Home tomorrow if all goes as planned!

We are now in Big Horn Mountain KOA in Sheridan, Wyoming. What a long drive it was from Limon, Colorado and then across the high plains of Wyoming. We were lucky to have moderate winds across the plains! There were some gusty areas that got up to around 45 mph. Fortunately there was no snow at all blowing around. Alot of the white stuff on the fields and the mountains though. Wayne just kept telling me to think of the sand at Henderson Beach, FL and pretend that's what we were looking at! HA! HA! HA!
We were glad to have our quadding boots though as we had to wear them at this campground. There is alot of snow and ice around the trailer and truck.
The only mishap was having our outside stairs of the 5th wheel blown open part way while travelling. Tomorrow we are going to see if we can make a 'run for home' as our 'window of good weather' is starting to close.

We're getting there!

Well, we are now in Limon,CO outside of Denver. It has been a long drive today from Big Spring, Texas. However, we both have decided that it's best to keep driving as long as the weather is holding. There are rumors of snow in Alberta, something we are not looking forward to!!! Here we come in our shorts and crocs....lol.....luckily Wayne had enough foresite to suggest we bring winter jackets with us. If all else fails, we do have our quadding rubber boots that are good to -40c!
Tomorrow we are heading to Buffalo, WY and then Tuesday we will be going to Great Falls, MT.
That will hopefully put us home sometime on Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure we will be suffering from climate and altitude change for a few days. I'm cold already and it's still in the 50's (F) here.....lol....
We look forward to seeing everybody soon.

There is a Season......

Well, folks...here I am to let you all know that our trip will soon be coming to an end.

We are now heading back home, a month early, for family reasons. It has been a great winter for us, our first without snow and hopefully just one of many more.

Travelling though the Southern States has been a real treat for us, to say the least. It's hard to believe that by this time next week we will be back in Alberta, shovelling snow or the likes.

Thanks to you all for keeping track of our travels. We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and not been too bored by the dialogue!!

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.