Chapter 7: Collier-Seminole State Park & The Everglades Part 1 (Feb. 5-11)

The drive from Ross Prairie to Collier-Seminole would be one our longest inside Florida of our trip. We got on the road by 9:30 with a packed lunch. It was a straight shot south on I75 until it turns east. We stopped only to eat our lunch at a rest area and continued south when the freeway went east. From 1:00 on we enjoyed listening to MSU men beat u/m. (Later we found out that MSU women also won their game against u/m!!) The park is just east of Marco Island and we arrived about 3:00. The campground is pretty discouraging; the bathrooms are old and our site is extremely narrow and pretty short. There is no TV reception and only a weak phone signal. But at least we are on the outside of the loop with “jungle” behind us—there are sites crammed on the inside of the loop with nothing between them and other campers. So we’ll make the best of it and be glad we’re well situated for exploring the Everglades. The area has a variety of protected lands including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Reserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, 10,000 Island National Wildlife Reserve and Collier-Seminole State Park, as well as the Miccosukee and Seminole Reservations that all fit together like puzzle pieces so there are 1 or 2 million (we heard both; I believe the latter is correct) acres of land. After eating the leftover hot dogs we jumped in the truck and ended up driving out to Marco Island, where we happened across the Marco Island Brewery at which to watch the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Yea Eli Manning!!!

Monday we rode our bikes about 3 miles around the park, exploring and taking the one trail within the area of the campground. The Royal Palm Hammock Nature Trail/Boardwalk was a one mile loop with a spur out into a marsh. It had rained most of the night and although it wasn’t raining during our time out it was very humid and steamy. We saw some Royal Palms and the Gumbo Limbo (nicknamed the tourist tree for its red peeling bark) in the hammock before the marsh. The mosquitoes are the worst we’ve seen but we have been assured they will be much worse during the wet season. After finishing our nachos from the night before as our lunch today, we drove to Everglade City. We took about 12 miles of the Tamiami Parkway and saw egrets, a flock of storks, anhinga, and many, many alligators trying to soak up the occasional sun that would peak through the clouds in-between occasional showers. There are many road signs in this area warning of bobcat and Florida Panther crossings. Seeing either one would be quite rare and exciting. We also saw the most expensive gas yet--$3.89—and were happy we didn’t have to buy there. There is an Everglades National Park Visitor Center (one of five) in Everglade City and we caught the end of a ranger talk that was an introduction to the park in that area which, like Florida City to the southeast, is really an aquatic attraction, not land-based. Afterwards we went to the gift shop to buy a few things and Marv realized that he must have left his credit card at the Brewery the night before. When we called to check on it the person who could open the safe to look for it was picking his kids up at school and wouldn’t be back till 3:30. We started driving back towards the island but stopped by the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Reserve Marsh Trail. It was 78° but the 87% humidity made it seem much warmer. We walked about a mile along it and climbed the observation platform to look out over the marsh, which was full of anhinga, ibis, herons, egrets, and all the birds we can’t identify yet. There were also alligators in two sizes, and gar (fish) in the pool near the platform. The Brewery did have the credit card so we went back to Marco Island to get it and to do grocery shopping to last us the rest of the time in the Everglades. We made “pizzas” for dinner with flour tortillas and had big salads and spent the evening trying to dry out the inside of the camper (and our bedding) with the air conditioning. We ended up running it on low all night long.

Tuesday was our day to see the Shark Valley, another of the entrances to the Everglades. The day was somewhat cooler and the humidity was around 66%, making us much more comfortable. There was more sun than yesterday but we still had 3 or 4 20 second showers through the day. We packed a picnic and took off right after breakfast to drive about an hour to the entrance. This was Marv’s chance to buy his National Park Senior Pass which is good for his lifetime. The $10 pass saved us four dollars right off the bat when we bought our tickets for the tram ride, which is a guided two hour ride on the 15 mile drive through the area. We learned all about the “River of Grass”, which is the outstanding feature of the Everglades. I realized I had always thought they were more jungle-like, similar to the Okefenokee Swamp, but the latter is a Cyprus swamp and the Everglades are grasses in flowing water. In 2000 a bill was passed for a massive restoration plan that will take 30 years to complete and hopefully stop the damage humans have caused in the last 100 years or so to this delicate and complex environment. We saw and learned about many different birds including herons, egrets, wood storks, anhinga, and purple gallinule. We saw several kinds of turtles and fish and, most of all, we learned all about alligators while seeing so very many in all sizes. Our guide waded out into the shallow water to show us handfuls of the life-giving substance called periphyton. The sponge-like mass floats on top of the water during the wet season and sinks to retain water and sustain egg masses and microorganisms during the dry season. At the halfway point there is an observation tower and we had about 20 minutes to stop. We intended to take the short trail along the water there but we had barely begun when we came across one of the largest alligators of the trip which was lying right in the middle of the trail! There was no arguing with or moving it so we settled for the views from the tower. At the end of the ride we walked back about a quarter mile so we could get pictures and movies of a mother gator with about 22 babies right next to the road. We ate our picnic sitting on a log and then headed back towards the campground. As we left the park there were about 7 cars lined up, waiting for their turn to come into the park so we were very happy we had begun the day early. We stopped at three places in Big Cypress, two visitor centers and a long boardwalk. The first visitor center had a short video and then we walked on their boardwalk along the canal that goes the length of Tamiami Trail. It had many, many alligators who were actively feeding on the “walking catfish”. An enthusiastic ranger was available to answer questions and she mentioned several times how unusual it is to see the alligators feeding and how lucky we were. We had the nearby boardwalk nearly to ourselves as it headed into a strand (Cyprus trees in a gathering around deeper water). At the second visitor center there were two manatees floating along like giant phantoms in the canal. They had been there for most of the day and soon after we got there and watched for awhile they suddenly dived deeper into the dark water and we couldn’t see them. We considered ourselves very lucky to have arrived before they disappeared. Back at the campground I took a shower and washed my hair before we grilled chicken and made a black bean and rice mixture for dinner. I also made most of our picnic lunch for the next day. We went to bed early so we could rise before the sun and get on our way to the main Everglades visitor center on the east side of the state.

Chapter 6: Ross Prairie (Feb. 3-Feb. 5)

Marv had found Ross Prairie when we were looking for anyplace we could make a reservation over a weekend (not easy to do in Florida). It was only about an hour from Juniper Springs campground and we weren’t in a big hurry, but since we had to drive right through the city of Ocala on our way it took awhile. We got to Ross Prairie and were set-up by about noon. It was built in 2003 as an Equestrian-only campground in the Ross Prairie State Forest but it seems like it has been taken over by the State Park system—it’s all a little unclear. There are only 16 sites, all pull through, in a sandy “field” with few trees, and it’s right on the Highway. But there were only a few sites taken (one which has horses with them) so it was pretty quiet other than the highway noise. We ate lunch and then took the 2.1 Holly Hammock hiking trail. Even to our untrained eyes, there was a different look to a holly hammock than an oak hammock. The forested part consisted of mostly long leaf pines with a few old, big live oaks, and an assortment of other oaks. But the understory was made up of a couple of kinds of holly and fewer palmettos than we had seen in other areas. And there wasn’t as much Spanish moss hanging from the oaks. We also saw several dry low areas, as small as 5 acres and as large as 50 acres, which apparently fill with water in the wet season but are dry and prairie grass-filled now. It was pretty in its own way with the breeze blowing the grasses and no sound but the wind and occasional birds. Later, after relaxing at our camper for half an hour or so, we headed into nearby Dunnellon to do 3 loads of laundry, get a bite to eat, and get groceries. This was also our chance to do some “housework” as we cleaned all the counters and the bathroom, swept the carpets, and wiped up the linoleum floor. That should hold us for another 2 weeks.

For having no plans at all, Saturday turned out to be a very nice day. We saw that the Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Crystal River Preserve, and an historic sugar cane mill were about half an hour away so we packed a lunch and left for the day. The Visitor’s Center at the Preserve was technically closed but a very helpful guy was locking it up to go across the canal to a meeting and he gave us lots of information on the area. He also told us that a group of volunteers was working across the canal on building a replica of a Civil War-era flat bottom boat. First he showed us the scale model that was finished and then he encouraged us to go over and see what they were doing. It was very interesting to watch the 10 or so people work and they were friendly and willing to chat. Next we drove to the Archaeological Park. It is a complex of mounds left from native people who built and used them between 400 BCE and 500 AD. Two are temple mounds, two are burial mounds and others are thought to be “priest” mounds and shell “middens” or trash heaps. There is a nice visitor center and an elderly but very knowledgeable volunteer gave us about a 20 minute introduction and demonstration of the exhibits and then we watched an 8 minute video about what they have discovered about the area. We walked more than a mile on the paths, pausing to listen to the recorded messages on boxes at different points. We also enjoyed our picnic at a table right on the river as it leads out into the Gulf of Mexico. The volunteer also told us of a nice bike path we could take that was about 10 minutes away. It is a paved rail-to-trail along a wide canal that was very nice to pedal. It’s very natural and wild all along it and leads first to a tidal estuary and then to the shore of the Gulf, looking out towards many islands. Along the way we saw an osprey nest on which a pair of osprey were sitting, two deer, and many fisherpersons at the frequent roofed shelters along the canal. The day was sunny and 80 degrees and it was a most pleasant 10+ mile ride. We stopped for ice cream on the way back to camp and the servings were so large we both took about half back to put in the freezer to enjoy later. At the campground we both took showers before we enjoyed a hearty salad of couscous, canned salmon, feta, and lots of veggies.

Chapter 5: Ocala National Forest (Jan. 31-Feb. 3)

Tuesday, our travel day, didn’t work out quite like we expected. Sitting next to the camper Marv had noticed that one of the trailer tires had a bulge so he put on the spare. We found there was a Discount Tire place in nearby Gainesville, which we were traveling through anyway. Our plan was to go back to the Spring Diner and have their breakfast special, stop off in Gainesville to replace the tire and fill a propane tank, and be on our way to the Ocala area. The breakfast was great but when we got to Discount Tire they didn’t have the tire in stock. But he said he could call the distributor and, if the truck hadn’t left, he’d order one and it would be there by the afternoon. Luckily the distributor had one and he got it ordered by just 10 minutes to spare. So we had three or more hours to fill. We got the tank filled nearby and went back to Paynes Prairie, where we had a good chance to talk to the ranger about the area and watch the video we passed on the other day. It was so interesting to learn how the prairie filled with water in the late-1880s when the sink that drained the creek that ran through it got stopped up like a bathtub. For several years there was enough water that steamships ferried goods across the “lake”. In 1895 the plug just as suddenly let go and the entire area drained in just 5 days, leaving fish high and dry on the bed. Since then it has remained mostly marshy prairie lands with a creek running through it and several ponds in the center. Now they are in the middle of a two year (at least) drought and there is no water at all out there. They have had to take some of their many alligators to lakes and the prairie is brown and dry. That hasn’t bothered the bison, cracker cattle and wild horses who graze the large area. She encouraged us to bike the Cone Dike Trail, which we did for about 5 miles. We saw two wild horses but that was about all. Since we hadn’t heard from the tire guys we bought groceries on our way back to Discount Tire and then found out that they had called our home number (not my cell, which we had given them) to tell us when the tire was done. Doh! We were on our way to Ocala by about 5:00 and passed by the spot on I75 where the terrible accident had taken place Sunday morning. Chilling. We got to Juniper Springs Campground at 6:00, as the sun was going down. But we picked out a site and got set-up without a hitch and then enjoyed the chili I had made the day before.

Wednesday we puttered for much of the morning and then drove to Alexander Springs, in the southeast corner of the National Forest, to check it out. We had been told it would be a good place to kayak and, after looking around, we decided to do it on Thursday, after getting other things out of the way in the back of the truck. We ate our picnic at the tropical looking spring and then hiked just over two miles on an interpretive trail. It passes through 4 distinct ecosystems: Cyprus swamp, aquatic, sand scrub pine, and oak hammock. Signs explained how the Timucuan native people used the flora and fauna here as many as 10,000 years ago. Along Alexander Spring Creek we enjoyed watching river otters and herons. On our way out we checked out a possible put-in spot for the kayak but decided it would be better to go from the spring and paddle back up stream to the same spot. We drove back to 19, the main north/south route through the Forest, and drove two sandy off-trail roads to hike a little over a mile and a third on “The Yearling” trail. The sand scrub pine area typical of Cracker farms was the setting Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings used to write “The Yearling” and “South Moon Down”. I don’t remember reading either one, but now I’m interested in finding them. While hiking we came across a large sink hole. It was deep enough that we looked down on the many full sized trees growing at its bottom. When we got back to our campsite we were disconcerted to hear jet fighters overhead and the sound of bombs exploding. No problem though as there is a Navy bombing range is just a couple of miles south of us. Marv greased the truck, I took a shower, and we enjoyed spaghetti for dinner and a quiet evening.

Thursday, after a hearty breakfast of egg and bacon wraps, we took our coffee for a walk around the Tropical Loop and saw where we would have been placed if we hadn’t chosen our own site (ours is much nicer). It had been a cloudy night with temperatures only down to the high fifties and the clouds were already breaking up and the temperatures rising. After a bit more fussing around we packed a lunch and went back to Alexander Springs to kayak. It was a wonderful trip with something to see wherever we looked. In the crystal clear waters we could see many types of fish and turtles swimming, including an alligator turtle. On the water we saw more turtles, anhinga, river otters, and an alligator gliding silently along. In the shallows along the banks we saw otters, more turtles, herons, and two more alligators sunning themselves. And in the trees along the creek we saw anhinga drying their wings, heard hawks screeching, and even saw a juvenile bald eagle glide in and perch in a high tree. We went downstream until we got to the bridge where we understand the creek narrows and becomes more challenging so we turned to go back by paddling against the current, which was very easy. The only things that spoiled the trip were glimpses of McDonald’s cups and beer cans glinting up through the water and a couple of spates of Naval bombing in the distance. Back at the spring we enjoyed our picnic before packing the kayak back up and returning to the campground, stopping along the way to wash the truck. We relaxed a bit and then rode our bikes over to Juniper Spring, We hiked the trail there, bringing our walking for the day to just over 2 miles, and then took a refreshing dip in the 72° spring. Marv built a small fire at the campsite so we could cook our hotdogs. We were grumbling a bit about our new next-door neighbors who were 1) running a generator and 2) playing a radio loud enough for us to hear. I said I didn’t know why they were running the generator since he was gathering up a huge armful of the firewood he had been chopping all afternoon to add to an enormous pile, so they must be planning on a campfire. Imagine my chagrin when he walked the armful over to us and invited us to help ourselves to as much more as we wanted. Blush!! They soon turned off the generator and built their own roaring campfire. We added to ours and set-up the Ipod nearby playing “Peter, Paul, & Mary Sing Around the Campfire” so we couldn’t hear their music. We finished our evening by walking by the bright light of the ¾ moon to a clearing at the top of our loop and using my Google Night Sky app to identify some of the many stars and planets we could see in the clear heavens. It had been another lovely visit to Ocala National Forest.

Chapter 4: O'Leno State Park (Jan. 27-31)

The truck was very happy as we drove east and then south on perfectly flat highways with speed limits of 60 miles per hour, and so we got around 17 mpg. During the 180 mile drive we happened to stop at the same park in Perry, FL to eat our picnic lunch where we ate last year. We arrived at O’Leno State Park, which is about in the middle of the peninsula, north of Ocala, by 3:00. We had the camper half set-up before we realized we were on the wrong site so we had to take down and set it up again next door. ARGH! We found out from our next door neighbor that there was a gathering of about 200 Indian Princesses at the park for the weekend. This could be interesting!

It got down to 42° during the night, but we stayed cozy with blankets and our comforter. By the time we enjoyed scrambled eggs for breakfast and packed a lunch in a backpack it was warming up nicely and there wasn’t a cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Most of Saturday was a comfortable 68°, perfect for hiking and biking. We rode our bikes to the day use area, where we learned history of the area. Originally named Keno (changed to Leno because of the gambling connotations and then Old Leno and finally O’Leno) there was once a booming town of 600 people with hotel, general store and several mills driven by the Santa Fe River. The Santa Fe runs for 44 miles to this spot, where it disappears underground for just over three miles, and then reappears for 35 miles before joining the Suwannee. The first Federal road through Florida once passed nearby and the town flourished until the railroad came and did NOT come through town. By 1896 there was no sign of the town or its people, who moved to other communities and took even the lumber from the buildings with them. During the Depression the CCC and the WPA built a suspension bridge and some buildings and people began visiting the site again. We hiked over 3½ miles of trails and rode our bikes 4½ miles as we explored the area. Much of it is the palmetto/long leaf pine/live oak vegetation with which we became familiar last year. We learned from “Bob”, an ancient looking volunteer in the Nature Center, that we could get the combination to get in the gate at the nearby “River Rise State Park” to see where the river reemerged from its underground passage. It was very peaceful and pretty there and we chatted with an old guy, his daughter and his two teenage grandkids who were fishing at the rise. The river is very low and both the sink and the rise show no sign of flow or turbulence or anything. If we hadn’t been told of the interesting geography we would have had no clue. That night we enjoyed a fire to help us stay warm as the temperatures took another nose dive under a canopy of stars.

Sunday turned out to be a very interesting day. We wanted to go to the Dudley Farm State Park, which was about 20 miles away. The historic farm was donated by 88 year old Myrtle Dudley, the last of 12 children of the only surviving son of the original founder. It has been returned to its 1890 state and is maintained as a working Cracker Farm. It was very interesting to wander around the old homestead, which is well back of the highway so one feels like one has stepped back in time. We walked a mile and a half there. We bought four giant grapefruits that were grown on the farm and shared one and had a cheese stick at 2:00. We decided that would hold us and then we would have an early dinner at the “Outdoor Café” in High Springs, near the park. Because two people within an hour of each other had recommended it, we decided to go on to Paynes Prairie State Park which was about 27 miles further, just southeast of Gainesville. The GPS had us get on I75 briefly but no sooner had we entered it then we came to a standstill. It took us about half an hour to crawl to the next exit and then we wound our way to Paynes Prairie. At the park we found out that there had been a terrible accident in smoke and fire about 5:00 in the morning on I75 that killed 10 people and so they had closed that part of I75. We also found out that the fire we had seen just outside the park gate was a wild fire turned bog fire that was not a ”prescribed burn”. They were controlling it and none of the trails was closed but we were going to be aware of it from the ash in the air and the smell. By the time we made our way to the Visitor Center it was 3:35. Right next to the path to the center there is a bald eagles nest with a nesting pair and we could clearly see one of the parents sitting next to the nest. The Center closed at 4:00 so we didn’t spend much time there and we didn’t take the time to watch their 20 minute video. Instead we took the circular one mile hike there to the edge of the prairie and saw a small herd of wild horses, descendents of the horses brought by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500s. Then we drove to the nearby Bolen Bluff trail and hiked 3.34 miles through a highland hammock of huge live oaks heavily laden with Spanish moss. Halfway back, at the edge of the bluff, the trail dropped down to the natural prairie and there is a sort of raised land dike that goes half a mile into the prairie with an observation deck looking over it. While on the dike we walked right among another small herd of the wild horses who continued grazing as we walked through. One white mare had what appeared to be a newborn foal nursing and yet none of them paid any attention to us. As we made our way back to the truck at twilight two deer bounded away through the trees. The freeway was still closed going south but we got back on it going north at the same exit from which we had exited and drove back to High Springs. The recommended Outdoor Café appeared to be very busy and we were pretty hungry by then so instead we went to the authentic High Springs Diner and had their Sunday special of Broasted Chicken. The four piece dinner left us with lunch for Monday! We were looking forward to having the campground to ourselves when we returned. And there were indeed only 4 campsites taken on our loop (other than volunteer/host sites) but to our dismay we saw that one of them was right next door in the closest spot to ours. L

After a 36° night, Monday was really a five star day. I made chili in the Crockpot (but not for tonight—for Ocala, when we won’t have electricity) and packed a lunch with our leftover chicken pieces while Marv loaded up the bikes, in hopes of taking the kayak to the Ichetucknee River, drop our bikes, and then kayak back to them. We drove the truck to the nearby Ichetucknee Springs State Park. The sign at the south entrance said that the park often closes for overcrowding. But it was clearly not a concern on a winter Monday as all entrances had no ranger and offered self-registration. But there was a ranger working outside there and when we told him our plans for the day he told us that we should put the kayak in at the tubing take-out site (closest to the river and only open in the winter) and paddle up the river because the current wasn’t too swift and then float back to the same spot. We drove to that gate and found one other vehicle parked, but it soon left. Because it was still cool we decided to bike the 4 mile round trip on the Tram Road (the only way to get to the river in the summer), eat our picnic and then kayak. At the mid-point dock we enjoyed watching a river otter on the bank across from us and saw one kayak go by from farther upstream. From there to Dampiers dock we took the nature trail along the river. After lunch we got the kayak ready and climbed in. A snowy egret was feeding as we left and an anhinga led us the whole way up the river. We heard the “hoo hoo hoo-hoo” of owls, screeches of hawks and, twice, incredibly loud drumming of a pileated woodpecker, which we saw the second time. The crystal clear spring water revealed schools of fish and waving grasses the entire length. We also saw many turtles sunning themselves on logs. We saw only one other person—a park employee in a kayak monitoring the river flow at Dampiers dock, where we chose to turn around. After having worked pretty hard to paddle up stream, the easy float back was a welcome respite. The wild and protected area, full of cypress trees and knees, Spanish moss, and towering oaks, was incredibly peaceful and lovely. Apparently in the summer one can practically walk across the river on tubers but today we had it to ourselves. Take-out was easily accomplished and we loaded up the truck and then drove to the north entrance to the park. The north and south areas of the park are connected only by the river; there are no roads or trails to get from one area to the other. There we hiked just over a mile to Head Spring, the beginning of the Ichetucknee River, and Blue Hole Spring, a tributary to the river which is also open to scuba divers who wish to explore the underground depths. We saw a couple of snorkelers but no scuba divers. Back at camp we found that our right hand neighbors had been replace by a left hand neighbor. One wonders why they put campers right next to one another when the entire loop had only two other campers?!?! We got most of our packing done for a quicker get-away in the morning and enjoyed leftover pork chops and beans for dinner.

Chapter 3: St. George Island State Park

Chapter 3: St. George Island (Jan. 24-27)

We had another uneventful drive from Montgomery to St. George Island on back roads and several National and State Forest Scenic Byways. The temperature rose into the low seventies and we drove mostly in sunshine and then in and out of light showers. When we got to the coast just east of the causeway to the island we encountered a lot of fog. After getting some groceries we drove over to the island, arriving at the park by around 3:00. Last year when we were here it was windy, rainy, & cloudy with temperatures in the fifties. Even in the fog, we knew this trip would be better. We did a minimal set-up and then rode our bikes the half mile or so to the closest beach access and walked along the sand for a while on the Gulf side of the island. There were lots of Portuguese Man O’ War (deep, inky blue with edges of pink and purple) and Cannonball jellyfish (nearly clear with short stubby tentacles like bundles of cables) along the tidal lines. Back at our #27 campsite we did more setting up and moved many of the items in our back seat into the camper and made a light supper. We marveled that we could hear the waves crashing right from our campsite. After a good night’s sleep in temperatures that didn’t go below 60 we rose to a sunny day and temperatures that would soon rise into the low seventies. We spent a leisurely morning until about 11:00 when we took the Eastern Slough Interpretive Trail through the slash pine forest and beside the Slough. It came out at the park road so we crossed over and walked back up the beach and to our campsite. Along the way, near one of the freshwater ponds, we saw mergansers, a Great Blue Heron, an egret, and a majestic Bald Eagle. Lunch at 2:00 was very welcome after what was about a three and a half mile hike. After some reading in the sun we drove over to the boat access point on the Slough to put in our inflatable kayak and enjoyed a quiet hour’s paddle on the protected water which we shared only with the leaping mullets and a few herons and a merganser. Marv grilled pork chops for dinner and we finished the evening by listening to MSU defeat Minnesota in basketball on Spartan Radio on our very tenuous phone connection at the camper.

Thursday we wanted to ride out to the eastern point of the island. We had done so last year on a bitterly cold, windy day where the enjoyment of doing so lay in the finishing. Today it was sunny and in the low seventies with a breeze out of the south from which the dunes protected us when we left about 11:00. What a difference! The 5 mile “road” is mostly crushed oyster shell gravel but about a mile in the middle is still the original black top of the old County Road 300 which apparently used to go down to the point. About the half way along there is a bisecting bit of black top that goes about 50 yards each way to Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. We walked out to the Gulf and saw only two other people (far in the distance) as far as we could see in both directions. At the end of the road we walked a while to the left and then for a long while to the right and around the point. There were many different kinds of birds/ducks/gulls in the water right off the point and when we had walked around it we found hundreds if not thousands of sea stars that had washed up. I filled my pockets with complete ones and interesting shells and we stayed about an hour before biking back. The sky had clouded over, winds had turned to the west (so we biked into them), and it appeared that the predicted thundershowers were on their way. It was a bit cooler and our return wasn’t quite a pleasant as the ride out had been. Surprisingly, though, when we got back to the campsite, the sun came out again and the rest of the afternoon was very nice. About 4:00 we walked over to the bay side shore on the short path behind our campsite and watched the pelicans, grebes, mergansers and even a couple of loons. Two women joined us and we talked about favorite camping spots and travels and life. They left and we talked to another couple before going back to the camper to batten down the hatches for the severe weather that was on its way. When the rain hit us it was pretty spectacular with lots of lightning and thunder. But the high winds for which we had been warned didn’t get down into the protected campground. It rained most of the evening but quit sometime in the morning and we awoke to bright sunshine and about 60°. By the time the camper was packed up and we were ready to leave things were dried up and we had no problems getting on our way to our next stop.

Chapter 2: Analyn's First Birthday

Chapter 2: Analyn’s First Birthday

When we made our plans for the camping part of our winter trip we thought we’d have three full days to pack up the camper and close down the house before going to Carmel on Saturday. However, the weather report sounded pretty grim with as much as 6 inches of snow expected overnight Friday and into Saturday morning. So we decided to do everything in time to leave Friday afternoon and stop at Ken and Jen’s in Fort Wayne, where they were only supposed to get an inch or two. We got everything done AND I played Scrabble with my monthly group AND we both got our hair cut and did everything else we had to think about to be prepared. Because of the weather we put things that needed to go in the camper by the back door, pulled it out of the garage, put it up, packed it, immediately closed it back up, and put in back into the garage, all in a small window when it was cold but not snowing. But the timing meant that we couldn’t put much food in the fridge and even some of our clothes couldn’t be packed yet. So we started out with a very full back seat in the truck. Our plan was a pretty good one, although the snow came a little earlier and went a bit farther south than predicted. As we drove from Auburn to Fort Wayne the roads were getting slick and the snow was becoming more earnest. We arrived about 5:00, just a bit before Ken got home from work (Jen had had the day off). For dinner we went to 800 Degrees, a woodfire pizza place near them, and the car had several inches of snow by the time we came out. We woke the next morning to 5 or 6 inches and Ken and Marv had to dig out the driveway and the truck and camper, which we had left on the street and the snowplows had had to go around. After a hearty breakfast which Ken made us, we all got on the road to go to Carmel by about noon. The roads were clear once we got to the freeway and there was less and less snow as we went south. Linda and AJ and Connie and Bill were already there and we all went into full blown party preparing mode to get the food ready for the 4:00 Birthday Party. Linda kept the three boys entertained with a book on Super Heroes which resulted in them all dressing up and flying around the house part of the time. Three other families with little ones came and a good time was had by all. Cessa had made two adorable teddy bear cakes and Analyn went at her “personal bear” with increasing gusto, occasionally shaking her hand to try and clear off some of the chocolate frosting. It was all very cute and she was a perfect one year old birthday girl. All the kids went to bed without complaint after the very full day they had had. On Sunday Ken, Marv & I sang with Sarah in choir at St. Peter’s. Craig had taken Eli to mass with Connie and Bill and then he dropped Eli off at St. Peter’s, where Linda, Jen and AJ joined us for the service. Craig had a few minutes of peace and quiet at the house after his parents left. He was listening to coverage of Joe Paterno’s death and the two play-off games that were being played later in the afternoon when we got home. We had Linda’s yummy gumbo and cornbread for lunch and then Craig took his two boys and Ken over to see CSO’s building, because Ken hadn’t seen it yet. Because AJ fell asleep while the boys were gone Linda ended up staying later than she had planned so they could play a bit before heading back to East Lansing. Craig and Sarah did a smoked pork loin and rice for dinner and we all curled up in front of the play-offs to watch the New England Patriots beat Baltimore Ravens and then the New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers. Our grandson Eli was very happy because he wanted #10 Eli Manning to win and he did! The next morning we got up with the rest of the fam, ate a quick breakfast and left just before Sarah and Ana took the boys to school. The temperatures had risen overnight and it was in the forties when we left. There was some drizzle for the first few hours but the rest of our drive south on I65 was smooth sailing as the sun slowly worked its way through the clouds and the temperatures rose into the mid 60s. Stopping only for meals and gas we made it to just south of Montgomery, AL before we pulled into a Days Inn to spend the night.

Winter Adventures 2012: The Beginning

Because we could find no other way to work it out, we made two trips to Florida this winter. Larzeleres invited us to spend some time at their condo in Cocoa Beach and we could come anytime between January 3 and January 21, when they would be returning to East Lansing. But we needed to fit our camping trip between Analyn’s birthday on Jan. 23 and Jordan’s birthday on Mar. 8. After many tries we decided the best thing to do was use Frequent Flier Miles (which we never manage to use anyway) to fly to Larzeleres’ from Jan. 11 to 19 and then begin our camping trip the weekend before Analyn’s birthday.

CHAPTER ONE: Cocoa Beach, Jan. 11-19

Patty Good drove us to the Lansing airport early Wed. morning and we flew Lansing to Detroit, then Detroit to Orlando where Mary Anne and John not only picked us up, but had packed a lunch for us to eat as we drove to Cocoa Beach. We had a marvelous 6 days with them at their time share at Los Olas (The Waves). Their three bedroom suite on the fifth floor is right on the beach, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and affords wonderful sunrises over the water. We had plenty of time for the beach, lounging in the pool or hot tub, playing cards, reading and just plain relaxing. I found myself magically awakening nearly every morning at 7:10, just in time to watch the sun rise, which never disappointed. Our planned activities were only three. On Thursday Marv, John and I took a 3 hour kayaking trip on the Banana River, which with the Indian River and the Intracoastal Waterway, forms a long lagoon that is an entire ecosystem of its own. It straddles temperate and tropical zones and so has a vast array of plant, animal and bird species. We enjoyed seeing horseshoe crabs, comb jellyfish, sting rays, dolphins and many herons and other birds. The weather was sunny with just a slight breeze and temperatures in the upper 60s so it was a perfect day. Our second planned activity was to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve. This area was set aside when NASA expanded Cape Kennedy to accommodate the Space Shuttle Program. It is extremely rich in bird species particularly. At the Visitor’s Center we even saw a painted bunting! As we drove the 7 mile nature drive we saw large flocks of ibis, egrets, roseate spoonbills, and white pelicans as well as occasional Great Blue Herons and Storks. We stopped at two spots to view a large bald eagle nest, which had a pair of adults that were easy to see and we were told there are two babies in the next. Towards the end of the drive we saw many alligators lounging in the sun on the banks of the waterway. Our final planned activity was to watch the MSU/Northwestern basketball game at Beef O’Brady’s with the Brevard County Alumni Association. First we stopped by to meet up with Melody and Bill Glick. Melody was Sarah’s second grade teacher and she and Mary Anne have become friends through the New Horizon’s Band in East Lansing, then were surprised and pleased to find that they winter just a few miles from each other in Florida! The six of us drove to a nearby canal where Jess, our kayaking guide, had virtually guaranteed we would see Manatees gathering to find some warmer water during the cool nights they were having. There were probably 30 or more of these gentle giants in the water that was only a few feet deep and about 15 feet wide. One could have practically walked across their backs to the other side without getting wet! It was a fascinating sight. We then went on to Beef O’Brady’s where about 25 people gathered in good spirits but sadly watched MSU lose their first Big Ten game of the year. L After the game we all went to the Glicks’ fabulous condo at Satellite Beach, where we enjoyed Bill’s yummy pork bar-b-que sandwiches. It was a lovely evening enjoyed by all. Our time in Cocoa Beach ended much too quickly and our gracious hosts drove us back to Orlando (where it was in the low 70s) on Tue. Jan. 17 to return to East Lansing (where it was in the low 20s).