Wekiwa Springs State Park

We arrived here on Sunday after a very windy drive from DuPuis.  The weather has been cooler (low 70's high 60's) and a pleasant change from the 80's of the Everglades and DuPuis early on.  Our sites here are packed sand and quite deep and fairly wide.  With electricity and water we are living "high on the hog" as they say.  There are nice trees around us and a fair number of birds and all sorts of squirrels.
 

By the time we got set-up on Sunday there wasn't much time left to do anything other than socialize, fix dinner, and get in one game of cribbage.  Our limit on cribbage is one game an evening.  So far the men and beating up on the women.  However, it is fun and friendly.

Monday Dee and Marty went to town to get laundry done.  The laundromat was probably the most unusual they had ever visited.  There were machines not working that had basically labeled as "not working" and now had snacks and other products stacked on top of them.  The people there were friendly.  One woman helped both of them with oddities of the machines.  There was Wi-Fi and TV and the coverage on TV was the President's latest travel restrictions among other topics.  As Dee and Marty were leaving he started blasting Trump calling him a liar, a fool, crazy.  They had not expected this reaction at all.

The afternoon found us down on the Wekiwa River in our kayaks.  The water flows from a spring that produces 43 million gallons of water each day.  The river is possibly the clearest water we've paddled in Florida.  There is a commercial canoe/kayak rental business run by the park so there are lots of folks on the water at any given time.  Below are some of the photos taken while we paddled.

There were many turtles and of varying species.  Below on the left is a turtle in a very strange position.  All four legs were lifted up as though he was trying to catch some air and fly.  Or maybe it was a yoga pose!

 

Even with all the people paddling by and some making lots of noise.  We still saw birds.  Not as many as we saw the first tie we visited this park, but enough to make it very interesting.  Below is the one and only Great Blue Heron we saw and he was so tolerant of people that we passed within several feel of him and got no reaction/need to fly off.  He sure made quite a presentation of elegance and color against the greens of leaves and Forrest behind him.

 

 

 

The Little Blue Heron above was one of three or four that we saw fishing along the river.  This one has just caught a small fish.  These birds are just so elegant and wonderful to watch.  Again, we found that they were all quite used to people paddling by or stopping as close to them as we did that they often just ignored us.

 

The shot of the day, however, was getting this beautiful Green Heron as it was fishing.  We saw this one also capture a small fish.

The most amusing thing we saw was a group of four paddling in a two-person inflatable kayak using two paddles but in sections.  They were having fun but in our eyes, a disaster waiting to happen.

 

It was the fun they were having, but they did tell us that it was "hard work".  We know, we've paddled those ourselves.

Tuesday we got out for a hike around the park.  This is a huge park with 7,800 acres and within that one finds more than one type of environment.  We walked through open fields with grass and few trees into tall forests with mixed vegetation.  We saw lots of woodpeckers in one area and in other areas were aware of no birds, just the sound of wind in the trees.

 

Above are Dee, Paul and David early on our hike (over 3.5 miles) on mostly sandy trails as you can see.

 

The trail meandered through a wide variety of habitats including the type of forest you see above to nearly all palms or towering palms or trees widely spaced with beautiful yellow grass all around them.

 

We are impressed by UPS and Amazon.  On Sunday we ordered solar panels for our campers.  On Tuesday they arrived at the campground!  One can get something delivered pretty much any place these days.  David and Paul are not in the process of setting up the panels and doing the necessary connecting of wires and electrical cords.  We will have our first opportunity to try these out back in DuPuis because when we checked on our next campground for which we had a FCFS (first-come-first-served) status that there was little chance we would be able to get in.  Our backup plan is now to return to DuPuis where we won't be on the grid and so the panels will come in handy there for sure.  And at the campground after that we will also need them as again we'll have no hookups.  There is a small chance we'll be where we want to be on Friday night, but if not, we are covered.

Today Marty noticed that the little Carolina Wrens were picking up leaves and interesting things and flying up under Dee's kayak which is on the rack on the back of the truck.  This was reported to Dee upon which she checked inside the kayak and pulled out nearly a football's size of leaves, grass, and nest  building materials.  

   

 

Two shots above of our very busy wren doing his nest building thing!  Such fun to watch.

What a thrill

DuPuis Equestrian campground

 

We are camping now in a free campground in a piece of land managed by the South Florida Water Management District.  One makes a reservation by getting a permit to camp from the Florida Water folks.  The campground is roughly divided into Equestrian and non Equestrian with merely a sign with arrows pointing in one or the other direction.  There are no defined camping sites; there are water faucets, but no hook-ups.  A basic toilet/shower exists, supplemented by porta-potties.

When we arrived and started looking for a place to park, a man about our age with a very strong French accent came out to the road and told us everything we needed to know.  Park where you can, it is supposed to be equestrian on this side of the road but if there is no room on the other it is okay to park here.  So we did!  We pulled in with Paul's truck and trailer and then ourselves beside him and set up camp.  Our friendly man from Montreal, Quebec is our neighbor and has  been most helpful.  We all like to listen to him talk as his accent is most enjoyable to listen to.

On our first full day, Marc, our neighbor pointed out to us that there was an owl family living in the two tall pines that tower over our campers.  He showed us where to look and sure enough, there was the other and owlet high above us.  Below is a photo of the two of them together.

 

We arrived on Tuesday so it was Wednesday morning when we first saw the two of them together.  We have seen both parents go off and hunt and bring back food for the little guy, but today (Saturday) the parents appear to have abandoned him.  Maybe this is the kind of hard love that nature uses when it is time for the young to get out there and do their own thing.  We don't really know and will have to do some research to find out.  Today, as this is written, the owlet has been alone all day.  He/She seems to be going higher up into the tree and looks for parents who may not come back with food.  This young one is, according to Marc, old enough to fledge, so we are watching closely to see if it happens while we are here.  Our campers are directly beneath the tree where this chick hatched and developed.

 

 

Needless to say, it has been a thrill for us to have been able to see this family of owls and now to be waiting for the owlet to fledge and fly off.  Last evening we heard a lot of hooting and thought that maybe the event had happened, but alas, he remains. One really feels "looked at" and observed when these wonderful creatures are watching you as the owlet is the the photo above.  Everyone in the campground has been checking up on the owlet daily.  Quite the tourist attraction.

Now back to the campground.  This property had originally been a cattle ranch owned by the DuPuis family.  They donated the land to either the state of Florida or the Water Management District.  It is a large area and easy to see how it could have been a cattle ranch.  The visitor's center was originally their home and it is really quite lovely with one room paneled in the most beautiful mahogany.  

Since there are no fees charged for camping it seems to be pretty popular with folks from Canada given that the current exchange rate really favors the USD.  Makes perfect sense that if you can camp for free that you would.  Many of the campers also have their own solar panels of which we are seeing more and more as time goes by.  Those too make perfect sense and certainly allow for more extended periods off the grid (so to speak).

We have gotten some nice bike rides in and Friday did the full length of one of the trails, six miles out and six back.  The riding conditions are hard as the gravel surface is severely washboarded, so we get a very rough surface.  But we made it!  Sore bums at the end after so much bouncing around.  

 

One of the things we passed on our ride was this cemetery.  We thought initially that it might be horse cemetery but later learned it was only a pet cemetery.  It was the cemetery where the DuPuis family put their pets, mostly dogs, for their final resting place.

 

 

We don't know the name of this, but it is an air plant that grows on another plant.  This one in particular is blooming and really lovely.

 

This is a beautiful cypress stand into which we walked via a raised wooden walkway.  

 

Marty, Dee and Paul pause on the raised walkway in the cypress forrest.

 

The last stop on our ride was a fishing pond with a pier.  As we took in the scene the white horse decided to put on a show and started pawing into the water making all sorts of huge splashes.  It appears that he was doing it just for the fun of it.  The dark horse behind him also joined in at one point but the biggest splasher was the white horse.

With clouds building and looking rather ominous we headed back to the camper thinking that we were going to get lots of rain, which never materialized...just wind.

Lily, our 15 year old cat likes to snuggle in bed with us.  This morning she didn't want to get up after we did and just stayed in the sleeping bag.....what a girl.

Anhinga Trail and Mr Bubbles and a Nike Missile Site plus our last day here

Sunday Excursion

After our first pancake and sausage breakfast of the trip we headed off on the bicycles to the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm Hammock (we think).  This involves a just over four mile bike ride on a combination of rough hard trail within the campground, smooth flat paved road, followed by rough grass and lastly a rooty dirt trail up to the visitor's center.  One's "bum" is very happy to be out of the saddle upon arrival!

We had been told, while in Flamingo, that Eco Pond's water was too high and there were fewer birds there as a result.  We were also told that Anhinga Trail would be much more greatly populated even though the water was higher.  It was immediately evident that there were fewer wading birds as we started along the trail.  They just were not there!  We were seeing many more fish in the water though.  There were Anhingas in the trees often drying their wings along with Cormorants.  

There were plenty of gators along the trail, in one place alone we counted 23.  That's a lot of gators.

 

We saw only a handful of Great Blue Herons.  One near the entrance to the trail (we suspect it is one we have seen in this area over the years...his territory).  He was standing with his wings slightly away from his body, possibly drying them as we have seen other birds do.

 

Anhingas are amazing birds.  They dive for fish and when we drive along near waterways or here on the trail it is not unusual to see them up in a tree with their magnificanat wings spread wide to dry.

 

We did get somewhat of a treat while on the trail as there were Anhingas mating and nesting.  In one tree, surrounded by water, there were several birds.  One in particular caught our eyes because we could hear him making a different sound and he was bowing toward a female.  He would then pull his tail up into a fan like position behind him and spread his wings so that mostly only the white and striped feathers where showing toward her.  Unfortunately, he was too far away and we were at the wrong angle to get a decent shot of him.  But to watch this was really amazing.  We've never seen anything quite like this before.

 

 

Great Blues are always wonderful to watch and particularly when they take flight; such a wide wing span and they just seem to rise effortlessly up from wherever they are.

The other treat of the walk was watching the Purple Gallinules run across lilly pads and gathering blossoms off the lillies to eat.  Usually we have seen these birds right at the entrance to the trail, but this time they were in a larger pond area.

 

This is a male Purple Gallinule looking for good stuff to eat.  These birds have relatively long toes on their feet which appear to be why they can easily run across the lilly pads.

 

This is either a juvenile or a female.  Our bird book doesn't tell us the difference between the genders and only shows a male and a juvenile.

 

And it is fitting that we close this little blog entry about the Anhinga Trail with the Purple Gallinule running across the lilly pads with a prize in it's mouth.  We saw several birds with these blossoms and one even had managed to pull one up with a foot-long stem attached and was headed off for a feast.

Now for an interesting part of this blog's entry:  Mr Bubbles

Several years ago when we needed a laundromat, we happened upon a place in Florida City called "Mr Bubbles".  This was a clean facility with over-sized machines allowing us to put a whole week's worth of dirty clothes and towels in with room to spare.  It also featured free Wi-Fi, benches outside, and that made for a pleasant and interesting laundry experience for people unaccustomed to the neighborhood laundromat.  Two years since our last visit we found Mr Bubbles in much the same condition except the Wi-Fi wasn't working and half the facility was now commercial, where one could leave their dirties and return to have it washed, dried, and folded.  It struck us that "laundromat life" is something that the four of us don't experience very often, so Mr. Bubbles gave us a window on folks faced with weekly trips to the neighbood laundromat.  There is a certain sadness to laundromat life; no one seems to smile, the adults just come in with their soiled clothes, trailed by the kids. It seems to be written on the moms' faces that life should be better than laundromat drudgery.  Children certainly are happy enough, they get to run around and have fun while their grim-faced mothers (usually) just get on with the job at hand.  

The Missle Site - Monday

Within the Everglades National Park, close to the Long Pine Key campground, is a former Army Nike missile site, which was hurriedly installed in the early 1960s during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  This was one of four sites in southern Florida deployed to intercept bomber attacks from Cuba.  Of course, there never were any such attacks, but the site remained operational until it was shut down in 1979.  The headquarters building and missile barns remain, now the object of daily tours conducted by volunteers from the National Park Service.  Our tour, on Monday afternoon under an unrelenting South Florida sun, was with Scott Gabriel, who has been doing these tours for a couple of years.  He has done a lot of research on the Cuban crisis in general and this missile site in particular, delivering a ninety-minute tour spiced with anecdotes and facts.  One of the barns contains an actual Nike Hercules missile and related artifacts, collected over the years by private groups that are interested in preserving this fascinating period in our history.

Tuesday

We have had a quiet day.  Listening to birds:  cardinals, cat, mockingbirds, eastern Towhees, and woodpeckers and owls to mention a few.  We got out for a walk around the small lake that is within the campground.  We were hearing the knock-knock of a woodpecker but saw nothing.  As we walked further we heard more knocking and stopped to look for a dead tree where there might be a bird.  Saw two dead trees but no bird.  Then we noticed two holes up near the top of the tree; 40 or more feet up.  We continued to hear knocking and went around the tree and still saw nothing.  Then a head emerged from the lower hole almost as though the bird was checking us out.  David saw chips come flying out of the bird's bill.  This was repeated several tines and then the bird came out and inspected the outside of the hole.  The bird was a pileated woodpecker!  We were thrilled to have spotted him.

 

Tossing out the wood chips!

 

We will make one more trip to Royal Palm and the Anhinga Trail this afternoon before dinner and then heading out tomorrow for another campground adventure.  

Here is a one collage of six of the photos taken today.

 

You Ladies come from those RVs?

The real Walmart Experience

 

When we arrived at the Walmart in Ft Meyers Beach, Dee and Marty went in to see what kind of fast food they might have in their Deli so we could eat in our campers.  We were met at the door by a large man in a dark blue Walmart T-shirt who asked if we were from "those RVs over there."  Dee and I politely responded "yes".  The man proceeded to tell us that they no longer allowed overnighting at that particular Walmart and that we should consider moving out unless we wanted to have a knock on our door in the middle of the night.  The police would tell us to move and if we didn't move we'd probably be towed and fined $600.  We were upset because we'd already had two glasses of wine and didn't feel that it would be a good idea to drive.  So we didn't buy a thing and headed back to the camper.  The men discussed the situation and decided that we would just stay and if there was a knock on the door we wouldn't answer it.  There were nearly 10 or more other campers in the lot and so we went to sleep.  

There were no knocks on the door in the middle of the night and so in the morning we walked over to Perkins Restaurant and had breakfast and vowed never to return to Ft Meyers Walmart.  All the on-line information we had researched told us that overnighting at this particular store was permitted.  Maybe we encountered a rogue employee wanting to show his control over us.

Our stop just before Ft. Meyers was with Barbara and Bob (David's sister and her husband) where we caught up, had lunch, received a very welcome gift of a Key Lime Pie before heading back on the road.

From Ft Meyers we headed for the Tamiami Highway and our next overnight which would be in the Big Cypress National Preserve on Monument Lake. This is a campground we had stayed in before and it very basic, no water or electricity, no showers, no laundry, just a place to park and spend the night. It is, however, a very interesting place to stop.  We saw Purple Martins and lots of other birds.  And at dusk the tree swallows (that is what the campground host called them) came swooping in and flew over the pond in a circle touching down either to drink or to feed.  We are not sure which!  It was quite a sight though and we certainly enjoyed it.  

 

Back on the Tamiami early Tuesday morning and as we drove along were amazed at how many Anhingas were in the trees drying out their wings along with Kingfishers and Cormorants and the handful of vultures.  There were many different egrets feeding along the canal that runs parallel to the highway.  Quite a site.

Once in Homestead, we headed for a U-Haul for filling propane tanks followed by a late breakfast at Marios, a Cuban restaurant at which we had eaten several times before.  We had a great breakfast/brunch and enjoyed sitting outside.

 

Now we are in the Flamingo campground in the Everglades.  We didn't get our reservation in early enough to get electricity, so we are in a non electric loop in which very few others are camping.  The downside is no electricity and water right at our site, the upside is that it will be much quieter here and we most likely won't have to wait to take a shower!  We have a red-shouldered hawk or two in the area and they are constantly calling.  Pretty neat.

David and Marty rode their bikes over to the Eco Pond where often there are many birds and just before getting there several cars were parked on the road and people were out looking at something....the something turned out to be a Diamondback rattle snake!  First big snake we have seen here in the park.  It was about 6' long so it was a formatable serpent.

The mosquitos are very hungry here and we are going to use lots and lots of bug dope and will probably not spend much time outside unless we are well protected.

Note:  two visits to Eco Pond and only about three birds each visit.  One of the rangers has informed us that because the water levels are higher it is harder for the birds to fish there and until the water level goes down there will not be the birds.

Wednesday we had rain. Didn't it rain. We had no way to measure the amount but was easily over 1" and might have been closer to 2".  There will be another hatch of mosquitoes in about five or six days....grrrr.  We did get over to the Visitor's Center where we hear a great presentation on turtles.  It was given by a ranger whom we had heard before.  The national parks are good when it comes to providing programs and the rangers are usually very well educated on the topics they present.

 

We are learning to play cribbage, Paul is a patient teacher and we are having fun!  It is our after dinner pre dish washing activity.  Currently, the guys' team lead the gals three games to one.

That is our site taken looking toward the road, behind are two large trees.

Thursday morning we managed to get out for a bike ride and stopping at several ponds along the way saw very few birds!  As the rangers have been telling us, the water is too high.  Did see Ibis in the wetlands and Marty decided to try to get a shot of them.  Well, one stops the bike, gets off the bike, takes off the fanny pack, pulls out the camera, walks back to where the birds are, stirs up the mosquitoes and slap, slap, slap try to get the right camera settings, slap, slap, slap. And now the birds are starting to fly away.  As she says, at least the head is in focus.

 

Friday we made it over to the canal for a paddle and went for about 45 minutes up and the same back.  A good paddle all-in-all.  There are tour boats that come up this canal and fortunately they are very polite and slow way down.  A lot of the fishermen don't slow down enough.  The only birds we could really get close enough to see were several vultures.  The Turkey Vulture does have very interesting eyes.

 

David backed up his kayak into the mangrove to be able to show you what the shoreline of the canal was.

 

We saw two alligators in the canal both near the marina.  One, however, was on the furthest ramp of about four ramps in the boat launching area.  One of the tour boat workers yelled at us that 50' or more was the only safe distance.  He also told us that the gators can go from 0-35 mph very quickly and that they can "jump".

We were back in the afternoon for a tour boat ride up the canal to Coot Bay and then further into Bear Lake and on to one other lake (the name escapes us).  The captain of the boat was constantly narrating, but we got more from her first mate, a man named Tom who had just turned 70 and was full of information and was not shy about sharing it.  We didn't see much for wildlife or birds which is just the way it goes...like the whale watch boat rides in Maine when you come up dry...sometimes that is just the way it is.

Friday night we made the decision to move from the Flamingo region of the park up to the Long Pine Key campground because of the mosquitoes.  Fewer there than in Flamingo.  But we had one more thing to do on Saturday.

But before we leave this campground, we need to share with you a photo of the two red-shouldered hawks we have been watching and enjoying since we arrived last Tuesday.  These birds are magnificent and we have seen them hunting, mating, and flying with great speed into a tree and land with grace.  What a privilege we were given to witness these great birds.

 

Saturday we got up early, ate a quick breakfast and headed Nine Mile Pond where we took a guided canoe trip through the pond there.  We did this tour five years ago on our first trip to Florida and the water levels were lower and there were many more birds that we saw up close during our paddle.  Yesterday we saw only a few birds and not up close once we were in the canoes.  It was still a very interesting paddle and most enjoyable starting with open pond paddling and spotting a large gator gliding across the pond. Most of the paddling was through low growth mangroves in very narrow channels.  Our ranger, Tim, said they had been having difficulty with the gators as it is getting to be mating season and alerted us when he saw one right as we exited one of the chanels.  But for the most part it was quiet except for type croaking of the frogs!  Near the end of our trip we did get to see lots and lots of gators in one of the open areas.  We saw one very, very big critter who is reported to be about 13-14 feet long and is known to eat smaller gators of 5-6 feet in length.  This big guy was resting on the shore and we did not go close to him...stayed well over 50' feet away.  And in the same open area we saw about 8-10 more either close to the shore or drifting across the pond!  That was very cool.  Then as we exited the open area and went into the last cut through into the largest part of the pond there was one last gator just a few feet from where we would all paddle.  His eyes were "on" us to be sure.

 

Before the paddle, David and Paul sitting in the rising sun's shine.  Notice that Paul got a trim, so no longer is accused of being an off-season Santa.

It had been foggy when we made the drive to Nine Mile Pond and as we pulled into the parking lot Marty noticed several Ibis feeding in the shallow water with the sunlight behind them and mist/fog hanging over the water.  It was a very peaceful and beautiful scene.

 

We returned to our campsites and packed up.  Goodbye mosquito escape has begun.  We are headed to Long Pine Key Campground.  The mosquito meter below is/was accurate!

 

Last entry for St Andrews State Park

Friday afternoon.  It is decision time, do we go for one last paddle and walk the beach again or just paddle.  We think it will be paddle and walk.  this has been a great park.  This afternoon Dee and Marty scoped out all the sites with direct or nearly direct access to the water.  Have to plan ahead for next year.  We can make reservations 11 months in advance so we could go ahead and make a reservation in March for 2018.  That would be awesome as we would then, we assume, get just what we wanted for a site.

 

One thing we had not mentioned (maybe we did) was that there are two areas where one can see lots of wildlife both are part of the Buttonwood Marsh.  One is the overlook and the other just across the road.  The overlook has a viewing platform from which one can see nesting Great Blue Herons and Egrets.  The egrets are busy building nests right now and the males have quite a bit of extra length in their plumage (we think).  As we watched the other day several males were flying from one side of the marsh to the side we were on and looking for perfect sticks to take back to their mates.  In the photo below you can see the size of the stick this one will take back to his mate!  They were very, very busy flying back and forth across the marsh with sticks or coming to look for them.  Pretty interesting to watch to be sure.

At the same time there were deer on both sides of the street that divides the marsh.  One doe walked very near us on the viewing platform and across the road (above) this lone deer was grazing.  The next day we saw three grazing there and on the road back to the campground three very young deer; but old enough to not have spots.

 

Below is the same bird as above as he walks casually toward an area where he discovered lots of sticks with potential.

 

These are such elegant birds.  Hard not to be totally fascinated by them.

 

This Great Blue was somewhat the "king" of the marsh path.  He encountered the egret above plus another one and verbally told them where to go without ruffling any of his feathers.  Just is posture tells you "he is the boss."  It was been great to observe these large birds up close.  And at our campsite we have seen all the smaller ones and have been (probably illegally) feeding them seed.  There has been at least one bunny in our backyard along with some large mice who are living in the palmettos. 

Marty got over to the pier one last time hoping for a nice timed exposure, but didn't get what she wanted-still a nice shot though.

 

Friday night we got some rain and then fairly early we headed to Cheifland.

A late seafood lunch was all we needed after a long drive in the wind.

 

Dinner was beer and wine and snacking foods in the camper in the Walmart parkjg lot where there are quite a few folks overnighting.

More news from the road in a bit!

Winter Trip 2017

On the Road

It was a balmy 1.8 F this am when we got up to finish packing the camper and get ourselves on the road.  Initially the View wouldn't turn over so David gave the battery a boost and we pulled out of our yard at 07:00.  We connected with Dee and Paul at Sears Ane were greeted by Deb and Trudie with donuts from Lakeside Orchard.  The road has been just a little sloppy and our windshield washers were frozen up.  We fixed that at the rest area at Kennebunk with some hot water.  Now the highway is really pretty dry, but we have quite a stiff gusty breeze from the West.

 

We had lots of wind the entire drive.  Lots of slush laced with salt covering both our campers that will have to stay until we get some rain or can wash things.  Our overnight was in Mechanicsburg, PA in a Walmart parking lot.  Dinner and breakfast in a large diner (Silver Springs Diner).  Big portions and pretty good food...not a Cracker Barrel...possibly more liberal!

Now Saturday, a beautiful morning, temperature just below 30.  We are headed to Charlotte, NC for another free overnight in a Walmart parking lot.

Friends in Maine say it was s snowing again and this storm might bring 21" to central Maine.  Our son Bill has heard up to 48" for the coast.  Guess we got out of town just in town.

Passing very big distribution (trucking) buildings on I-81 south of Carlisle.

This is beautiful farm country, tidy farms with rolling hills.  Pennsylvania Dutch country.

 We drove on I-81 through Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia to I-77 and took that all the way to Charlotte, NC where we spent another night in a Walmart parking lot.  David has an app for his iPad that lists all the Walmarts and tells which ones allow overnighting by RVs.  There are comments allowed where folks can add specifics about their experience with a particular store.  David had read that this one allowed overnighting but we asked anyway and were told "no".  Then he said it was just an RV, not a commercial vehicle and suddenly we were told we could use the "overflow" parking near the garden center.  This turned out too be five spaces just in front of a bus stop!  It wasn't too bad and with the temperature staying in the low 60's and high 50's overnight, it was comfortable for sleeping.

Sunday, 12 February - we were on the road by 7:30 am after breakfast in a very new will appointed McDonalds.  We drove a few miles on the loop around Charlotte and then took I-85 and that will take us all the way to Peach Tree City.  The temperature has bee hovering in the high 60s and low 70s.  And rather than snow, we are getting some light rain, maybe it will wash some of the road salt off the camper and bikes on the back.

 

View from the View as we drove right through downtown Atlanta.

We arrived at Ben's (Paul's nephew) in Peqchtree City and conversation and catching up began.  Paul is Ben's favorite uncle and there is a close bond between the two.  Dee and Marty got to walk the the golf cart trails to the grocery store for some things needed for Monday's drive.  Peachtree City has an amazing network these trails allowing people to drive to shops and do business without using their cars.  The trails are wonderful and allow one to be more in a natural environment.  This is a planned community of around 40,000.  It is unusual in that it doesn't feel like a city, but clusters of smaller centers with shops and housing all in forested areas.  

Monday morning we headed south toward Panama City and St Andrews State Park.  The park is right on the Gulf of Mexico and although it has lots of camp sites, most are somewhat secluded with trees affording a reasonable amount of privacy.  We are in adjoining sites but cannot see each other's camper.

 

There are some sites with direct access to water, we think that next time we would try for one of those.

Below, David, Dee, and Paul in our preferred mode of transportation.  Great day to paddle as there was no wind.

 

On Tuesday we got out on the Grand Lagoon and paddled.  It was a beautiful warm day and we got to see some of of our northern birds with winter plumage.  Below is the common loon!  How different they look without their black feathers.

 

While paddling we saw Red-Breasted Merganzers, such a striking bird that winters along the Florida coasts.  Below are three females.

 

The males are much flashier, see below.  This raft containing both makes and females.

 

Wednesday and Thursday (February 15-16)

This park is loaded with birds.  We have put out some seed and have gotten quite a wide variety including Carolina Chickadees, Brown Thrashers, Yellow-rumped warblers, Eastern Towhees, Cardinals, Catbirds, Northern Mockingbirds, and others.

The shore and wet lands are allowing us to see many Great Blue Herons and Egrets plus Coots.  And we have seen deer as well, some adults and also some very young ones.  And even a bunny.

Here are some of our favorites:  

 

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Wednesday the wind really came up and our weather turned cooler.  It was still great for walking the beach and watching the kite surfers.  The middle photo shows just how high up they could would go.  At least 50-60' above the surf.  We were fascinated.  Walking around though was harder with the wind blowing sand against our legs, it felt like little stinging creatures.

 

We are heading further south on Saturday and will try to update the blog with more photos and information at that time.  With limited wifi we have not done such a good job this trip.