On Thursday morning, I went over to Tina’s apartment to pick her up. We loaded the food and her belongings into the car, then we set off around 10:00a. We stopped for lunch at a travel center that had a Wendy’s and a Dairy Queen. By the afternoon, we had reached Darien, GA, so we walked around and looked at the docks, the neighborhoods, and some of the town squares.
We reached the Days Inn in downtown Brunswick, GA, where I had made reservations for two rooms. Tina rested while I walked around the neighborhood. Later that afternoon, we drove over to Saint Simons Island, visited some stores, and saw the lighthouse. Just as we were returning to the motel, the other crew was arriving. The five of us ate supper at a restaurant overlooking the marsh, just down the road from the motel.
That night, Ed, Don, and I shared one room, while Tina and Dyonna shared the adjacent room. Don did not get much sleep.
We took our time driving from Brunswick to Saint Marys, since the ferry was not scheduled to leave until around noon. Tim drove his van down bright and early that morning with Stefanie and Margaret. They met up with us in Saint Marys as we loaded our camping equipment and supplies onto the boat.
|
| Saint Marys dock |
The weather was cloudy as the boat headed out to the island. When we arrived at the dock, we unloaded everything and went into the ranger station for the orientation session. There was some confusion about the campsites, and we all ended up in campsite #1 at Sea Camp.
 |
| Campsite #1 |
We set up the tents in campsite #1. As we were fixing supper, the rain started coming down. Fortunately, we had set up a canopy over the picnic table. The rain stopped after about an hour. That night, the racoons got into our garbage.
 |
| Don in the tree |
 |
| Tina relaxing |
Margaret and I hiked up north along the Main Road, and then headed off on the parallel trail. We found an access road to the beach near Greyfield, so we headed out there. There was a gazebo in the dunes where we rested for a while. Then we walked back to Sea Camp along the beach.
 |
| Typical hiking trail on Cumberland Island |
We managed to get a second campsite because of another group that turned out to be a no-show. Stefanie and I moved our tents to campsite #5, which was somewhat quieter than #1.
 |
| Racoon Keys |
We headed out as a group back to the ranger station and down along the river trail to the Ice House museum. After looking thru the museum, we went over to Dungeness and looked around there for a while. Margaret and I walked back to Sea Camp along the beach.
That evening, I went back to the ranger station and hiked down the River Trail. This was the only time I went anywhere on the island by myself. I watched the sun set over Cumberland Sound, then went back to the ranger station. When I got there, Ed, Dyonna, and Margaret were sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch.
 |
| Don eating |
We spent most of the morning packing up and carrying our stuff to the dock. The boat took us back to Saint Marys, where we unloaded and packed our belongings back into the vehicles.
 |
| Stefanie preparing to depart |
Margaret rode back with me. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch, then headed up the interstate until we diverted to travel on part of the Coastal Highway. We walked around Darien and looked in the Visitors’ Center. Then we headed up to Meridian and saw the new Visitors’ Center for Sapelo Island. After leaving there, we visited the smallest church in America.
When we got back to Columbia in the middle of the afternoon, I dropped Margaret off at Stefanie’s house.
Back to the timeline
Return to Table of contents
Copyright © 2001 by Michael C. Adams. This page was last updated Sunday, February 18, 2001.