Pensacola, winding down

This past weekend we visited Nita's sister and brother in law, Wilma and Ralph, who live near Pensacola. We had a good time with them with lots of food, laughing, shopping for the girls and Ralph and I visited the Pensacola Naval Station.

We left yesterday morning and spent the night in northern Alabama, think it was winter there, the temp was 27 when we got up this morning. We have stopped in Bristol, TN for the night, the forecast is for snow tomorrow, think we came home too early. It is 420 miles to home from here, may take 2 days if the snow is heavy.

I'm blogged out on this trip so will sign off till the next one. To the few faithful followers, thanks for watching.


The Pensacola Naval Air Station is home to the Blue Angels, they practice most Tues and Wed and draw big crowds. The Air Museum here is outstanding.


This drone or unmanned combat air system is much bigger than mine and many more millions of dollars.


Ralph and others feeding the birds at the Pensacola waterfront.


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Dis Asster

While on our way to Gulf Shores Alabama we made a stop to fill up with diesel. While pumping fuel I asked Nita to run in the store and get me a big cup of cappuccino. We finished fueling, Nita placed the cappuccino in the holder and off we go down the road at 55 mph. The cup had a lid with a little protrusion you could suck the coffee out with out spilling. After getting settled down and on cruise control I picked up the cup and took a big suck, nothing came out and I tipped it up further, the lid came off and I experienced a lap full of hot, steaming, sticky cappuccino. I did a 55 mph shuffle trying to cool off the crotch area. Meanwhile Nita is doing contortions laughing her ass off at my predicament. I finally found a turn off several miles down the road to stop and change clothes. I think Nita might have needed to change hers also. It's nice that I can entertain her with my pain and suffering, the other night I whacked my head on the microwave door that was left open, I yelled and uttered some 4 letter words, again a rollicking good tear producing laugh for her.
Last night we had dinner with our friends Lynn and Claudia, and Glen and Lynn at Lamberts in Folly, they are famous for their throwed rolls. A waiter comes out of the kitchen with a cart of freshly baked hot rolls, he asks who wants hot rolls, hands are raised and he accurately throws you a roll from across the room, most catch them and they are delicious.
Lynn hearing of my accident, and me claiming I was blistered from the hot cappuccino accident, produced a little one inch square bandaid suggesting it would adequately cover the wounded part. That's called adding insult to injury.




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Way Down upon the Suwannee River

We are at the Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center on the Suwannee River. It is located at White Springs, Fl in northern Florida. As a kid in grade school we were taught to sing all the Stephen Foster songs, Old Black Joe, Camp Town Races, Beautiful Dreamer, Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home and more, some are deemed not politically correct today. I can still sing most of them.There is a large Carillon Tower here that plays the Stephan Foster songs during the day.
The WIld Azalea Festival was also held here this weekend with races, music, food and interesting rural folks who attended. We had barbecued ribs prepared by Pastor Phillips and sister Matilda, good.
Michael Vicky, a friend from the motorhome rallies we have attended, is a volunteer musician at the park during the winter and he plays the hammered dulcimer. We were lucky to attend two of his performances here.
The day before we visited Paynes Prairie Preserve, a huge wetland and a habitat for birds and animals. We hiked several miles to find a large community of Sandhill Cranes that winter here, to our disappointment they got natures signal to migrate north and we found none. Saw lots of wild horses, alligators and other kinds of birds. There is buffalo there but we didn't see them, you could see much of the ground uprooted by wild boars which are an invasive species doing a lot of damage.




Pastor Phillips and his barbecue




Nita eating it




Micheal Vickey playing the hammered dulcimer




At Dark, if it moves it's food, Nita anxious to leave




Found this critter along the bank, don't know what it is, not an alligator. The upper part couldn't be seen, covered in grass and reed. What you can see there is about 4 feet long. I wanted to poke it to get a view of the head but Nita restrained me. Mystery? After sending this photo to a park ranger he responded that it is a large water moccasin snake, shown is the tail, wonder what the distance is to the head?

Roseate Spoonbill, finally found one

While cruising around on the bike today I spotted a Roseate Spoonbill in a creek. I have been hoping to see one ever since we started the florida winter trips 5 years ago. Normally I have a camera in my pocket, but not this time. Rushed back to rv to get a camera and to my surprise the bird was still there when I returned. I followed him for about a quarter mile on the creek and took about 40 shots.

The spoonbill is a foraging bird that walks slowly while sweeping his bill side to side in shallow water. It has lots of colors, note the orange tail feathers. This is an adult and they have an average 50 inch wingspan. In flight you see the beautiful pink wings.


Nice bill


The spoonbill had a number of followers, the egret shown, several ducks and a little blue heron. It evidently stirs up the bottom so much the others feast on what the spoonbill doesn't get.


Working the bottom for food.


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First day of the alligator mating season

In addition to daylight saving time change today it is also the start of alligator mating season which runs through April. I am going to have to be careful on my treks around the shore line, with my farmer tan and wrinkled skin I fear I could be mistaken for a gator to a testosterone hyped up gator, I'm not ready for an alligator roll, or even a gator hug. To prepare for a fast retreat we started off the day with blueberry/pecan pancakes, eggs and a big glass of Gatorade. You may think this is a croc, but you gotta be prepared.



Ready for action


We visited the Navy Seal museum in Fort Pierce.


Seal underwater attack sub


If you saw the movie, Captain Phillips, this is the lifeboat that the Seals rescued to save the captain.


This guy may be related to a gator, shown here attacking the exhaust pipe of our motorhome, nothing is safe when they are in season.

Birders Delight, part 2

I have trouble publishing more than 5 picture on the blog using the old iPad. Here are a few more pics from Wakodahatchee.


Not rare but this Red Winged Blackbird posed nicely.


A Wood Stork pair hatching eggs


This heron just landing in the nest with mate is just stalling out for the landing, the stall ruffles the feathers.


Noisy, hungry chick


This tree was a nesting place for a lot of different birds, several types of egrets, herons, anhingas, cormarants, etc. in the most part they seemed in harmony, occasionally there was a ruckus, probably somebody landed too close to another's nest. The storks were not as social and seemed to dominate the trees they nested in, maybe their delivery duties required more concentration.

Birders Delight, part 1

Yesterday we drove down to Boynton Beach to visit the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. There are board walks all through the wetlands, the walks go though ponds and marshes with various vegetation and trees. Occupants are many, gators, raccoons, mice, fish, etc. and a great assortment of magnificent birds of all sizes. The magic hour of photography is an hour or so after sunrise and before sunset, this time brings out the serious and not so serious photographers. We arrived around 4:30 pm and had to wait awhile to find a place to park. Nita was a good sport and covered several miles walking around with her hyper amateurish photographer, we stopped several times for a rest. Love to visit this place. Click on the pictures to get better resolution.




Purple Gallinue, this is a juvenile, the adults get deep purple.




This is a Great Egret, it is performing a ritual in the nest of standing up tall and then squatting.




Another beautiful display of his plumes. Note the green color between the bill and the eye.




A pair of Great Blue Herons raising two chicks.




A Great Egret returning to the nest, the sun illuminates the bone structure in the wing.