Sister Island to Cumberland Island National Seashore

When we awoke this morning it was cold. Not Florida cold. Cold. So cold the birds were all huddled together in order to keep warm. We're talking 40s.

This area near the coast is very ... Maritime. It's just hard to get to some of these places. Lots of them require a boat. Some can be accessed via bridge.

I mapped a bike ride this morning from one part of a little town we visited to another and the map took me 23 plus miles to get there. It was about a quarter of a mile away....

Eventually I figured out that my phone thought I was on the other shore and there was no way between other than to go way out and around to a bridge.

Once we moved off the dock the GPS figured out we were on shore and then it was a quick trip down main Street and then take a right to the museum.

But first I had to look through plastic for a while. Far too cold to open the canvas...

Eventually we arrived at our 'daytime destination', Amelia Island. We picked up fuel here at a fuel depot (240 gallons of diesel) because it's WAY cheaper here than south or north of here. Because we were buying fuel and then leaving Florida, Florida lets us skip the fuel tax.

To put it in perspective diesel was $4.99 in St Augustine at the marina. $5.49 in Daytona. $3.23 here. Needless to say it was time to fill up.... We hadn't taken on any fuel since Palm Beach.

We use diesel to move but we also use diesel for our electric generation when at anchor - which at this point is a little more than half the time.

The pictures above are of one of the two paper mills at this location. I took pictures of the Westrock plant because Westrock is our largest vendor, and also our biggest competitor at our family business.... Of course their facilities have been victims of merger and acquisition over and over for decades. I'm thankful we haven't gone through those same cycles. They are about to undergo a take over one more time and be foreign owned by the time it's done...

I don't think it should be a political statement that selling our major industries to foreign entities is a bad thing for America and American workers.

After getting fuel we moved over to the City Marina and paid for a day dock so we could explore the island. Our first stop was the old jail which is now a museum.

This island has been "owned" by a number of different groups over history. First, of course where the native Americans. Then the French, then the Spanish. After that a number of pirates, warlords, and people of ill repute claimed the island as their kingdom. Eventually the island became part of the United States of America. Of course then it declared its independence in the Confederacy. Eventually, becoming part of the United States of America again at the end of the civil war.

Amelia Island actually has a mixed history when it comes to African Americans. After the civil war because the area had a large number of freed slaves, the island had a large population with African heritage. It, therefore, had representation for the minorities as well as shared access to public spaces and services unlike some other areas of the South.

American Beach, for example, is a beach on the island that welcomed mixed races from right after the civil war. It has been used in multiple movies sometimes called Lincoln Beach each related to race relations.

We rode our bikes up the island to the old town and past houses that were very old but well kept. Unfortunately I started having bike problems in the north part of the island so we rode the bikes back and found a bike shop that would repair my bike brakes.

That alleviated the problem and we went for a long bike ride in an area called the Greenway. This was a pretty cool ride that went for miles on grassy two track type trails. We were glad to have fat tire bikes when riding this trail. There were lots of signs saying that the alligators were not tame. It made me wonder why they needed to put up signs like that... We also didn't see any alligators.

Eventually the greenway ended and we took a bike path to Amelia Island Beach. This speech, like Daytona, allows vehicles on the beach as long as they are capable of driving on sand.

We thought our bikes might be able to do this.... Until my bike died. About 150 ft in. The problem, however, wasn't brakes this time. It appears the controller that drives the motor is broken. Joy.

When you're on an e-bike and 4.7 miles from the boat (across the middle of the island), you ride it like a regular bike. All 100lbs of it, plus me, in first gear - pedaling. Okay I'm a wuss. I don't like pedaling. And... I really don't like pedaling when the bike weighs as much as an extra person ....

Either way, we made it back to the bike shop and were able to diagnose the problem - I think . We don't have the parts we need but I think I can get those.... I'm not sure how I'll get them to me once we get them to Michigan but that's a problem for another day.

We had intended to visit the state park with the Clinch Fort seen here, but bike issues and extra gates prevented us from getting where we wanted to go....

We had a nice lunch at a high-end Mexican restaurant on the island. I've never paid more than $50 for a Mexican meal for two before... I probably won't do it again in the near future... For some reason Mexican food from family-owned "dives" is better than high end Mexican food. That actually might be the case for lots of kinds of food from lots of cultures....

After leaving the island we cruised through the St Mary's River which creates the border between Florida and Georgia. We are now in Georgia! I will miss Florida... And I will really miss sitting at anchor with dolphins all around swimming and blowing water out of their air holes. There are a bunch of them around us as I am writing this... They are still so cool...

The day ended up being warm and 70° with beautiful skies..

Once we made it around the southern tip of Cumberland Island we headed north on the St Mary's River and then took a detour into the East River and have found ourselves a nice anchor spot.