Finally a Beach Day!

   John got up and did his walking, but he still couldn't use his regular route due to flooding.  When he got back at 9:00 I was still in bed.  I really didn't sleep well last night... maybe the rain kept me restless.  I watched some TV and did some of my prayers and exercises.  John was outside doing some pre-departure work and at about 10:15 he opened the outside door and asked if I was dressed yet cause he could use my help.  I was still in bed so I high-tailed it out and by the time I was dressed he yelled in that he didn't need me after all.  But I went out anyway to help.  He had already taken the sides off of the screen house and washed off the bottoms.  He had also lowered the frame and washed off the roof.  He also washed the gray rug that we use in addition to the big brown rug.  He had gotten a lot done while I was being lazy.  I felt bad about that.  Oh, and by the way, we decided that our small 4 ft. rectangular folding table will work inside the screen house, so we're not going to get the folding round table for now.  We finished outside and I came in to eat breakfast.  A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.  It was the Vicki and Paul from Manheim.  They wanted to swap info so we could stay in contact.  We chatted for about a half hour.  They are really nice people and we hope to get together after we get home.  One thing about the camping lifestyle... you sure meet a lot of nice people!!  I finished my breakfast and the sun came out!!  YIPPEE... let's get to the beach.  They were calling for thunderstorms around 3:00, so that gave us about 3 hours.  That will work!!  We went to the main beach but stayed to the CG end of it for something different.  It was beautiful... about 78 degrees and a moderate breeze.  John went walking and I started a new book by Max Lucado, "You Will Get Through This".  I read 3 chapters and decided to do some searching for shells/sand dollars.  I wasn't finding anything by the water, so I went up toward the shoreline and, low and behold, there was a large white baby ear shell laying on the beach.  I was one happy camper!!  Later I found either a stingray barb or a horseshoe crab tail.  I'm not sure which one it is.  I met up with John and he had found a medium size conch shell. 

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves!

 

 

There's today's treasures.

 

Some of the clouds were real wispy...
They looked like feathers.

 

 

Others looked like a horizon with snow covered
mountain tops in the background!

We walked back to our chairs and I did some more reading while John took a nap.  A barking dog woke him up just in time for us to realize that storm clouds were rolling in and we better high-tail it out of there.  It was right around 3:00 like the forecast said.  When we got back we folded the sides and the roof of the screen house and brought the gray rug in under the awning to finish drying.  Just as we got done it started to rain.  Our timing was perfect!  We went inside and John  said, "OK...what will it be?"  He was challenging me to a game.  We picked the word game, "Upwards" and he creamed me!!  We had supper, John got a shower and then challenged me to "Hand and Foot".  He got pretty far ahead, but I won the last round and almost beat him.  At least it was respectable!  Then we took a walk around the CG.  We figured out next Fall's camping schedule and watched the World Series the rest of the evening.  Then we went to bed.  John fell asleep by 11:00 and I stayed awake to work on the blog. I got done about midnight, played some "Word Twist" and went nighty-night.

A Rainy Day on Jekyll :(

   We woke to rain this morning, but John did manage to get his walk in.  It Started to rain just before he got back, but, luckily, he did have his umbrella!

We didn't get a whole lot of rain, but there was
Widespread flooding along the coast. 

 

John was unable to take his normal route because the water was
across one of the bridges near the pier.

 

 

Even the path by the road was starting to flood!

  We had breakfast and I watched some TV while John played on the computer.  Then we decided to give Kylie a much needed bath.  John took one of our pink totes out back and used the outdoor shower on Harvey to clean her up.  She always looks so pathetic when we give her a bath! 

My poor baby girl isn't having a very good time,
but she behaved well!!

We brought her back over to the picnic table and toweled her off and then dried her with the hair dryer.  After we were done with Kylie I worked on yesterday's blog and John got a shower.  I got a text from Claudia with our picture attached saying that they miss us.  I texted her back and told her that they should join us in MC at Camp Lejeune when we leave here.  And guess what... they were already planning on it!!  We are looking so forward to spending more time with them, because we had so little time the first time!   I whipped up some home-made chicken noodle soup and finished the blog while the soup cooked.  We ate lunch about 2:00.  I got a shower and we decided to go shopping just to get out.  We had things to return to Home Depot and then we went to the Glynn Place Mall.  I got some clearance jewelry for my pins at Belk and Sears, and John got lots of steps toward his Appalachian Trail hike.  It was after 6:00 by now and we were getting hungry, so we stopped at Five Guys for a burger and fries.  They are always so good!!  We got back about 7:30 and I uploaded the pix from today and started working on today's blog while waiting for "The Voice" to start.  Cooper called and we talked to him for about a half hour.  I watched "The Voice" and "Chicago Fire", finished the blog and went to bed.  The weather is looking better for tomorrow, so, hopefully, we'll get to the beach!

Visited St. Simon Island Again

   We had checked the weather yesterday and knew that today was going to be a "gray" day, so we decided to go over to St. Simon for breakfast on a recommendation from Wanda and Wally.

  Sandcastle Café and Grill is located just off the pier on the main drag in St. Simon.  Their breakfast buffet (which we just discussed we weren't going to do anymore) is pretty unique.  For $10.95 you can order eggs any way you want them, pancakes, French toast and/or waffles. You can have as many of those as you want. Then there is 3 kinds of sausage, bacon, hash browns, corned beef hash, plain and cheese grits, sausage gravy, biscuits, muffins, fruit, yogurt and juices.  It also includes coffee and tea (hot and iced).  It was very good and we did good, too.  We both only had one trip to the buffet, some eggs and each had 1 piece of French toast (me) and a waffle (John).  When we were just about finished Claudia (the gal and her husband, Larry, who we met our first week here) called.  She said they have been thinking about us and just wanted to check in.  It was so wonderful to talk with her and catch up a bit.  We are definitely going to try to hook up in Florida.  John went to find a bathroom and I went into "Tonya's".  There was a beautiful home-made "corn hole" game sitting up against one of the display shelves.  It caught my eye right away because we have been talking about getting one.  But the good ones are pricey and we decided to let the kids go together to get that for us for Christmas if they wanted a suggestion.  So I kept on looking around and John came in the store.  Right away he said to me," did you see that corn hole game... it's really neat!".  He doesn't usually get that excited about a game and it was expensive, so I was surprised.  We decided it was so unique and well made that it would be our birthday and Christmas gifts to each other this year.

 

 

Pretty neat, huh?

  John went out walking.

This a female grackle.  The male is all black.
They are very "verbal" birds!

Love when the sun glistens on the water!

You can see Jekyll Island from St. Simon's

Pretty lighthouse!  Don't know the history... shucks!

This pelican posed for John.

"You are getting sleepy... very, very sleepy"

Mommy and baby whale sculpture in the park.

 I went to "One of a Kind" to get more boxes of cheese dips and to "Nature Gifts" jewelry store.  I had bought a bunch of things there the last time we were on the Island and I just had to look again.  Of course, I found some more things, but I wasn't sure if they matched what I had gotten before. 

Albert, the pig was going for a salad with his owner.

We left about 2:30 and the plan was I was going to come right back with my previous purchases to match them.  I was back on St Simon by 3:45 and took care of business.  I stopped at the Winn Dixie on the way home for a few groceries.  There just happened to be a Tuesday Morning next door. I hadn't been in one of them since I lived in York, so I felt a calling.  I found a few things, but nothing major.  While I was there Arlena called and we chatted for a while.  Both babies are breech right now.  Hopefully, they will turn in the next couple of weeks.  If not she will most likely have a C-section on or about Dec 3rd. I got back about 5:30 and started to make supper.

This is the toll booth about 2 miles from the entrance to Jekyll Island.
It costs $6 per car to get in daily, but there is a weekly discount ticket for $28.
Interestingly, you can get a yearly pass for $48, so that's what we got.  They
put a sticker on your windshield that has a chip.  Of course, you have to figure
out how much you will leave the Island in a week to have it pay off!
 

Saw these deer on my way home.

Here they are all together.  Never get tired of their beauty!

   My phone rang and it was Tori, a gal I used to work with at UAL.  I was even in her wedding!  We had lost touch for the last 10 or 12 yrs.  And I have tried numerous times to find her, without any luck.  About a week and a half ago TW texted me to tell me that he saw her on Facebook.  I asked him to contact her for me, but he forgot.  I asked him again and WO-LA she contacted me.  It was neat to hear from her after all these years and catch up a bit.  We're going to get together when we get back.  She is still in York Co.  I finished up supper, we ate and then it was time for "The Voice".

We finally got some pix of the new screened house.
It works really well for us.  It was so great to watch
football on Sat and Sun without getting all bit up!!

  John went into the bedroom to watch TV.  He went to bed right after 10:00 and I watched more TV while uploading the pictures from the camera.  I was going to work on my blog, but I was too tired, so I went to bed about 12:00.  Tomorrow looks like another rainy day :(, so I'm not sure what we're going to do.

An Uncooperative Weather Day!


  
I woke up about 8:00 to the smell of something good.  John was cooking "hunky" eggs for breakfast.  They were so good!  He worked on next month's bills and then we got ready for church.  Being our last Sunday here on Jekyll, we were disappointed when the we realized the regular pastor wasn't there today.  He was recovering from cataract surgery.  It was kind of ironic, because the pastor that we love at our home church was preaching his last sermon there today, so we won't get to see him either :((  We did meet a couple a from York.  We hope to visit with them before we leave Jekyll.  They had Fellowship time with goodies afterward, so we weren't hungry for lunch (plus we had only finished breakfast at 9:30). We were hoping to go to the beach today, but it was drizzling when we came out of church.  The sun never really did pop through, so we just hung around the CG again today.  Bonnie called and we chatted a while.  John took a nap and I took Kylie for a walk.  I visited with Wanda and Wally for a bit... they were picking crabs.  I didn't want to stay too long or they might have asked me to help!  They have caught over 700 of them since they've been here!!  When John got up we played Hand and Foot and Five Crowns.  I beat him pretty badly at both.  So I challenged him to a round of miniature golf that's down across from Great Dunes beach.  He beat me by 6 strokes.  I had 2 really bad holes... that was the difference.  But I'll be the first to admit that John played well!




It's a cute course, but not too challenging!

We saw this young deer on the way back from the golf course.

 

  I realized that today was Bonnie and Ken's 46th wedding anniversary, so I called and John and I sang "Happy Anniversary" to them.  WOW!  Where do the years go?!?   Wepretty much watched football outside in our new screen house the rest of the day.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture again).  John grilled a flat iron steak for supper and we did eat inside for that.  Man, it was good!  TW sent me a text that said, "My child just walked up to me and said, "smell this, it stinks".  I wonder where he got that from?!?!?!  Then we went back outside to watch the Eagles play the Panthers on Sunday Night Football.  We went to bed about 10:45.  The Eagles are losing 13-21 right now.  Hopefully, they can pull it out!

Spent a Relaxing Day in the CG Today!

   I woke up at 9:00!  John was still out walking.  He got back about 9:30.  I finally crawled out of bed at 10:30 after watching several episodes of Fixer Upper on HGTV.  We had breakfast, then I got a shower while John took our dirty clothes down to the laundry.  I put all my shells away and did the dishes, and John went back down to the laundry to switch the clean clothes over to the dryers.  When he got back he did some cleaning up outside while I attempted to "fix my face".  I know what you're thinking..."that must have taken a while". Ha! Ha!  We both went down to the laundry to fold the wash.  After we put the laundry away we got in the Jeep and headed to Walmart to pick up the screen house we ordered.  When we got back it was a little after 3:00 and we wanted to set it up to watch the Penn State/Maryland game at 3:30.  We had lots of time because it is it supposed to take just 3 minutes to set up.  Yeah... right!!  Just as we started the LoPiccolo's (the couple from Manheim) walked by.  They stopped to chat and helped us with the set up.  It took 4 of us about 30 minutes to do it, but it was pretty easy.  It shouldn't take us as long next time!!  We love it.  It suits our needs very well.  I'll get a picture for you tomorrow.  But the table that took us so long to pick up at Camping World yesterday is another story.  It was defective... impossible to put together.  No, really, 2 of the pieces were on the frame backwards, there was no way to assemble it.  You thought it was just us, didn't you?!?  So that will go back Monday or Tuesday and we'll look at some other ones.  I made lunch and we ate and watched the game while inside the screen house.  It was delightful not to be bothered by the bugs/mosquitos!!  The game was a nail biter, but I'm happy to report that Penn State pulled it out... somehow.  Score was 31-30.  WHEW!!  Then we took Kylie for a walk down to the laundry, because I had mentioned how badly she needs a bath and John said he saw a laundry tub outside the back.  We wanted to check if it had hot water.  It does, so guess who will be getting a much needed bath!!  We spent the rest of the evening inside Harvey watching more college football, checking our bills/budget for next month and working on the blog.  Sorry, no pictures today.  John didn't see anything during his walk and we didn't go anywhere exciting enough to take any. 

A Day on Cumberland Island, GA.

   I got up at 7:45 and John went out walking.

Looks like this hawk was posing, huh?

 

An Ibis

  I made the bed, put the clean dishes away, packed up the beach bag, and took Kylie out.  John got back about 9:00 and made egg sandwiches.  I did some vacuuming and then we left for St. Mary's at 9:45.  I talked to Heather and Cooper on the way.  We had to check in at the ferry by 11:15 for our 11:45 ferry ride over to Cumberland Island.  We had some time to kill, so I walked a few blocks to the main drag to take some pictures.

The whole middle of the main street was decorated
for Halloween with scenes from represented businesses.

Plumbers

Theater Company.

Schooling

Park Ranger

The downtown was full of little quaint shops.

  After a 15 minute briefing on Island etiquette we boarded the ferry at about 12:00. 

A picture from the dock before we left.

We got to the island at 12:40 and had a 20 minute walk to the beach.

Driftwood on the shore line.

The trees are all gnarly from the sea air and create
 quite a canopy for John to walk through.

This hammock was right beside the wooden walkway onto the beach.

  It was pretty Underwhelming!  We were under the impression that there were lots of big shells on the island, but we didn't find much!!  The beach was nice, but the water was dirty just like on Jekyll.  As a matter of fact, the whole beach reminded us of South beach on Jekyll.  We could have saved a bunch of money and time if we would have just stayed on Jekyll.  In all fairness, though, there is more to see on the island... lots of history.  Oh, well, consider it another adventure! 

Here's our haul from today.  John found the
beautiful conch shell and sea urchin (2nd down
from top right corner)

View from dock before we left the island.

There are lots of wild horses on the island.

We left the beach at 3:30 to make sure we would not be late for the 4:45 ferry.  It was a little nippy going back.

Nothing but water!

This sail boat was tied up at the dock when we got in.

  We were back on shore by 5:30.  We stopped at Winn Dixie on the way home and pulled into our parking spot at 6:30.

Gorgeous sunset on the causeway into Jekyll!

These are called "Red Bugs".  They owned or rented
and used like golf carts all over the island!

  It was another long day for Kylie, but she did great!  She was anxious to go outside, though!  We had supper and watched TV.  Then I cleaned and oiled today's shells, bleached some sand dollars, and worked on my blog. 

These are the finished product... all oiled up!

John went to bed about 11:00 and I finished the blog about 1:00.  Tomorrow there will be no schedules and we will stay close to home!