The main reason Tom and I keep coming to St Simons Island is the incredible beauty of the place, especially during the winter months. Because the weather is so warm here, and the live oaks never lose their leaves, it hardly looks like winter at all. In fact, every since February we have been enjoying …
Coastal Georgia RV Resort near Brunswick
I realized last week that I never wrote a post on Coastal Georgia RV Resort. We stayed at this very nice RV park during the government shutdown back in January. It is located just south of Brunswick on US 17. Coastal Georgia RV Resort is immaculately clean and nicely landscaped. There are 150 full hook-up …
Homefront WWII Museum on St Simons Island
On a wet and cold day in February, Mom, Dad, Tom and I visited the Homefront WWII Museum on St Simons Island. We had been riding and walking by the Old Coast Guard station on the island for two years and it was never open. Everyone kept telling us they were making it into a …
Rock Star Tom Hartley in the News
I like to tease Tom that he is a rock star at Fort Frederica. When he dresses in his British soldier uniform, people flock to him. We can have five people in the park, but Tom starts talking about his musket and suddenly there are 30 people standing around listening to him. I think there …
Resistance to the Beast
My devotional book for the week is “Inspired” by Rachel Held Evans. I reviewed her book, “Searching for Sunday” in January. “Inspired” is a different kind of book. It is a Biblical Scholar meets storyteller book. The ideas are mostly scholarship that I have been dealing with since seminary (a long time ago). But Rachel’s …
Historic Harrington School and Cultural Center
The first year we were on St Simons, I went on a trolley tour that included black heritage sites on the island. Because Fort Frederica is part of the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor, it was important for me to know about these sites. Gullah Geechee refers to the descendants of the slaves on the coastal …
Wanderer Memory Trail on Jekyll Island
One of the last things we did before Mom and Dad headed back to Ohio was visit the Wanderer Memory Trail on Jekyll Island. Mom saw a blurb on it in one of the coastal “Things to Do” magazines. So, after riding bikes one day, we headed to the south end of Jekyll Island to …
Friends of Fort Frederica Celebration
The day after our third Colonial Day, we had another big event here at Fort Frederica. Most parks have a Friends group where local people work in partnership with a National Park site. Last year, the Friends of Fort Frederica was reformed into a partnership with the National Park service and the Fort. So last …
Third Colonial Day at Fort Frederica
Because it is our third year working at Fort Frederica, it is also our third Colonial Day at Fort Frederica. Colonial Day is the celebration of the colonists arriving at Fort Frederica in March of 1736. So we have lots of living history people, demonstrations, and hands-on activities at this special event. Our third Colonial …
St Simons United Methodist Church, Georgia
Last week, Tom and I were able to attend worship for the first time since January. As the only living history volunteers at Fort Frederica, we have been working every Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we had a big event, with another one Sunday evening, so we took Sunday morning off and went to church. Instead …