Skip to main content

Out of the Pan(handle) and into the fire (mainland Florida)

Saturday, February 26th – Tate’s Hell to Outside of Gainesville, Florida – Day 19 

The middle of the night featured a truck of people who came to the river area in our campsite, started a fire and it sounded like they were having a very good time. In the middle of the night they took off with only a minor disturbance to our sleep. 

Our morning was fairly relaxed. It was a travel day so oatmeal and coffee, get the trailer ready to be packed up. But, Gen and I had a chance to sit by the river on a beautiful sunny day and drink our coffee. It was very pleasant. Mary and Charlotte went to get a shower at the neighbouring campsite. Once finished, we packed up the trailer and off we went. 

We drove along the coast as much as possible admiring real estate as we went. A lot of the new builds are all on stilts to protect against flooding. Pine trees dominated the drive on both sides of the road. Before we were forced to leave the coastal drive, we found a little park in parts unknown for tuna sandwiches. The play structure was reasonable but the kids still had a good time. The local council had left a bin of sports equipment for people to use so Gen and I threw around a disc. Charlotte, John and I challenged two teenage girls to a soccer game. John’s participation was very short lived. Charlotte played some good defence but needs to work on moving to open space. There were plenty of opportunities to use her speed and push the play down the left flank. After a little while Charlotte decided to withdraw as well and the game was over. 


We were staying at another Harvest Host, Millwood Flower Farm. They grow flowers, make teas, tinctures and more. We had been trying to get a hold of Mary’s friend Cyndy who is an absolutely delightful person. I’ve only met her once with the kids; she was such a gracious host and liked our children (amazingly enough). She worked at a farm, Adena Farms, in the general area we were travelling but she had already let us know that she wasn’t in town when we were passing through. On a whim, we looked up where the farm was and it turned out it was more or less directly on our path to the flower farm. We stopped briefly to take a look at the property and snap a photo. 

 It was late when we finally arrived at the flower farm. We briefly chatted with Natalie, our host. Set-up was quick and I made bean and rice wraps. The front yard had been setup with a swinging bench, chairs and side tables under a magnificent oak tree with moss hanging down from the branches. A warm breeze was blowing and it was a magnificent night for Gen and I to sit out and enjoy (after the kids went to bed). I stayed out a bit longer than Gen. It was tremendously peaceful. I tuned in for some of a beat down the Raptors received from the Atlanta Hawks (Trae Young went off) before turning it off and enjoying my surroundings.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Desert Forest - Part 4

We finally decided to move to our last destination before the sun set. The Arch Rock Nature trail was next. We reached the parking lot and saw the rocks in the distance, we were debating what we wanted to do. We just started moving and once we did, we found ourselves racing down the trail to the rocks. The kids wanted to play monster and once they started running, everyone else was running as well. We had another poo-mergency with no restroom in sight, the evidence is buried in the desert. There was more climbing on the rocks. We took pictures of the sun setting and took a quick look at the Arch rock before starting back to the car.  Gen was behind the wheel, an hour later we were leaving the park’s south entrance. We stopped at the Ranger station to freshen up in the bathroom and fill our water bottles before heading to our campsite. Luckily, the site was the overflow campsite for the park so was minutes from the outside of the park....
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 3

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Our day was shortening already, our next hike, the Grand View Overlook was closed due to a search and rescue operation. Apparently, falls and accidents happen quite a bit at National Parks; Gen looked up the top ten most dangerous parks and Canyonlands wasn’t there (it was number 12).  We got a recommendation to hike the White Rim Overlook trail, a 0.9-mile easy hike. The kids were running out of energy. They made it most of the way and then decided to stop to climb a rock. Gen and I continued the short distance to the canyon edge to see the sights. Canyon after canyon after canyon was what we saw. We stopped to sit and marvel at the scenery as the shadows started to lengthen.   On our drive back, we saw the sun set and we stopped at the visitor centre one more time to see the view from just across the road. I couldn’t get enough canyons; I was in love ...
1 comment
Read more