Much has happened since you last heard from us. We traveled south through Atlanta down into the panhandle of Florida after six weeks in North Carolina. We spent a week at an RV resort on a lake. We enjoyed some fun time at the beach on the Gulf as we took care of some business in Crestview, FL. We now have Florida plates on the truck and fifth wheel and Dave got his Florida driver’s license. From the panhandle, we traveled to Camp Blanding, Florida’s National Guard training center. We had a lot of rain there, not what we expected for Florida! We did have some interesting time there. The RV camp was on a round lake, which apparently was formed when a meteorite landed there. It was quite large. To me, it looked like the lake I remember seeing at Mt. Lassen when I was a kid. Several mornings during our stay there, we listened to the troops at “0600” as they ran in cadence about 15 yards away from us. I would wake up and peek out the window and see them with their flashlights. Better them than me! So far, we have not had a chance to fish at any of the lakes at which we have spent time. Bummer. It seems that there is always an appointment or something that we need to take care of. So much for “free time” when one is retired!
I’d like to give you some of my impressions as we have been traveling. Coming from California and the dryness and brown dirt there, I was delighted to see that dirt is not the same color everywhere! At some point I remember realizing that the dirt was red. I am not quite sure where that started. I do know that there were distinct striations of different colors in the hills that we passed in Wyoming. Is Kansas dirt red? I’ll have to go back through my pictures to find out. Our travels from Kansas through Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky were primarily at night so I don’t know the color of that dirt but I know that the dirt in Tennessee is red and has been so until Florida. Here it is sand! And water! I don’t know how the roads stay put! There is water, water everywhere! Swampland! Just like in the “Pirates of the Caribbean”! And trees! Besides oak trees, there is tons of some variety of palm. They are thick at the bases of some other kinds of taller trees. These trees are sometimes dead looking, almost as if they have been in a fire. They are bare with their limbs looking as if they have been chopped off to short stumps. There are many squirrels nests in these trees as well as other, larger nests, which can be used by bald eagles, of which we have seen several. We saw one nest which is over 60 years old, we were told, and which is over 6 feet wide! Amazing! Since there is so much water and so many lakes, the roadways in Florida are not as the crow flies. If you don’t take the toll ways, you meander left and right and straight ahead and then backtrack a bit and finally arrive at your destination. But I still can’t figure out how they even build the roads! The water table is so high that it seems there can’t be that much dry land to build on! To say nothing of the cities! Do they truck in dirt from elsewhere? Add to that, there have been high fire danger warnings the past few days as there is very low humidity! All they have to do in a fire is pump the swamps!
We took an air boat ride our last day (Friday, Feb. 20) at East Lake Fish Camp. We saw several alligators, snapping turtles and bald eagles, as well as various other local bird species. Prior to that, we spent one day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, two days at Epcot Center and the fourth day of our pass was spent at Disney Hollywood. We enjoyed each of these. I missed “Soarin’”, sadly, but we did get to ride some Segways! I’ve ridden before but Dave enjoyed his first time on one. Maybe we could fit a couple of those in with the Smart car we want to get!
We’ll be here at Pelican Roost for three days and then head back to Eglin Air Force Base for Dave’s medical appointments. I’d like to head back down to visit the Florida Keys. We have heard wonderful things about that area. We will just wait and see.
I am watching a telecast of Jacksonville First Baptist Church right now. First of all, they are singing hymns I have not heard in FOREVER. It is a large choir, very good. Now there is a group of men singing a fast-paced spiritual, I think. “No, Never Give Up”. But for a city of this size and the multi-cultural aspect of it, there are very few people of color in the congregation. Hmmm. Is heaven segregated?
Blessings to y’all until next time.
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