Marsha got up at o'dark:30 and walked down to the office to get tickets for the tram ride. After we at the scrambled egg breakfast stuff that Marsha cooked, We did the dishes and walked down to catch the tram. The tour was supposed to last an hour, but our guide, Kevin, made it last almost an hour and a half. It sure was worth the $5.00 price of admission.
We saw lots of plants and wildlife, and learned about the origin and construction of the park. After the tram ride, on the way back to camp, we ran across a couple of vultures having lunch. Mmm-Mmm good! We just had our lunch in the camper. I'll take a break now. I have to take my nap before we go to the campground potluck this evening. More later.
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It's 7:30 and we're back from the potluck, but I forgot to take pictures. No big deal though. There's not much of interest in pictures of a bunch of old people stuffing food in their faces and telling camping stories at the same time. There were about thirty people there, most of whom are campground volunteers who travel to different parks and help with the chores. Myra, the lady sitting across from us, has been doing it for 14 years at a couple of parks in Florida. She has accumulated about 6,000 hours of volunteer time.
We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning. We got over two inches of rain last night. After we tidied up around the outside of the camper from all of the rainstorm's "splash-up," I installed the new electrical cable and returned the one I had borrowed from the neighbor. Then we headed out to do some exploring along the many trails in the park.
We walked the first trail which ended on a road. As we were walking down the road to find the next trail head, a bobcat came out of the swamp and trotted across the road about thirty yards in front of us. A rare sighting, especially during daylight hours. He didn't hang around to pose for pictures. We hiked a few more trails, never seeing an alligator, which are supposed to be plentiful here. However, we did see a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, another normally nocturnal species, and later, a Great Egrit.
We stopped by the Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC) Museum. Pretty interesting. Those young men worked their butts off for $25.00 per month!
It was about 3:15 when we got back to the camper, so we decided to get the grill out and cook a late lunch/early hamburger dinner. While I was firing up the charcoal, a raccoon went trotting by. What was he doing out this time of day? I don't think he was foaming at the mouth.
So, now, dinner's over and the dishes are done. Marsha is back from her shower and I think I'll head down the road to Mickey D's and post the stuff from the past week!
We left Dad's about noon and stopped at the Desert Inn for at the intersection of the Florida Turnpike and State Route 60. They only had about 4 things on the menu. Marsha and I got two of the last six hamburger buns they had. The gal that was running the place just up and walked away a few days ago and a couple of the employees were trying to make a go of it. Wonder if they'll be here next year!
We arrived at Highlands Hammock State Park about 4:00 and got set up. We had very few groceries because we stayed at Dad's house, so we headed for Walmart to stock up. We had to borrow a length of 30 amp cable from our neighbor because our electrical box was about 50 feet away on the wrong side of the camper. Walmart had a thirty foot length of 30 amp RV cable, so we threw that into the cart, too. No TV reception here, so after we put the groceries away, we decided to go to town and find a place to watch the Daytona 500 that had been postponed from yesterday.
It was sprinkling a little rain when we left camp, but by the time we got to Shooters Tavern, we were in the middle of a full blown toad strangler. Between the caution flags and the satellite TV going out due to the storm, we hadn't seen much race by 9:00, so we came back to camp and hit the sack. It was still raining like crazy when our heads hit the pillows.
