Bayous to Beaches.Oct 19 Day 7 All Jekyll -no Hyde. And a whole lot of rain. Jekyll Island Georgia
 

Monday 7 October
Yesterday is HERE

As a reminder, we are now into the non Florida leg of this trip. We will return to the sunshine state at the end of this week.Today we leave Louisiana and begin our road trip along the Golden Isles Coastline

Of course because today has a morning flight involved, our body clocks decided that we would not wake super early like every other day this trip;) - no we would oversleep and not wake till 6.45 :erm:- which made it a bit of a rush as we needed to avoid getting caught in Monday morning traffic heading into New Orleans, especially as our route was over the very long Pontchartrain bridge, so not many alternatives if there is a snarl up. :omg:

Guess who slept in which bed :pgig:



Breakfast was available in the exec lounge. This was pretty functional but a decent choice. The very attentive lady in charge did a lot of hovering so I didn't feel comfortable taking pics



While there, we had a message to say our flight was delayed by an hour. :(

This was a pain as we had a long drive ahead of us from Orlando to Jekyll Island and we were hoping to get there while it was still light.

Thinking we now had a bit of time we weren’t quite so rushed after all and around 7.30 we were on our way.



The traffic was busy but free flowing



Going over that very long bridge is quite something with all the trees in the water at the side.

and by 0930 we were at the airport.

There was a minor hiccup as we had just tripped over the 24-hour rental period :erm: but service agent waived the fee which was nice of her - we hadn’t even thought about that when we had taken those extra minutes at breakfast :omg:

Check in was swift and we decided to also check in the small cabin case so there would be less faff when boarding.

There was no queue at security and we went straight to the gate for our extended wait.

Much as we love NOLA, this airport is basic



and continues to have a very poor offer for food. It’s all very unappealing.

I had a revolting po boy



Horrible. :nonono:

and Andy had a mediocre hot dog.

The wait seemed much longer than the hours delay

And there was a bit of tetchiness with Andy declaring the planned miles ahead was too much - even though we had been over the plan for the miles each day, we hadn’t thought about what might happen if we hit delays.

So for a short while it was a bit “spiky” going back and forth about who plans too much and who doesn’t show any interest.;):nonono:

Ahem. Happy Days.

I did offer to cancel our plans and just shorten the drive and stop somewhere else, even staying in Orlando and setting off early the next morning as I am determined this trip not to be a slave to the plan.

In the end we agreed to stick it out and see how we got on once we were on the road.

Boarding was ok



It was better with less luggage and we were half way down the aircraft so not the disaster I imagined.

We took off an hour late at 1230 and it was a bit bumpy.

It was also blindingly bright every time the person next to me in the window seat opened the blind:mad:. Which was like every two minutes.

Going forward in time zones meant we had landed at 2.45.

Andy went to get the car and I waited for the cases.

The first 3 came off really quickly but not the small cabin case.

I waited

and waited

and those minutes kept ticking.

We were just about to report it as lost when we saw a member of the airport staff carrying it towards the carousel :erm:

so we were able to nab it.

It had apparently been for extra screening.

I can’t think why.

Possibly the rather large Walgreen tubs of paracetamol, ibuprofen and turmeric tablets has shown up on the scanner as being slightly dubious! :omg:


Finally, at 3.30 we were on the road a good hour behind the plan

I was starting to get really down as virtually moments after leaving there was a torrential downpour and we ran into traffic.

No chance of making up time.:cry:

And so, it was for the next few hours

Rain



Road



More Rain



Rear Lights



and Road Works



We debated making the stop at Jacksonville for dinner at the Bearded Pig but decided the delay would put us right into evening rush hour traffic and we would keep going on the I95.

We were later to learn that taking the detour through Jacksonville is actually often quicker than the battling the freeway roadworks. :confused2

The journey was just pants :nonono:

Andy was really feeling his cold and I wasn’t feeling the love for road trips.

It just wasn’t the pleasant evening scenic drive to Georgia that I had been imagining :cry:

It just did not let up - it rained and rained



The irony - sunshine state NOT



Yes Georgia you may be peachy, but not today



It made arriving at Jekyll hard work, very little lighting and narrow roads and bridges to negotiate.



I am sure its lovely on a sunny day but on a dark and rainy night its frankly rubbish



There is a toll to park on the island $8 for a day so we bought that to cover the night and following morning and headed towards our hotel - which was the south end of the Island and seemingly the furthest point from everywhere.:cry:

They did however have a luggage cart as we were not travelling light :erm:



which made de camping from the car easier and the guy on reception gave us a low down on where we could eat - including the hotel bar before it closed in 30 minutes

Just to round off this crappy day the room was disappointing.



It was clean but so dated and just not appealing.

Jekyll had been very expensive and I had picked this as it was reasonable, had free breakfast and one of those walkways to the beach that I really wanted to walk along.

But it was raining so no moonlight walks on the beach:( and I guess it was reasonable because it is a bit dated.



Feeling really flat we headed to the bar




Citron Lemonade for me :tongue:





We shared the beer cheese pretzel bites. Lush.



Andy had a burger and I had the kids size chicken tenders



All a bit beige but delicious :thumbs-up



A bit like in New Orleans the meal was ruined by a loud person near us who obviously had too much chardonnay and was just SO LOUD. :mad2:

No volume control and completely irritating.

Or maybe we were just cranky.

Or both.

After finishing the very nice food and drink and chatting to the barman we headed to bed completely shattered and a bit flat.
Let’s hope tomorrow is better! :thumbs-up Its just HERE

Today's cocktail tally: 1
Holiday tally so far : 13

That was a lot of rain. It must have made the driving pretty arduous. Shame the room was underwhelming when you finally checked in. This wasn't quite the travel day you were hoping for. At least the food was good at the end of it all.

What a shame about the weather and the delays!
Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!

Really enjoying your report, looking forward to reading more! 😃

Such a shame about the rain and the disappointing hotel Amanda. Especially when it’s one of the more expensive ones, you wouldn’t mind if it was a $50 Super 8! How long did it take you to get there in the end? We are hoping to get to Jacksonville from MCO but not sure that’s too ambitious after getting off a long haul flight!
Jim and I regularly have the ‘over planned vs couldn’t give a toss about the plan’ argument 😉

We went to the Golden isles and Jekll some years ago. Lovely coast and we were fortunate with the weather. Expensive to stay but we managed to get some good prices at walk in. St Simon’s was cheaper than Jekyll

That’s a good word Abby to describe the whole day, underwhelming ! Jekyll did improve in the morning :thumbs-up That bar food was basic but perfect and the barman was really nice Plus the cocktail was super nice:pgig:

Thanks, it was lousy wasn’t it. Happily tomorrow is a good day :D

Thank you :heart:

It took us around 4 hours to Jekyll. When I planned it I was thinking couple of hours to Jacksonville, get there for dinner around 5, then another couple of hours to Jekyll and romantic stroll on the beach. It was 231 miles. Andy was saying at the airport that 200 miles was the limit ( first time that was said even though I shared the plan ) and I was like it’s 31 miles more not 131 so not a huge difference :confused2. But I don’t drive so his call. Good learning though as I won’t plan for more than 150 at a time in future and definitely not after a flight ;)
I think if there had been no delay and no rain it wouldn’t have been an issue... ;)

Thanks. We did like exploring Jekyll the next day and I would like to see St Simons. Interesting to think about walk in rates !

Shame that it wasn't the best day for you, I hate driving in the rain. I'm really enjoying your trip report overall and looking forwards to reading more.

Thank you. This was almost our worst day bar one other shocker near the end :(
The next few days were really great with seeing new places. Thanks for reading along.

Bah. We’ve had days exactly like that - after a difficult journey the relief of finally arriving sours when the destination disappoints.

I really hope you woke up in the next morning with the sun shining and a lovely boardwalk stroll :thumbs-up