The Ray Adventures: May 18 - May 24 St. Mary's Georgia Kingsbay Naval Submarine Base

When I made reservations at Kinbsbay Naval Base I had no idea what the area was like, just a stopping place before heading on up to Savannah. Originally we were going to stay a week but after looking at the calendar we were scheduled to leave close to Memorial Day Weekend so we extended another week. Since we've been here we have fallen in love with the Southeastern Georgia coast, now we are scheduled to leave June 6th. The last several days we've had severe weather including tornado warnings, thunder and lightning and heavy rainfall. The locals are happy, they've been in a drought, with wildfires in Georgia and Florida. Just west of us the Okefenoke Swamp and National Wildlife Refuge fire is now mostly contained. Boy howdy when it rains here it RAINS!

Thursday, May 18 Nursing my sprained foot and ego I stayed in the coach while Gary went into Historic St. Mary's to visit the Submarine Museum on the waterfront. He said it was a cute little museum filled with artifacts. An engaging movie geared for children but entertaining enough for adults explaining what submarines are and how they operate. I "whimped" out and spent the morning elevating my foot. Later we drove back to St. Mary's to Cumberland Island National park visitor center, deciding against taking a 6 hour tour, expensive and long.

Friday, May 19, We drove down to Jacksonville, Florida, only about 25 miles, we left Luci at Pet Paradise (another free doggie day care day) close to Jacksonville (JAX) International Airport in the north western part of the city, we wanted to see the Intercoastal Islands of Florida and the large area of Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. Our first stop was the Kingsley Plantation, located on the Ft. George River, a 19th century sea cotton plantation 1813 - 1839. The main house, kitchen, barn and remains of 23 slave cabins are preserved on the property. Sea cotton is twice as tall as regular cotton and much softer. Zephaniah Kingsley, a successful merchant and planter had an African wife he'd purchased he in Cuba in 1806, he freed her and their children in 1811. It's interesting that a black woman in the 1800's then became a slave owner. The slave cabins were made of tabby, a mixture of shells, sand and concrete. After leaving the plantation we drove through a canopy road and stumbled upon the Ribault Club, opened in 1928, a wintertime resort for the wealthy northerners. Falling into disrepair it became part of Ft. George Island Cultural State Park, in 1989, opened to the public in 2003 for tours and also events such as weddings. The "hungrys" set in, we drove up Little Talbot Island and Big Talbot Island to Amelia Island, the only island with a town. We grabbed a quick bite before heading to Fort Clinch State Park. Amelia Island was Florida's first resort with the wealthy from the north coming down, building mansions and luxury resorts. Thirteen miles of beaches and dunes still draw the tourists - at the southern tip of the island is American Beach, it was one of the country's predominately Afro American beaches, unusual for the 1930's when many beaches were closed to African Americans. Construction of Fort Clinch, built on the mouth of St. Mary's River was never completed, the fort served as a military post during the Civil War, Spanish American War and WWII. Two Civil War era soldiers were on hand to answer questions, they were wearing wool jackets in high 80's weather. Time to pick up Luci about 20 miles west during rush hour traffic. She was one tired pup!

Tuesday, May 23 We wanted to learn more about historic St.Mary's, we signed up for a trolley tour, turned out to be a 3 seat golf cart like the one in Tallahassee but this time there were 4 other passengers. Gary took the back seat - facing back while insisting I sit up front with our guide Bob. One thing we learned - Spanish moss is Tilisandra - not a moss at all, it belongs to the pineapple family. Explorers first landed here in the 1600's, the town actually started in 1787 with 20 charter members, each receiving 4 - 4 acre town lots. The last battle of the war of 1812 was fought at Pt. Peter in 1814, guess the news didn't travel fast in those days. Bob said, and I quote "The War of Northern Aggression" (Civil War for us non southerners) the northern Navy bombed the towns' shoreline buildings, burnt churches and took over mansions for their needs.
Oak Grove Cemetery was established in 1787, very unusual for their time, both black and whites were buried there. He told us "ghost" stories. A sad story, a man lost his wife at a young age, he didn't want her in the ground so he had a crypt built for her. He had the only key and every night he would stay inside with her. One night he lost his key and was found dead in front of the crypt the next day. Supposedly he haunts the cemetery looking for the key. The brick walls around family plots were built to keep the cattle out. St Mary's is protected from the Atlantic by barrier islands, the largest, Cumberland which is about the size of Manhattan. and salt marsh's. More about it next time. A salt marsh is an area along the coast that has water flowing in and out bringing nutrients in and carrying out toxins and waste. The coastal wetlands are rich in marine life and grasses. A healthy salt marsh supports a variety of marine life including alligators, snakes, herons, spoonbills, great snowy egrets and ibis.

Wednesday, May 24 The weather today has been terrible, thunder storms until about 3 with heavy rain. Locals are happy because of the ongoing drought and wildfires. I did some long overdue cleaning and Gary took the Jeep to the local dealership to get the sunroof leak fixed. It was a good day to hunker down and stay inside. I made some low-sodium turkey chili. Yum?

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam