2018-02-28 - 03-03 First Days at Oscar Scherer State Park

Here we are at Oscar Scherer State Park, only 118 miles from Collier Seminole where we spent the last week. If you haven't figured it out yet, we stay in each park from Wednesday to Wednesday. It's easier to get reservations mid-week.

Not many gators in this park. In fact, we've only seen one in the five times we've been here. That was last year. Next Wednesday, we'll be in Ft. DeSoto (county) Park, then the Wednesday after that, we'll be at Myakka River State Park where, I guarantee you, we'll see plenty of big gators.

So, we arrived on Wednesday afternoon, got set up and had a light dinner. Thursday morning, we headed for the pancake breakfast at the Nature Center where we had good food and renewed some old acquaintances. After that, we headed north to do some business at the bank, stop by Sam's Club for some supplies, and finally ended up at Marsha's Uncle Art and Aunt Jo's house in Sarasota. We visited while Art and I had a few beers, then we headed for Papa Nick's, one of their favorite spots, for dinner. The pizza was excellent!

Friday, we went back up to Art & Jo's. They had some steaks they needed to get rid of and we were only too happy to help out.

Saturday, it was a concert in the park with Bill and Kate Isles, as in years past. While we were there, someone mentioned they were going to the Nokomis Beach Drum Circle that evening. Having never been to such an event, we decided to go to see what it's all about. A bunch of people, some talented and some not, sit on the beach and beat their small and large tom-tom type drums. Other people, some talented and some not, dance, shake, undulate, etc. in the large circle formed by the spectators (that would be us). 

It starts out with a few drummers and a few dancers, but in the hour we were there, the crowd grew to several hundred people. The pictures tell the story. I took some video, too, but haven't had much luck uploading them. Maybe I (and you) will get lucky.