We returned to Tybee to meet up with Kate and Rocky Stratman.  Kate has been a friend of Sandy’s for close to 40 years.  After dinner we drove our friends back to their hotel and all of the dust and pollen on our car was blasted away by “friendly fire”.
Saturday morning returning from our walk I came across this Corn Snake.  Non-venomous and very pretty. Look carefully in the center of the photo. At the time I took the photo I thought the snake might be poisonous so I did not want to get too close.
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The park trail we walked Friday morning took us deep in the woods where we came across what remains of this moonshine still.  No samples.
Skidaway 001
We went back to Tybee Island this afternoon to take a tour of Fort Pulaski and then to have an early dinner with Kate and Rocky.
K&R
Rocky and Kate on the boardwalk.

We got lucky on our visit to Fort Pulaski as they were firing cannons today.  The park rangers warned and instructed us to fully cover our ears as the sound of the cannon going off would be really loud.  It was.
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This cannon was the latest technology during the Civil War.  The inside of the barrel has a spiral groove which causes the shell to rotate thereby increasing accuracy.  This 30 pound shell contained gunpowder and could travel more than two miles.
The fort has a great 20 minute educational film in the Visitors Center that was well worth the time.
We learned that the fort took 30 years to build and about 30 minutes of Union Civil War cannon technology to breach the seven foot thick walls.
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We had a great time.  Tomorrow we begin our slow journey north.

Stay tuned.

1 comment:

  1. I'd hate to be that unsuspecting woman just walking along. :)

    ReplyDelete