We again go walking on Cumberland Island with Mike and Julie and see all sorts of wildlife, deer, wild horses, eagles, seagulls and sandpipers. There are also tons of seashells and stranded dead horseshoe crabs of enormous size. We find a 2-3 inch sand dollar and about a 2 inch sea urchin shell along with two whelk shells. The sea urchin shell got dropped and broke while trying to get another. Also found a boom about 20 feet long and about 10 inches in diameter partially buried in the sand. Somebody had a bad day. The horses are mainly in the grassy area just ashore from the boats and also at the Dungeoness Ruins. There are plenty of tracks of horses on the beach and on all the trails. We saw the tracks of a very large bird near the staff quarters. The print must have been about 4-5 inches long so I am thinking it was a peacock or turkey even though we did not see either.

The forest areas here are live oak and palm fronds with little other ground cover. It is kind of different and there are three distinct areas within 4 miles of the ranger station. For some reason I start thinking about a set of glasses that could change the color of the foliage to the blue tint and you would feel like you were on Pandora from the movie Avatar. Hopefully there aren't any of the 6 legged dog animals here.

While sitting on the rocking chairs at the visitor’s center Lana sees a submarine going up the St. Mary’s river to Kings Bay with a contingent of support craft. It is quite a sight to see. Throughout the park are markers with the QR code barcodes that give an audio tour of the island. Here is the link to the audio tour.

https://cuis.oncell.com/en/1-timucuan-indians-71778.html?label=1.%2520Timucuan%2520Indians

This is the first of many but I think it links to each of them in succession.

We have a combined dinner of steak, spaghetti and meatballs and toast before settling in for a marbles showdown. The first marbles games between Mike and Julie, me and Lana since we were in the Exumas last spring. It is a major event with a lot of trash talk building up to the main event which became a slug fest. There was even a double double with one of my sevens taking out two of Lana’s marbles twice in one game. I am now in the doghouse for an extended period of time. Needless to say the guys won the match 3-0. The sun, stars and planets are aligned again.

Tomorrow we will move to St. Mary’s, Georgia about 8 miles away for the week and the Thanksgiving cruisers dinner on Thursday. The local yacht club provides the turkey and fixins while the cruisers bring sides and deserts. Throughout the week there are locals that shuttle cruisers to the local grocery, chandlery and of course West Marine. There will be about 50-75 boats by Thursday. WHITEBIRD with Peter and Kathy is expected in from Charleston on Monday early afternoon. Also we are going to go to the St. Mary’s submarine museum on Sunday. Saw the building last year but did not get to go. From the outside you can see a periscope tube sticking through the roof of the building.