Trip to Tybee Island

The United States Lighthouse Society has a passport program similar to the National Parks passport, whereby you get your "passport" stamped whenever you visit a participating lighthouse. I believe there are approximately 250 lighthouses that are part of this program. When I visited the Tybee Island lighthouse a couple of weeks ago I had the passbook on order from the Society but it hadn't arrived yet. It came yesterday, so I went back to the lighthouse gift shop this morning as they had agreed I could bring the book in any time to get it stamped. Now I have my very first stamp in the book! Of course there are many more lighthouses, such as the one on Cockspur Island, which aren't part of the program, but I will find a small book that I can use for those stamps.

I got a bit disoriented trying the find the way back to the lighthouse and ended up in a maze of streets with closely packed 3 story condos. It's amazing how they can take what was probably a beautiful bit of beach and dunes, and turn it into something so ugly. The buildings themselves are nice enough, but not where they are built.

I continued driving on the island and stopped to buy some fresh shrimp which I will have with dirty rice for my dinner tonight! Yumm. I drove all the way to just about the end of the island and then turned back. I am so glad to be here in the off season as I don't do "touristy" very well. I can meander along looking at the sights, under or just at the speed limit, without a long line of impatient drivers behind me. It is really a nice place at this time of year, and surprisingly there ARE some tourists to keep things going.

Driving over that bridge to Cockspur Island and the grounds of Fort Pulaski is like entering through a portal into another world, one which I'm so happy to be in, safe and secure.

When I was putting the shrimp in the fridge I heard a knock on the door, and found Bill and Larry standing outside. Larry had heard that I didn't have a tv with which to watch the ball fall on New Year's eve, and offered me a spare tv that he has. Isn't that absolutely neighborly? I will probably be asleep by the time that ball falls at midnight, but thanked him anyway. I plan to toast 2010 with a glass of champagne. I had mentioned in the chat room that I liked champagne once in a while but once you open the bottle you have to drink it all or waste some of it. Natasha answered "that is what splits are for". Duh, I hadn't even thought of it, so I bought 4 little bottles of Cooks champagne today. For what I paid for them, I could probably purchase a large bottle of Cooks in California and possibly two! I will enjoy the champagne - I thought it was pretty ridiculous of me to bring along 2 cut glass and 2 silver plate champagne flutes, but now I have occasion to use one of them.

A note on the antenna for my air card, I think that when I get a signal the antenna enhances it and everything works better. But the signal itself seems to fade quite often, necessitating a disconnect and reconnect of the air card. Usually I get impatient and just restart the computer from scratch - very annoying. But with the antenna and a signal I think the system operates much faster than it normally does. So while it doesn't work any miracles it does make the internet much more enjoyable.

After publishing this entry I found the Lighthouse Society's website, wherein they publish a list of participating lighthouses. Cockspur Island's lighthouse is indeed on the list, and that will be the second stamp in my book. The website also states that there are 300 lighthouses that participate in the passport program, and that the list is growing.