St. George's Island State Park, FL

Our travels continued onto the coast of Florida. First we went back to Henderson Beach State and spent 6 days enjoying the white sugar sand that looked like snow and the emeral waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We know that you have seen the pictures from there already, so I'll move down the coast to St. George's Island State Park. This park is also on the Gulf of Mexico, but the beach is more like the Atlantic Ocean with browner sand and the water is a darker color. This beach had much better shells, which we collected with abandment! We will be bringing them home to share with the grandkids. The bath house on this beach was on stilts, as were the cottages on the island. This is in case of high tides or hurricanes. The beach flag was red most of our visit as the surf was high and unsafe for swimming.

Driving to the campsite there were 2 brackish ponds, one on either side of the road. These are ponds that are fed both seawater and freshwater. These ponds were home to a large male alligator. He was close to 8 to 9 feet in length and was out and about most days. The weather was warm enough that he was still hunting, one time we saw him with something in his mouth, either a turtle or large fish. The alligator shared the ponds with large wading birds and ducks. He never did venture into the campground though. Thank goodness for that!!

Manatee Springs State Park FL

Manatee Springs State Park in Florida is one of the places where the manatee go to spend the winter months in the warm spring waters. However, we were not lucky enough to see any. We did watch a group of young fellas go swimming in the Springs though. This park had some of the largest cyprus knees that we've seen anywhere. The knees are actually part of the trees root system that helps to stabilize the trees in the unstable sandy soil.

The inlet where Manatee Springs originate flow out to the Swuannee River. The boardwalk actually goes from the Springs out to the river. Along the way we found a nesting place of the Turkey Buzzards, down near the mouth of the inlet. This was a very nice park with lots of walking trails. I had noticed the red trees on our travels and this is the first one that was seen up close. The red turned out to be seeds hanging from the branches and not leaves as I originally thought.

Cyprus Swamp Trail Highlands Hammock SP

Here are some pictures of the swamp walk we took. The spider in actually bigger in diameter with leg span included, than a two dollar coin!! It was quite large, wouldn't want to meet up with it too close to me. Also I've included the elusive armadillo here. Armadillo are very hard of hearing and almost blind, so it's easy to get up close to them. They spend their time rooting for small grubs and bugs. The flora in the swamps is very interesting too. We didn't come across any snakes or alligators in this swamp though.

The Blown Tire Event

So here are the pictures of the damage that occured to our 5th wheel from the tire blow out! We didn't realize just how much damage there was until we the next day when we could look at it in the light of day!! Of course we had to take pictures for the insurance company. Oh well, the main thing is we are both alright and the 5th wheel is ambulatory.

Highlands Hammock State Park

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Loving Florida

Hello again! Sorry about the lack of pictures on the last Blog! This time I will try to do a bit better. The first few pictures were taken in Georgia that were suppose to be with the last entry!! Tybee Island Beach was on the Atlantic Ocean and quite different from the Gulf of Mexico. It was quite cold and windy when we were there, so we didn't stay too long.....we found ourselves a Crab Shack instead and spent the afternoon dining on fresh seafood instead of collecting shells.





For the last 3 1/2 weeks we have been biding our time in Florida, enjoying the sun and sea as well as some inland areas. The first place we visited was Highlands Hammock State Park, close to Tampa. This is where we has our first really good look at alligators in the wild...up close. We also saw lots of turtles and birds..plus an armadillo that was very obliging at letting me get a good picture of him. The ones in Texas were very camera shy!! I will put these pictures up the next section.
The trip from Georgia to Highlands Hammock SP was interesting to say the least. Once we were through Orlando, we happened to pick up something in one of our trailer tires and it blew in the fast lane on the Intersate Hwy.. A car came buzzing up beside us and the driver was making motions with his hands of something spinning and pointing back at our trailer! We knew what that meant! We were able to get over into the inside land and pull off the side. When we got out we were greeted by the smell of burning rubber and an empty tire rim on the back driver side of the trailer!! The side of the trailer was bent in and the fender around the tires was broken off (it is made of fiberglass). The blown tire was wrapped around the axle of the trailer and was not going to budge. We spent an hour on the side of the road waiting for help to change the tire. Once the tire was changed we had to drive back to the previous small town to a Discount Tire and have them struggle to remove the remains of the tire from the axle. Once done we went happliy on our way to the State Park. This was a day that was suppose to be a short drive with an early arrival. It ended up being one of our longest travel days. The Warden as the State Park was nice enough to wait around until we arrived (well after dark) and show us to our campsite. The lesson we learned from this day was to never say "This will be an easy drive!"