A Wild & Crazy Weekend

Monday morning and no one is at the pool for their last swim before leaving.
Not a soul anywhere which means we have the pool to ourselves tonight.

The Jet Skis were out in force

There were crazy boaters everywhere and it was funny watching some of them trying to get their boats on the trailers and up the ramp. There were a few with two wheel drive pickups that couldn't make the grade and had to be towed by the John Deere.

Boats, boats, everywhere there's boats.
More boats until...........

What a difference a couple of hours makes. They've all gone home!
The place was packed and it was my day to do site cleaning. Twenty sites later there were still a lot of people to go.

This gentleman was camped close to us and as he was getting ready to leave, his slides wouldn't come in and his jacks also refused to come up. I was lucky enough to find a couple of burnt out fuses and we got the slides to work.

But.......we were not able to get the jacks to retract, even in the "Emergency Mode" which requires driving the pump by attaching a drill to the end of the pump motor. Well, long story short we were able to retract by running the drill on the motor shaft and prying up under the jacks. Two hours later, my buddy was on his way. I hope he made it home ok!

The day is over and I am burnt out but everyone seemed to enjoy their first holiday weekend. Tomorrow I mow......I hope that snake isn't still hanging around the mower.

I Don't Believe It!!!!

Today was a workday for Joyce and I, she worked a half day and I worked the full day. After lunch I had to do a little touch-up mowing at a couple of sites.

Sooooo, I went to get the Bad Boy mower and while checking the engine oil level, guess what crawled out from under the mower. Yup....a BIG snake, but luckily he came out of the side opposite from where I was standing. He or she was about four feet long and looked like the picture below which is a Cottonmouth but I can't be sure and I certainly wasn't about to get a closer look because that was close enough.

I guess if the Poison Ivy or the Chiggers, don't get us, the snakes will.

Chiggers, What Are Chiggers?

Joyce couldn't stand the itch any longer so we went to see a doctor for some med's. That's when we found out that we have Chigger bites along with Poison Ivy. OMG....what is a Chigger. Well here's a picture of one of the ugly buggers. They are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye which is good because they are ugly. I don't understand how something sooooo small can create an itch sooooo BIG!
Well we know what to do to avoid them and we have med's for the itch of the poison ivy as well.
Our plan for the day was to take a boat out again and travel north on the river with another picnic lunch. We didn't get back from the doctors until around 1:00 so we had lunch and packed some snacks to have along the river.
This time we took the yellow pontoon boat which steers a lot easier and Casey want to try her hand... ah paw... at captain, yea right!!!

I guess they are expecting a very high tide on the river. Better to be safe than sorry.
The base of this cypress is huge and would make a nice coffee table .
Two military helicopters came flying over. Seems they like to use the winding river for low flight training.

I think Casey was getting bored.

This old railroad bridge is part of the Greenway rail trail for bikers.

After passing the bridge we came upon a perfect spot to stop for snacks and a little relaxing in the water, Casey had her watermelon.
On our way back to camp we passed this cottage with a giant air bag to bounce off of. Looks dangerous, I would probably bounce back into the dock.

Another one waiting for the rising of the water but must have a great view.

During the round trip we experienced a lot of giant jumping Sturgeon. The fish we saw were 4 to 5 feet long and were coming about three feet out of the water. It kind of funny to see these big fish jumping but it can be deadly if you get hit with one. I was not able to get any pictures, sorry!

We're Gonna Need An Ocean

Of Calamine lotion.........Yup, we both have poison ivy all over our legs. Just so you'll know, these are my (Paul) legs LOL! Joyce's do look a little better.

And here's the flip side of my manly limbs. I don't understand me getting poison ivy, I haven't had it since I was a kid but anyways I guess this is what happens when you do weed whacking in shorts. Or we both got it from Casey. Sorry, got to go itch!!!

Old Town, FL102°/ 65°°F

Yup, it was a pretty warm day so we headed to the beach....yea! Thought we'd start at the town of Suwannee. Where there are some beautiful seasonal homes.
And the road into town looks nice but is a dead end into nothing. There really isn't much of anything in town, post office and a dinner.

From Suwannee we wanted to cross over to Shired Island to see if we could get closer to the ocean so we took this short cut through the Florida tropics!

This road went on for miles and in areas it was just barely one lane wide.

Riding along and I spotted this guy.

Not the kind of place I would want to get lost in.

Beauty of a differant kind but no gators in sight.

More tropics.

Blue Heron

Hey we made it, that's the gulf out there but this was a view from a campground and we couldn't take Casey out of the Jeep here.

So we drove back a quarter mile and stopped at a boat ramp. Can you see all the little crabs running around, they were all over the place. Click on the picture and you will.

Now that's a beautiful piece of driftwood.

Nothing like having the wind blow over your belly after a refreshing swim in the salt water.

By now you should know that I like chicken, but guess what Casey likes best. We came upon this on our way back to camp.

Lets Go Boating

We decided we'd use one of the pontoon boats today and take a picnic cruise. This is the 2nd time in my life that I've ever used a boat but it didn't seem like a big deal.
Ok, now to get out of here without running into anything.

Here we go and Casey is really getting excited about all the water. We were afraid she was going to jump in.

One side of the Suwannee is a wildlife preserve.

So the scenery along the river was beautiful.

Another view

Casey and I are on gator patrol as we travel slowly along the shore.

There's a pretty bird that kept following us.

And if you click on this picture it will enlarge and you will see some white wild flowers.

And here are some blue wild flowers

Oh Oh, that isn't a log in the water

He came really close to the boat and showed no fear.

This is another gator we passed along the river. He's a big boy.

And yet another. In all we spotted about five good sized gators.

As we headed to the Gulf coast we would pass these small populated areas.

Bet the kids love this place, check out that water slide.

There were some pretty nice seasonal homes along here.

Nice huh!

Not many places to pull in for lunch.

The scenery was so nice.

After about two hours of cruising, we could see the Gulf.

And there it is!!!!! Now it's time to turn around and find a place to stop for lunch.

About a half mile back from the Gulf coast, I found this very small beach area where we could stop for our picnic. This is like Gilligan's Island!

Casey loves watermelon so after Joyce and I had our salads, Casey and I had watermelon for a snack. I bought the melon at a farm stand for $2 and it was sweet.Joyce got in the water with Casey to cool off, then it was time to pack up and head back.

Joyce took the helm on the way back, she has spent more time driving boats than me. It was a great day and we will have to do it again.