Bucket List Journeys: February 2013

Yellow Jacket, Old Town, FL

For just three days we stopped at a campground called Yellow Jacket. It was about 11 miles from Old Town, which is a blink of an eye town on highway 19/98. Down a hard packet dirt road with our 26,000 pounds of vehicles we went, with dishes rattling (Correlle, thank goodness), dogs looking worried, and us laughing all the way. What had we gotten ourselves into?
Well let me tell you. Yellow Jacket Campground/resort is lovely and three days were not enough to experience its beauty.
Right on the Suwannee, we faced the camper with our "IMAX" window at the river. Each hour of the day there were beautiful colors and shadows as light hit the river and trees. It was quiet and just lovely.
Unfortunately it was cold while we were there but we met some wonderful people from Illinois that we had great conversations with. They introduced us to wasabi covered nuts and a wine aerator. Our new friends, Carol and Dick had been a first grade teacher and a philosophy major with stints with several agencies, respectively. I could have sat and talked with them forever but a bonfire can only do so much to keep a person warm, so we had to cut some conversation short. More friends to meet up with again.
We were cozy and warm in our home on wheels even though the temps got down in the 20's. During the day, it got up to the mid fifty range with a brisk breeze. No kayaking, darn it.
During the cold, Paul and I went to the Steinhatchee Fiddler Crab Festival. What a hoot! Crab races, seafood booths, chowder booths, chili booths, "swamp water" booths (don't know what that is and I was too chicken to try. I think maybe a fish stew?) There was live music ("we are definitely in the south", type music), classic car show and lots of crazy people in crab costumes. The lady in the photo below, dressed as a crab, was originally from Indiana and has a daughter in Mooresville. Small world.
There were arts and crafts, some of dubious artistic value, but none the less fun to look at. We went home with a crab necklace that I had to have and I'm sure I will wear forever (NOT).

Steinhatchee Fiddler Crab Festival

View from our IMAX window

Dirt Road to Yellow Jacket. I was worried.....what kind of place is this?

Indiana Crab Lady

Golf cart for the festival Sea Hag. Paul says I should of entered the contest. Very funny Paul.

A great restaurant on highway 19/98.

Anyway, goodbye to Yellow Jacket, until we meet again my friends.

St. George Island, FL

We just can't seem to leave Florida! The state park system here is fabulous with opportunities to see different environments of the Southeast. The parks are clean, well planned, quiet and pristine. They are well managed with outstanding rangers and volunteers. If you ever get a chance, experience the Florida State parks.
Our next stop was St. George Island just west of the crook of the panhandle. Ginny calls it the armpit of Florida, I think because it is near the home of the Florida State, the arch rivals of the Gators, her alma mater. Although the water is not an emerald color like further west (Destin, Panama City) the area has much to offer.
St. George Island is a peninsula with the Apalachicola bay on the north and the gulf on the south. Oystering and seafood are the main industry of the area. Oystering can only be done "by hand" per local law, so you see many small boats in the bay at low tide, with oyster men reaching in the water with long poles with wire baskets at the ends. They wiggle the baskets into the sea bed in order to pull up a lot of mud and a few oysters. It looks like back breaking work and I now understand why oysters are somewhat expensive.
Shrimping is also a big industry but it has suffered since the oil rig spill, just as the oystering industry has suffered. Although they cannot prove it was the oil spill, quantities have diminished, thus hurting the economy. That being said, we enjoyed the area immensely. If you want great seafood, go to Apalachicola, a quaint town across two long, long bridges from St. George. The people were terrific and I would visit again.
St. George Island State park is at the end of the peninsula once you cross a three mile bridge. The park is well over 12 miles long, all bordered by water, with marshes in between. We walked the beach for shells with nary another person in sight. Amazing experience.
As mentioned in a previous post, we met some new friends at Manatee S.P. Each day we had wine hour (or two) and they taught us a card game called Diminishing Bridge. Those of you that know me well know that Slap Jack or Go Fish is about as complicated as my brain can handle. BUT, with their patience I learned to play and had a great time too!
One thing I was worried about in starting to RV was the potential lack of privacy, noise from other campers and actually meeting new people. My worries were not necessary. We have met some of the most interesting, wonderful people I could imagine. And sitting around a bonfire, or under an awning or anywhere else in the outdoors with new people has been the biggest gift of this adventure.
How fortunate we are to have had careers and a life path that allowed us to experience this adventure!

St George Island

Area of regrowth after a controlled burn

Prickly Pear Cactus on the dune

Great Blue Heron

Appalachicola, FL

Hangin' 20

Native Florida dune grass

Sea foam - I hope that is not oil slick sheen

Gifts from the sea

Shrimp boat

New friends

Sea Star

Oystering

Beach bums

Birds of a feather

Tide going out

Leaving St George

People with long legs

Ahhhhhhh.......

Beach dogs

Island tidal marsh

Our ride(s)

Near sunset

Saying goodbye

Sea star

Red Coral

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, maybe

Manatee State Park, and Cedar Key, FL

Although it was hard to leave Silver Springs/Ocala State Forest, we moved on to Manatee State Park. It was so nice to have Internet access with our hot spot at Wilderness Resort, but moving about to see new beauty is what our existence is about right now.
Manatee State Park is on the Suwanee River with the head spring feeding the river from about a quarter mile inland. The head spring is crystal clear, as most are, with beautiful turquoise and deep blue water. Although the weather was cool, by Florida standards, 65 degrees, a few people were swimming in the water for health benefits. The waters were and are believed to have healing powers. I did not swim because I had to weigh beneficial health benefits versus hypothermia.
Where the river meets the Suwanee, manatees and other wildlife congregate to warm themselves, or maybe they feel the healing powers too. The park has a long boardwalk from the head springs to the river, suspended over a swampy cypress forest. Many times we would see small Florida deer and vultures in the forest, just below our feet. Stunningly beautiful and eerie!
We saw manatees, mullet, turtles, and I even saw a Limpkin, a wading bird that eats only apple snails. Not a common bird so I was all puffed up with pride at seeing it. I almost felt like performing a bird call, minus wine! (My good friends will understand the bird call statement.)
Below the head springs there are 5 miles of water filled caverns which divers can explore with special permission of the park. Where they enter the caverns is a place called Cat Fish Hole, named because of the enormous catfish seen by the divers. The divers we saw wore re breathers so they could stay below for about 4 hours. It was cool to see them disappear below the duck weed covered water.
We met some wonderful new friends at Manatee S.P. that we ended up hanging out with at our next stop, St. George Island. More on that later...
We took a trip to Cedar Key, a quaint fishing/shrimping village, just below where the Suwanee meets the Gulf of Mexico. The water is somewhat muddy there, as expected, but full of nutrients for the wildlife. I enjoyed Cedar Key and it is on our list of places to camp at in the future. We could not see in one day all that the city had to offer and it is a casual, unfancy town with no airs about it....my kinda town.
To top it off before we went on to our next destination, a seafood feast from the grill. Life is good.

(All these photos were taken with my phone, so not the best quality. I just don't want to be encumbered by my larger camera.)