Sunday, Jan 5 - A sunny day, cool but not too bad. A good day for a hike and a bike, so we'll head over to nearby Anastasia State Park, which we've always wanted to see, for the afternoon. Arrangements are pretty much in place for the coming week: visit with Donnie and Patricia tomorrow or Tuesday; down to Joyce's at Palm City for a couple of days; then over to West Palm Beach for our flight to Toronto. Train to Belleville, stay at Jeff' and Sharon's, service on Saturday, back to Jeff's, then to Toronto on Sunday morning. Into West Palm Beach by 9 p.m. Back to Joyce's. Then to Lake Worth for a 12 day stay. We'll be glad to see the week ahead come to an end, but hopefully all will go smoothly, and we'll be on hand to give our friends Kathy and Casey big hugs on Saturday.

We're now in a park near St. Augustine, a nice one. Last night we went to a musical presentation put on by the park. As we approached, we heard one of the players ask who was from the farthest distance. Someone hollered out "Ontario!". When we sat down, Gail asked the lady next to her if she was the one from Ontario. Long story short, they are from Brighton, two towns over from Picton. Gail and Mary hit it off, ending up cavorting about the firepit to the music...both sober. They came back to our place for a drink, something that rarely happens while we're camping, and we had a great chat. They sold everything 5 years ago, bought a 37 footer, later bought a summer place near Brighton, and are now set for life on the road. Also turns out they are ardent hikers and kayakers, but especially big time into dragon boat racing. Mary thinks she knows our neighbour Deb Rankin. She and husband Paul trained under their coach, Pat.....(name gone for the moment)...but I know him from school days at PECI, as he was a social worker out of Belleville. They ended up after many Canadian competitions in the World Championships in Italy, where their team won a gold medal in the over 60 class. Hundreds of competitors, so it was a major achievement. Hope to touch base with this interesting couple another time.

Also met George, who ushered us to our site. He's a retired guy from Cleveland, who got tired of being idle, so got a job here, to have something to do. He worked for US Steel for 46 years, in management, and told me of the decline of steel production in the States. Seems a lot of US dollars were invested big time in foreign steel producers (Brazil, Korea, among others)  so that the steel can be imported at much less cost than making it here, because with the U.S.investment share there are no tariffs. Result: there used to be many thousand employed at US Steel in Cleveland. Now there are only a few hundred.

At our park outside of Savannah, we met a fellow who's lived with his wife in the park for more than two years. Can't afford regular housing, despite the fact his wife is an Assistant Manager in a large grocery chain, and he works in another store, full time. Seems things aren't all that easy in Georgia. In contrast, we had a lovely bike ride around the Landing, on Skidaway Island, a huge residential area geared to the well-to-do, full of very expensive and beautiful homes. There are clearly those that have and those that struggle, not just in Georgia, but in most places you can name. Sound familiar?

Enough for now. Time for some exercise. More later. Stay tuned.