1067 December 3, 2023 Suwanee

It was foggy and misty and damp when I got outside.

This morning on my walk I passed a pond.  I saw movement and stopped to watch this animal in the water.  It swam and floated on its back and then flipped over and stayed suspended, its limbs hanging down.  He would put its snout out periodically to breathe.  I thought that it was an opossum but now looking at the pictures, I’m not sure.  It doesn’t look exactly like anything.  I don’t think it is a nutria…maybe a super huge rat?!?  It was more than a foot long.  It is kind of hard to tell what it is because it is wet.  It sure is ugly though!  Any ideas???

There were also turtles in the pond.

This afternoon, we drove to Chiefland for groceries.  While we were shopping, the heavens opened and it was pouring when we came out.

We had planned to drive around in the more western portion of the Lower Suwanee Wildlife Refuge.  We went in the rain. 

We drove to Weeks Landing right on the river.

We found a small community park with a picnic pavilion and we ate our lunch there.

We continued on to the town of Suwanee.  There are some ramshackle places intermingled with beautiful properties along a system of canals.

We drove the hour back to the RV and spent the rest of the gloomy day indoors.

1066 December 2, 2023 Downtown Cedar Key

We have been having some trouble with our slideouts. Fortunately, there is a certified RV mechanic that is a resident snowbird here in the campground. He agreed to come and take a look this morning. He spent a lot of time and was able to make a diagnosis of a failed motor on the hydraulic pump. He will order parts on Monday. This means we have some extra time in Cedar Key!

It also means that we got a late start on our morning exercise. As I was walking, Tim met me on the road on his bike.

We went downtown after lunch. We sat on the beach. I took a book but never opened it. I was completely content watching the water.

We walked through town. We stopped at the Community Garden where all kinds of herbs and lettuces appear to be thriving.

We walked through the sculpture garden. I really liked the mosaics.

We walked down along the water.

We walked across the bridge and to the restaurants. We had such outstanding food at Steamers the other night and so we decided to eat there again. We shared a heaping bowl of local clams prepared in a diablo sauce and accompanied by tasty yeast rolls just perfect for dipping. Tim was so happy with his seafood salad that we both ordered it tonight.

After dinner we walked in the city park. The whole town is adorned with twinkling Christmas lights.

1065 December 1, 2023 Way Down Upon The Suwanee River

There is a really nice paved country lane that runs beside the campground.  I walked until the blacktop turned to dirt, about 1.5 miles, and then turned around.  Tim met me with a mile to go and we walked back together.  It was 70 degrees and sunny! 

Today we went to explore the Nature Coast.  We started at Shell Mound.  This is a 28-foot-high pile of mostly oyster shells that was left by native coastal peoples, thousands of years ago.  I was excited to see it.  When we got there, the road and trail was closed!

We did go to the campground.  It sits right on the Gulf and might be a possibility after we leave Cedar Key.

We drove to the Lower Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge where we did one of our favorite things.  We took dirt and limestone roads through the wilderness.  We traversed cypress swamps, hardwood forest, and salt marshes.  We drove down almost every spur and took the 9-mile nature drive through the park.  We got out to walk several times.

We saw some wildlife today.  Not pictured are the deer, the second armadillo, and the group of feral pigs.

This bat box is home to 30,000 bats of several species. At sunset, they erupt from the box and spend the night hunting.

This area is 40,000 acres and we had the whole refuge to ourselves.

We stopped for lunch across from park headquarters.

I really wanted to see the Suwanee River but the trail was closed because the boardwalk was unsafe.  We walked as far as we could.

We drove into Fowler where we found a boat ramp on the river.

We had a really fun day and the weather was outstanding!

1064 November 30, 2023 Moving To Cedar Key

It was another chilly day start.  I could see my breath as I started my walk.  There was fog hanging over the river.

I saw a bald eagle perched in a treetop.

We packed up and Tim drove us back to Cedar Key.

We went out with the Jeep to explore.  We found a couple of dirt roads to try.  This area is part of Florida’s Nature Coast; so named because there is far less development and commercial properties and lots of wildlife refuge and preserved land. 

When we got to town, we took our bikes and wandered around.  The city of Cedar Key is considered “Old Florida.”  The architecture is similar to Key West.  This is a small fishing village.  As we biked around, we saw more evidence of storm damage. 

We sat on a bench far awhile watching the sky change.

We decided to have an early dinner at Steamers.  The seafood was delicious!  This place knows how to do seafood well.  We enjoyed the Gulf shrimp last night.  Today we had mussels, fried oysters, and Tim had grouper, shrimp, and scallops on his salad.   

We thought the sunset might be spectacular but as the evening progressed, more clouds moved in.  There was some color in the eastern part of the sky.

1063 November 29, 2023 Exploring Cedar Key

More laps in the campground this morning.  It was only 36 degrees and there was frost overnight but there was no wind and the sun came out and it was a great day for walking.

SOOO MANY squirrels.

We had been noticing large areas of dug up sand. We suspected that there were wild pigs in the campground. This morning we saw a pack of 4 or 5 small pigs running away from the road. These pigs certainly can cause a lot of destruction, looking for roots, reptiles, and rodents in the dirt.

Tim had been looking at maps to see where we might go next.  He was interested in going to Cedar Key.  We knew that on August 30^th of this year, Hurricane Idalia made landfall near Cedar Key.  We were not sure if there was a town to visit.  We decided to drive there today in the Jeep to check out the area.  We packed our lunch and drove the 57 miles to the town. 

We had our lunch at the small beach at the Cedar Key City Park.  The sunshine felt magnificent.  I could have sat on that bench all afternoon!

There are some buildings and businesses that were affected by the storm. These seaside communities seem to be very resilient.

We walked around town and browsed in some of the shops.

We saw these watermen coming in with buckets full of clams. This town is the main source of farm raised clams in the United States.

Pelicans always pose so nicely!

We have chosen to move to Cedar Key tomorrow.  We found a really nice campground outside of town and made our reservation.

I went back to town to get fresh water and to make use of the Dunnellon Library internet again.

We had stopped at a seafood market for some fresh Gulf shrimp. We grilled it and it was so much better than grocery store shrimp!

1062 November 28, 2023 Rainbow River Headwaters

We started the day with our usual morning exercise.  I wandered the campground loops and walked to the gate and the river and on a nature trail.  It was almost 50 degrees with a little bit of a chilly breeze. 

We packed our lunch and drove the Jeep to the other portion of the state park at the headwaters of the Rainbow River.  There are hot springs here that emerge from the ground and the Rainbow River begins its flow from here. 

We walked to the waterfalls.

We left the park and headed into the town of Dunnellon.  We had not been able to post the blog for several days.  We went to the public library and borrowed the internet in order to publish.

The rest of the day passed quietly.  We both got out for some more exercise before the sun set.

1061 November 27, 2023 Rainbow Springs Campground

It was so nice to see glorious sunshine this morning!  I walked more than 2 miles through the park.

We moved again today, traveling west through horse country.  Our route was dotted with beautiful ranches, an equestrian center, a horse track, and a dressage ring.

We stopped at a small AmMex Grocery with lots of Latin American foods.  We bought some produce, some mango yogurt, and Tim’s favorite hot sauce.

We arrived at Rainbow Springs in North Central Florida at around noon. 

Today we spent hours getting the new TV set up with our DISH.  It was a little frustrating and took way longer than it should have but I was really happy when Tim was able to watch the replay of yesterday’s Ravens game!

We rode our bikes in the campground and down to the Rainbow River.  There is a swimming area right next to the sign about the presence of alligators…

Grilled chicken and mushrooms with chickpea pasta in a garlic and white wine sauce was really tasty!

Tomorrow, we plan to explore Rainbow Springs State Park.

1060 November 26, 2023 Rainy Day At Rodman

When we got up this morning, it was raining.  IT was coming down in sheets, a real soaking rain.  It made me not want to go out for a walk.  I haven’t had a rest day on a long time.  I slept poorly last night and just di not have the energy to make myself go out and get wet. 

Tim did his yoga and stretching.  He took the umbrella and walked two miles.

I have a list of rainy-day tasks that I want to accomplish.  I decided to tackle that list today.  As a result, I have clean countertops.  I also sorted through a basket that had been accumulating all manner of things.  I did some organizing and some writing. 

Around noon, Tim wanted to go out for a ride.  This park is adjacent to Ocala National Forest.  There is a whole network of state forest roads for ATV’s and Jeeps.  We went to explore.   It was rainy and wet and foggy and lovely.

We saw lots of wildlife today.  We saw turtles.

We saw a bald eagle, a wild turkey, and lots of deer.

We saw a pair of hawks.

There was a small frog on our windshield; hitchhiking!

There are so many buzzards.

Sandhill cranes here for the winter.

We rested this afternoon and then I got back to my chores.  Tim took another wet walk.

When he returned, we took the Jeep and our dinner out to a pavilion in the other campground loop.  The rain had stopped.  We heard an owl hooting in the forest behind us.

1059 November 25, 2023 Rodman Campground

There was really no good place to walk this morning.  I walked laps up and down the lane to the campground until I reached 3 miles.

We were only about 30 miles from Rodman Campground. 

Our TV blew up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We chose not to shop for a new one until today.  We stopped at a Walmart and made our purchase.  Tim decided that we should try to install the TV in the parking lot in case we needed a different mounting system.  This proved to be a good idea.  We went back in three different times to get everything we needed.  We still have to get DISH TV set up but that is a headache for another day since our next campground is among the trees and we cannot get satellite reception.  By the time we were finished hanging the new TV, it was early afternoon.

We arrived at Rodman around 2:30.  Our site is right along the Barge Canal.

We hopped on our bikes and went to explore.

We began at the other camping loop where we saw several shorebirds.

We biked to the Rodman Dam.

Later in the evening, we returned in the Jeep to the picnic area with our dinner.  This little boy was fishing at the top of the dam when we were here this afternoon and he was still there this evening!

A guy on the pier caught a nice fish.  It was about 16 inches long.

1058 November 24, 2023 Lynch’s Landing

It was raining hard when we got up this morning.  I got a late start I was finally able to get out and walk.

I took the paved park road to the bird exhibit.  There were no birds around.

I walked to the beach and considered going back that way but I knew that I would have a longer walk if I turned around and went the way I came.

It was moving day again.  We stopped at the Publix on Amelia Island to gather a few things.  We saw Ruthie, Curtis’ granddaughter working at the register so we had to say hi!

We left the coast and traveled inland to the west.  It was a 2-hour ride to Palatka.  We had a lot of trouble finding a campground for tonight.  We are at a small privately owned place right on the Saint John’s River.

I spent the afternoon doing ordinary chores.

We took a walk right as the sun was setting. 

We were in the RV when we noticed this beautiful red sky!