Friday, May 4, 2012

Day 6, Myakka River State Park

Today was a non-travel day. Scout and I basically stayed in the motor home except for walks around the the campground.  Mama is still nervous about snakes, but none have been seen since last night.  The folks went sightseeing in the park. They took an air boat tour and saw lots of birds and alligators. They also saw a bald eagle, but he was too far away to get a photograph of him.

Here are the air boats and where the tour started.
Mama said the tour was fun.  The boat captain was very interesting.  After they finished that tour they went on a tram tour. It went off road and through the woods.  They were told there are feral pigs all over the park but we haven't seen any. There are supposed to be at least 2,400 pigs here. They saw deer and turkey but since those are so common, it was a little disappointing, but it was still fun and educational.

This is an osprey nest.  They like to build them on top of electric poles.

They also went on a trail that had a tower to climb and they walked over a suspension walkway.  Mama was nervous about the climb to the tower.  It was 76 feet. She doesn't like being high up.
This is a view looking down at the steps from the tower.
The tower as seen from the ground.

These are photos from the top of the tower.  The smoke in the bottom photo is due to a wild fire in Sarasota.  We thought it was a controlled burn at first, but according to the news it is not.  No one seems to be very concerned about it.


These are buildings made out of palm tree logs. They were built about 90 years ago and still look good.

 These are photos of a walkway to view birds.  See the smoke in the top photo? That's from that fire. It's not as close as it looks in that photo.  Florida is having a drought and were told all of these green grass should be underwater.  The alligators and the birds should have been much closer.
Mama did laundry tonight.  She is trying out the new drying rack. We could have waited a few more days, but the laundry facilities are located just across from our site, so she decided to do most of it tonight.
We have only stayed at two Florida state parks, but so far, we are very impressed.  The campsites are really nice minus the rattlesnake and the parks have a lot to do.  This park had the tours, gift shops, a small cafe and lots of trails that we don't have time to explore. It's really a pretty park. We are staying in the new part of the campground and it's really nice. The streets are paved and we have full hook-ups.  Full hook-ups means the sewer is right on our site.  We can dump (that's what it is called) instead of driving to the dump station.
Tomorrow, we are headed to Naples/Marco Island. We will be staying in a 5 star resort for the next week. We should have a better Internet connection. Our connection here has been very slow.   The scenery is probably not going to be as nice in that park.  It doesn't look like they have many trees, but it should be nice in it's own way.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Resting Up For Marco Island



8 comments:

  1. Wonderful pictures again. Even though Mum is scared of hights she would have loved to go across the walkway to the tower, what a view!
    We can't believe you could see alligators so close. The tour though the woods and river sounds exciting, what a great experience!
    We are looking forward to the next part of your journey.
    Dip Bridge and Elliot x

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  2. You guys wear me out just reading about your adventures! Deccy x

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  3. You two are going to be the most well-travelled greyhounds around. I think you should have your own show about all your adventures.

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  4. Hi Y'all,

    Stoppin' to say "hello" and see how y'all are doing. Looks like a fun time!

    Tell your human not to worry about the alligators. When we are home at the shore, instead of here in the mountains, we have alligators in our yard. They pretty much don't bother people. They leave when you approach.

    The feral hogs, if they are like the ones here in the mountains, they have huge tusks. Then we have black bears and bobcats here too.

    Hope you continue having a fantastic weekend!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  5. Momma is doing a wonderful job sharing your adventures with us. I would probably have passed out going up those stairs though! Stay safe my friends!

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  6. It all sounds so nice! I wish I was with you! I think I'd enjoy island life a lot. You make me really want to see those state parks in Florida, that's for sure!

    Bunny

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  7. we have stayed in FL state parks before. Though we stay in a lot of other state parks, I have to agree with you, the FL ones we have stayed at have been gorgeous. Thanks for the lovely photos and great update. Scritches and hugs...take care.

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Home Again - Part 3

 Well, we just realized that we didn't finish telling you about the rest of our trip home.  I don't know if we even remember the res...