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

Day 5, Sarasota Here We Come!

We started this morning off with some nice walks.  The squirrels were so entertaining that Mama took me on a few walks.  I saw a sign that said they were looking for campground hosts and I thought that might be a good job for us.  They let you stay for free and pay for your electric. Mama reminded me that we still had to have money for food.  Hmmmm.....how many ways can you fix squirrel?  LOL

I had the best time at this park just watching the squirrels.

We had a very light breakfast this morning since we were would traveling.  Our drive today took us about 5 hours. We hit road construction.  We are staying at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, FL   This park has alligators.  Mama is not thrilled about that.  Daddy wanted to stay here. They are going to take a tour on a boat and tram tomorrow to see the gators.  We have to stay home.  We have a lot less shade at this site and it is hot!  We have air conditioning in the motor home though, so it's fine if we are inside. Mama and Daddy went out to dinner tonight.  They tried one of the restaurants from their Food Network app.  It's called The Old Salty Dog.   Mama said it took forever to get there.  She thought there had to be a faster way, but probably not since it's on an island.  She said the food was good.  She had a grilled burger.  Daddy had a fried shrimp and oyster sandwich.  Mama is allergic to shellfish, so she can't have anything like that.  After they ate, they went to Walmart to pick up some groceries.  They bought a drying rack for their clothes. Mama doesn't like to dry t-shirts and jeans, so she needs something to hang them on.  We really don't have a lot of room in here, so the drying rack will be the best thing.  Most people hang their clothes outside, but the next place we are going will not allow that.  It's pretty classy.  Daddy said we are going to probably have the cheapest motor home there.  They will probably look down on us.  They only allow Class A's and they must be less than 10 years old.  We qualify, but our rig is on the low end as far as cost goes.  It should be interesting.  Okay, so back to tonight.  After they got home from dinner. Mama took this picture of our site. Do you notice anything?

 We were in the motor home waiting for them to come in.  Mama was taking this photo when Daddy told her to be careful and look where she was walking.  She thought there was going to be an alligator there.  She has been so nervous about the alligators. It wasn't an alligator.  It was this.

It's a small rattlesnake.  Our cell phone doesn't work here, but she noticed a neighbor using her phone. Mama thought she would ask her to call a ranger. As Mama was walking to their site, she saw another camper who had spoken to us earlier. She is from this area, so Mama told her about the snake.  She got her husband and then another camper.  The other camper came with a big stick and a spatula. I think he was being funny bringing the spatula.  He acted like he was going to grill up the snake, but that is not what he did.  He just relocated the snake away from us.  We are very nervous now even though we were told by the other campers that they have camped here many times and never seen a snake before.  Mama told Daddy he is going to have to help her walk us while we are here.  She has been cautious with us, but now seeing the snake has scared her.  She will be happy to be out of here and I think we will be, too.  I have not seen any squirrels here.  I did see a jackrabbit though.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Had A Rattlesnake In His Campsite

Day 4, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs, FL

This morning, I got Mama up around 6 a.m. and we went for a walk just the two of us. We walked around the campground and watched the squirrels.  It was nice. After we got home, Scout decided she wanted to go, so she got to go on a private walk with Mama.

On our non-travel days, Mama fixes us a big breakfast.  Today, we had fried eggs, bacon and hot sausage links.  Well, we didn't have all of that.  Scout had an egg and I had a little bit of bacon.  I don't eat eggs.  Mama needed to fix all the meat because she was scared it would go bad.  I guess enough of that boring talk.  You probably don't care what we eat for breakfast.

We all went for a walk after breakfast.  The squirrels are crazy here!  They hop from fences to trees.  It's fascinating!

This is our spot.

You can see our motor home in the background in the picture below.

Here we are with Dad under a palm tree.

This is an empty camping site.  We like it better than ours due to the palm trees. Maybe next time we will get that one.  The sites here are huge, like our adventure.

This is the back of our site. It's pretty.

After our walk, the folks left to do some sightseeing.  They visited the Stephen Foster Museum which is in the state park.

They also visited the bell tower. It plays his music.  He wrote such songs as Way Down Upon The Suwannee River and Old Suzanna.

There is a little village here where crafters demonstrate their work.  Mama met a lady who collects the stones and rocks she uses in her jewelry.  She travels all over the U.S. in the winter doing that.  She climbs mountains for some of the rocks.  She says you have to do it in the winter to avoid snakes.  She carries a gun in case she meets a poisonous snake. She was probably in her 60's.

We met a lady this morning who is traveling around with just her dog.  She has an Airstream travel trailer.  Mama was quite impressed that she was doing it on her own.  She said she tried traveling with another retiree once and it just didn't work out.  She said she does not play nice with others. I guess at least she knows that.

The people here are very talkative.  It's old to get away from them.  They are all retirees, so they have plenty of time.  Mama said she hopes when she retires that she can have this type of lifestyle.  I think I'm living the retiree lifestyle.  What do you think?

We had more pictures to show you, but the setting on the camera was changed and it is taking forever to upload them, so we will have to pass today.

Joey,
The Greyhound Thinks That The Florida Lifestyle Suits Him

Day 3 - We Are In Florida!

We are in Florida, but first I have to tell the rest of what happened on Day 2.  

Day 2 - Continued

Mama and Daddy left us yesterday afternoon to visit the Wildlife Center in the park.  They take care of birds that have been injured or orphaned.  Mama said it reminds her of the center in Virginia that took care of the eaglets last year when their Mom was killed.  There was a flight cage at this place that is probably like the one in Virginia.  The one here housed hawks.

They had small birds in the main building.  They are monitored very carefully.  Daddy said it seems like a lot of work taking care of them.  Mama said it was so hot inside the building.  It was like a visitors center and had offices, but they must keep it hot for the birds.

The outside of the building had a lot of bird feeders and a butterfly garden.  I was told it was really nice.  Mama saw a lizard, but Daddy said it was nothing like the ones he saw in St. Thomas.

They ate at a restaurant that is a chain around here.  It's called Zaxby's.  They serve chicken wings, buffalo wings and sandwiches.  Mama had the "wimpy buffalo wings" and Daddy had the regular buffalo wings. They also had breaded mushrooms.  They said it was good, but they should have ordered bigger portions.  If you haven't noticed they like trying restaurants that we don't have at home.  Actually, they have an app on their tablet that they are excited about using.  It lists the restaurants that Food Network has visited along with the menus.  They want to try as many restaurants as possible.  We haven't stayed anywhere yet near those restaurants, but we are getting close.

If any of you are worried about Scout, let me assure you that she is fine.  She was pretty wild last night throwing a toy around.

She doesn't even do that at home.

We went for a nice walk around the campground last night.  Here are some more photos.

 Purple Martins' Houses

 I'm watching a squirrel.

 Scout and I were so tired last night.  We really like our beds.

We left this morning around 8 a.m. for Florida.We decided to stay in White Springs, FL for two nights and then we will go to Sarasota.  We arrived around 5 p.m.  However, we lost an hour due to the time change and we stopped twice as much as on Sunday and we had to drive through a lot of city traffic instead of straight highway.  That is why it took us so long.  By the way, the map on our blog does not show the actual route we took.  We did not go into Georgia.  It makes our trip look faster than it is.

We are staying at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park.  It is beautiful!  We haven't really done anything, but walk through the campground meeting the neighbors, but the drive through the park to our campsite was so pretty.  Mama is excited because they have a craft shop and demonstrators right in the park. It is unlike any state park we have visited.  How would we rate it?  We are not sure yet.  It gets a 5 for beauty, but we don't have TV here so that has to knock off some points.  Mama is sad that she will miss Survivor tomorrow night.  There are too many huge trees for our satellite to work.  Scout and I will be left in the motor home for a while tomorrow while the folks do some exploring. That is okay with us.  We are tired.  This traveling stuff is exhausting, but fun.  I am having the time of my life!  I'll post pictures tomorrow of this place.

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Likes Florida

Day 2 - Exploring Oak Mountain State Park

We are staying at Oak Mountain State Park.  It is located in Pelham, AL which is outside of Birmingham.  It's a nice park.  There are a lot of trails, a petting farm, beaches, golf, fishing and a rehab center for animals.  We walked on the trail that led to the birds that are being rehabbed.  Scout didn't want to go.  She was upset when the Jeep stopped and we got out.  The whole time we were on the trail, she wanted to turn around and go back to the Jeep.  Daddy tricked her though and we went on a boardwalk that went in a circle.  She was quite confused that we ended up where we started.  She even did steps to get off the trail.  Daddy said she will just have to stay in the motor home if she doesn't want to participate on our walks.  It's only Day 2 and she is already not wanting to participate.  Mama says she is just tired because she didn't sleep at all on the ten hour drive.  I didn't either, but I like doing things more than Scout does.  She is fine.  She just likes her bed better than exercise. 

Scout not wanting to participate on our walk this morning.

Albino Turkey Vulture in the rehab area of the park.  There were also owls and hawks.

 

A view from the top of the mountain.

One of the lakes.

 

Just the view as we drove through the park.

We ate lunch at Whataburger.  We don't have those in our area, so Mama wanted to try it.  She said it was good.  Daddy said it was better than the $14 hamburger he had at the airport.  They both said they would eat it again. We didn't have any of the burgers, but we did try a couple of the fries.  We had no complaints.

Here we are waiting for our food at Whataburger.

Mama plans on rating the campgrounds that we stay in.  Last night, she gave this campground a 2 out of 5, but decided that might be too harsh.  We have only stayed at Missouri State parks and a few privately owned campgrounds. This is our first state park outside of Missouri, so maybe we need to see a few more to properly rate it.  Daddy said we should give it a 3 out of 5.  The sites are small.  They have full hook-ups which are water, sewer and electric next to sites that have no hook-ups.  That seems strange to us. Our site is a pull thru.  However, it is a very strange pull thru.  We could pull thru if we didn't need to hook up to electric, water and sewer.  We had to pull in and then back up to reach those.  The Jeep is actually in the pull thru.  It may be hard to tell in the photo, but it is a strange site.

There is grass and a picnic table behind the motor home.  The pull thrus we are used to allow you to actually pull thru and not have to back in to reach utilities.

There are a lot of bird houses around the campsite and that's nice.  There is a bluebird house on our site with birds living in it.   There is also poison ivy or maybe it's poison oak on the ground.  We have to be careful where we walk.  The sites are gravel and the roads are gravel.  It's not a bad place, but not as nice as our state parks. 

Mama and Daddy are going to leave us later today to do things that do not allow dogs.  That doesn't seem fair.  I guess I will have to update you tomorrow on what they did.

We leave tomorrow for Florida. We are still figuring out where we are going to stop.  We thought it might be Sarasota, but it maybe a longer drive than we want to do in one day.  

That's all for now.  It's nap time!

Joey

The Greyhound Who Likes Alabama