Thu. Feb. 4-Mon. Feb.
8: With Heidi and
Kris leaving Thursday, we decided to
get some housekeeping chores done and be available to help in any way needed.
Marv and I went to the Rec. Hall for Biscuits, Jam and Coffee again this week.
We did two loads of laundry and did some straightening up and I cleaned the
bathroom. Marv helped Kris winterize their trailer and when everything was
ready we sat and visited one last time before they left around 11:30. It was a
hot, sunny day so Marv and I puttered and read for the rest of the afternoon,
along with riding up to the gate to download the Lansing State Journal and
check some emails. At 5:00 there was a Potato Bar at the Rec. Hall so we had
that for dinner and watched some TV (we have a few channels with our antenna)
before bed. It rained for a few hours around midnight but quit well before
sunrise. Friday dawned clear and
cooler. We got up in a leisurely fashion and Marv made veggie-filled scrambled
eggs for breakfast. We drove into the city of Sebring and parked at the Library
before walking about half a mile to the post office to mail some cards. We
returned to the Library and worked for about an hour, doing some secure banking
from our hotspot and posting the blog for the first time in a while. We had a
late lunch at Dee’s Café just off “The Circle” downtown. Afterwards we drove
about half an hour away to Lake Placid to visit the Archbold Biological
Station, which our church friend, Steve Thomas, had recommended. The station is
embedded in the Florida oak scrub at the southern end of the Lake Wales Ridge.
The Ridge is a series of ancient sand dunes that began their formation at least
one million years ago. Once an island chain, these north-south dunes form a 115
mile backbone through central Florida. The isolation that plants and animals
faced on these ancient islands resulted in many rare species found nowhere else
on earth. We found several familiar names involved both here and at Highlands
Hammock. In 1939 the land was the southern home, “Red Hill”, of John A.
Roebling II and his wife Margaret Shippen Roebling, who donated the land for Highlands
Hammock State Park. And the engineer hired to oversee design and construction
of the buildings at the home, many of which are still used, was Alexander
Blair, for whom one of the biggest live oaks at the park is named. After
Margaret’s death, John donated everything to his friend and fellow
philanthropist, Richard Archbold, who established and oversaw the Research
Station to protect and study the unique ecosystem. His family is still involved
in it as members of the Board of Trustees. Researchers come from all over the
world to stay here and study and the new “green” educational buildings are open
to the public. Steve had told us there is a good video overview available but
there were no volunteers to show it the day we visited so we looked at the
displays and then walked the self-guided Nature Trail and Explorers Trail. We
saw many animal tracks but not any animals. As we left we talked to a young man
who works at the station who told us that they had gotten 9” of rain in
January, which is usually the dry season. There is so much water that the wolf
spider population one researcher is studying that was around 200 is now about
10 individuals.
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| Scrub Oak Leaves |
As we drove back to Highlands Hammock we talked to Marv’s mom
and the Oiens, whose struggles with their malfunctioning Motor Home were
continuing. We grilled pork chops for dinner and read most of the evening but
also took a walk before bed to look at the stars. As usual, Marv was up and
raring to go before I was on Saturday
so he rode down to the gate to download the paper for both of us. We read them outside,
bundled up against the cool weather. Once it warmed up a bit (mid-60s) we rode
our bikes 4-5 miles along the perimeter bike trail, which led us back to the
park drive.
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| A group of Girl Scouts on the trail |
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| Over the handlebars |
We followed it around to hike on the Ancient Hammock trail where,
like everywhere else, there was a lot of standing water. We had our leftover
fish from Captain Curt’s for lunch and settled in to watch MSU annihilate u/m
in Ann Arbor.
The forecasted showers began at the beginning of the game and
continued all afternoon and evening until about 9:00. Confined to the camper we
read, played cards, watched TV, and finally cooked tilapia to complete a Fish
Saturday. Then we spent the evening watching Super Bowl 50 specials while the
trees dripped loudly on the camper roof. Sunday
we made it to Emmanuel UCC again where two women, one ordained, led the
service and served communion as a prelude to a women’s retreat they are leading
on the following Friday. Their cooperative sermon was informative and personal.
On our way back to the campground we stopped to download the Sunday paper and
for Marv to get some articles about the game, which we both read later. It was
chilly and windy but sunny so we sat outside to read and took a last walk
around the campground before we started to take down camp to get ahead of
things before leaving. We put away the dining fly and the awning, and rearranged
the back of the truck, which was holding everything from the back seat so we
could carry passengers. The campground was starting to fill in with the small
trailers called Scamps and their slightly larger cousins, Casitas, who were
holding a rally at Highlands Hammock over the next week. It really opened up
the area to have fewer of the Big Rigs that usually dominate at the park. Their
“headquarters” had a big screen TV set-up and people were invited to bring
snacks and watch the Super Bowl. But it was cool enough we decided to make
dinner and watch and eat in the warmth of our camper. Neither of us had a big
stake in the game but we were happy to see Peyton Manning ride the Denver Broncos’
defense to victory over Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers in what will
probably be his last game. I put steel cut oats in the little Crockpot to cook
all night. But time got away from us Monday
morning so before we ate breakfast we pedaled partway around the loop and took
another Nature Walk with Susan Woodrow, this time on the Young Hammock trail.
With her guidance it was easy to see how the old scrub oak prairie is giving
way to a wetter Live Oak Hammock, largely because of drainage ditches added
fifty years ago.
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| Young Hammock Trail |
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| Brachiopod, part of the pineapple family |
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| Horse Hoof Fungus |
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| A pine slashed 50 years ago for turpentine |
Afterwards we ate the oatmeal and packed up and got on our way
by about 1:00. Lithia Springs was only about an hour and a half away. On the
way there I got the very sad news that Barbara Rogers had lost her courageous
and painful fight with jaw cancer and had died during the night. John’s heart wrenching
message was too emotional for me to read to aloud to Marv. We also heard that
Janice Oien was at Urgent Care trying to find out what was wrong with her right
arm. When we arrived we were happy to see we had a good choice of sites. We
picked #28 which is conjoined with #26, in hopes that Oiens will be able to
join us this week at some point. We dropped the camper and headed right back
out to buy groceries and have a bite to eat. After returning, we got fully
set-up and took out the bikes and chairs before relaxing and enjoying the view
out the back of our deep, private site. We enjoyed a roasted chicken from
Winn-Dixie with beans and a salad for dinner and watched TV as the temperature
dropped into the forties overnight.
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