Myakka River State Park + The Rally

I need to do a little blog catch-up since we’ve been busy rallying this past week.  We did squeeze in another sight-seeing trip before the start of the festivities so figured I’d start with that day trip.

Myakka River State Park

Just east of Sarasota is a great state park that boasts lots of hiking and even a canopy trail.  This was on my list of places to see long before we came over in October.  We had a great visit, but boy was it wet.  Only the road and lake front were not underwater due to all the rain that came down even before Hurricane Matthew.

Flooded trailhead and no biking – no way!

If we had our water shoes we would have tried it since the trailhead was the only way to access the canopy trail.  Everyone stopped, got out, surveyed the nice brown river water and got back in their cars.  Ah well, not our lucky day for hiking.

We headed on down the park road to the end with the restaurant, gift shop (on pylons!), and the lakefront.  Some very interesting signage, too.

I’m sure there’s a story behind this…..

How do you like these vulture chums?  We found ourselves doing the vulture voices from Jungle Book.  “Wha’ you wanna do George?  I dunno.  Wha’ you wanna do?”  I’m not sure what they do to the vehicles unless maybe dead things land there?  They were very attentive though.

The lakefront was inviting and it was a beautiful day in spite of all the water on the roadsides.

We saw some fishermen coming in to the dock and they were throwing in the towel.  Too windy and rough on the water.  You know what they say though – a bad day fishing beats a good day working.

Another trailhead

Checked out another trailhead, but no go unless you have waders like these busy Ibis.

Back to the car we go and on the way I’m mesmerized by the Spanish Moss waving in the trees like heads of hair.

Waving Moss

The best stop in the park was at the birding trail walkway.  Finally – a place not under water.  And there truly was something to see.

Pat watching the Great Blue on the birding walkway

Pat spied the biggest fisherman on the water and he was busy, busy.  Here’s what he caught (the bird, not Pat):

Great Blue Heron and The One that didn’t get away

This guy was so very focused on some fish we saw popping up in the water.  We didn’t see him actually catch it, but watched him work on eating it.  He flung it around and around in his beak squashing it the whole time.  I’d say similar to chewing on it (except he has no teeth) and getting it ready to swallow.  This was a very long process and the fish got less and less floppy, but we lost interest and didn’t see the actual swallow.

Showing off those beautiful chest feathers

This Great Blue was just beautiful and seemed to be showing off the goods since he didn’t have a fish to attract attention.  We were close enough to see the feathers ruffling in the breeze.

Purple Hyacinths

Of course a flower picture to round out the boardwalk views and back in the car we go.  Loved the drive through this park and of course that interior Florida look I’ve talked about.

The pictures don’t do justice to the moss canopy road.  We got out and walked a bit since this part was also dry, and then headed back to Lucy at the RV park.

Living the RV Dream Rally

We weren’t sure what to expect since this was our second rally and the first one did not wow us.  That one involved 750 rigs crammed into a fairgrounds with temporary services.  So temporary that we had unreliable power and couldn’t leave Jackson in the RV and go anywhere.  Ah, but this one was sooo different.

Everything we hoped for and more.  We met some great new RVing friends – fulltimers no less, and also connected with some other folks who want to buddy up for the Alaska journey next year.

The seminars were exactly what we needed.  Learned a thing or two from Geeks on Tour and I hope to really improve my Google mapping skills due to their expert instruction.  TechnoRV was also a great resource and hoping to improve the wi-fi experience as we travel with the booster we purchased.  This is good for the blog, too, since we try to use other people’s data and save our own.  Our self-imposed limit is 4 gigs and you can rip through that pretty quickly.  Especially with my photo uploading penchant.

Roger “Hurricane” Wilson – superb Blues Guitarist!

Friday night’s entertainment was perfect with blues guitarist Hurricane Wilson.  I have two new CDs – one of his entire performance that night.  Great blues and everything from Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby Stills & Nash, RVer’s National Anthen and more.

Finally, us normally unlucky ducks really made out like bandits this past week.  We won $127 at Bingo – me on the hot ball no less!  I didn’t even know what a hot ball was until then so I don’t think we were totally popular with the regulars.  My mother-in-law says we better watch our backs.  But that’s not all.  I won a set of the rally host’s books, Pat won a grill set, AND I won a $100 Walmart gift card.

So two thumbs up on the whole rally experience and we might consider another one sometime.

Delightful DeLand

I mentioned before that we took a quick trip back home to board up for Hurricane Matthew.  We had stalled long enough on the return. Finally took another trip back after the rally ended to open the house back up and mow the lawn.  We’re so stupid.  Thinking we’ll just drive up, and I’ll mow the lawn while Pat whips down those shutters and all the plywood pieces.

We turn the corner into our subdivision and Uh-oh!  Piles and piles of tree debris line the streets.  Just what will we find at our house?  The neighbors had told us via text messages that we had nothing but a few branches and some sticks.  Some sticks – well try millions and some not so small.  Honestly we were quite lucky since we didn’t have a tree down on our house like some.  It did take me all afternoon to clean up to be able to mow, however.

I didn’t take any pictures since the worst of the damage had been cleaned up, but most places still have a pile of debris out front – homes and businesses alike – waiting for the claw truck to come along and take it all away.  Hopefully all gone by the time we return again.

Back to Horseshoe Cove

Honestly this place has really grown on us.  The people are super friendly and we love walks to the private island every morning.  Just goes to show that initial impressions aren’t always correct.

It’s still hot and we wish Summer would go away.  Our consolation prize is the lovely flowers.  Yep, I found another hibiscus to share.  I think this yellow one comes in second only to the bright red one.

Politics

Now that I really have your attention, I’ll share something funny.

Don’t vote for Boo-Berry or Frankenberry!

I truly don’t want to discuss politics at all, what with the crazy election season that is upon us, but saw this in the grocery store and couldn’t resist.  It’s been so long since I had Count Chocula that I bought a box – family size no less – and have just about polished off the whole thing.  Nothing like a good jolt of sugar and marshmallows with your coffee in the morning.

More October Vaca

We have just about 2 weeks left before back to house-selling reality.  Lots more places to see on our list and no less than 3 dinner excursions and one crafting day scheduled already!  I’ll be sure to post all about it.  See you on the way!