A Day in St. Mary's GA

Day 57, Wednesday, November 23, 2016

 
You can monitor my trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live

We spent today in St. Mary’s, GA.  After breakfast, we sat in the cockpit of Valentine, drank coffee and visited with Jack, Diane, and Sam.  As usual, on days when we layover, we spent time cleaning and straightening up the boat.

Dwight decided that he needed some exercise so I took him to town in Damn Dink.  It turned out that he also decided that it would be great to have a night’s sleep in a real bed in a real room with a real shower so he book a room for the night a local hotel

Waterfront park in St. Mary's

.

Back on the boat, I prepared a blob brownie that I could take to the oyster roast planned for the evening. When I took the bag with the finished product out of the bake packer, I placed it on an oblong paper plate and formed it into the shape of a football.  Once it was cool, I sliced it into small squares, placed it

General John Floyd House  1830

in a large zip-lock bag with a plastic fork and spoon and felt proud that I had the “heavy hors d’oeuvre” that was requested by the function organizers.

After lunch, we headed back into town with my camera this time to take some pictures of this neat old town.  We walked the streets for about an hour stopping and reading signs on the homes many of which were built in the early 1800s.  One

In this house, a fleeing Aaron Burr stayed after the dual with Alexander Hamilton

source stated that during the Civil War, the town, being an important industrial hub and seaport, was shelled by Union forces but received little damage.

First Presbyterian Church  1808

I needed to replenish my cash reserves so I found a bank only to be surprised that it was no longer open.  Walking down the street, I came upon a second bank that was also out of business.  I wandered into a neat little book store and inquired about the banks and the lady agreed that they were no longer open for business and that the only ATM was about a 2 mile hike.  So much for a bit more cash at this time.

On our way back to the dock, we again met up with a group of our rally friends who has stopped at the Riverside Café for some afternoon refreshment.  We joined them and enjoyed a draft of beer and an hors d’oeuvre that was some sort of yogurt with dill, cucumber, and olive oil served with warm pita bread. I raised my nose a bit at the thought of

Lots of Spanish Moss

cucumber dip and received a bit of undue hazing from the group but in the end I found it to be quite good. They tell me that it is called Tzatziki.

Back at our boats, we prepared for our 5:30 departure for the oyster roast.  Upon arrival, we found a huge throng of people all crammed into a relatively small room each trying to get to the long table that was covered with the “heavy hors d’oeuvres.”  We final got to the table and were rewarded with an extremely varied array of food.  The heavy idea was planted so that folk would bring enough food so that the participants would not have to prepare a meal after leaving.  It was so crowded

that Dwight, Sam and I found a bench out on the street to enjoy our food. We hung around for a while and didn’t ever see the roasted oysters arrive.   

After about an hour, Dwight headed back to his room and I took Sam to her boat before getting back to Second Wind.  I appreciate what the local folks of St. Mary’s are doing for us.  As I may have mentioned earlier, tomorrow, they will provide turkeys and hams for the cruisers.  We are charged with bringing a side dish that will serve 8 people.  We shall see.