Friend JudyB, drove her RV over to McIntosh from her campground to see the large flock of Sandhill Cranes that hang out in the huge field next to McIntosh and to take the Liz "Tour" of the area. Carol and I climbed in Liz's car and joined the tour. Liz first drove around the historic Spanish moss draped streets of McIntosh. I know that the dogs and I have been walking these blocks daily for the past week but we still notice new things almost every day. Luckily, Stuart did not notice the Armadillo rushing to hide under one of the mobile homes..... He notices the neighborhood felines well enough.
Carol examining a public access ramp on the far side of Orange Lake. Our campground is on the other side of the lake and no longer has much open water left.
The signage as you walk towards the house that Marjorie Rawlings lived in when she wrote "The Yearling." Judy hadn't been here before. The house and grounds are interesting. Remembering that Marjorie was also an alcoholic that died before she should have from health issues related to her drinking just reminds you how insidious that disease is.....
Citrus time here in Florida. Marjorie had orange groves back in the day, now the grounds just have a few trees on the main grounds and the groves are totally overgrown.
The house of the maid. Judy and Carol in the front with Liz in the background.
This picture is just to share a bit of blue, blue sky with those of you out there in the middle of the grey January days of cold winter..... To remind you of what blue skies can look like and, yes, I concede that we have jackets on but our faces are not frozen beneath scarves......
From Marjorie's homestead grounds Liz drove us over to the picturesque town of Micanopy. Another town with old Victorians trying to hold on to their stateliness. Some more successful than others.
The main drag was soooo busy. But the lunch was good and we wandered through the small museum and some of the antique shops. Those shopkeepers don't know that folks traveling around in RVs or, in the case of most of our group, living full-time in their units, just don't collect the "stuff" that the typical tourist might be tempted to buy.
This past week also had a dog bath day/s around our RV. Bathing was just too much for Stuart after one of those long walks. When I realized that I hadn't seen him up front for awhile, I found him snoring in the back....on the pillows, of course. So that was his clean butt on my pillows.....not that he would have cared either way.
We didn't have any snow but we did have a little but of rain. Liz was getting ready get her waders to make it to her car. Luckily the soil around here is mostly sand and the water soaks in quicker that those muddy or clay soils of Ohio.
Yesterday I accompanied Liz down to the point to visit her favorite campsite and so that she could check one more time if the electric had been repaired and was holding a current. Alas and woe, what ever the gentleman who the manager had asked to repair the post did, it was not successful. Liz was not surprised but she was disappointed.
The potential view out what would be the RV's front door...had the site been up to grade..... Yes, we all know how to boondock, but when you are paying for electric and like early morning coffee you like the electric to work.
The silver lining of the walk to the point was the air-boat that came up the trail and approached us. When the pilot stopped we hailed him and asked if there was a clear trail to kayak over to the more open part of the lake. The gentleman worked for the Florida Water Management and offered to take us out on the air-boat so we could see the channels and more of the lake. "Well, yes, we would, sir." He even suggested we go back and get some warmer jackets (and we picked up our cameras) and off we went. Don't worry about the ranger's hearing he had small earplugs in his ears and just happened to carry sound canceling ear phones. He probably picks up grey haired ladies all the time.
We went over open water and the plants. When we stopped we got a lesson on which plants were natural to the lake and which ones were exotics and how hard it was to maintain some of the open trails across the water in certain areas of the lake. He also pointed out that there was generally a good eight feet of water under much of what appears from a distance as a solid mass of plants.
The air-boat chases the birds from its path.
After the air-boat ride, Liz and I looked at the clouds and decided to take a chance and get the kayaks out. The second ride was much quieter.
Can you hear the bird calls and the splash of the fish. I swear the splashes were all fish, no alligators. Some of the birds still flew away from us but not nearly as quickly.
There was really only one section of plants that we had to power through to reach the more open water trails. It wasn't hard when we knew what was waiting for us on the other side.
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