A Day in St Marys

Monday is my Sunday since I work on Saturday which makes Sunday my Saturday.  Are you with me on that?  Sunday I had to work for a little while then went out to Jekyll Island to do some birding with a real birder.  I'm going to help her out with the Wilson Plover watch.  More on that later.  Today is all about me and my dog and the town of St Marys, GA. 

St. Marys is about 38 miles from the campground and a pretty straight forward drive.  I just go into downtown Folkston, turn onto highway 40 beside the courthouse and keep going straight.  The highway goes right into the historic downtown area of St. Marys and ends at the waterfront.

We arrived at the pier just as the 9am ferry to Cumberland Isand was pulling away.  Of course, with this being the height of spring break season the ferry was filled to capacity.

After waving good-bye to the ferry Gus and I walked around that end of town a little bit.  I checked to see what time the Submariners Museum would open thinking I could leave Gus in the car for 20 minutes while I zipped through.  Drat!  Closed on Mondays!!  I had to settle for a picture of the building instead.  Hope to get back there one day. 

I did get a picture of the restaurant next door which Linda laughed about when we came to catch the ferry.  She said it looked like one of those fake buildings from a movie set.  Oh Linda, if only I had listened to you.  Gus and I walked past here as we returned to move the car.  The first place we parked was a 2 hour spot near the ferry.  Since I had planned to be there much longer I thought I would park the car down near the waterfront park where they have 36 hour parking. 

The park was full of cars, trucks, huge lights and cables running everywhere - and security.  We parked across the street in the last available spot and walked around toward the pier where we found this explanation.  Now I do enjoy the show but Gus and I just didn't feel like making our TV debut today so we settled for just moving down the road to the old cemetery, a place I had been meaning to check out any way. 

The cemetery dates back to the 1780s when the Spanish first began the town.  A worker there took me over to the first recorded grave which is of course beneath the shade of a live oak tree dripping with Spanish Moss.  They no longer have plots for sale so only those who have pre-purchased the remaining grave sites can be buried here.  It seems like a cool, shady place to spend eternity and still be in view of the Cumberland Sound. 

We moved on from there to do a little browsing in the used bookstore but came out empty there.  Then we stopped at Orange Hall, one of the original buildings in town from the time it was established in 1802.  They call it Orange Hall because of all the orange trees on the property, but none of them produce oranges anymore and no one knows why.  I think it's all the Spanish Moss.  But we did find a geocache behind the back steps and a beautiful camelia tree just finishing up its blooming season. 

And then we saw the Episcopal Church, founded 1802, directly across the street from Orange Hall.  It didn't appear to be open so we settled for pictures.

By now it was time to think about some lunch so Gus and I headed back west on highway 40 to the newer part of town where we found a Wendy's which suited us both for a quick lunch.  After eating we went back out to Crooked River State Park to leave a note for the ranger who led my paddle tour to Cumberland Island last week. 



Along the way we passed by Kings Bay Submarine Base which is in St. Marys.  No wonder I like this town - it's a Navy town! 

We also passed by this funeral home near the hospital (just me but I think a funeral home anywhere close to a hospital is bad PR for the hospital).  By the way, I did see a more modern conveyance parked behind the building.

After the park visit where we walked for a little while we stopped in to visit with Lori and Ernie, some friends fron the women's rv forum that I'm a member of.  I thought maybe Gus and their dog Spinner might have a nice visit but Gus was suspicious and not very trusting so he just sat beneath me at the picnic table and glowered.  Poor Spinner, he's such a nice pup.  Or maybe Gus understood that our final stop of the day would be in Kingsland at the vet which is where we headed after wishing Lori a safe trip.  They are off in a few days to Mayport, FL. 

It was time to update Gus' rabies vacination and while we were there we got a nail trim and a few other chores taken care of.  Gus did pretty good and only snapped at the tech once.  Considering all the body parts we were messing with I'd say he did pretty good.  By the time we got home around 3pm I was worn out.  It was a great day in St. Marys and I will miss that little town when I leave, but maybe I will get a chance to go back one more time - not on a Monday so that I can visit the Submariner Museum.