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

[WileyCoyote]

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 - 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.

Guess who slept in which bed

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 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

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.

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.

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. 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

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!


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.

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.

The journey was just pants

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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! Its just HERE

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