Year 3 for the Snowbirds - 2017

We found out that we're not snowbirds because we don't stay in Florida longer than 2 months, our maximum so far. A snowbird is either 6 & 6 or 7 & 5 (months in the north and months in the south). Then they said we are snow flakes.  Hmmm... Florida humor.

This year our first stop was at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, near White Springs. We usually stop in Georgia at the Reed Bingham State Park but we couldn't get reservations. Because we went down before New Year's Day, it was packed. We kept driving south in the hope of finding something else. Yvonne did some searching on her phone and found the Culture Center. We called and they wouldn't take a reservation because on arrival day, it's first come, first served. We lucked out and found a spot there, right next to the bathroom building. 

We arrived in the dark and there weren't many lights. This is the first time we've had to back up the Airstream in the dark but we managed. It turned out to be a very nice place but we didn't get to explore before we left.  It's right on the Suwanee River. It's on our list of places to return to, if we get the chance.

We continued down I-75 and arrived at Myakka River State Park. We had reservations for 14 nights, pretty lucky for us.  Last year we had heard a lot about Myakka and all of the alligators in the park, so we had to see it for ourselves.  It's no exaggeration, believe me.









Did I mention my winter project was to grow a beard? No? Well, I did, just for fun. The only one enjoying it was me, however. 

Jet Pack on a pole

The cell and data signal at Myakka, at least where we were parked, was very poor. I bought a 10' PVC conduit and stuck the Verizon Jet Pack on it, ran an extension cord up the pole to provide continuous charging. Voila! Signal! Worked great!

The nicest thing about Myakka River S.P. is that it's very close to Sarasota, FL and Siesta Key beach, which is very beautiful. We made several trips there but you have to go early if you want a parking place, it gets very crowded, even during the week. On the first few days we went to Turtle Beach, just south of Siesta Key; also very nice, also very popular.

The parking at Turtle Beach was good, very close to the walkway and it was free.  It was a clear sunny day with a light breeze. The warm sun felt soooo much better than the cold, dreary Kentucky rainy days. It was a most pleasant afternoon. The beach was nearly deserted when we arrived and didn't fill up very much, even in the afternoon.

We went here just once, I think. We had our hearts set on visiting Siesta because we had heard so much about it. 

 Siesta Key beach did not disappoint. It was stunningly beautiful from the moment we crossed the walkway into the sand. The sand is actually quartz from the Appalachian mountains. It reflects sunlight and never really gets hot, it's pleasant to walk on.

The water is very shallow for a long way out. It's a pleasant walk up and down the beach but the water can be chilly. It takes some getting used to. We found a lot of pretty shells, some were decent size. We took a few back and put into a pretty jar to remind us of our winter travels. 
 
Inside Myakka park there is a nice sized lake, Lake Myakka. We asked about fishing and they said that since there had been a drought in summer the lake was very shallow. They also said the lake was full of tilapia, which are good to eat but you can't fish for them, they won't bite bait.  Instead, you have to cast a net to catch them. We saw a couple of people doing this but they weren't having any luck.There's no limit, they are not native and were considered a nuisance.

We launched our kayak and ventured out. The previous summer I had added a fish finder to the kayak.  When we were on Hillsborough River the previous winter we couldn't tell how deep the water was. I had a spare and mounted it for this trip. After we moved away from shore I checked our depth. I knew it would be deep but it didn't seem to be working; depth read zero. We kept paddling and still nothing on the graph. On a hunch I stuck my paddle over the side and it stuck in the mud bottom. Our depth was about 6".  Well, so much for fishing. We paddled around for an hour or so, finally found a deep spot; 3'.

Once out into the lake we decided to turn around and face the wind. This made for a harder paddle back to the launch and I made a mental note to see if I could mount a spare trolling motor to make life easier. 



There is another lake at the other end of the park and you need a permit (free) to go visit. It's about a mile walk through that part of the park but there's a dirt road so you don't have to fight the tall grass to get there. You can also paddle down the river but we opted for the walk. We knew there would be a lot of gators and we wanted to get a better idea of what we would run into.

Because of the drought there was a huge area that was now grass instead of shallow lake, so another couple hundred yards to the water's edge.

 
 We arrived to see a LOT of not only alligators but hoards of vultures sunning themselves on the beach. Gators were sunning, gators were swimming, gators were walking....lots and lots of gators....everywhere.

 

We stayed about an hour, only so much you can see when you're gator watching and vultures are wandering around you about 15' away. Enough fun and back to the Airstream.

 


After another jaunt to Siesta Key we stopped for a little refreshment at Captain Kurt's bar and restaurant. It was a very nautical watering hole with a great margarita. There were a lot of seafaring things to look at while you waited for the food to arrive. We enjoyed the seafood meal and headed back to the Airstream.

Myakka River

After we got back we walked down to the edge of the river to see if any of the gators had come onto shore for a suntan, they did, a couple of nice sized ones. We have kayaked with them on the shore and never had a problem, but there have been some attacks. There was one were the gator came into the kayak of a couple of girls and bit one of them before they could get it out of the kayak.

Highlands Hammock S.P.

The 2 weeks finally ended and we were off to Highlands Hammock S.P., close to Sebring.  We chose this park because we needed 5 nights to match up Myakka with Lake Manatee. We left Myakka on route 72, which took us through Arcadia, a nice small town were we had lunch and Yvonne found an old Tupperware salt and pepper set at an antiques store. We needed one but not the other but couldn't remember which one. I guessed it was salt we needed; wrong. It was pepper. So now we have 2 salt shakers, one of which has pepper in it.

After lunch it was up route 17 to Highlands. The Garmin GPS (of course) opted to bring us in on possibly the worst road; loose gravel with lots of dust. At least it was level and smooth, not many bumps.  The Ranger station said they didn't know why it did that. We checked in and set up camp.

Highlands was nice. At Myakka our spot was very narrow. The spot next to us on one side was bigger and had tent campers. The spot on the other side was twice as big and had a popup camper.  I shouldn't complain because we had a great time there, it was just tight. At Highlands we had a larger spot and an open field opposite us, so more privacy.
 
There was no place to use the kayak at Highlands, but I got to ride my bicycle in many areas, including the gravel road. Yvonne took a lot of walks around the other campers and down the gravel road too. There was a CCC Conservation Corps museum there, detailing a lot about the young men who worked to build the park and about the corps. It was quite interesting.

 There was a lot of wildlife, sometimes right outside the Airstream.  We saw plenty of armadillos and learned about gopher turtles. The turtles are endangered and you're not allowed to disturb them. A well meaning tourist, moving one off the roadway, was reprimanded by a park ranger.  The turtles create large burrows and many smaller animals take refuge in them when there are fires. 

Our visit to Highlands Hammock was enjoyable, getting to see the "real" Florida before all of the development.  We were happy when it came time to leave and head to Lake Manatee S.P.

Our spot at Lake Manatee was quite large, lots of room for all of our stuff and still privacy from our neighbors. The lake is very beautiful. We stayed here for only a few nights on our first year with the Airstream and wanted to return. The first time there wasn't a drag strip 4 miles away, now there was. This is a very popular park and we were lucky to get a spot. The drag strip was incessant noise all day, starting at 9 AM and continuing until dark. On the weekends it continued until almost midnight. We enjoyed our time on the lake but I don't think we'll come back here again.

Lake Manatee S.P.

We went out on the lake several times but didn't have much luck. We did catch fish but didn't really know where to go or what to fish with. We tried fishing from the docks in the ramp area too but we were just washing our lures. Others seemed to be doing much better but wouldn't share what they were using for bait.  We used the launch ramp a few times but found it easier to return at the beach about 100 yards away, then drag the kayak on the carrier back to the car (and mosquitoes).

Lake Manatee

There was a beach there, swim at your own risk. Gators are always a danger in Florida but the locals said they were aware of only one gator and it lived back up the cove well past the launch ramp.

Yvonne and I fished off the beach area several times and used it to recover the kayak. It was on the last day before we noticed the sign that said we weren't supposed to do that. But it was winter and there wasn't anyone around so no harm I guess.

We had 1 night that we didn't have a reservation for, but we were lucky enough to get one instead of spending the night in a Walmart parking lot.

Lake Manatee

We packed up everything and moved to another loop and just left everything packed. In the morning it was easy to break camp and get on our way to Lake Manatee River S.P.  This was a much smaller campground but a very large park. The river was not deep enough to launch the kayak. We made a bicycle trip down to the river and you could almost walk across, if you could get the kayak down the hill, a very long journey with just soft sand beneath you.

Siesta Key Beach

We made a trip to Siesta Key and  Bradenton Beach, since we were close to I-75. We got caught in heavy traffic and had to spend an hour or so trying to get down there.

There was a beautiful sailboat on the beach. We don't know anything about it but my guess is that it broke free from its mooring somewhere and drifted in.  The wind was blowing into shore so it wasn't going anywhere.

Bradenton Beach

 Bradenton Beach included a long slow drive through the city streets.  It was difficult to find a parking spot, we had to make several loops before something opened up for us.

By this time my beard and long hair had become quite well formed, to Yvonne's dismay. She kept asking me to shave it off but it had to wait for our return and a hair trimmer. Shaving would have been impossible. It had run its course and I had my fun. Maybe it will return someday.

Bradenton Beach

Bradenton Beach

Bradenton Beach

At Little Manatee River we had another generous parking spot, next to the bathrooms. This came complete with a little walk through the woods, shorter than it looks in the pictures.  They show the entire length of the walk. I took the picture standing in the middle of the path.

We had a lovely view of these trees from the window of the Airstream. There was good weather every day on this trip, we were definitely blessed. I don't recall any storms but I don't have the AS log with me so we'll just leave it at that.

Yvonne's mother and step dad live in Florida so we always drop in for a visit. This time her brother Kevin was there so it was especially nice. 

We had a nice dinner at Cody's Restaurant and caught up on what everyone was doing. Later that week we headed back home to a nice snow storm. Ugh!