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     This post is for Andrew, Emily and Nick
   Out, walking in the woods....lol

            

 

   I got an incredibly good buy on this slightly used fishing boat.  All it needs is a good scrub down and a bit of hull work.  The only thing that I need is an all terrain trailer that works when the tide is out........

    Jay

  

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      HEY.....3 out of 4 isn't bad....

        

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    We're out of the woods for a while, so the real nature pics will be on hold for a while.  The organic cat toy below, decided that he wanted to play with the cat and also go on a road trip....Not going to happen.  I had a mental picture of trying to evict  a squirrel and at the same time keep the cat in....not a pretty picture...I had flash backs to the squirrel, in Canada, this past Summer that got into my van and anted to go on a road trip...
   The weather continues to be pleasant and I feel guilty about all to snow and cold at home...but not guilty enough to head back North...stay warm,  Jay

     

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       Into the Orlando area today, to start checking out the lay of the land.  The pics are from Fort Desoto.  More Osprey, cranes and a nesting Great Horned Owl

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   Out of Ft. Desoto this morning.  Have to stop and check out a Great Horned Owl nest on the way out.  She's a regular here and they tell me close enough to the ground to get pics.??? We'll see.
  Yesterday was actually a beach day (Michigan definition).  Sat on the beach watching the Pelicans feed. I'm looking into bringing a pair north.  They would provide great entertainment on the Crystal beach in the Summer.  Much more fun than Mergansers and Cormorants...(DNR might object however...)
    Look carefully at the water just under the bird in the first pic.  You can see the surface disturbed by the school of small fish...

                             Stay warm and well,  Jay

  I think this is supposed to represent a bear, if so they have strange bears down here.....To me it looks like a sloth.  I'm waiting to see one in person...

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   Fort Desoto
                       We're at the head of Tampa Bay on a Key.  The wildlife abounds everywhere.  Today's pics are of an young Osprey near our camp site.  He sat for 2 hours waiting for his mother.  I'd never seen a Pelican in a tree??? and finally... the reason it takes us forever to get anywhere....It's not age, it's the fact that we obey the speed laws....but why 13????   Jay

  

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       Out of Cedar Key today.  I've had a most enjoyable and educational time here. Spent several hours going through the Southern Cross Fisheries operation yesterday.  They farm Hard Clams and are also a lab exploring numerous other species and methods of aqua-culture....We went out for diner to a local place, Tony's  Restaurant.   Talk about a world class meal in a 54 seat, 150 year old store front place. Tony is a 3 time Grand Champion in the Clam Chowder cook off, in Rode Island.  I haven't eaten in a place, in years, where the attention to detail in the kitchen as so intense and to showed in the food on the table. I'm not a foodie, but Tonys was incredible.  If you're ever near Cedar Key, his seafood is well worth the trip.  The lady sitting next to us, had driven over from the Atlantic Coast of Florida, just for the clam chowder (200 miles).
    We're heading to a park at the mouth of Tampa Bay today....
                                                                         Be well,  Jay

 hard clams ready for shipping

   

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    old items

             I didn't get a chance to mention ,that on you way out of town on January 1. We stopped at the casino to supplement  the gas fund for the trip.  That being unsuccessful we next dropped in at the bullion depository at Fort Knox, which was really unsuccessful.. They get very cranky about making withdrawals without proper paperwork.... Jay

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    Arrived at Cedar Key,

                                       The RV park was shown on the map as bring on the island..., the map was wrong. It used to be on the island, now it's 6 miles inland. It wouldn't have been an issue except we had to wander around a bit.  Very narrow streets, no parking, masses of people,and lots of trucks pulling boat trailers.  No harm, no foul.  We found an alternate place that is a hoot.

   Here'sthe Crested Merganser, that I thought I'd already posted

    What's different about this pic???  We haven't figured out the reasoning yet.  The whole town was set up this way..

       We're off to Cedar Key tomorrow, with stops at two State Parks on the way.  This will end our exploring of the Forgotten Coast.  It's a very interesting area.  If I was more of a fisher person, I could spend months here.

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                    Perry FL.

      We're laid up for the weekend in a KOA. Spent the day down the road on the gulf.
. Found the Mercedes RV that I've always wanted.

 

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    Our time at St George was fun.  lots of time walking the beaches and trails.  Several new song birds The weather was good for this time of year and e actually had one day that was comfortable sitting on the beach reading.   We arrived in Perry Fl today, all of the campgrounds close to the beach were full for this coming weekend, so we came inland for a few days .  As we aren't at a State Park, we have WIFI and cable .  It got cold and wet last night so we are sort of  staying in today and catching up on things. ...The brown and white bird is a towhe the white one is an egret.  (a few days ago I posted what I thought a buffle head duck.  They were in fact Crested Mergansers)...Jay

 

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Saint George Island

Arrived yesterday, a wonderful State Park on the East end of a barrier island. The park takes up about 7 miles so there are miles of open beach and “sugar sand” . It's white and much finer than the real sand at home. The Great Blue Herons are in vacation mode here. They don't mind people all that much. The one pictured was on the beach and was hanging around some surf fishermen. He allowed me to get within 20 feet of him for his portrait. We stopped at the Pig (Piggly Wiggly food store) on our way through Apalachicola yesterday. Crossing the parking lot we intersected an older gentleman, slowly pushing a shopping cart containing large tub, towards to door. As I let him go ahead of me ,I looked in the tub....100# of ribs, fresh out of the smoker....I think we will be eating ribs for several days....The beach picture is of the bay side and completely different from the Gulf side...We'll be here at least 4 days.

We are learning the ins and outs of the senior RV subculture. What a hoot.

We're meeting the nicest people, from all over the country. Yesterday was a couple from California, headed for Key West for Key Lime pie...No other reason, just Key Lime pie. We put out the flamingo for the first time yesterday. Next it will be the party lights on the awning. Pets are the norm, usually a small dog. (and that's not going to happen) We saw a camper ID sign the other day John, Martha and Skippy. For some reason skippy just cracks us up. Next time we pass through civilization I'm going to get a dog dish and paint Skippy on it, to put in front of the RV....”No we don't have a dog, just the dish”...Our actual cat is traveling very well. She lives under the couch and we only see her about twice a day and only when we're stopped.

   The hawk in the last post dropped into our campsite this afternoon and landed on the lid of the barbie....We spent the day just puttering around.  I was out for the sunrise and found an area where the crocs had come across the road and down into a salt marsh.  I was tempted to go out tonight with a flashlight but figure that I'd be out there all night. We're moving tomorrow down the beach to St Georges Island., near Apalachicola. we'll be there for 4 days or so.

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Port St. Joe.

Here for four days. A wonderful barrier island State Park on the gulf. The park is about 8 miles long and the last 5 miles is foot traffic only. Wild life all over the place. All day today we've watched a young hawk (I don't know the breed) pounce on mice within 20 feet of us. Out bike riding this afternoon we practically had to shoo an 8 point buck off the road. Of course I don't have a good buck picture and couldn't get my camera out and up fast enough. Watched an armadillo digging for bugs this morning. They are the strangest animal. The camp ground is littered with small holes in the grass here they come in at night and hunt grubs and bugs. I found a Brown Rat snake on the road today, soaking up the heat from the pavement. He took issue when I tried to move him the the side, so he wouldn't get run over. He is really a beautiful snake, and I don't care for snakes. I'd never seen a snake that would coil up the way this one did. We did see a small sting ray in the surf yesterday. Tonight I'm going for a night beach walk. The crabs come out of their burrows in the sand at night.

 

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We made the Gulf yesterday. End of stage one. It's chilly, for Florida, mid 50's. The natives think it's cold as hell. I on the other hand think it's Spring like. Hey, the sun's out and it isn't snowing, it's all good. We're learning all about the habits of alligators. All the lakes and nature trails here are posted for them. Am learning tons of information about the plants and trees of the South. Many trees that I'd never heard of before. No if I can just remember them. We are at Panama City for two days and are parked on the water. We can watch the shore birds fishing, right out the windshield. We watched a cormorant catch and swallow a fish the size of a coffee cup saucer yesterday. 1. It's amazing how they can get it down. 2. The digestive process has to be incredible. (digesting a whole, live fish?)

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Sunny and 75 on the road to Port St Joe for several days on the barrier Island..The wildlife and birds are just great fun.  I'm looking for my first "wild" alligator.   More pics next time.

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             I feel like I'm in The Wayback Machine (hows that for a dated reference?)..Played tourist yesterday at Fort Rucker.  It was home for me twice back in the 60's.  It seems like a lifetime ago. and it was. The choppers that I flew then aren't even in the Army inventory anymore.  My sister is driving to FL and we'll link up for lunch today on her way past. Now that we are in the warm, we're on a self imposed restriction of 100 miles in any given day.  We should in the FL panhandle tonight.... The exit sign is in Alabama not Michigan.  It got my attention going past. I thought maybe we'd gone through a time warp. Yesterday was funny because we realized that crossed into Central Time zone the day before and didn't realize it   If you're not on a schedule, like Benzie County, it really doesn't matter what time it is.

 

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and the color for today is....grass green...and sunny and 54....We stopped by Fort Knox today and things have changed in 40 years. All of the old wooden, WWII, barracks have been replaced with nice brick buildings. Just like the real world. Anne's old hospital is still there, only bigger and better. The airfield I flew out of is there but I didn't have clearance to go in and look around. We are in Northern Alabama tonight and headed towards the

Florida panhandle by Sunday. We have slowed down, now that we are far enough South that the water lines on the RV won't freeze overnight. The hot water wouldn't flow this AM as it was slushy...I had fun this afternoon. We had stopped for gas and all of the windshield water wash buckets were empty...I opened the main drinking water drain on the RV and filled all of them in about 4 minutes. (I was carrying too much fresh water as it was and was looking for a place to off load it )

 

NEW FEATURE on the blog. Things I learned today.

 

Davy Crockett. Real name David

Jack Daniels . Real name John

The Saturn 1b rocket pictured, was used for the early Apollo shots. The Saturn V, used for the lunar missions was 144 feet taller. (taller than a football field is long)

And every mile I travel out of state, I'm thankful for Michigan's bottle law and the Adopt-A-Hiway program.

The Tennessee River and it's flood plain are amazingly wide (it looked like the Mississippi River at St Louis).

Day 2

  Happiness is being South of the snow line and the freeze line....46 and sunny today.  (that is summer in Frankfort)  The sun felt especially good. I had a one armed paper hanger of an experience tonight with the RV. (If  anyone can tell me how to permanently change the default font, I'd love to know)  I neglected to flip one water line valve (from being Winterized) and ended up pumping water out the holding tank, all over the place (about 100 gallons).  I now know for next Spring...  Saw a new scam at one gas stop today.  A man walking around with 3, 5 gal gas cans and a sad story that didn't quite hang together.  Hey buddy, could you spare some gas????    We're currently just South of Louisville, KY.  We're going up to Fort Knox tomorrow to see how it has changed in  42 years....I know they still have aviation because we've heard choppers at the campground. (I fear that they won't let me borrow one for old times sake) ( no sense of humor at all)..
   Hope everyone is well and the Burt boys are skiing like crazy and learning the moves.
        Be well,  Jay 

January 1, 2013

          and so it begins... . Walkabout 2

   All I can say is that it's a good thing that there is no schedule.  
we were basically  ready ready to go,  and then those little unexpected things started popping up. We had tarped the bus to make snow removal a snap.  The wet snow from three weeks ago was still up there and was now concrete.  45 minutes later, I'd been able to break up the snow  and slide it off. Got ready to load the cat and the cat was not to be found.  She knows several days ahead, when we are leaving, and she hides.  Knowing this we restrict movements, in this case, the living room.....No Cat...turns out that there is an opening on the back of the pedestal that supports the wood stove that is big enough for a cat...who knew...and then there as the issue of the entry stair on the bus, not retracting all the way...God bless WD-40...and then on the road in good order.

    We left the snow behind about Holland< MI    overnighting in Benton Harbor MI