Crooked River State Park, St. Mary’s, Georgia
It’s a new day, in a new location! We’re hoping to finally be able to add some miles to our tally! I never should’ve started that . . . See where New Year’s Resolutions get you? 😊
We awoke to a frozen water hose. Not the inside pipes, but the hose that lays on the ground between the water hook-up and the coach. Blaine didn’t unhook it because it was supposed to stay above freezing last night. Well, something didn’t. : )
There are quite a few trails in and around the campground here. Once it warms up a tad, we’ll be heading out.
In the meantime, I decided to floss my teeth. I just know you’re thinking “TMI!” But it’s important, trust me. . . .
So, I’m standing in the bathroom flossing and looking out the window watching these tiny grayish-brown birds with light yellow bellies flitting around and it dawns on me. If there were other larger things out here (even a squirrel!), I wouldn’t pay any attention to these little things.
And then, God brings to mind sparrows. “….not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. . . .you are worth more than many sparrows.” I needed to be reminded of that today – not for myself, but for someone else. Thank You, Father!
Not wanting to stop there, I looked up other references to sparrows in scripture and came across Psalm 84. Great psalm!
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are every praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage, as they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs, the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.
Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.
Look upon our shield, O God’ look with favor on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you!
It’s time to get out! There are quite a few trails around here and we headed first to the Nature Center (they advertise live snakes!). It was closed with a sign that said they’d be back at 11:30. They weren’t. The third time we stopped, there was a group of people there who’d paid for a Ranger talk. We didn’t get past the front door. Maybe another time. I’m sure the snakes won’t mind.
The Bay Boardwalk trail leaves from there, so we went in search of. We found it. We also found a sign that said portions of it were closed.
We went anyway. Renegades!
This is an observation tower. We weren’t sure what you were supposed to observe from here.
See the little windows at the bottom? Those open up.
Here’s the panel
This is what I observed after I opened it.
Hmmm….
View from the steps
Another view from the steps.
Exciting, isn’t it?
Now we’re making our own excitement.
Blaine took us off-trail.
This was at the end of our off-trail excursion.
A solar panel ‘farm’.
How’dja like THAT falling on your head?!?!
Finally. An actual boardwalk! And no signs of actual problems yet.
But just look what we saw! If we’d been obedient, we never would of seen it!
A feral hog!
We’ve never seen one of those while we were hiking! Unfortunately, this is the best picture we have because as soon as it heard us, it turned-tail and ran off, lickety-split!
Here’s why the trail was closed.
Nothing we couldn’t handle, but we could see why the Park would close it.
Lots and lots of downed trees!
We’re guessing from Irma.
Back to the coach for lunch . . . .
More large pine cones.
Not quite as big as the one Blaine is holding, but still really large!
That’s how high they are!
I’m telling myself it’s snow . . . .
Another large site!
and then we headed out to the other side of the park . . . .
Work on the campground.
They’re adding and upgrading sites.
where we saw egrets, a cardinal, a different shorebird (I spent . . . well, waaay too long! . . . trying to find out what this was. No luck. I had similar coloring to a Blue Heron, but a much shorter neck and round head. And we don’t even have a picture of it because it was too far away.), and Blaine saw a raccoon standing on its hind feet in the middle of the trail. I missed it. ☹
We paid attention to this one.
It looked dangerous!
Another observation tower.
We didn’t go up.
But at least there was a bird feeder to attract some little birds.
This was after the signs. : )
This is a Loblolly Pine.
We’ve seen lots of these trees, but never noticed how the bark grows in layers. Cool!!
The “S” word is Latin for ‘everliving’
Notice the ‘semper’ part? Sound familiar?
“Semper fidilas” or “Semper fi” = always faithful.
Yeah. . . Right . . . Not us . . .
This is where we saw the different bird, and also . . . .
The US Navy Submarine Base!
FALL!!
STILL!!
Once we finished all the Park has to offer, we stopped by the Check-in to get more information on a place called Cumberland Island we’re interested in visiting. The ranger wasn’t very helpful about that. Instead, we learned what happens to the feral hogs. (as opposed to pig. The difference is the weight. Hogs are over 120#) The one we saw was definitely a hog. So. Here’s what he told us – – the resident Game Warden traps ’em, shoots ’em and either cleans ’em himself or takes ’em to the butcher down the street. He wasn’t real clear where the meat goes, but said he just got 2# of pulled pork the other day – and it was really good. : )
Last picture of the day.
Stored picnic tables by the check-in.
Here’s a couple of pictures I missed from the other day:
Checking out the boat dock at the Park.
Plus looking for dolphins or manatees they say swim in this river.
No such luck. : (
Remember the Lafayette Fountain in Forsythe Park, Savannah, Georgia?
Well this was the other day when everything froze. The news showed a lot more frozen, but this was all I could find on-line,
TOTAL MILES: 5.5! Yeah!
Year to Date: 8.25 (That’s better! Too bad we’re on day 6! But at least our average is going up!)