Henderson Beach State Park

This was our last stop before heading home.  The park is in Destin, Fl which is renown for great fishing, some of the finest beaches in the country and good restaurants.  This is Spring break time and it lasts for about a month due to the fact that different states schools have different schedules.  Since the Florida panhandle gulf beaches are so nice the kids come from all over the country. Good thing we made reservations months ago.  The campground here at Henderson has about a half mile of beach for the use of their campers, so it is not crowded like the commercial areas.

Fishing for pompano and enjoying the crystal clear water and colors

Dolphin, but Nita yelling sharks

These 2 guys are serious pompano fisherman with 17 rods

Sand almost like sugar



Taking a rest



Spring break kids

Dinner at Deweys of Destin, owner has his own fishing fleet and serves fresh caught fish.  Nita has grouper and I have mahi, doesn't get much better that this food.  With this picture we say goodbye to the blog postings till the next trip

Fort Pickens

Fort Pickens is the largest of 4 forts built to defend Pensacola's Ban and it's Navy Yard.  Construction began in 1829 and completed in 1834.  A work force of skilled African American slave labor was used to construct the fort.  It is located on a barrier island in the gulf south of Pensacola.  The Naval air station is just across the bay from the the fort and it is the home base of the Navy's  Blue Angles jet fighter flight team.  On the 15th we were entertained by the Blue Angels practicing over and around the fort.  The island is not far above sea level and suffers from frequent flooding, the last major hurricane shut Fort Pickens down for several years.  The beaches and water are beautiful.

Nita's sister and husband live nearby and we enjoyed visiting and dining with them.

The Fort and cannon

A jumpy electrician on our electrical plug in

These tiny flowers looked like snapdragons and the leaves smelled like a cross between mint and sage, might be good as a spice

Nita's sister Wilma and Nita

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Grayton Beach State Park

On the way to Grayton we spent a night at the Stephen Foster park in northern Fl.  It has a great campground and a tall  97 bell carillon tower that plays the old Stephen Foster songs, you have to be kind of mature to remember them, we used to sing them in grade school.  Grayton park is in the Florida panhandle on the gulf.  We attended a rally there with 48 motor homes like ours and almost twice that amount of people and a mixture of pets....dogs, cats, parrots and a cockateel.  It was an enjoyable 4 days with fish frys, pot luck lunches, pancake breakfasts and late night Texan hold um poker games.  David and Candy who hosted the rally did a magnificent job.

The group picture of the View/Navion rally folks, picture taken by Micheal Vickey holding the foremost dog called Hudson

 Frying the fish, our host David in plaid shirt

Lunch entertainment, David and Candy's son Matt on the violin

 One of the potluck lunches



She never folds  but always wins.

Candy, our hostess getting some needed nourishment 

Blog Pause

To make a long story short my email account got hacked during our trip and we were unable to post new blogs.  If you got an email from me saying I was in Spain and needed money I apologize, we were not in Spain and not destitute for money.  I have drafts of the posts that we couldn't send and will now post them a little belatedly. 

Tortoise and shells

An endangered Gopher Tortoise heading in to his den, his shell is about 18 inches long. This one on the Koreshan settlement.

 

Shelling on Sanibel Island. Island is in the gulf just west of Fort Myers, a popular tourist spot with tons of tourists. We now have a load of shells to cart around.



Orchid Tree full of blossoms, not a true orchid but kind of looks like one

Koreshan Historic Site

We spent the last four days at the Koreshan State park in Estero, Fl. The site was established by Dr Cyrus Teed in 1894 who moved a group of cultish followers from Chicago. Teed who had taken the Hebrew name "Koresh" planned to construct his New Jerusalem at Estero. He had hoped it would become a great city where people would come to practice his religion of Kreshanity, he also taught that the earth surface was concave on the inside of a sphere. Teed and his followers believed he was immortal , he died in 1908 at the age of 69. They put his body in a bath tub expecting him to resurrect, after 10 days and growing mold the state forced the group to bury him. His body was washed out to sea during a hurricane some years later and he has still not returned. The last Koreshan member died in 1982 and donated 305 acres of the holdings to the state of Florida. The Koreshans were industrious people and established stores, limber mills, machine shops, power generating stations, etc. for the settlement and neighboring community. Quite an interesting place to visit, for more info do a google search on Koreshan Unity.





The founders house, Dr Teed or Koresh





Machine shop, all tools powered by the one gas engine in the side room





Teed's model of the Earth, earths surface on inside of sphere, center is sun, moon and planets





Diesel engine driving generator for electricity





Members cottage

Leapin Lizards

Some of you may remember a funny, now called a comic strip, called Little Orphan Annie. One of Annie's favorite exclamations was "Leapin Lizards". While in Long Key a little lizard leaped on our picnic table and gave us a show. He was a Brown Anole male lizard. The male has what is called a dewlap that he extends from the bottom of his throat to attract a female. He flashes his dewlap quickly, then retracts it, must have taken 2 dozen pictures before getting one with it extended. Mighty pretty guy but didn't see any girls appear, some other guy must have had a bigger dewlap, what else is new.



 

Who could resist this guy




Another nice camping spot in Long Key 

 
A lonely little mangrove growing in the Atlantic off Long Key.





Play it and they will come. Fellow camper singing and playing guitar, was nice of him to share his talents.