Day 11 Travel Day -- Okeechobee to Silver Springs (near Ocala)

A long day of travel -- it took us 6 hours to drive what the GPS said would take 4 hours.  Lots of traffic backed up through small towns.  We're at a campground just across the road from Silver Springs State Park, known for the glass bottom boat rides. The nice lady who checked us in gave us a recommendation for a quaint seafood restaurant:  "Lena's Seafood".  We got set up at our site and drove there.  It was a really fun little restaurant with good boardwalk type seafood.             

We skipped lunch on the road and when we saw all the cars in the little parking lot at only 3:45 p.m. we knew we'd hit on a good one.  This was a bustling little place!

                                                                             

We met a nice lady at our campground this evening -- Laura and her husband have a permanent modular home at the campground and they stay here for 3 or 4 months during the winter. She gave us some great recommendations of things to do in this area.

                                                                                            

Esther --  I took this picture of a Kentucky license plate.  Earlier today we were in back of a Tennessee plate and Vernon was recalling when he was a youngster some cereals boxes had little state license plates that were attached to the backs that you could collect.  I thought probably you would remember that too.  Vernon said he "really, really wanted the Tennessee plate" because it was the only one in the shape of the state.  He said he waited for probably 2 years before he finally got it.  I love his stories of "back when". 

Tomorrow:  glass bottom boat ride?

                                                                                

                                                                                

 

Day 10 Drove to Bradenton!

So we got homesick, alright?  No, really -- this morning it was cool in the camper and when I got up this morning there is Vernon wrapped up in a blanket. I told  that him we should drive back to our house in Bradenton (2 hours away!) and get the robe I gave him for Christmas.  We didn't have anything else going today, so we made the drive straight west from here and picked up his robe and happened to end up at Mixon's Fruit Farms store a couple of miles away for an ice cream cone -- dipped in chocolate!    

Back at our little house in Bradenton -- just can't stay away!  After we went in the house for Vernon's robe we had to go down to take a look at the river a last time.  This is a selfie taken from there with the house and shed in the background.

This is the last season for Mixon's!!!!!  So sad!  But happily we found out today that they are going to have food trucks around, so we can still get the delicious orange/vanilla swirl ice cream.  See Vernon's vanilla dipped in chocolate in the lower left of the photo.  I had an orange/vanilla swirl dipped in chocolate.  Yummm!

The campground where we are staying is on the edge of the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation.  These are a few of the totem poles along the road through the reservation.  It's about 56 square miles and around 566 people live there.          

                                                                                  
                                                                                         

Tomorrow morning we say goodbye to this lovely, quiet, private spot for a camper.  We loved seeing the 4 horses and the Brahma bull just a few feet away (behind the fence of course).  Last evening we got a much needed rain when we came back from our exploring.  Then after dark we heard the sound of horses galloping through the pasture in back of us.  It had cooled down considerably and with our windows open we could hear them galloping and snorting very close to the camper.  It would get quiet and then we'd hear them galloping past again.  They must have been feeling frisky in the cooler temperatures!

Tomorrow we head for a campground in Silver Springs, FL very near Ocala.

      

Day 9 Cattle Drive Sculpture Project and Taylor Creek Trail

 We eat our main meal at noon and a salad in the evening.

We had pan-sauteed salmon cakes with melted cheese, steamed asparagus and boiled carrots and potatoes.   This little camper has a very functional kitchen.  We baked little frozen chicken pot pies in the oven the other day.  We are gradually buying more kitchen equipment, but today we bought a small cookie sheet to make oatmeal raisin cookies that was too big to fit in the little oven!

                                                                                

We visited the town of Okeechobee today and walked through some incredible bronze sculptures of what you'd see on a cattle drive.

                                                                                

    

                                                                                    

                                                                         A Brahma bull

                                                                                 

                                                                                     

                                                                         The Cow Dog

 This plaque says that a well-trained cow dog is worth the work of several cowmen.

  

The whole set of sculptures from behind.  The flag in the distance is being flown at half mast in respect for the the victims of the Christian school shootings in Nashville 2 days ago.

This street has a very small town feel to it.  We went into the Nutmeg Coffee shop and had a homemade ice cream and a "Rosemary Lemonade".  Guess who got the ice cream?

                                                                                    

                                    Inside the Nutmeg Coffee Shop

                                                                                

                                There was a group of people at the square in Okeechobee with bull horns and handing out flyers about Biden's upcoming pending legislation about giving powers to the WHO (World Health Organization) among other issues.

                                                                                                             

              This lady had a bullhorn saying "USA!"among other things we couldn't understand.

We took a walk on the Taylor Creek Stormwater Treatment area Trail.  Central Florida has so much land in it's natural state.  This was another great spot to view wildlife.  Today it was just birds -- in the heat of the day:

                      

                                                            A Cormorant drying it's feathers

           A Great White Egret (think "Buddy") and a Wood Stork share a puddle to find food.

                                        

                            The Taylor Creek was all but dried up with the 18 month drought.
                                                                                        

Day 8 Kissimee Prairie Preserve State Park

 After laundry and bills, we headed up to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.  "The preserve protects the largest remaining tract of Florida dry prairie, an ecosystem shaped by cycles of flooding and fire."

It's part of the Everglades headwaters, but it has been very dry for the last 18 months so the low lying areas that usually have water are dry, and the deep hole that some alligators go to, have more alligators than usual.                     

Here we are at the trail head of the only shaded trail in the park.  On a sunny, 90 degree day this is the one we walked:  The Hammock Trail.

                                                                                        

Such a beautiful sky!

This is a very elegant looking young Live Oak tree before the branches start growing horizontally.  At maturity they are usually wider than they are tall!

This Live Oak toppled over probably many years ago.  Below are pictures of the base of the tree and the roots that pulled up the ground with it when it fell.

    

                                                                                    

                                                                                

                                           The wild pigs root around and make piles of dirt

                                                                                    

              This shows the inside of a decaying palm tree where critters like to hide.

                                                                               

                                                                                  

                          This Zebra Swallowtail butterfly followed us along the path for a ways.
        

                                                                                      

The palm tree in the middle of the picture towered above the other trees and we watched it for a while as it swayed just a little back and forth.  So beautiful!

                                            Prairie pictures:

                                                                                        

                                                                                                            

                                                                                    

 Some people like to wake up and hear the sound of the ocean surf and see the ocean from their room.  We like to see Brahma bulls out our side camper window.  As we were starting devotions this morning, I heard a "huff" snorting sound and we looked out and saw this! 

Cool fact about Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park:  it's "internationally recognized for its lack of light pollution.  The night sky above the prairie is inky black -- campers can spot the Milky Way without using telescopes or binoculars".                                                                                    

                                                                                

 

Day 7 Highlands Hammock State Park -- "The Real Florida"

 It was a little over an hour's drive past the Seminole Casino, lots of orange groves and through the town of Sebring.  This was an exceptional state park.  The early morning trail hikes (strolls, really) and the tram ride with a knowledgeable, veteran trail guide. 

Highlands Hammock State Park was built in large part by the young men who enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps -- a work relief program during the Great Depression.  There is a museum in the Park which tells about the CCC.   So interesting -- these young men ages 17 - 25 -- over 3 million of them -- who mostly came from extreme poverty worked on environmental projects such as forest management, flood control and conservation projects and helped in the development of state and national parks.  They made $26 per month and sent $25 back to their families and kept $1.00. In return, they received education (a high school diploma) and work training.

In a video about the program, one elderly graduate from the CCC who was interviewed said that the government should spend money like that today instead of what it wastes money on -- to help develop two of our country's most precious resources:  our youth and our land. (FDR's words)

A statue outside the Civilian Conservation Corp -- CCC museum on the grounds of the Highlands Hammock State Park
                 

This was at the end of our visit -- enjoying some ice cream at the "camp store" after our hike and tram ride.

Here are some of the beautiful sights:

                                                                                

Vernon in front of a nearly 1000 year old Live Oak tree.  The black in the middle is some treated "paint" that was applied in 1930 to try to save this tree and help it to live on.

Fern Garden trail this morning.  Beautiful canopy of trees that shed droplets of dew when a breeze came up.  You could hear the plink and patter of the dewdrops on the leaves above you.  

    

                                                                                    

                   A very old Pignut Hickory tree.  Vernon says it's over six feet wide at the base.

                Vernon retrieved a leaf so that we could identify the big tree in the 2 pictures above.

                                                                            

Another tree (a live oak) that we were told was almost 1000 years old!  Look at the gnarly trunk!

                        

                                                                                

They did some work to keep the tree from rotting.  See the concrete that filled in some area toward the left that was probably rotted.

                                                                                 

                                                                                      Lichen

                                                                         Beautiful moss

                                                                                 Slime mold!

The rest of these pictures were taken on the 2 hour tram ride.  An entertaining and informative guide told us about the different ecosystems we were riding through. He asked if anyone knew what an epiphyte is and was impressed that I knew the answer:  it's a plant that attaches itself to another plant but doesn't harm it. (Aren't I smart?) Below is an epiphyte: a bromeliad --- it only flowers once in it's life. The bloom lasts for about 3 months.

A bromeliad that attached itself to this tree.

                                                                         Bald cypress swamp

                                                                                        

The tram stopped at this beautiful swampy area and we were allowed to get out on a well protected bridge and take pictures of "Brenda" the mama alligator.  We saw many other mama alligators on the tram ride through the swamp:  Arlene, Grace, etc. One was named for the guide's ex-wife!   But these pictures are of Brenda and her babies:

                

                                                                              "Brenda"

                                                                                    

                                                                        Brenda's babies

                                                                  more of Brenda's babies

                       More of Brenda's babies that the Great Blue Herons haven't gotten (yet)

We also saw tortoises, Great Blue Herons, lots of butterflies! a Great White Egret and an armadillo.

Tomorrow:  laundry and bills!