This extravaganza has been in the works for months. Visitors came from Mexico, California, Ohio and of course, South Carolina. Everyone had a great time catching up with old friends. The pics below are his kids and his grandkids. Not everyone could make the trip but this was most of them.
In the Air Force that meant 'return to base' . We have returned. I know it's been a while but we had a really hard freeze here right after we left. Looks like we lost some things. The Norfolk pine that we've had in a pot for probably 25 years might have bought it and the lemon tree that has moved around the Carolinas for the last 15 years has lost all it's leaves. My carrots and onions and radishes seem fine. Spring should show up here pretty soon. This trip is over. It went pretty much as planned. Next on our agenda is Larson's 94th birthday party in San Antonio. Thats next week and we're flying.
We drove across the Florida panhandle on I-10 east and got on I-95 in Jacksonville. We took exit # 1 in Georgia and here we are. We decided to stay in a commercial campground close to home so we could give the holding tanks a good flush. This is a special kind of KOA. There are a few things to keep the campers entertained. The pic below is one of them. We are home tomorrow.
Well, I went out again this morning on what I was expecting to be a 1 hour bike ride in the state forest. 2 hours later, I limped back into camp after having seen most of the more obscure trails out there. I road by the same trail intersection 3 times before I realized I was riding in circles. I'm a slow learner, I guess. We had lunch at an oyster bar. They had a fried pickle and jalapeno hors d'oeuvre. Spectacular! I had jalapeno/cheese baked oysters on the half shell. Eat your heart our Seth. As a final activity here, we hiked the parks nature trail. Pics below. We head for home tomorrow. We are really not too far, it's about 8 hours, an easy 2 days.
There is a state forest across the road from this park. There are a lot of hiking/biking trails over there. They aren't dangerous or difficult (which is a shame) but getting hopelessly lost is really easy. After the ride, Jenny and I got the kayaks wet. There is a large 'Dune Lake' in this park. A Dune Lake is body of water located behind the first dune wall, the water is mostly fresh but can be brackish and every once in a while the surf breaks through the dunes and connects the dune lake to the ocean. The weather was primo and I wore shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in 2018. Whoopee! We've got tonight and tomorrow night and then we head east. We found out today that the part to fix the bad leveling jack will cost $1100. The MP strikes again.
We are camped on what is locally called 'the miracle strip'. The sand is white and the water is clear. There is a community about a mile bike from here called 'Seaside'. It is an extremely cool place. The developer who designed Seaside also did Habersham. There are a few similarities but this place looks like Habersham on steroids. It rained like hell this morning. The guy parked next to us had a limb come down on the cab of his RV. When we left a park ranger with a front-end loader and a chainsaw was about to start working on it. This will be our turnaround point. We will be here 3 nights. There is kayaking, bike riding and of course eating out and shopping in Seaside.
After looking at the falls yesterday we have pretty much done the highlights. I did a bike ride around the perimeter of the park this morning but that didn't take too long. They are doing something here that I thought was interesting. We have noticed the last few years we have visited Florida that there seems to be an effort to reestablish the native 'Longleaf Pine' forest on public land. The longleaf pine used to be the dominant pine tree in the state but, as we are prone to do, we cut them all down. They were replaced with faster growing pines like the Loblolly, Slash or Southern pine. The Longleaf grows slower but is more resistant to fire and insects. Below is a pic of some Longleaf seedlings. The needles are 8 to 10 inches long. We move tomorrow to a park on the Gulf Coast.
We are in Florida about half way across the state just a few miles off of interstate 10. We have been here once before in 2014. Lindsay and the boys were with us. This had to be a trip either to or from San Antonio. Maybe Lindsay can remember the particulars. The park protects the tallest waterfall in Florida. The dribble of water flows into a sinkhole. The sinkhole is 100 feet deep and the waterfall is 73 feet. Another startling statistic about this park is it's nosebleed inducing elevation. It's one of the highest points in the state. 323 feet. Altitude sickness is a real concern. We are here for 2 days. Not sure what we are going to do.
I went out for another paddle this morning. Jenny was handling administrative issues. I turned left instead of right, (the way we went yesterday.) As I progressed, the little map on my hand-held GPS told me I was entering the Suwannee River. The channel began to pinch and the current speed began to increase. At one point I was drifting at 3 mph. Since I was going to have to paddle back against that current I decided to stop right there and head back. I took it easy on the return and saw 11 alligators and one river otter. We move tomorrow. Should be in Florida.
