Chapter 13: Lithia Springs County Park (Feb. 27-29)

It drizzled/misted all night long, ending only when the coffee was brewing Monday morning. The temperature also went up slowly all night, so it was 64° when we got out of bed. We didn’t hurry to get packed up and as we finished it started to rain a bit again, so we had to pause for awhile until it let up. It was 11:30 by the time we got away but we knew the next park was only about 70 miles away, east of Tampa Bay, so it didn’t really matter. As we drove down I75 a whooping crane, with its distinctive black-tipped wings that we had learned about in Texas, flew over our truck! We found the County Park without any trouble and were happy to learn we had a big choice of campsites. We picked #21, at the end of the first loop. There are no campsites behind, across, or to one side of us, and on the other side there are two empty campsites before our first neighbor, so we have a lot of privacy. After a late (2:45) lunch, we rode our bikes around the picnic area and to the spring, about 1½ miles. It had cleared off but was very humid and the temperature was in the mid-eighties, so it felt pretty hot! I took a shower and washed my hair before we made chili dogs for our late dinner, which we ate outside. Then we watched some PBS, including “The Blues at the White House”, before going to bed with the temperature still in the 70s.

Tuesday we took the kayak to the Alafia River that runs through the park. One can put in at the canoe landing and go either upstream or downstream from there. But the Ranger told us that it gets a little tricky below the landing so we chose to start paddling upstream, into a bit of a wind. It’s a typical Florida black water river that becomes brackish downstream as it approaches Tampa Bay. Up here it is slow moving and goes through Cyprus and palms, mostly. We saw an ibis, a cormorant, lots of big turtles and many big fish, but no alligators. We got to a shallow area near a bridge and the Ranger had told us that it gets more and more shallow, the further you go, so we chose to turn around at that point. We passed a couple from California who put in their ocean kayak soon after we did, but they could go further than we were able in our inflatable because they are more maneuverable. After lunch we put on our swim suits and rode our bikes to the spring. Like the river, the spring is obviously very low right now. But it is a large area with a shallow end that is now only about ankle deep, and a deep end that is 8 feet where the spring comes bubbling up. Like all the other springs in Florida, the water is a constant 72°, which felt very refreshing since it was in the upper eighties and sunny out. There were a few other people swimming but they slowly left until we and the couple we met on the river were the only ones there. We had a good time talking to them and learning about other good parks to visit in Florida. We left the spring about 6:00, changed, and drove to a Beef O’Brady’s to watch MSU lose at Indiana. L We were pretty sad about that, since it puts so much pressure on the last game of the season on Sunday, against OSU, but luckily, at Breslin Center. We got back to the camper in time to watch the second hour of the excellent PBS American Experience show on The Amish.

We had a bit of an adventure on Wednesday without doing much planning. We started the day, as has become our habit, by drinking our coffee while each reading the Lansing State Journal articles of interest (sports and local news, usually), me on my phone and Marv on his IPod. Then I made hearty vegetable/cheese/salami scrambled eggs, Marv put the bikes in the truck, and we drove off to find the Fort Fraser Trail, a Rail-to-Trail that I had read about that was near Lakeland. The directions were pretty sketchy but, since it was near Lakeland, we thought we could visit Tiger Town, where the Detroit Tigers have Spring Training camp, and then find the trail. It was easy to find Tiger Town and we could go into Joker Marchant stadium and look around because the games don’t start until Mar. 2. Branden Inge was being interviewed on the field and a couple of others were being interviewed over to the side, but there wasn’t much else happening. We asked at the Box Office if anything would be going on today and she told us they do their practices from 10:00 to 1:00 on the “back fields”. It was 12:45 but we figured we should go over since we were there. There was a small crowd of people by the fence and, as we went through the gate to join them, a man told us to hurry because Prince was signing autographs. Prince, we knew, meant the new Tigers phenom, purchased for an unbelievable amount, and Cecil Fielder’s son. Sure enough, he was there patiently signing paraphernalia for everyone. We didn’t have anything cool for him to sign so we settled for taking some photos, much to the chagrin of our niece, Linda Filcek, a giant Tiger fan. When we left, we tried to find the Trail, but it seemed to be farther away than we had realized. Marv saw the nearby Lake Bonney Park and thought that might be an access point for it. We went there and saw that there were bike paths along the lake shore so we ate our lunch, got out the bikes, and started riding. There were families of ibis, and ospreys were nesting on top of the tall light poles around the baseball fields. But we found that the bike path didn’t go around the lake or indeed anyplace else. It was a giant figure 8 on which we rode about 2 miles before loading the bikes back into the truck. We had gone far enough now that we figured we must be near to the trail and we started to see roads with the names of the two trailheads. We were close enough that we did indeed find it from the shaky online directions and got the bikes out for the second time. It’s a nice idea, but it runs right along very busy Highway US98 and the road noise was relentless. We rode south, thinking it was into the wind, but realized that it was actually a west wind so we would have to deal with it both directions. It was 88° and very sunny. The map at the trailhead showed a side trail through a reserve that was proposed for 2007, so we thought if we could get to it, that would be more enjoyable. But we should have found it about 2½ miles down the Trail and didn’t come to it. So at 3 miles we turned around and went back. It’s funny how an 18 mile bike ride around a lake with lots to see can seem so much shorter and pleasurable than a 6 mile, hot ride along a highway! On our way back to the campground we stopped to wash the truck and have ice cream. Marv made nice salads and we warmed up the fajita chicken to have on couscous, and then started to do some packing up to leave tomorrow.

Chapter 12: Withlacoochee State Forest

When we went to bed at 11:30 on Wednesday night it was still 71° and it only got into the mid-sixties overnight. Thursday we went over to the Rec Hall for Biscuits and Gravy or 5 different kinds of homemade preserves. They had peach, fig-cherry, fig-lemon, strawberry and pineapple-something. They were really yummy. Armadillos had been busy overnight and we had several large holes along the road near the camper. Marv & I packed and closed up the camper while doing one more load of laundry and thinking we’d do one more bike ride before we left. Ross ran into town to get bulbs to fix some lights and when he came back they thought it was too warm for a bike ride. So we ended up pulling out about 11:30. As we drove past ranches and orange groves, I saw a whooping crane walking beside a wetland area. We stopped on our way north and ate a picnic and got to the State Forest by 3:00 or so. The area is surprisingly rolling, with some hills that afford a little bit of a vista. We are at Tillis Hill Campground in the Citrus Reservation of Withlacoochee State Forest. It’s really an equestrian campground and the four or five other camps here are all horse/RV combination trailers. We have a large site on the end of the loop with no one near us. While relaxing, after setting up, we saw a pileated woodpecker fly into the top of a nearby tree. There are no lights and no road noise so we really feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere. We had a campfire, partly from firewood left at the site next to ours, and cooked hot dogs for dinner, then went to bed in the silent forest.

Friday we puttered, rode bikes around the campground, and visited the 4 horses that were in stalls. The campground is really perched on top of what passes for a mountain in Florida and has a long, paved hill leading up to the gate. Ranger Sid told us that the area is a limestone ridge that used to be sand dunes at the edge of the ancient, and much higher, Gulf of Mexico. Sid also warned us about how difficult that hill can be and we weren’t inclined to try it just yet. After eating lunch at the camper and putting chicken thighs in the little Crockpot with fajita flavoring, we drove to the State Forest Headquarters to get more information on nature trails and short hikes in the area. Everything around the Tillis Hill campground is many miles long and either intended for horseback riding or part of the Florida Trail that meanders all over the state. We found out that some trails that are listed on the State Forest map are no longer open because of staff cutbacks, but there was a nice trail nearby at McKethan Lake. We hiked 2.3 miles on it, stopping for the 24 interpretive stations explaining the hardwood hammock and longleaf pine/turkey oak communities. There was lots of dogwood in bloom and some flowering jasmine, sometimes right together. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife but we heard pileated woodpeckers, and there were some White Egrets and a couple of sandhill cranes around the small lake. It’s a really lovely area with picnic tables off of the one way drive that circles the lake, but we had it practically to ourselves. When we returned to camp the thighs were easy to remove from the bone and we enjoyed them with lettuce and sliced peppers in whole wheat wraps. Yum!! The temperature was slow to go down from the high 80s where it had been most of the day and so it was a warm evening right up until we went to bed. It had been really windy all day but the SW winds died down after sunset before picking up again and turning to the NE overnight.

Our weather had been so perfect for such a long time but we knew that the storm that dumped 6 inches of snow in East Lansing was making its way across the east from New England to northern Florida with high winds, snow, and even tornadoes. The severe weather was all north of us, but we knew that Sunday and Monday there was a good chance of rain. So we decided to chance the stiff breeze and cooler temperatures to ride our bikes on Saturday. Ranger Sid had suggested we take our bikes to Floral City and ride the Withlacoochee State Trail. At 46 miles it is the longest paved Rail-to-Trail in the state and runs from Gulf Junction (Citrus Springs) to Owensboro Junction, six miles north of Dade City. It passes through a variety of habitats and is well used. We shared it with other bikers and some walkers the whole time. We rode north first, thinking that the stiff winds would be a problem, but they turned out not to be a big factor as we were pretty protected most of the time. The day was much sunnier than forecast and the temperature was in the upper 60s, also better than forecast and perfect for a long bike ride. It was about 7 miles to Inverness where we rode around some city parks before turning around and going back to Floral City. Riding with the wind we made slightly better time and stopped at the edge of Floral City at a bagel/sandwich shop where we had burgers at a picnic table outdoors. A bit further on we stopped at the Ferris Groves stand where I had a fresh strawberry milkshake and Marv had a huge strawberry shortcake. The whole store smelled of the crates of strawberries that three women were hulling and slicing in the center of things. When we got back to the truck we had biked 15 miles. We were parked right near a small museum so we made a quick stop to learn more of the history of the area. The three things they really highlighted were the phosphate mining that was integral to the area’s development, the devastating diesel train engine head-on collision of 1958(?), and the history of the lovely, towering Live Oaks that line the streets, are over 100 years old, and are hung with Spanish moss. We got back to the campground by about 4:00 where we relaxed a while and then played some Ladder Gulf (Marv beat me in both a long and a short game) before eating the chili that had been cooking all day. Marv also finally flew down the hill below the campground gate on his bike at 30 mph and managed to pedal back up. After dinner we were thrilled to see that Purdue beat Michigan by 14 points AT Michigan. That puts them two games behind us with Ohio State still one game back. We then built a campfire where we listened to MSU annihilate Nebraska. Draymon Green also got his 1000^th rebound, to go with the 1000 points he already had (only the third MSU player to ever do that). What a great night for MSU Basketbal!

Our nearly perfect weather came to an end early Sunday morning when the rain began. It continued until 11:00 or so and then let up for a while. So we ate an early lunch and then took a chance on the forecast to drive north to the Oxbow Recreation Area’s two trails. It turned out that the two trails along the Withlacoochee River were made as four Eagle Scout projects, apparently quite a while ago. In fact, the Nature Trail seemed to come to an end. But we made our way around the area for a 1½ mile hike. The path along the oxbow revealed some really pretty spots. Although the first trail was around a Cyprus swamp, it was different than others we had seen because the knees were most of what remained of the Cyprus while the rest was becoming a pine hammock. It drizzled off and on while we walked and the temperature was in the fifties; quite a contrast to the sun and 80s we had had for so long! We drove back to nearby Inverness and, seeing the long boardwalk path around Cooter Pond that we had ridden past on Saturday, we decided to walk it. As we finished the rain was picking up again. We bought a few groceries and had ice cream at McDonald’s and figured that we might as well go to a movie, since the rain seemed to be returning in force. “Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds” was showing at the right time and it made a pleasant diversion from the weather. When we came out I checked ESPN on my phone and we found out that Wisconsin had beaten OSU in overtime, thus assuring MSU of at least a part of the Big Ten Championship. Hooray!! Afterwards we returned to the camper to make chicken and rice and watch the Academy Awards show (something we would never have done at home), did the dishes, and began packing up to leave tomorrow.

Chapter 11: Highland Hammock (Feb. 18-23)

Saturday, after getting everything packed and closed, we decided to stroll over to see if the owners were “home” at the other TrailManor just around the loop from us. Paula was there but Phil wasn’t when we got there. She is very friendly and chatty so she invited us in and showed us all around and had us sit and talk. Phil called twice to say he was on his way and then that he was delayed at another campsite. As we began to leave he came home so we ended up staying a good bit longer to talk with him. He is a GM retiree who took his first opportunity to leave and they are about our age. We really enjoyed talking to them and learning more about how they had gotten to know Louise at the pancake breakfasts last year. It would be great if we would run into them another year on a visit to Oscar Scherer, a park to which we definitely would like to return. It was after 11:00 by the time we got away from there but it was only a couple of hours’ drive to Highland Hammock so it didn’t matter. We got set up and walked around a bit to reacquaint ourselves with the Park. We were here exactly one year ago, when we found the campground crazy-full of families with a gazillion kids because of Presidents’ Day weekend. But this time we know it will empty out considerably on Monday, leaving just us old people here for the rest of our stay. Marv cleverly hitched up the luggage rack to his bike and used it as a little trailer to get a load of firewood from the camp office. We had a fire to cook our hot dogs but it turned out to be pretty green pine which barely did the job. Afterwards we got back on our bikes to ride out on the “Loop Drive” to the Amphitheater, where we had been told there would be a Ranger Program at 7:30. But the gate was closed and we couldn’t figure out how people were supposed to get there. As we stood puzzling about it, a Police Van drove up and told us we couldn’t enter because the park closes at sun down. When we explained our predicament, he told us there was another Amphitheater in the campground. We hurried to find it and were relieved to get there before 7:30 but chagrined to find she had started at 7:00. It was an okay presentation of how animals are adapted to use other senses after dark. But the sky was full of stars so it was pleasant to sit there in the dark with half an ear on the presentation, looking up at the stars.

Sunday we made the 9:30 service at nearby Emmanuel UCC, a church which takes its charge to be welcoming of all people very seriously. We were greeted several times on our way into and out of the sanctuary. We were very comfortable with the service and intrigued with the projected PowerPoint which was used to good advantage for the whole service. We talked to Chuck and Cindy(?), who invited us to the Coffee Hour afterwards and then sat with us and chatted, making us feel very welcome. From there we went to Publix in Sebring for groceries and got back soon after noon to make lunch and settle in to watch MSU beat Purdue on our TV in the camper. It was very hot, humid, & windy, with a high wind advisory and the threat of severe weather so we took down the awning and put away the table & chairs. But although we had a few spitting showers, it never really rained like we feared. There were some good gusts of wing so it is good that we took down the awning. When the game was over we rode our bikes on the loop drive, going about 4 miles, and stopping once to do the Fern Garden trail. We saw one alligator mama with babies along the road in the about same place we saw one last year. We read for a while before making meatless spaghetti for dinner, doing the dishes, and trying to figure out where all the little ants we’re seeing are living. We’ll have to do some serious spraying tomorrow.

After a nice breakfast of bacon and pancakes, we spent Monday morning picking up a few things in Sebring, including ant spray and a supply of quarters, and then Marv worked on securing the trailer from ants and we both did laundry. Highland Hammock has 3 washers and driers in the nearby modern bathroom and it’s only $1.00 per wash load and 75¢ per dryer load. That’s the best deal we’ve found and it’s so convenient to just walk it all over there and get it done at one time. After splitting our usual sandwich for lunch we rewarded ourselves with a nice long bike ride. A 4 mile Rotary Club bike trail took us to US 27, which we could cross with a light. We proceeded clockwise around Lake Jackson. It was an easy pedal for the most part, usually within sight of the shoreline, past homes that ran the gamut of price and size. Most had docks or lake access of some sort, but they nearly all stopped well short of the lake, which is clearly several feet down from its usual level. About halfway around the lake there are some new, palatial homes, but the majority were older and more modest. Many were for sale and we had to wonder if the lake level had anything to do with that. We didn’t go through the downtown area of Sebring, which was a block or two off of the lake view drive. We had planned on stopping someplace for ice cream as a break, but we never saw a place to do that. Before we knew it we were back to US 27 and to our cross street to go back to the park. With the wind now to our backs we stopped at a gas station a few miles from the park and got a Snickers ice cream bar. When we got back to the campsite we had ridden just over 18 miles. We relaxed for a bit then showered and were surprised to find it was after 6:00. A performer named Darryl Conrad was singing at 6:30 at the campfire area so we elected to delay dinner to go hear him. We had enjoyed him last year and found he did a similar program this year. We stayed for most of it before I was uncomfortably cool and we both were getting hungry. Grilled salmon, angel hair pasta and a salad never tasted better.

After that full day, Tuesday was the opposite. We took our coffee for a walk on the short Allen Alvater trail in the area across from our campsite. It was interesting to see how it had changed since last year, when they had done a prescribed burn that was much in evidence then. We talked to Ross & Pat, who said they’d arrive about 1:00. We took it easy the rest of the day and read and Marv fixed a few things. Leftover salmon made for nice Caesar salads for lunch. Ross and Pat got there a bit later than expected because of all the lights on US27. We chatted and caught up on each other for the rest of the afternoon then ate separate dinners. Ross brought his telescope over and the three of us went stargazing until his battery was giving out. He came back to our trailer for a while because Pat was watching a video and we continued talking until bedtime.

Marv went to the office first thing on Wednesday morning to get Tram tickets for all four of us. Despite being there soon after 8:00, they had sold out the regular 1:00 ride, added and sold out a 2:30 ride, and then added a 10:30 ride, which would be Ranger Judy’s last tour before she leaves to go to another State Park. He got tickets for that so our day’s plan changed a bit. We did things at the campsites before riding bikes the short distance to the CCC Museum, where we boarded the Tram. Like last year, we saw many alligators (including lots of babies), black vultures, and turtles. We also saw 2 egrets and a Great Blue Heron, along with some small birds. The people who were riding backwards saw about 5 deer running into the brush but they were gone before the rest of us could turn and look. It was a pleasant hour and a quarter, after which we visited the CCC Museum. Marv & I ate lunch and read while Ross & Pat ate lunch and drove into Sebring to get some groceries. When they returned, Marv, Ross and I rode our bikes on the Loop Drive, stopping to walk to The Big Tree, hike the Cyprus Swamp Trail, and hike the Ancient Hammock Trail, totaling about a mile and a half and bringing our walking to just over 2 miles at this park. For dinner each couple made a large salad to take to the Potluck dinner, which is held every Wednesday. There was a nice spread of food, with 5 different plates of deviled eggs. While we ate I noticed an armadillo (the first we’ve seen on this trip) walking in the parking lot. Ross & Pat left after eating to go to an Ash Wednesday service at St. Agnes in Sebring but we stayed and listened to a couple who played guitar and mandolin and sang. They usually have a third person with them and it seemed like they were really missing his voice. Walking back to our campsite afterwards we saw three deer. Back at the camper we both took showers and then settled in to listen on Spartan Radio to MSU playing at Minnesota. They managed to pull out a win in the final seconds of the game—PHEW!!

Chapter 10: Oscar Scherer State Park—Part 2 (Feb. 15-18)

By Wednesday the weather had become just about perfect. The night temperature was about 60°, great for sleeping with the windows open. Daytime temperatures were in the upper 70s and the skies were clear and sunny. It was nice enough that Marv cooked a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon outdoors (I LOVE the smell of bacon cooking when camping, but it smells pretty bad after a few hours inside the camper) and we enjoyed it outside at our little folding table. Mosquitoes are not the big problem here that they were at Collier-Seminole. A nice Rail-to-Trail called the Legacy Trail runs through the park for about two miles as it connects Sarasota to Venice. By about 11:00 we were peddling south on it, to the historic, restored Train Depot in Venice. We went a little beyond the depot on the Venice Waterway Trail and then returned to have a tour of the Depot. We learned a lot of the history of the area and its original settlers/developers, including Bertha Palmer, widow of the Palmer who built The Palmer House in Chicago. He was older than she by many years and so she was in the prime of her life when he died, leaving her a very wealthy woman. She was a business woman in her own right and went on to make more money. She could see the great potential for this area of Florida and went about procuring land and getting the railroad expanded to service the area thus allowing it to be developed as a resort community. The Depot made a nice break in our bike ride. The Trail also has interpretive markers all along that tell about the history and the natural features, so it was a good learning experience. It is paved the whole way and has short bridges over two “bays” or estuaries and a high, high bridge that goes over the Tamiami Trail (US41) and was the biggest challenge of the day. We got back to the campsite about 2:00 having ridden 13½ miles. The rest of the afternoon was for relaxing and recovering, although Marv also managed to rearrange the back of the truck and the back seat to make room for Louise Sternberg to join us on Thursday. Since we had a late lunch we decided to drive over to watch our first sunset. We ended up going north and dropping south on Casey Key driving past incredible, palatial homes right on the water until we came to Nokomis Beach. We parked and ran over in time for a nice sunset and had the bonus of being where a drumming circle is held, complete with belly dancers, to “drum down” the sun each Wednesday and Saturday. The drums went faster and faster until the sun dropped behind the horizon and then things began to break up and we left. At the campsite we had dinner and then had to wash nearly every dish we own! We did some banking and blogging and then called it a night.

Fresh from her trip to Peru, Louise Sternberg met us at the Thursday morning Blueberry pancake breakfast at Oscar Scherer. She then parked her car at our campsite and we all climbed in the truck to drive to Myakka River State Park, about half an hour away. We started with a couple of five minute introductory videos at the Visitors Center. Afterwards we drove the very scenic park road to the “Bird Walk”, a short boardwalk that goes over the marsh almost to the edge of Upper Lake Myakka. There was a Naturalist with a viewing scope there who helped us see and identify some of the birds. We saw stilts, great blue herons, egrets, ibis, coots, blue winged teals, osprey, bald eagles, white pelicans, and sandhill cranes. We returned to the road and took it to the north gate before turning around and slowly retraced our route. Along the way I realized I had gotten a couple of texts from Rachel & then Janis telling us that Rachel and Michael were at the hospital and that Baby Michael was on his way. On the way back we stopped at the Canopy Walk. Louise stayed in the truck and rested while Marv & I climbed up to the short, swinging, walk at treetop level. At the other end, we climbed up the 74 foot tower to look over the park area. It was a great view from up there! We found a picnic area along a small creek nearby and enjoyed our picnic lunch there before driving to a bridge overlook where we saw two alligators sunning at the edge of the river and two in the water. Although we had only touched on all this park offers, the afternoon was waning so we drove back to get orange ice cream at Louise’s favorite orange stand and then returned to Oscar Scherer. We stopped at the Camper’s Bluegrass “Jam” at the Nature Center to listen to one song and, as we were leaving, I noticed a large gopher tortoise at the end of the field. Marv got some pictures from afar. When we tried to get closer the tortoise scurried into the brush and disappeared. But we were happy to have seen one! Louise left in her car and, after she had gone, I saw on Facebook that Michael Louis Savage Bednarz was born within about an hour of Rachel’s text! I was so happy for the good news, but also sad that Rick wasn’t here to welcome his first grandchild. He would have been so pleased and proud! A bit later we called long ago Edgewood UCC friends, Linda VanderVeen and her husband, Harold DeVor. Her daughter Lisa had seen my sunset picture on Facebook and put us in touch with them. We were surprised and pleased when Linda suggested that we pick up a pizza and come to their house to watch MSU/Wisconsin Basketball. It was so nice to catch up on them since they have moved to Florida full-time and it was even nicer that MSU won the game. What a perfect ending to a very good day!

Friday didn’t go quite as we planned but it was pleasant, too. Marv made bacon and eggs outside while I made toast and a fruit cup. So we had a big, late breakfast and didn’t plan to do much for lunch. We packed up just a light snack and headed over to Louise’s place on Siesta Key. Her plans for the day had fallen through and so we decided to spend the day together. Marv and I walked on the white, powdery sand and looked for shells and read for about an hour. Then Louise drove us around to show us a few of her favorite haunts. We found a new vegetarian+seafood restaurant and ended up taking her out for an early Birthday celebration. The food was very good, cooked by the couple who owns the restaurant, and served by their son. Marv had a portabella mushroom “burger”, Louise had a blackened basa (fish) sandwich on foccacia bread that was really big, and I had a “mezze” plate of baba ganoush, hummus, tabbouleh, olives and pita triangles. Louise and I both ate only half and had another lunch to eat sometime. When we were finished we drove to see Louise’s Florida church, Congregational UCC in Sarasota. On the way she showed us the Amish section of town and we went to Troyer’s Amish Bakery to buy bread and pastries. Seeing an Amish neighborhood in the middle of a modern city is a bit disconcerting and one wonders how they manage to live their faith in such a divergent setting. The Congregational Church was nearby. We went in to see the sanctuary, which is lined with big picture windows, so it is very bright and pleasant. She also showed us the Chapel, one whole wall of which is a stained glass scene of the shore, land, ocean and sky. It is breathtaking!! Louise then drove us back to her place by entering Siesta Key at the north end and going all the way to Turtle Beach at the south end. It was strange to see how coarse the sand was at Turtle Beach, just a mile or so from the sugar sand of Siesta Beach, which was voted the US #1 Beach (signs everywhere told us so!). By then it was time to go back to our camper, where Marv grilled steak and I made a salad and black beans and rice mixture. Before doing the dishes we got a lot of things packed up and ready to leave tomorrow, in case the rain that is forecast comes in overnight. It will be sad to say good-bye to this wonderful Park, but we have lots of other places to see in the next few weeks.

Chapter 9: Oscar Scherer State Park-Part 1 (Feb. 11-18)

There was a loud thunderstorm and heavy rain for much of the night. But it ended before we arose Saturday morning and slowly cleared up. We weren’t completely dry, but dry enough to pack up and be on our way without hurrying. Coincidently, we stopped at the same rest stop on I75 to enjoy our picnic lunch and got to Oscar Scherer, just south of Sarasota and east of Siesta Key. It may be our favorite park of the whole trip. We are just minutes from the famous sugar-sand beaches on the Gulf. The park’s 100+ campsites are stretched along the bank of South Creek on the outside of a long skinny loop road. Ours is very wide and private with lots of green stuff growing between us and our neighbors, with no one behind or across from us. There is hiking, biking, canoeing/kayaking, free WiFi, laundry facilities, a Nature Center, and lots of in-park activities. We set-up quickly and took a bike ride around the campground to look things over. Then we drove to the nearby Morgan’s Restaurant, where we sat outside, sweatshirts and jackets on, at their Tiki Bar to eat dinner and watch MSU beat OSU, breaking OSU’s second-in-the-nation’s home winning streak!!

Sunday we went to St. Andrew’s UCC about 6 miles north of the park. We think it may be the church Louise Sternberg enjoys when she is here. We had the dubious luck of being there on a day when they collected and dedicated pledges AND when new members joined (a process which included long, informative introductions of each person) AND when their search committee reported on and introduced the supply pastor who will fill in for three months for the senior pastor who is going on Sabbatical. The sermon was only about 5 minutes long as they tried to tie together scripture and the events in the church. After some grocery shopping and lunch we rode our bikes about half a mile to the Nature Center to take the longest trail in the park, the Yellow Trail. It had gotten down to 40 degrees over night and struggled to get into the low fifties during the day, so even with mostly sunny skies, it seemed a good day to take our 6 mile hike. The mostly level, sandy trail passes through pine flatwoods, prairie hammocks, and scrubby flatwoods. Right at the beginning two beautiful scrub jays flew in to check us out, one of which actually landed briefly ON each of our heads! That was about it for wild life until we were around half way through, when a juvenile bald eagle flew in over our heads and circled behind us to disappear into the pines. We also saw many deer tracks and some diving ducks on the nearly hidden “Big Lake”. With stops at benches along the way, it was a pleasant hike but became a little tedious towards the end as we walked in the soft sand. While resting up in our camper we had a surprise visit from a couple who wanted to know how we liked our Trailmanor. They have a 25yr old TM that he has done a lot of work to restore. They just wanted to see what newer models are like. It was a very pleasant conversation. Leftover pork mixed in with baked beans tasted pretty good for dinner, and then we spent a quiet evening trying to plan for the final two weeks of our trip and work on this blog and pictures from the day. Monday wasn’t too exciting. We fussed around in Venice, trying to find Verizon to find out why my phone’s hot spot was no longer working. When we finally found them, we found we had forgotten Ken’s cardinal rule: When all else fails, pull the battery for a few seconds. It took two times but then we were back in business. Back at the campground we had hot soup for lunch—it sounded good for the first time on the trip as the temperatures that had gotten down to the mid-thirties warmed only to the mid-sixties all day. We went down to Archer and Jim’s old Trailmanor to have a look at it and had another very pleasant conversation. Afterwards we rode our bikes about a mile to the picnic area where we combined the Lester Finley hiking trail with the South Creek trail for a 2¼ mile hike, both along the “blackwater” (fresh and salt water combining along the way) stream. It is all in hardwood hammock so it was shady and peaceful. We read in the sunshine for the rest of the afternoon until it cooled off into the mid-fifties. Marv built a fire and we roasted hot dogs before retiring to the camper to do some computing and more reading.

Tuesday was just about the best Valentine’s Day EVER!! We started at the Coffee Social at the Nature Center, where we talked to a couple from Missouri and learned about the Stephen Foster State Park. They inspired us to make a reservation there instead of going into southern Georgia on our way home. I also talked to two volunteers who encouraged us to bike the green trail, half of which is closed because of nesting Bald Eagles. It was a pretty easy 2 mile bike ride although there was some loose sand for a while so we had to walk that part. Halfway around there is a table set up, blocking the path but with a board telling about Bald Eagles, and a post that points to the clearly visible nest in the distance. We could see an adult and two babies and enjoyed watching them for a while. After eating lunch at our picnic table we packed up books, chairs, and drinks and drove to Caspersen Beach, which is known as a good place to find shark teeth. It was a lovely day--sunny, breezy, and mid-70s. We read, enjoyed the waves and looked for shark teeth, without much luck. We left about 5:00 and had showers before we went searching for a good place to have a Valentine dinner. We happened upon the Beckham on the Trail Bar & Grill, where we had a really tasty dinner. It had been a great day!

Chapter 8: Collier-Seminole State Park & The Everglades Part 2 (Feb. 5-11)

After a full day at the main part of Everglades National Park I feel like the student in a Far Side cartoon: “Mr. Olsen, may I be excused? My head is full!” As hoped, we were on our way Wednesday by 7:00 and should have been driving into the sunrise. However, it was completely overcast and would remain that way all day long. This was although we picked the day because it had the best weather forecast for the week. Luckily, it didn't interfere with anything we wanted to do and kept the temperatures at a comfortable 71 or so. We drove the two hours along the Tamiami Trail without incident but spent some time frogging around trying to get the cheapest gas only to find that most places had at least a 13¢ difference between cash & credit prices. We were in the park before 10:00 and went to the main Visitor Center to find out the schedule of Ranger Programs and watch their introductory video. The first Ranger Walk of the day was at the Anhinga Trail at nearby Royal Palm visitor center. There we found out that the area was the original park, which was the first Florida State Park, begun by the local Women’s Club to save the Long Pine Key, an island of scrub pine in the saw grass prairie that was threatened by developers. Throughout the day we walked about 3 or 4 miles on short loop trails. The Anhinga Trail offers one of the best opportunities to view wildlife, including alligators and birds, up close. The Pinelands Trail explores a subtropical pine forest maintained by fire. The pinelands are the most diverse land habitat in south Florida. We observed a red bellied woodpecker high up on one of the pines and marveled at the solution holes, depressions where standing water is eroding through the limestone underlying all of Florida. At Pay-hay-okee Overlook a boardwalk leads to an observation tower offering a panoramic view of the River of Grass. At Eco Pond we watched a small flock of Roseate Spoonbills and a pair of osprey, who appeared to be feeding small ones in their nest amidst much screeching and calling. We ate our lunch at the far end of the park road at Flamingo. From their visitor center we saw a large flock of white pelicans out in Florida Bay, whose water depth is only 3 feet on average. In the small marina next to the center there was a group of large manatee cavorting and playing in the water. And a friendly photographer showed us his pictures of the pair of osprey we were watching in a low nest, mating. Our other guided walk was at Mahogany Hammock which crosses the Glades and loops through a subtropical tree island with massive mahogany trees. We have now seen and can identify five herons: Great Blue, Lesser Blue, Night, Tri-color, and Little Green. We can tell the difference between cormorants (hooked beak) and anhinga (sharp, spearing beak). We know the characteristics and inhabitants of bay heads, willow heads, Cyprus domes, dwarf Cyprus forests, and Hammocks. And we understand the major difference a few inches in elevation make in the different habitats and in how the all important river of water flows across this vast area. As I said, our heads are full!

After all our driving Wednesday we decided to stick around the campground Thursday and not start the truck at all. That allowed Peggy to sleep in a bit while Marv got up to do the coffee, got dressed and went out in the screen tent to read. He made French toast for breakfast while Peggy cut up one of the 25¢ grapefruits we bought at the Dudley Farm. Afterwards we took our coffee for a walk to the blockhouse Visitor Center but found the upstairs is closed to all but staff and the downstairs just has some poster boards of a bit of information, taking the place of future exhibits. At the campsite we cleaned the front seat of the truck and organized the back a bit, finding some missing items in the process. The rest of the morning was spent reading and relaxing. We made fabulous Cobb salads for lunch and then rode our bikes about half a mile down US41 to the service road for a 6.5 mile hiking trail. There is a mountain bike/hiking trail the other direction on US41 but it is closed right now because of a nesting pair of bald eagles. The service road was a pretty good surface for biking, though there was some loose sand which made the 5 mile trip feel harder (to me) than the 10 mile paved trip the other day. Most of the road was through a pine hammock but we took the trail between the two “tines” of the road and it went through a short Bald Cyprus dome, illustrating the difference just a few inches of elevation makes. After relaxing and reading again late in the afternoon we grilled pork chops and made black beans and rice before going to the “Screen Room” for a concert of Baby Boomer Era music by the Allen Brothers. There will be another concert and ice cream social tomorrow evening and this weekend is “Jammin’ in the Hammock”, a yearly Blue Grass festival. After the concert there were pockets of people playing bluegrass all over the campground, which makes a nice atmosphere. We will be leaving Saturday morning so we won’t be here for most of the festival but the set-up suggests they expect a large crowd.

After breakfast on Friday we drove to the boat basin and put in our kayak. As we inflated it we had three different couples stop to ask about it and a man from Quebec even took a picture of it so he could look into getting one. We paddled for about an hour and a half on the Black River, so named apparently for the dark water. It is a tunnel through the mangroves and we were going out with the tide so we had to work a little bit to come back up. We saw only one alligator and one Great Blue Heron, along with an anhinga and 4 diving ducks of some sort. It wasn’t as exciting as the earlier two rivers with their alligators, turtles, and otters. But it was a pleasant paddle on a hot, mostly sunny day. After lunch we drove to Marco Island, parked for free on a side road, and went to the public South Beach. We watched dolphins fishing right off the water’s edge and sat in the sun for a bit. As we walked south on the beach to a breakwater the fog came rolling in so that we couldn’t see up or down the beach very far nor more than a few floors up on the high rise hotels and condos at beachside. Fearful of rain, we returned to the campground only to find that it was still sunny and 80°. We decided to take down the screen tent, which we had enjoyed having as protection from the fierce little mosquitoes. They hadn’t bothered Marv as much as they had me—my feet, ankles, and the backs of my arms were covered with bites. Dinner was quick so that we could make it to the 6:30 Ice Cream Social and stay for the concert afterwards. They had Bluegrass Open Mike night with some performer-wannabes who, if they had good reviews from the crowd, would be invited to perform at next year’s Jammin’ in the Hammock. The first performance was a put-together group of 4 guys who don’t play together all the time. The fiddler, Gary Mackey, seemed the most accomplished and had several CDs for sale. The lead guitar, Steve Palmer, also had CDs. Rhythm guitar was a colorful character named “Beau”, who sang harmony and told stories. We didn’t catch the bass’s name and he said he was only called at 4:30 that afternoon to play. They played very well together and seemed very at ease performing. The second group, “Captain Joe and the Bottom Feeders” was a bit more amateur. They had a lead guitar, a female vocalist who barely played guitar, a female vocalist who played mandolin, a banjo player and a bass. It made for a nice evening of free entertainment. Back at the camper we began getting ready to leave in the morning.