November 24 - November 30, 2001

NOTE; Some of the "Swamp Critter" pictures are included as links rather than being embedded as usual.  If you do not want to see them, pass up the link!  If you do use the link, use your browser "Back" button to return here.  The link page includes ALL the critter pictures.

As the last report ended we were preparing to venture into the Okefenokee Swamp. On Saturday Nov 24 we entered Okefenokee Swamp Park just South of Waycross GA. This is a non profit park run by a private organization. It has a number of exhibits and lectures on the wildlife to be found in the park. We thoroughly enjoyed the snake lecture including touching & feeling. The live snake exhibit included water moccasins, copperheads, pigmy & timber rattlesnakes; one big thing I took away from that exhibit is that I shall NEVER pick up a snake in poisonous snake territory. The so called "pit viper" diamond head of the moccasin is just not distinctive enough for me to be certain if it is there or not, and the color is dark enough to obscure most of the pattern in the coloration. If it's a dark colored snake, I'll leave it be or remove it with tools assuming it poisonous. :-(   We took a guided power boat ride into the swamp; after stressing that the swamp was really a flowing "watershed" forming the headwaters of two rivers, the guide chugged several glasses of tea colored swamp water, then offered it around. It tasted quite pure despite the color (due to tannic acid from vegetation the water drains through). The water level is unusually low from long drought, and the guide managed to hang the boat solidly on a cypress knee before he discovered he had no pole. He was finally convinced that getting us off would require all the weight (including his considerable bulk) in the LOW side of the boat, and we floated free.

There were numerous rather large alligators lying around the park, many next to signs proclaiming that "Alligators can be dangerous". I did get a close facial portrait of one 12 footer lying unfenced next to a path. As my camera focused on him, he opened his eyes and seemed to beckon me closer...no thanks!  When they get UP on their legs, they can run in short bursts up to 30 Miles per hour.....   The park and one hour boat ride is well worth the $18 charge. They also had black bears, river otters, and white tailed deer on display (although I think we get closer to the deer in our back yard). We returned to Waycross to spend the night in Walmart's, to use the strong digital cellphone signal there.

Sunday Nov 25 we had lots of planning to do using the cellphone free weekend minutes, so we stayed the whole day in Waycross. We now know we go into a campground in Punta Gorda FL on Thursday, Dec 6, spend two days preparing the RV for storage there, and pick up a one way Hertz rental car in nearby Port Charlotte on Saturday morning Dec 8. If all goes according to plan, we will be home before December 10 as we desire. Sounds simple now, but the phone was in use a LOT to sort out our options. Many car rental companies are not allowing rental cars to leave FL now; they need them here for the winter season. They are renting one way TO Florida at great rates (wonder if those rates will hold when we want to return?) The good news is that dead RV storage without hookups is very inexpensive here, $15 to $20 a MONTH. Nice!

Monday Nov 26 we returned to the swamp BIG TIME; this time Okefenokee National Forest in Folkston GA. We bought a $15 National Forest "Golden Eagle" sticker for our National Parks pass; this gets us into National Forest lands in addition to National Parks. We drove through a "loop" and stopped to hike to an observation tower. On the way Claire's sharp eyes spotted a pine snake climbing a tree. This snake was probably about 4 to 5 feet long, and had a noticeable bulge in its middle from the last meal. That did not stop it from entering a hole in the tree in search of it's NEXT meal however..... The view from the tower was inspiring; it was also difficult to capture fully in a photograph.

We enjoyed the trees full of snowy egrets visible across the pond, and I was thoroughly disappointed in my attempts to take a portrait of a spider in its web; the camera insisted on focusing on the background rather than the spider......oh well, it does a great job on most things. In the afternoon we rented a canoe for $14 and set off into the swamp on our own. It seemed there were more alligators here than doggie doos on Boston sidewalks; Both canal banks were lined with them sunning, and the camera worked just fine with this subject. :-) We placed a lot of faith in our belief that alligators do not feed in the winter season, and approached within a canoe length many times. A few times shy ones submerged under the water, and we beat a hasty retreat. I'm sure we must have passed over many we did not know were there, however. As we got into shallower water (one foot or less) we passed two sandhill cranes on the riverbank at the edge of the channel; they were not at all shy, and cooperated fully with the camera. These are LARGE birds, standing over 3 feet tall; they seemed to look down on us sitting in the canoe.

 We timed our return appropriately, as we used half our time at about the same time the water got too shallow to continue. While returning, we appreciated the GPS unit as it not only pointed the way back, and showed how far we had to go, but it showed HOW FAST we were moving. Since the Forest Service offers to send rescue parties out for late returnees (at the returnees expense) we were interested in timing our arrival for not later than 4PM. We passed more alligators ....ho-hum. We arrived back with minutes to spare, having done 7 or 8 miles (we are still forgetting to look up HOW to get the GPS to keep track of EXACT mileage. It will, we just do not know how to set that up - yet). We walked Purry in the park area, being careful to keep him on a SHORT leash as directed. I'm sure many critters here would consider him a delicacy.....

We drove on to Mcclenny FL, passing the Florida State inspection station which wanted to inspect all trucks, vans and trailers, but did not specify campers. We slowly proceeded past the officer on duty; he did not signal us to stop, so we proceeded. We found the Mcclenny Walmart. This day we drove 100 miles and exercised heavily. Bed was most welcome and I slept 11 hours; WHEW! Made up for lazy Sunday.

Tuesday Nov 27 we drove to Ocala, intending to visit the Ocala National Forest. We had no information on it, and the route to Mcclenny had been a small road without a FL welcome station (other than the inspection station); we stopped at our home away from home, Walmart's. There we found that there was an Ocala forest information station at the forest entrance a few miles away. The mid-day temperature was over 80 degrees, so we located a lake with swimming and used the golden eagle pass to get in for half price ($1 each). There was nobody on duty, but we tried the water. In our youth, I'm sure we would have jumped in. Now, we stopped at mid thigh and declared it enough; it was a bit too cool for our tastes for full immersion. It was still most refreshing. We decided to cook dinner in this pretty quiet nearly deserted park. Purry enjoyed a walk, and while I was finishing the dishes I heard cat howls VERY close; I thought Purry was just outside doing it, but when I looked I saw a strange cat on the RV step howling through the screen door at Pookie. Pookie was as close as he could get to the screen; I could not be sure if he was howling or not, but the stranger (and the howling) vanished when I looked out the door. Imagine, cat fight in RV land.... :-) We returned to the Ocala Silver Springs Walmart for the night.

Wednesday Nov 28 we decided to hike to St Francis, a St John's River "ghost town" from the early 1900's. The entrance to the trail was on the eastern corner of Ocala National Forest; we drove there and found the parking quite tight for the RV, both in space and overhead clearance from tree branches. After two "missed approaches", a kind gentleman offered to move his van to make room, and we finally got the RV tucked in, although branches had to be pulled to make room. The hike was advertised as 7 miles through swamp, forest, and palmetto scrub. It was quite interesting; I was happy to have Claire's sharp eyes in the lead. She spotted most of the spider webs crossing the trail in time to duck under or walk around. She only saw two snakes, one I missed completely, but she indicated they both appeared to be coal black and relatively thin. The one I saw looked like a non venomous black snake; I'm still not picking them up, however. The one I saw hid when I tried to move a step closer to take his picture. OK, that's good! At least they aren't aggressive! I did finally manage to take a spider's picture; it takes the CLOSE UP setting on the camera, and the camera focuses on the SPIDER! DUHHHHHH. The ghost town turned out to be totally ghostly;  GONE with nothing visible to indicate it ever existed...

We returned to the RV, walked Purry, and departed for Deland where we intended to stay overnight in the Walmart parking lot. After some confusion with a Rt. 17 BYPASS vs. Rt. 17, we arrived without incident. We were quite tired after the hike, but Claire put together a delicious spaghetti dinner complete with clam sauce. We felt we earned a Corona beer with lime slice too. We ate the WHOLE thing too! I dumped the trash at Walmarts, and wandered through the store. It is a small one by Walmart standards, and I did not expect to find anything special; however staring down at me was a replacement glass carafe for our RV coffee maker. We quickly made that purchase. It is not often that spare pots are found for a Black & Decker Spacemaker coffee maker, and our mobile use makes the pot quite vulnerable to accidental breakage. Overnight it showered briefly, just enough to make us close the overhead vents; it was quite cool by then anyway, so the closing was welcomed.

Thursday Nov 29 we moved toward Orlando; we had carefully planned our approach to the city, as we expected to be confused or to be led onto toll roads, neither of which we wanted. We selected our exit number from the map, and did our best, but ended up in Kissimmee nevertheless. :-)  We happened upon a Walmart there by accident, and stopped to re-orient ourselves; this Walmart prohibited overnight parking. Street Atlas could not locate the one in Kissimmee that allowed it. We decided to explore blind in the area of the friendly Walmart, and found it about where the address indicated it should be on Osceola Parkway. Street Atlas has been extremely helpful most other places we visited; I guess we must forgive it this shortcoming. As it turned out, this Walmart was VERY close to high school buddy Jim's house, and as we planned to visit with him this evening we really lucked out. It was especially fortunate we were close when it turned out we were expected for dinner and thought we were going there AFTER dinner. We were royally entertained by Jim & Pat in their beautiful house, and enjoyed their new Apple Computer with flat screen monitor. This is the first computer I have seen that could recognize and download pictures from my Olympus digital camera without any special added software.

Whisky, the house Maine Coon cat is a real charmer!

As always, time with friends passes too quickly, and we departed with hopefully minimal damage to the bush across the street from Jim's house. :-) Thanks to the rear view camera, or we might have trimmed a deciduous Christmas tree this year. We returned to the Walmart on Osceola Parkway for what remained of the night and slept VERY soundly....

Friday Nov 30 we had a campground booked to replenish water and dump waste; we awoke late to another bright sunny day (we could get used to this)! Purry asked to go out, so I leashed him up and we went 5 or more times around the RV at Purry's usual meandering pace; then he decided to go UNDER the RV, and balked at my request to return to the side I was on. I thought climbing UNDER the RV to accommodate him was a bit beyond my obligations as servant, so became quite insistent that he return. He became equally insistent that he would not, and started working his way out of the harness against the pull of the leash extended full length. Before Claire could respond to my calls for assistance he had extricated himself fully from the harness, and was a free cat! YIKES!! He THEN slowly walked back under the RV (away from Claire) and approached the door; he allowed me to open the door for him and calmly walked up the steps and inside. I wasted no time closing the door as Purry drank heartily from his water dish. I'm not sure WHAT motivated him to throw the harness, but I am usually quite gentle with my "suggestions" as to which way he should go; this time I had no choice when I ran out of leash. I could hang on, or let go. In retrospect, I think next time I will let go. A cat dragging a 10 foot rope will be easier to catch than an unharnessed unidentified one..... We moved to our reserved site at Mill Creek RV Resort around noon and were assigned a nice mostly shady pull through site. In short order we hooked up power, cable TV, water, and sewage. I cannot fully understand how the campgrounds can supply these facilities for the $11 a day they charge us as Passport America members; perhaps they understand we will spend another $8 doing laundry? The showers were not good enough to entice us away from the clean one in the RV. The advertised "heated pool" looked very clean, but it was not hot enough at 4PM to entice me to jump in. If I had thought of it at noon, maybe..... Dinner was already cooked and in the refrigerator; what a nice touch to just serve it on a plate, pop it into the microwave, and eat. TV that stays on all the time.....WITHOUT a generator running; WOW! :-) I'm going to get this ready to send early tomorrow, Saturday. In addition to the normal "campground" chores, we are planning a stop at Costco in Orlando to replenish some supplies best bought there, and I am hoping to buy some RV supplies at Camping World (if we can find it). We are looking forward to a visit with Cousin Randy & Chuck for dinner & chit-chat Saturday evening. It's too bad we can't see everyone in the family this trip through the Orlando area, but we are back to a real life, time constrained world until mid-January, when we return to continue this vagabond trip. We will be back in the Orlando area with more time then.

ENJOY!