A fast 9 week trip

We left St Augustine Tues. morning and had a leisurely trip back home, spent one night in SC and the next in NC.  This is our second year motorhoming and have enjoyed the 25,000 miles of traveling in it.  It's a very comfortable way to travel, everything you need is always there, no need for restroom stops/motels/resturants etc.

Arrived home yesterday and still have a lot of unpacking to do.  The house didn't suffer any damage from the severe snow falls but we have shrub, tree and snow plow damage that need attention, happy to have missed it all.

In this blog I have poked a lot of fun at Nita, alligator whisperer, back-up expert, mangrove paddler, etc., but she is a real sport to put up with my adventures and it would be no fun without her. In 1948 she jumped on the back of my Harley Davidson motorcycle and since then it's been a lot more motorcycling, motorboating, airplanes, world travel and now RV'ing. She asked this morning "when is our next trip?"

The blog will be dormant till we take off for a yet to be determined summer trip.  I have enjoyed doing this blog, hope you may have enjoyed some the the pictures and bs.

Anastasia State Park/St Augustine

Anastasia is a nice park to camp with several miles of beach on the Atlantic, if they are booked they allow overflow parking at a reduced rate.  A big plus of this park is that it is about 10 minutes form historic St Augustine and the city provides a large lot for parking buses and motorhomes a few blocks away from the action.

The Spanish founded St Augustine in 1565 after battling the French, built the fort Castillo de San Marcos in 1695.  The rule goes back and forth from Spain to Britian then to the US in 1821.  There are many historic homes, buildings, and museums to visit and a fun place to walk around.

Pics, arrived in time for the seafood festival, the fort Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest wood school house in the US, Flaggler College-formerly the Ponce De Leon hotel built by Henry Flaggler in 1888-Henry developed the Florida railroads to create business for his hotels, the entrance to Flaggler College-see the name Ponce De Leon in the arch over the entrance-working with Henry to build this hotel was Thomas Edison who electrified it and Tiffany who did the windows, lamps and chandliers. Dining room, ladies room with tiffany chandliers and the color tiffany blue ceiling and sofa.

Another place not to be missed is the Lightner Museum, housed in the former Alcazar Hotel also built by Flaggler in 1888.

Pics, Nita standing by a sculpture in the ballroom, some facinating mechanical musical instuments that were played for visitors, Tiffany window.

Ocala Nationla Forest

We are in the middle of the forest in a very nice full service federal campground. Arrived here Mon. and have kind of kicked back, reading books, feeding squirrels, walking, etc.  They have a large social barn here with a large fireplace, a bunch of woodturners occuping one corner and quilting ladies in another.  They have some kind of event most days like camping musicians joining forces on Mon. nites, bingo, games, potlucks, etc.  Quite a few campers spend 4 to 6 months here in the winter, that is unique as most fed. parks allow 2 weeks max.  In the morning we pull up stakes and head for St Augustine for 3 days.

Pics, Mon. nite jam session-guy on left harmonica player, banjo player not asleep, they are not pros but they have fun and the audience claps like hell.  As we sit out reading a squirrel wants to share my peanuts, woodpecker probably wanted some too but setteled for a few bugs.  Poor ladder, had the bicycle rack mounted where my finger is pointing.  As I was backing into a campsite in the everglades I asked my co-pilot if we were ok on her side to back in further, she said ok, then I heard the crunch.  As you can imagine the blame game is still on going, think I'm going to lose.  Fortunately could remount the rack on the undamaged portion of the ladder higher up, a better solution than Nita following the motorhome on the bike.  So high now have to get a stool to mount the bike.

The Blonde Alligator Whisperer

The last few days were spent at Lake Griffin state park because it is 9 miles from our friends Joyce and Kent who live in The Villages.  Kent's surprise birthday party with 70 some guests was a great success, only Joyce could pull that off.  See pictures of his guests and Joyce and Nita, former motorcycle mama's that were co-pilots with Kent and I as we toured the counry for. quite a few years.

Lake Griffin is home of a monster Live Oak Tree and has a nice lake where we took another canoe trip.  Saw more alligators with my partner paddler who is an Alligator Whisperer.  What did she whisper?  Very quietly she said, "get me the hell out of here".

Oh, just in case you didn't get enough birds here are a few more we found at Griffin. 1st, Glossy Ibis, Little Blue Heron and last Great Blue Heron.

Sebastian Inlett

This nice campground is on an inlet off the Atlantic.  Campers can fish the Atlantic surf and the Indian River.  We like it so much that we booked two weeks next year. There is lots of bird activity here, so may bore you  with a few more bird pics. Pics,  Snowy Egret-pretty yellow feet, Great Egret catching a grasshopper in the surf, same bird with grasshopper in beak and last a beautiful Woodstork in flight who is not as pretty when on the ground with his vulture like head.

My oh my some Key Lime Pie

The Key Lime Pie (klp) is kind of special in Florida, and it is mighty good too.  It is kind of specially priced also, in the klp shops it costs about $4 a for a small slice. Well we almost went broke eating those 4 buck slices and had to switch to Vanilla Wafers, that is untill we made an amazing discovery,  while visiting Costco we found a whole 16" pie, scored for about 20 slices, and get this, only 9 bucks.  Nita would not leave the store without it.  We rushed out to the rv and it was too big to fit in the frig, what to do?  We both had to eat 2 pieces, then aluminum foiled 4 pieces/pack for the freezer and frig.  By now we've had about enough klp, may switch back to Vanilla Wafers.  Life gets complicated on the road. Pics, another sacrifice, here's to more klp.

We are now on the way to Lake Griffin and tomorrow will attend a surprise birthday party for our friend Kent Burgess in The Villages.

Nine Mile Canoe Trail

We signed up for the 8 am  ranger guided canoe trip.  The launch area was about 15 miles no. of our campsite in Flamingo.  After the 5 and a half hour canoe trip in the Big Cypress several weeks ago we swore off any more canoe trips.  Well this one sounded so interesting we did it again.  The trip took us from brackish water to fresh water and back.  The everglades marks the range of alligators from here up to the Carolinas and Crocodiles here south, the everglades is one of the few places where they intermingle, on this trip we saw both.

Pics, 8am launch, through the red mangroves-ranger in red boat, crocodile, much longer that our canoe. I paddled up close to get a good picure and then noticed Nita paddling in reverse, sea of breadsticks, a beige colored algae mat that forms on rushes creating a supply of food for snails, small fish and tadpoles. Last alligator swiming to right of Nita.

Are we bird watchers?

Real birdwatchers are very serious about their hobby, they come with binoculars, multiple cameras, tripods and books.  The lens on their cameras are 2 to 3 feet long and probably cost several grand.  So we are not true birdwatchers, but we went on a 2 hour bird walk with a ranger and really enjoyed it, did buy a bird  book afterward and our puny little camera did a pretty good job. The pics are from the ranger walk and several of our independent walks.  A facinating bird is the Anhinga, a diving water bird, male has a black neck and female a brown neck.  The Wood Stork has an ugly head but is beautiful in flight.  We saw the beautiful Roseated Spoonbill and Swallow tailed Kite in flight but was not quick enough to get a picture.

Pics, Female Anhinga, Male Anhinga, female Anhinga feeding young chicks, Wood Stork, Wood stork head, buddy alligators, Green Heron, Brown Pelican, Great Egret, Tri Colored Heron and Moorhens, Purple Gallinule, American Bittern, and Double-crested Cormorant.

Everglades National Park

This is the only subtropical area in the US.  We entered the park from Fl. City and drove 40 miles through the everglades to Flamingo on the most southern tip of mainland Fl.  You travel though all kinds of terrian and plant life and through fresh, brackish and salt water.  What a great place, to us it was kind of magical with all the different plants, birds and animals.  The primative campground at Flamino was located right on the shores of the Florida Bay which contains hundreds of island.  The rangers had programs for the visitors going on all day.  We took in lectures, bird walks, canoe trips, etc., had to push Nita a little to get her to go for some of them, but after we went she enjoyed them.

Pics, Nita relaxing at Flamingo, Mahogany tree, mahogany seed pods- they break open and seeds similar to maple seeds flutter to the ground, and black vulture on top of an rv - signs are posted warning of the damage the vultures can to to tops of rv's, they like to pull out rubber and plastic materials.