Florida 2012 - Week 7

On our last night at Manatee Springs State Park, we have a firefly trapped in the trailer.  It flies around our bedroom as we are trying to go to sleep and many times flies in front of the closet mirror door, perhaps thinking its reflection is a mate.  Grady follows it to the living room, then back to the bedroom, but never tries to catch it as he does with regular flies.  It puts on quite a light show for us, but in the morning, Brad finds it drowned in our dishes in the sink.

Only about one hour away, near High Springs, we stay in O'Leno State Park for two nights.  There is no spring here, just the Santa Fe River which is unfortunately low of water right now so there is no swimming, snorkeling, canoeing or kayaking allowed.  Being inland about 50 miles or so from the Gulf, we are again in the forest - with bugs (ticks, house flies, horse flies, yellow flies, a few mosquitos and no-see-ems).  After we set up the trailer, we take a short hike (nothing spectacular to report other than cool trees dripping with Spanish Moss and very tall pines), but on our second day, we go to Ichetucknee Springs State Park, where there is not only one spring, but two.

Brad diving in the Blue Hole at Ichetucknee Springs

Blue Hole is a deep cave about 40 to 50 feet down and leads to a series of underground (and underwater) caves where divers are allowed to explore from Memorial Day (at the end of May) until Labor Day (at the beginning of September).  The spring around Blue Hole isn't very big, and only Brad swims here as there's a lot of grass on the bottom of the swimming area, and that just freaks me out.  I like to be able to see a clear bottom so I know nothing is hiding.  Brad really enjoys this swim and pulls himself down into the hole for about 20 feet before his ears can't take the pressure anymore.  The main spring, Head Spring, is not as big a swimming area as many of the other springs we've visited on this trip, and there are very few fish, but we explore it a bit anyway.  The water is cool - always 72F so we don't swim long.

Marilyn on the beach at Grayton Beach State Park

Since we've had enough of forests and springs, we decide to head to the beach and go to Grayton Beach State Park in the panhandle near Destin.  It'll be nice not to have to worry about ticks!  It's hot and humid while we're here, so thank God for air conditioning!  This is a great park; excellent sites and a beautiful beach with powdered sugar white sand.  The water is rough because of high winds they had before we arrive.

Brad and Marilyn eating lunch on the beach

We spend some time on the beach just relaxing and doing a bit of walking, although Brad's not up to much of that yet with his bad ankle.  We do swim in the water on our last day; it must be 80F and it's much calmer than it has been since we arrive.  We explore a bit in the truck and on our bikes east and west of the park.  One day we have a fantastic lunch at Pompano Joe's which is a seafood restaurant overlooking the beach.  We watch surfers in the big waves left from the winds, and enjoy great food - Brad a seafood soup and huge breaded shrimp, me a Caribbean salad which was to die for!

Marilyn crossing the lake outlet to the Gulf

We also gawk at the million dollar mansions on the beach, some over $5,000,000 (six zeroes!) - but WOW!  No big condos here.  This county (Walton County) doesn't seem to allow big condos to be built, although there are some three-story high ones.  Mostly there are private residences - lots of money here.  There are some shops, but we don't browse.  The communities in this county seem to be very resident and guest conscious.  A bike trail follows the coast all the way - about 20 miles.  We ride a part of it.  One of the communities called Watercolor has all of their streets done with interlaced brick!  And there's lots of construction going on.  Each community runs into the next, but they have a small town feel, not like a tourist trap.  Absolutely lovely.

Overlooking the beach in Seagrove

Western Lake - a coastal dune lake (Gulf behind dunes)

One of the things that makes this area unique is the presence of "coastal dune lakes" which are found only here and a few other places in the world, namely South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Oregon.  These lakes are fed by streams, underground water sources, rain and storm surges, and are only connected to the Gulf during high tides and storms.  Some lakes are brackish whle others are fresh.  There are 15 lakes here on this 26 mile stretch, and they make for some beautiful scenery.

Captain Fantastic - The Village at Baytowne Wharf

When we arrive at a new location, we usually try to visit the local Tourist Information Center.  Through the one here, we discover that there are free concerts held weekly at the Village of Baytowne Wharf near Destin in a private community with this public space in the middle of it.  What a gorgeous place - again must be tons of money here.  The residents' taxes alone must be atronomical just to pay for the upkeep of the roadsides and medians!  What we can't belive is that everything is free - parking and the concert.  Perhaps the local business owners pay for the concerts to attract business.  It's a small park where the bandstand is, but we arrive early expecting that there might be a crowd (which there is) and get a good spot on the grass for our chairs in front of the stage.  Then Brad is in heaven because he finds out that he can get a tallboy (big beer can) for $2!  AND drink it in the park!  Many people bring their own wine bottles, others visit local restaurants and bars to get a traveller.  It reminds me of New Orleans' Bourbon Street.

The concert is fabulous.  It's a one-man show - a tribute to Billy Joel by 52nd Street and Elton John by Captain Fantastic.  Both acts are the same guy and he's GREAT!  The average age of folks here is about 60!  Many get up to dance to his music on the cobblestone apron in front of the stage.  The best part?  We're home by 9pm!  Just what us old farts like.

But our time comes to an end and on Saturday, April 21st, we leave for home.  We'll take 4 days to drive it since Grady doesn't like to spend too much time in the truck.  Well, I guess it's time to go - it's getting too hot anyway!

Calling All Saints

Our last two parks are both state parks on peninsulas east of Panama City in the Florida Panhandle.  It's our last week before we start our drive home .

St. George Island State Park is on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.  We cross two incredibly long bridges that make us think we are in the Florida Keys.  Unfortunately, the weather while we are here is horrible.  Cloudy and windy for the first day, and steady rain for the other two with severe thunderstorm warnings.  So we don't get out to explore much, but we do hike most of the way out to Gap Point where primitive tent camping is allowed.  Along the trail are many 50 to 60 foot tall sand pines, one of which is tapped to show how they used to make turpentine; it reminds me of the tapping process for maple syrup in Ontario and Quebec.  Unfortunately we have to turn around before we get to the end of the trail because it is getting dark, and we get back to our trailer just as it gets dark.

It's impossible to sit on the beach even when it's not raining because of the wind, but the beach looks nice - beautiful, white sand, and a long stretch of beach for walking, running, or just kicking back and relaxing.  The campsites are quite nice, not too close together and lots of trees for shade which would be important if you camp here in the summer.  The humidity is already killing me!

Fire ant bites on Marilyn's foot

There are two ponds as we drive into the campsite area.  There is a sign at each pond that says "Alligator.  No swimming."  Brad wants to take my picture by the sign.  So I go and stand just behind the sign and while he is adjusting the polarizer and determining the best focal length, blah, blah, blah, I feel sudden stinging sensations on my right foot.  I quickly look down and see that I have about two dozen fire ants all over my foot.  I yell to Brad to quickly help me get them off as they are biting me and it freaking HURTS!  I was standing on their nest.  We get the ants brushed off quickly, but I sustain almost a dozen bites, which drive me crazy for about a week.  They are itchier than mosquito bites.  From this point on, I watch where I walk.

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park is on a cape about 30 miles west of St. George Island.  Thank goodness the weather clears by midafternoon and is supposed to be great for the next few days, because I want to work on my tan before I go home.  We manage to book an extra night, and we hear from our Quebec friends Jean and Denyse, whom we first met in Mojave National Preserve and later spent a few days with near Tucson, that they want to come this way to spend a night or two in the area and they manage to scoop a site in this very overbooked park.  Here's the story of the campsites - it's really insane.

We are originally booked into site #38 at St. Joe's for Thursday and Friday nights.  When we arrive, I ask if there's been a cancellation for Saturday night because we want to stay an extra night since the weather on Saturday is supposed to be so nice and we want to spend the day on the beach.  The Ranger tells us "Sorry, no, but keep watching the website and maybe something will come up."  But the Ranger Supervisor walks by and says "We could move you to a non-reserved site now for three nights, but you won't get the site you originally booked."  "We don't care.  We'll take it as long as it will fit our trailer."  We work out the details and we're good to go - we move into site #18 for the three days!  Earlier this afternoon our RV friends from Quebec, Jean and Denyse, asked us to find them an RV park in this area for Friday and Saturday night.  There is nothing available at this park we were already told, and we passed no RV parks on our way from St. George Island, but I had found a list of parks on the internet in a couple of nearby beach towns that I had sent to Jean.  However, now our old site #38 becomes available at least for Friday night, so I call Jean on the cell phone and tell him that if he hasn't reserved another RV park (he hasn't), to call Reserve America and book site #38 here at St. Joseph Peninsula right away because we just gave it up.  So he does and he gets it, but it is only for the one night.  Not the end of the story.

Jean and Denyse arrive around 5pm on Friday after a long drive from New Orleans.  We all enjoy Happy Hour, have dinner and a campfire and I tell them that they should continue looking on the Reserve America website to see if a cancellation comes up for Saturday night so they can stay in the park and not have to go to one of the beach towns tomorrow.  Jean says, "We are not so good at doing that like you are."  "Come on inside and I'll show you how to check," I say.  I take Denyse inside and show her how to get to the website and how to search for a free campsite and voila, site #38 comes up as available for Saturday night!  Someone must have cancelled!  OMG!  "Denyse," I say, "your campsite is available tomorrow night. I can't believe it!  Shall I book it for you right now?"  Denyse runs to the door and "blah blah blah" en Francais to Jean who doesn't believe her at first, but she convinces him and he runs back to their trailer to get his credit card to make the booking.  So here we all are for the beautiful, sunny weekend in this usually full state park, sitting on the gorgeous white sand of this fabulous Gulf beach, enjoying each other's company until we leave for Canada on Sunday morning.  What are the odds of the stars aligning in the right direction, at the right time?  And for the one site that became available to be the site that they are already occupying so they don't even have to move.  AND for me to show them how to use the Reserve America website at the right time when the cancellation of site #38 had been made but no one else had reserved it yet.  So many pieces of the cosmic puzzle just fall into place.

Alligators - Swim With Caution!!!

Brad and I take a hike along St. Joseph Bay, where we see tons of tiny crabs and beautiful views of the bay and the mainland, but here we see a funnier alligator sign than the one at St. George Island (which wasn't funny really).  Beside every pond at St. Joe's park is a sign that says "Alligators.  Swim with caution."  Swim with caution?  Who the hell wants to swim in skanky ponds with alligators?  Well, we couldn't resist a silly photo.  Brad emailed this one to a bunch of friends saying that I'd had enough of him after 5 months (ain't it the truth!).

Anyway, for our last day in Florida, of our 5 month journey, we enjoy the day on the beach with Jean and Denyse and we have our last campfire (we have to use up all of our wood that we got in New Mexico since we can't take it across the border) and in the morning we say our last au revoir to our Quebec friends.  Well, for this season.  Au revoir nos amis.  Adios to the southwest and warm temperatures (although some temps during the 5 months were downright freezing!).  Until next year.

The Western Panhandle

Denny, Linda and Marilyn on the beach at Ft. Pickens

As I sit with my toes in the floury, white sand, I think of family and friends back home weathering yet another snowstorm.  In three weeks, we will be back home in Ontario, and we will have to trade our shorts and bathing suits for long pants and coats.  How will we manage?

It takes us two and a half days to drive from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pensacola, Florida where we stay at Big Lagoon State Park first for a few days then at Gulf Islands National Seashore, Fort Pickens.

Big Lagoon State Park is on the Intracoastal Waterway, not the Gulf, so we drive to the ocean beach at Perdido Key only 10 minutes away.  The beach here is beautiful, unlike in Texas; it isn't littered with garbage and seaweed and the sand is like flour and almost pure white.  There is a crew on the beach gathering tar balls from the recent BP oil spill, although we don't see any tar on the beach or oil in the water, so they're either doing an excellent job or their work is all for show for the tourists.  The beach is a bit steep, so the waves are pounding and it seems to be high tide.  The water is about 75F so Brad and I decide to finally take a swim.  The waves are kind of fun; Brad, the 12-year old, has a lot of fun playing in the surf.  As I enter the water, the first big wave knocks me on my ass and I tumble along the shore.  Well, that makes it easier to get wet anyway.  At least four dolphins swim by about 400-500 feet offshore.  We can only see their fins but I do glimpse one breach in a wave much further down the beach; unfortunately we can't get any photos of them.  During a walk along the lagoon beach we find numerous hermit crabs.  Brad puts two close together and one tries to pull the other out of its shell; at least that's what we think they're doing.  Brad does pull them apart before either crab is harmed.

While checking out the beach at Big Lagoon State Park one afternoon, I hear something to our right and instinctively do the "mom move" on Brad, thrusting my arm across his chest to stop him from moving forward.  As I look down to the right toward the rustling noise, a large snake moves across our path.  It is dark brown with black markings; it hastily slithers in front of us and moves off into the trees.  As we move towards it, the snake keeps moving away.  It's about two feet long and 1-1/2 inches in diameter at its widest girth.  A ranger later tells us it is a cottonmouth snake and it IS poisonous, but they prefer to run away from humans like a big chicken.  Thank goodness for that.  A sign near a small pond also announces "No swimming.  Alligator."  No problem.  And yet the campsites (not ours) are so close.

Have you ever heard of the Blue Angels?  They are the elite team of Navy fighter pilots who perform stunts and fly their jets in tight formations at air shows.  Well, they practice a few miles down the beach from us.  Apparently we can go watch them on Wedensday or Thursday mornings, but they start at 8:30 am and that's too early for me.  We can see them from our campsite anyway and certainly hear the roar of the jets.  Brad and I saw the Blue Angels at the Hamilton Air Show about 25 years ago and they are an amazing team.  Of course, we have the Canadian Snowbirds, also an incredible team of formation flyers.  We've heard that Hamilton will be having an Air Show again this year after about a 10-year hiatus; wonder what the star attraction will be.

Dolphins in the Gulf at Fort Pickens

After four nights at Big Lagoon State Park, we move to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Fort Pickens.  Driving there is like driving in a big letter C turned clockwise 90 degrees so the opening of the C is in the south.  We essentially have to drive around Pensacola Bay.  At Fort Pickens, we will be meeting up with our new friends, Denny and Linda from Ohio, whom we met at Padre Island.  Denny and Linda are a hoot, and we have a great time with them - more campfires and chats on the beach.  Again, we see dolphins in the water, closer this time than at Big Lagoon so I do manage to get some photos.  We take a night walk on the beach and hunt the ghost crabs, which Linda learns to enjoy handling.  Myself, I'm too girly and let a few screeches pass my lips when some of the large white crabs get too close to my bare feet.

As the name of this park suggests, there is a fort here, built shortly after the War of 1812 and used during the Civil War.  Brad and I tour it during a bike ride.  This fort was one of three used to protect Pensacola Bay during the Civil War; one other was on the western Gulf Island near Big Lagoon State Park where we just were, but it was destroyed during that war, and the third was on the mainland in Pensacola; the three forts forming a triangle.  Fort Pickens was fortified for WWI although never used.

Then once again, before we can say "Florida Panhandle", the sand in the hourglass has run out and it's time to move on.  We bid adieu to Denny and Linda, and to these Gulf Islands and head east.