Little Manatee River SP, Ruskin, FL

We are at the end of our week here. It has been a busy one and a good one. This is where we learned of the birth of our beautiful new grandson, Cooper Wyatt; we met up with camper friends from Tenn. who are camp hosts here; we viewed manatees; paddled the river; stopped at the shrimp docks in Tampa; and visited a historic cigar district.
Above is a picture of the beautiful river here to paddle. Nice flat water with mirroring of the canopy that just takes your breath away. We were able to get in 2 runs on this river. Just north of the park is a power plant were you can view manatees. Seems the heated water that is discharged provides the manatees with a safe haven from the cold winter water. This plant has built boardwalks and facilities to make view these amazing creatures comfortable. The manatees are sometimes called the elephants of the sea. I can understand why. They are very docile and very large. Their movements are more floating than swimming. What a treat to see so many in one place. Our friends, Gerri and Leon, took us to a Tampa shrimp dock where you can buy truly jumbo shrimp right from the folks who harvest them from the Gulf. They are suppose to have a crisper texture and better flavor than the farm raised shrimp. We are planning a shrimp dinner tonight to test that theroy. Yum. Actually, we bought 15 lbs so they had better taste good! At $8.60 a pound it is a real deal for us and better price for the shrimpers. While there we saw the boat our shrimp came in on and watched some crew cleaning the last of a load, de-heading them. Close to the docks was a historic district, Ybor City, where around the turn of the 20^th century there were many cigar manufacturing business. We toured the museum and a sample of a worker's home. It was very interesting and the historic district which has many shops and restaurants was great to walk around. In the slide show you will see some of the beautiful hand painted tile that still decorates some of the building. Many of the shops had a person hand-rolling cigars. What a labor intensive task. We are still seeing new butterflies and enjoying this beautiful season here. We move back to the Sarasota area tomorrow to Oscar Shearer SP and the close beaches there. During that 2 week stay I will fly to Balt to help out with my grandsons! What a joy. Les will stay with the camper and looks forward to hugging on the boys when we return early April.

Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, FL

Here we are at our favorite inland park, just 9 miles east of Sarasota. The weather has been super and we are enjoying the hiking and biking offered here. Because this area has had a dry winter, we have not been able to kayak this beautiful area with these natives. The water is just too low that even areas that have some water are shallow and I sure do not want to bump one of these guys while they rest at the bottom. Their reaction under my kayak is not one I wish to experience. A positive to the low water conditions is that a lot of new feeding areas have been exposed for the birds. There are large numbers of sand-hill cranes, American coots, numerous ducks, roseate spoonbills, and white pelicans that we have never seen before. This year the wild pigs seem more numerous also, with lots of damage and sightings of a large number of piglets. A real blessing about coming to this park in February is that spring is popping here now. That wonderful fresh green of new leaves and grass is coming out. With our winters here, we get an extended spring season, February thru May. One of the activities here that is so good for my soul is riding our bikes the 4 miles of paved road through the park to the birdwalk at dusk. The day use people are gone and we have the road to ourselves. The temps are balmy and the late afternoon light is golden making the Spanish moss draped from the tree canopy over the road glisten. Thank you Lord for that beauty. This was taking during a hike at Collier Seminole in the Everglades but we have seen a number of these black racers this year. Thankfully they are not poisonous. We have enjoyed this week with our PA friends Pam and Joe. The week has been so packed that pictures from this week will come later. They fly out tomorrow morning and we leave Myakka Monday. Our next park is Little Manatee River SP, sw of Tampa, for a week. We look forward to seeing our Tenn friends, Gerri and Leon who are volunteering there this year. We should be able to kayak there as that water tidal.

Our new grandson is not ready to join us yet apparently. We are so excited to greet him when he is ready.

Our blessing in Long Key SP

We are still at our campsite by the ocean here in Long Key SP. Oh what a blessing! As we mentioned on our last post, this park is scheduled to be closed this winter. But because of work delays, they have opened the campground on a day to day basis and we are benefiting from it. We have been here 10 days now and should be able to stay until Friday. We loved our time here but have more and different adventures awaiting us on the Gulf Coast. While taking a morning walk on the beach, Les made a “significant discovery”. He came to get me so I could photograph a baby crocodile laying on the beach! This is the first verifiable sighting of a crocodile in Long Key SP. The rangers were excited and a bit jealous. Being that this was such a young one begs the question, “Where's Mama?” We were able to get the kayaks out to paddle when the wind calmed down and we were treated by some wonderful sights. Above you see a frigate bird roosting on a mangrove, normally you only see them soaring above you. In the slide show you can see a tree root with a gathering of cormorants drying off from their fishing expedition. And here is a picture of a Portuguese Man-o-war with his tentacles flowing and a pilot fish tucked under them. Oh my, see how clear the water is? It truly does feel as if we are paddling in an aquarium. Les saw small sharks and a sting ray on our trip. Of course we had to do some buoy hunting along the mangroves. One trip and we filled our boats. A picture of Les searching the mangroves is in the slide show. Also, check out the teapot he found for me! We are still trying to research what it is exactly. Nothing is coming up?? It had fishing line attached to it and the name Tahirou with a crescent moon and star symbol. Any ideas?? Here is another discovery. We were finding many of these shells but my “book”, that has everything, did not have these. Then, after a few days, they disappeared from the beach. We spoke with a local couple and the husband turned out to be a Marine science teacher. He had no trouble telling us they are spiny oysters but that they should not be on the beach. These oysters live at depths 100ft or more. Hum, this is our year for significant finds. I have said before that one of the best things about camping is the wonderful people you meet. Above is neighbor MaryAnn paddling with me on a treasure hunt in the mangroves. Can you see the monster rope she found?? Ron and MaryAnn were our neighbors here in LK long enough to share stories, laugh, share great meals and shed a tear as they drove off to their next adventure.

I hope you enjoy the slide show of our stay here. We plan to move out of the Keys Friday. We will stay in Collier-Seminole SP, a new one for us, for 3 days. We are lucky that a neighboring community is having a seafood festival that weekend! Then on to our second favorite park, Myakka River SP, where we paddle with the alligators.

Long Key SP, Layton, FL

We had a last minute change in plans. We caught wind through the “campers grapevine” that Long Key SP 35miles south of Key Largo was open on a contingent basis. That park is listed as closed for renovations. It seems that delay in the work has allowed the park to open its campground on a day to day basis. Yippee for us! We had 9 days open without reservations and will stay here at Long Key until they kick us out or our 2 week limit. We came here Friday, 20^th. This is a favorite park for us. Every campsite is on the ocean. You get beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and it has one of the best beaches in the Keys as there is not really many beaches in the Keys, good hiking and biking too. Les is very happy. The weather has been great. Lows in the 60's and highs in the upper 70's. Shorts and sandals weather. Oh my, camper food for us is special. Here you see a meal of grilled pork steaks with creamy shallot sauce and grilled asparagus. The next day we made some gumbo, Yum. It was a lot of preparation but well worth the effort. I caught another butterfly here at this park. I must get my identification book out now. Below is some plovers gathered on the rocks as they were being covered by the incoming tide just behind our camper. It is so fun to watch the birds here.

As I mentioned above, we will stay here as long as they keep the campground open or our 14 day limit, which ever comes first. We will adjust our schedule to fit. Les wants as much time here as he can get.

John Pennekamp SP, Key Largo, FL

We have been in John Pennekamp SP, Key Largo, since January 9^th . The weather has been very good with many shorts n' sandal days. Another benefit to camping is meeting wonderful people. At this park we have shared a couple of evenings socializing and playing Sequence with Kristie and John from Mich.

We have had some very nice paddles in the mangroves. Paddling here is like floating in an aquarium. The water is so clear making it easier to see the life under it. Fishes, sea grass, and coral. Another nice thing in this park is an old orchard to hike to. We were fortunate that this is the time when the key limes were ripening. We have made some refreshing key limeade. Years past have offered us some great bird pictures, but so far this year we seem to be blessed with butterflies. So pretty and graceful.

We hope to get another paddle in before we leave Saturday, 21^st. If the weather cooperates and the wind stays calm. Our plan is to go to Everglade NP, Flamingo CG. But we are hearing of the possibility of getting to camp at Long Key SP before their construction begins. If we can we will take a few days there.

Winter Escape 2012

We are off again. This year we left early to stop in SC to visit with Kevin and Peggy in their new home in Camden. They were super to host us for a few days and we enjoyed Marty's family also. It was great to meet Pauline, 1 month old.

Les and Kevin also worked on some of the new house jobs.

New Year's day was spent again with my cousin Jan and her lovely family in Jacksonville. They are so kind to include us in their New Year's meal. And they allow us to camp in their front yard! Thank you.

On our way to our first park we stopped to visit Bob and Betty Harper in Titusville. What a nice stop on our path to Jonathan Dickinson SP, Juniper. We stayed a week here. A cold front brought chilly temps early in our stay but each day warmed and we are having great temps now. Les has enjoyed the biking, hiking and we did a small paddle today. I'm being consistent with my exercises so that I can “play” a bit later.

We leave tomorrow, Monday (9^th) heading to Key Largo and Johnathan Pennekamp SP for a 12 day stay.

Lassen Nat'l Park, CA

Our visit to Lassen Nat'l Park was a super one. This park is an area with volcanos, Lassen Peak had a series of eruption from 1914 to 1917. Mt St Helen erupted 1980, so this is an indication of what to expect there as the years pass and nature does it's thing. The lake behind us was formed when one of the eruptions moved rocks to block a stream at the time. We had super weather for our stay and enjoyed 3 days in the park.

This is Cinder Cone, a volcano (inactive). Note the trail winding up the side. After a 1.2 mile hike to this cone you then have an 700 ft ascent to the top. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that the trail is all cinders and very loose. Oh my! Les made it up much faster than I but I did make it, much to my surprise. We were rewarded with beautiful views. Check out some of our other pictures of this trail in the slide show. Oh to get to this location we drove a 7 mile gravel road. That sure did make our camper and bikes dusty and the vibration shook some things loose but the camper fared out pretty well.

This is a thermal area of Lassen, Bumpass Hell, a trail that takes you up 500 ft in a mile and then drops down 250 ft to the thermals was a much easier walk than the cinder cone trail. How interesting to see the power of the underground!

We have been able to take advantage of some Nat'l forrest campgrounds along our way. Here we are at one just outside Lassen as we make our way to our last Nat'l park stop: Great Basin Nat'l Park in Nevada.

The drive from Reno to Great Basin is a very stark and beautiful one. It surprised us that we found a campground, a Pony Express station, with wifi! A few days at Great Basin and we head east for some long driving days home. Just in time as the forecast for this area is that the cold fall weather is coming in just a few days!! That will push us home fast. Our target to arrive in PA is Oct. 12th.