We drove to Fripp Island which is a private resort Island so we didn't go through the guard gate. The drive there was great, there's many islands to drive through just to get to Fripp island. Fripp is a very well known name in Beaufort and dates back to the 1800's. There were many roads named with Fripp in it. As another side note, Jim's uncle, last name Dowling was also prominent in Beaufort and googling these names brings up several hits. On Hunting Island (there's no hunting permitted there), we drove through another state park and I saw this giant spider, got out and snapped a picture of it. I later found out from Aunt Patty that it's called a Banana Spider and even saw another in her yard. They are down right creepy looking. I included my picture even though it's blurry but I found another off the web to insert here. Ick.
I will tell you that Beaufort is RICH in historical sites, and state parks. It's amazing, it seemed like every block had something to look at. I wonder, where the hell all the people live....
OK, here's a strange thing. We stopped at this place called "Chapel of Ease" and Jim had to pee (that's not the strange part, trust me.) He went beyond the chapel to the back of the woods and as I'm standing there with the dog, I notice bones on the ground. I shouted the info to Jim who saw them as well. There was an arm with fingers, a pelvic bone and a spine in 2 places. I snapped some photos. The arm looked like it had clothing attached near the wrist. We didn't disturb them, decided we should stop at the fire department on the way back to tell them. We didn't want to call 911 nor did we know where the sheriff was located. Anyway, we toured the rest of the area including a crypt where it looked like 3 Fripps were entombed at one time. The chapel as well as many other ancient places were built with "tabby". I googled it and here's more background: Tabby, a type of concrete made from burning oyster shells to extract the lime, was the earliest form of hard surface building material in Beaufort County. In fact, Beaufort County was the heart of tabby production on the east coast. St. Augustine FL was the only other area known to utilize this laborious process to construct walls and buildings.
Fort Fremont was a Fort we walked through. Located at the southwestern tip of St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, Fort Fremont was constructed in 1899 to defend Port Royal Sound and the Naval Station located at Parris Island (which became the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot in 1906). I didn't take any pictures, it was one of those "you've seen one fort, you've seen them all".
We went home to meet Aunt P and give her the RV tour. A few donuts later we showed her the pictures of the bones. What happened to the fire department visit, you ask? We forgot. Aunt P knew the sheriff department's phone number by heart so I placed a call to them. Aunt P wanted to see the bones in person so on the way to her house we stopped at the Chapel of Ease again. She looked at the bones and she saw a skull nearby but an animal skull. The piece of clothing I thought I saw on the wrist was some skin and fur upon closer inspection. I wondered if the Sheriff had come by and kicked the skull over to the other bones. Both Jim and I didn't see one hours prior. I was almost bummed it was an animal. I thought I had helped solve an unsolved mystery or something. I guess it's back to using my secret decoder ring.....We finished the evening at Patty's with delicious garbanzo bean soup shared with Patty's son, Joab, his wife Jennifer and their 3 kids, Elizabeth, Joab the 4th, and Jacob. Jim says Joab's kids were much better behaved than Joab was when a child.
Here's some humorous photos I took during the day trip:
Tomorrow it's off to Canon, Georgia where we'll be staying at "In The Woods", a themed campground.
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