Great Atlantic Seaboard Bicycyle Tour: Brunswick,GA-St. Augustine, FL 11/4 263 driving miles; 8.7 walking miles

More grey drizzle and disappointment greeted us this morning as the eighty mile round grip to the Gulah site proved fruitless. Closed again. No matter. We squeezed the lemons into lemonade and headed straight away to the Okefenokee Swamp. Almost immediately, the skies cleared, the temperature soared, and the liquid air began softening my skin. We toured a turn of the century homestead where three generations of Chessers lived before the family sold the sixty-five acre farm to the refuge. We walked the island's eerily cool boardwalk, which suspends pedestrians safely above the mirky water which houses a myriad of mythically scary creatures ranging from aligators to water moccasins. At one point, we saw the slippery black hump of some slithering creature sliding silently into the darkness beneath the boardwalk. My childish fears imagined a poisonous tongue slipping up through the cracks. Even the rustling leaves played tricks with my mind (I'm really just a chicken-livered city slicker, truth be told). Glad I was I wasn't trudging through the marsh submerged to my chest, or worse. At the end of the boardwalk, we shared the sixty foot viewing tower with several slender lizards not more than eight inches long. One little guy even tried to hide in plain sight as I snapped its picture. Sweating like fat men chasing a bus, we returned to the car where we exchanged the swampy backroads of Georgia for the five lane freeway traffic of I-295, battling metal behemoths, humpbacked beetles, smart cars, mid-sized sedans, and motorcycles for time and space on our way South. Thankfully, we made it to St. Augustine without incident, checked in, and made our way to the historic old town on foot. Though warm, the evening was pleasant, the city interesting, and we both look forward to more exploration tomorrow. On the way back to the hotel, we met our "best" humans of the day. Believe it or not, it was the infamous pirate, Blackbeard (Daryl) and his friend, a lovely blond wench (Debra). Blackbeard brandished his saber and the wench wielded her flint lock pistol, but we quickly surrendered to their gracious acceptance. In truth, Daryl and Debra are in St. Augustine for pirate's weekend. There are three days of revelry planned including a parade, a sail around the bay, and, of course, a large number of buccaneers roaming the inns, taverns, and eateries, all in search of skullduggery, crimes, and misdemeanors. Daryl, who is active Army, and his girl friend, Debra, live in St. Petersburg. They say that now that they don't care what people think (Debra says she never did), they enjoy events where they "costume" up. Daryl showed me a picture of him running in a 10K event in Washington D.C. dressed as Batman. Clearly, they like to have fun! I enjoyed talking with them, and as a bonus, Daryl gave me the name of three places to eat in Key West. He pegged me for an "off the beat and track foodie". He said he could smell it. Once again, I'm impressed and amazed. It seems everywhere we go, we meet great humans living the dream, proving over and over again (Thank you for your service, Daryl) what a great place America is. Naturally, this leads me to the conclusion that life is good, especially today, so Carpe Diem, you mottle-necked scurvy dogs! Or if that's too harsh: Sieze the day, you anchor clanking, porthole peeping, deck swabbing oyster eyed individuals. And if that's still too much: just be grateful.

We didn't have time for the ninety minute boat ride, but there's 'gators out there, baby.