Fort McAllister State Park, GA

 September 28, 2020

Drove to Fort McAllister State Park and set up camp on the longest pull-thru drive with a view of the marsh, spanish moss hanging from the trees and palmetto palms.

We took a walk down to the fishing pier on Redbird Creek in a light drizzle

hopefully the weather will improve and we can kayak this Wednesday afternoon

looking the opposite direction down the creek from the fishing pier.

September 29, 2020

Today's weather called for more rain so we drove to Hilton Head Island to see Jim's folks, Jim and Joan.  We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Black Marlin (Joan's first dining experience outside the house since the pandemic stay at home order).  After lunch we were able to walk Joe, their golden doodle, down at Harbour Town.

Jim Sr, Joan and Jim

After the walk we played a couple of games of Sequence and then drove back to the campsite in a rainstorm with gusty winds.

September 29,2020

This morning Jim and Joan came to the campsite to see the RV in person.

The weather was wonderful, so we took a walk to the fishing pier.

Joey came too

Since we came to Fort McAllister we felt obliged to take the self led tour of the Fort instead of kayaking.

The tour starts inside with a short film and then some exhibits and artifacts.

A self guided walk takes you outside to tour the fort grounds.  

The first stop takes you up the Signal Tower.

It was so nice we decide to have our lunch up there.

Behind us is the Ogeechee River.  

The whole idea of the fort was to protect Savannah from attack from the river.  

 

Fort McAlister's earthen walls proved to be better equipped to absorb the impact of the newer, heavier artillery projectiles.  Projectiles that damaged the walls were repaired nightly.

The hot shot gun.  This 32 pounder gun was designated to fire heated cannonballs at wooden ships to set them ablaze, turning it into a very effective weapon.  Imagine heating up the cannonball and then carrying over to the cannon to load.  A furnace berm was next to this gun to heat the cannonballs.

Inside the Central Bombproof they had a bunk room for officers for when they felt a naval attack was imminent and wanted to be safer than in the barracks.

At first I thought this room was large until I walked down the hall

and saw the multiple bunks for isolating the sick.  All of this inside one berm.

The fort withheld numerous naval attacks.  The demise of the fort came from a land attack across a meadow, but now the meadow is a beautiful forest.

The berms are also covered with tall trees now.

The grounds are beautiful.

We were certainly glad we took the tour of the fort.  It was much larger than we had anticipated from the small entry; acres of land with structures, cannons, rooms insider berms, along with great views of the Ogeechee River.

In the evening we had a beautiful sunset. A lovely goodbye.