As you can tell by the pictures, it was a slow news day! We went to the Coffee Social where we met and talked with Bill and Carolyn from Canton, OH. After that, we got on the bikes and rode around the park. We stumbled upon Legacy Trail, a paved bike trail just outside the park. We rode the Legacy Trail until Marsha was ready to come back to camp. We rode over eleven miles today.
After we parked the bikes, we walked around the park for a while, then came back and started a wood fire. We baked potatoes and cooked chicken over the fire and had corn on the cob, too. A good meal, but I forgot to take a picture of it.
Not a very exciting day for you, but very relaxing for us!
It started raining during the night and continued to rain all day, so while we were at the Nature Center using the WiFi, we looked up the movies in the area. We went to the 1:30 showing of Monument Men. It was a good movie. I snuck Marsha's kettle corn in, so we only spent $5.25 for a large Diet Pepsi, which we shared!
After the movie, we came back to camp and broke out the wine and cheese. It didn't taste too bad, considering that Marsha dropped the cheese and sausage on the ground as she was exiting the camper. We washed it off. It was fine!
It's supposed to rain again tomorrow. I'll let you know what movie we see.
We arrived at the park about 2:00. We got the camper set up and went to the Folk Festival that was going on in the park. There were several venues with individuals and groups playing folk music. It continues tomorrow as well, but it's supposed to rain.
Tonight was our friends, Charlie and Carol's, last night in the park and we were supposed to hook up with them for another wine and cheese party, but we called several times and went by their site several times. They were nowhere to be found. Carol has family in the area, so we figured they were out with them.
We went to Walmart, about 1.5 miles from the park entrance, for gasoline and groceries. The evening was spent relaxing (me) while Marsha cleaned radishes, sliced strawberries, and stuffed everything into the fridge.
Today, being the weekend, offered more discoveries than were available during the week. After using the WiFi at the marina, we had a Backtrail BBQ pulled pork sandwich for lunch. After that, we followed the signs to the Cow Camp, which had been closed off all week. After driving across a bridge, down a long trail, and walking a long path, we came upon the Cow Camp.
We were greeted by a cow hunter, straight out of the 1870s. He told his story in the present tense as if it were 1876. Florida is open range cattle country. The cattle belonging to a given rancher are marked by cutting their ear rather than branding. Each spring, the cow hunters start in South Florida and hunt for the cows that belong to their employer, as well as others that were running wild and had no markings. Every 15 to 20 miles (a day's ride) from South Florida to St. Augustine, there is a cow camp where the cow hunter deposits the cows from the day's hunt and hires a local to watch and care for them. The cow camps are used by many cow hunters, year after year.
Once the cow hunters, also known as crackers for the cracking of their whips as they drive the cattle, reach the northern limit of their hunt, somewhere near St. Augustine, they start back toward their South Florida startling point, gathering all the cattle they have deposited in the cow camps along the way. The locals that were hired to watch and care for the cattle now become cattle drivers.
The assembled herd is driven to a port near Ft. Myers where they are sold and shipped to Cuba, who is at war with Spain and buys every cow they can find.
So that's the story of Florida's Cow Camps and the crackers who used them.
After we left the cow camp, we went to a local store about five miles from the park entrance and picked up some supplies. Ice cream, milk, ice, and beer were on the list.
This being our last day in camp, I decided to get real nosy and find out what the people across the road, from Alaska with the big motorhome, were doing over there. All week long, the woman was sitting at a table under an awning working on something while her husband was under a canopy doing something with a pneumatic brad nailer and a standing jigsaw. Turns out, she was assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Not very interesting to me, but he was making picture frames for the water color nature scenes and animals that he painted.
His name is Larry Dunkerson, but everyone calls him Dunk. If you look at the pictures I posted from 3/17, you'll see a sign marking Dunk's Tower. Well, the tower was falling down and the park manager told Dunk that, as a volunteer, if he would rebuild the tower, it would be named after him. Thus, Dunk's Tower.
Dunk and his wife are from Alaska. They leave their motorhome at their daughter's house in California and fly home to Alaska in May. Then in September, they fly back to their daughter's house, pick up the motorhome, and hit the road. They've lived in Alaska since 1979 and have been volunteers at this park for five years.
It was an interesting day. Tomorrow, we're off to Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, FL. See you there!
We went to the marina to use
the WiFi, came back to camp for lunch, rode the bikes 6.7 miles, took
a picture of a tortoise along the road, and fixed dinner.
There are a couple of Aliners in the other loop. We met one couple today; the other tonight.
We've
pretty well got this park checked out. Not much more to do, but who
knows? We may make a new discovery tomorrow. Tomorrow's our last day
before we head for Oscar Scherer State Park near Sarasota.
