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At the end of our ferry ride from New Jersey, we continued our travels on solid roads again and eventually landed in Virginia for a bit.
Wild horses have always been fun to find in various places, and Virginia has a small herd on Assateague Island, part of Chincoteague National Wildlife Area. The horses live in the wetlands, which seems like odd horse habitat, and they do have some hoof issues due to the wet environment, but they manage to thrive. 
Their neighbors are egrets and ducks.
Hampton, Virginia, is home to the largest stone fort built in the U.S. and it is impressive.
Also impressive is that the beginning of slave emancipation began here during the Civil War, when a General Butler declared that 3 escaped slaves were ‘contraband of war’ and would not be returned to their owners.
The end of 2024 was fast approaching. and it was time for us to head south, along the coast, stopping at some of our favorite beaches as we went. We intended to make this a Christmas lights journey this year.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was the first beach
on our route, where a very large RV Park is situated on an easy -walking beach. It was wintertime and the temperature was not always warm, but walking on a beach is always fun. We enjoyed many beautiful sunsets and the ever-present shore birds.
Huntington Beach is just south of Myrtle Beach, and it is also walkable, but with some wilder environments like woods and marshes; and a very interesting history. In the 1930’s a philanthropist couple, Anna and Archer Huntington, built Atalya Castle,
a Spanish-Moorish building with a view of the ocean. The shell of that castle still exists and is open for viewing. Anna was a famous sculpture and Brookgreen Gardens was created across the road to house her sculptures in beautiful gardens.
We had visited Brookgreen before and vowed to come back for their Christmas lights display. We bought tickets for the Night of 1,000 lights, where candles are lit throughout the grounds. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that the candles could not be lit that night, but the electric light displays were magnificent, especially Live Oak Alley, strung with white lights from top to bottom.
James Island, off the coast of South Carolina, presents a Festival of Lights each year and it is quite pretty, with themed sections of lights on a circular drive around the island.
Savannah, Georgia, lit up the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, where fabulous blue lights greeted you as you walked in and the other lights pulled you deeper into the gardens.
The light displays listed above were ones we had planned to visit ahead of time, but the county fairgrounds opened up a drive-thru light display very close to where we were parked, so we got a bonus light display.
Christmas was spent on Blythe Island, one of our very favorite places to stay because of the many trails around the island, (no beaches here), and the very friendly rabbit population, which is always looking for a handout of some leafy veggies.
Jekyll Island is just a few miles from Blythe Island and is a fascinating place to visit. It was once the exclusive winter home for many of the country’s wealthiest families, who built ‘cabins’ and enjoyed the peaceful retreat. The original buildings have mostly survived and ‘regular’ people can now enjoy this lovely area.
Driftwood Beach displays a forest of dead trees that look like art projects,
the Turtle Center rehabilitates injured turtles and the occasional reptile, and there are many other interesting places.
We wanted to see the Christmas light show because multiple Live Oak trees around the original hotel grounds are spectacularly wrapped in white lights.
Traditional light displays can be observed via a driving tour around the rest of the island where many of the original ‘cabins’ are beautifully decorated. 
We closed out 2024 in St Marys, Georgia, a coastal town with a submarine base, and a state park within walking distance to the RV park. We enjoyed the state park trails, the many birds wintering there and the occasional turtle and armadillo that was wandering around. 
2024 was an action-packed, milestone year for us, and we hope these posts have been an enjoyable way for you to follow along with us.