Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 24

Fort Lauderdale KOA

Davie, Florida

Friday February 23, 2024

Fort Lauderdale sunset.

Marc-   Not much to report today as this was a travel day.  We headed South on highway 27 through miles and miles of sugar cane fields.  The sugar capital here is Clewiston (also known as "Sugarland").  It is sugar central for US Sugar Corporation.  Sugar cane is planted on about 440,000 acres South of Lake Okeechobee.  US Sugar is primarily owned by its employees.  

We stopped at a rest area boat launching ramp along the Okeechobee Waterway Rim Canal at the Army Corps of Engineers Clewiston navigation Lock.  Every single boat in sight, those at the launching ramps and those passing in the canal or through the Lock, were bass fishing boats.  This is clearly bass country in addition to sugar country.

Okeechobee Rim Canal

Several Ibis having lunch as we ate our lunch on the Herbert Hoover Dike

 that surrounds Lake Okeechobee.

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 23

 Highlands Hammock State Park

Sebring, Florida

February 22, 2024

Marc-  Today we headed East to Vero Beach to visit my cousins who live there and to enjoy a really nice area.  In order to get to the Coast you need to cross the prairie that exists in the center of this part of Florida.  The majority of the area we crossed consisted of cattle ranches and very flat open land. Early on we encountered a re-enactment of horses and wagons on the highway participating in the Florida Cracker Association's annual Cross-state ride.  Their goal is to keep the old Florida Cracker pioneer ways alive.

Crackers are early Florida farmers and cattle ranchers.

Our first stop in Vero Beach was the City Marina to see if it had changed since our visit last year (and we stayed there on the Lucy III in 2020 - it's a beautiful marina in a beautiful town) and to obtain information on any used boat part dealers.  There has been talk of the City rebuilding the marina for many years now.  Nothing has changed.  Next we had lunch at Squid Lips restaurant in the neighboring town of Sebastian. The restaurant is located at the end of a long pier that extends out into the Indian River (part of the Intracoastal Waterway).  The food and the view were excellent.  We watched young dolphins and pelicans fishing while we ate.

One of four dolphins.

Pelicans

My cousin Armand and his daughter Michelle at Squid Lips Restaurant.

Vero Beach Mooring Field.

This tugboat looks a lot like our friends Will and Kathleen's "Rosie".

White Ibis at Vero Beach Marina.

Reddish Egret at Vero Beach Marina

Muti-colored lizard near dinghy dock.

Gray Squirrel back at the Campground.

Bear display at Campground (St. Patrick's Day is coming).

Sue's quilt blocks (night work).

Sue- Today's quilt shop visit was in Sebastian at Sweet Time Quilting.  The store is in what was a bank.  The drive throughs for the ATM machines are still there.  The two ladies working there were so nice.  They showed us a few things their $14,000 long arm machine could do.  They called it a toy, and they clearly enjoyed using it.  There were a number of quilts hanging up, some of them with extensive embroidering, and there were so many beautiful fabrics.  They get an A to A+.

The sailboat blocks above are hopefully going to make a queen sized quilt for the boat.  The pattern is for a lap quilt, so we need to do some math to figure out to make it queen sized.  

The tablerunner in patriotic colors that we're making and we showed in the blog last week is not done because we need more fabric for the border and back.

I don't remember how the ladies said they made this!

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 22

Highlands Hammock State Park

Sebring, Florida

February 21, 2024

Reflections from a Cypress Swamp.

Marc-  We seem to have spent half of the day doing laundry and moving from one campsite to another.  After lunch we spent some time on the trails and saw some wildlife:  two river otters playing in the road, a hawk perched in a tree who suddenly dove down to capture a fish, a great blue heron and one barred owl up a tree outside of the Ranger's Station.  

A stream slowly flowing through the swamp.

A great Blue Heron.

Hawk

Barred Owl

River Otter

Moon arriving over our campground.

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 21

Highlands Hammock State Park

Sebring, Florida

February 20, 2024

Christmas berries.

Marc- We started the day off with a hike on a Park bike trail. I asked a Park employee if this was allowed and he said yes but that we would need to watch out for bears.  Sue and I felt we could handle this with our nordic walking sticks (similar to cross country ski poles but geared for dirt).  The only animal we saw on this trail was a Great Egret that flew off as we approached.  We proceeded to crisscross the Park on various trails with such names as Sweetgum trail, Cypress Swamp Trail and Ancient Hammock Trail.  The vegetation here is awesome.

Great Egret

Barred Owl

We have yet to be able to photograph an owl although there is is an Owl family in the campground. The above is a mural in nearby Lake Placid, aka "City of Murals."  I spoke to a Park Ranger about these owls.  He indicated that they prefer oak forests, cypress forests, hardwood hammocks and swamps.  Their nest dream home is in cavities (holes) in trees.  The Ranger explained that he was building an Owl nest from an oak log.  The log is hollowed out at one area near what will be the top.  The hole must be well drained and mesh set at its bottom.  Twigs and straw are then placed on top of the mesh.  He added that the nest must look natural.

Sue and I found found this tree that might work well as an owl nest.

The forests here has not changed much since the days of the Mastadon.  The Egrets are still here.

(Another mural from Lake Placid)

Not all murals are historically accurate.  This mural  shows a studious dragon and an inquisitive butterfly near the public library.

Mural near the city park.

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One of my missions on this trip south is to find a used anchor windlass for our new boat.  I will stop at Sailorman in Ft. Lauderdale (our next camping stop).  If anyone knows of other Florida locations for salvaged anchor windlasses please let me know. 

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 20

 Highlands Hammock State Park

Sebring, Florida

February 19, 2024

Wood Stock in cypress swamp Highlands Hammock.

Marc- A hammock is a closed canopy forest.  It consists of large trees whose leaves filter out much of the light, making the inside of the forest dark, shady and cool.  In Highlands Hammock there are many hardwood species such as Oak, Elm, Hickory, Red maple, Sweet gum, Sugar hackberry and Bald Cypress.  The Sabal palm and many ferns are also abundant.  We saw and heard fewer birds than we saw last year during our visit here.  Of note today were the Barred Owl,  Yellow Rumped Warbler, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Blue Vireo and Pileated Woodpeckers.

Giant oak tree with Sue for size.

The same giant oak tree reaching high up in the forest.

Cypress

More Cypress

The Catwalk Trail (partially closed for repairs).

Pileated Woodpecker

We also visited the CCC Museum here in the Park.  In fact it was the CCC that built the Florida State Parks.  This means a lot to me since my father and his older brother were in the CCC during the Great Depression and spoke well of the experience.  Although they were not in Florida their experience was similar.

The CCC recruits did everything from planting trees to building structures, roads, bridges and trails that have lasted to this day.

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 19

Highlands Hammock State Park

Sebring, Florida

February 18, 2024

Crossing the state line (again).

Marc- Today was a rather difficult travel day in the rain lasting 6-1/2 hours.  Nothing really to write about except that it was still raining when we set up camp and found that our power cord was 12 feet short.  Luckily the Park Store had an extension cord.

Southern Camping Trip 2024 / Day 18

St. Marys KOA Campground

St. Marys, Georgia

February 17, 2024 

Beach Quilt using the paper piecing method

Marc-  Our last day at St. Marys Campground.  We started the day off with breakfast at Steffen's Diner, an A+ establishment with great food and good prices.  It was a rainy day so we spent time visiting a hardware store (for new camper keys to replace a broken key) and another Quilt shop to find more  fabric.  We ended the day with a return trip to Fernandina Beach to see a Musical called Billy Elliot.  Set in the 1980's England during the coal strikes and how Maggie Thatcher solved the problem by nationalizing the mines and forcing the miners to return to work.  Billy Elliot is a coal miner's son who is taking boxing lessons in a studio that doubles as a ballet studio at night.  Billy stumbles into the studio one evening to return the keys and is taken by dancing.  He is a dance prodigy and is pushed by the dance instructor to apply to the Britain's Royal Ballet School.  After much push back from his coal miner Dad, Billy is in the end encouraged to try out.  The actors were terrific during the two hour show and we were able to meet all of them afterward.

We did breakfast.

Quilt shop discovery and a plan.

Marc laying out the fabric for this herringbone pattern for a table runner because I (Sue) could not figure it out.

Partially completed table runner.

Sue at work.

Small cruise ship at Fernandina Beach Marina.

Sue makes a friend.

Fernandina Beach Post Office

For those of you who have owned a Volkswagen (Note the license plate).

The Musical.

Meanwhile back at the camper.  A special Wordle word.  (Remember that the quilter's "stash" is a near sacred thing.)

Sue - We went to one more quilt store in Kingsland, GA (town next to St. Mary's).  Beyond Fabric.  This place, like so many I've seen, was nothing to look at from the outside, but pretty nice inside.  They had beautiful fabrics (I even saw swimmers on fabric, and some cat fabric called out to me but I pulled myself away from it), they had a "ribbon room," they also had a room full of upholstery fabric and sunbrella.  There was a very nice woman, Joyce, running the place today.  I bought 2 jelly rolls, and got a one time 20% off deal for my birthday which is not even this month.  You can use your birthday deal any time in a calendar year.  They had a few quilts hanging on the walls.  I told Joyce when I walked in there that I "didn't need anything," but just wanted to look.  2 jelly rolls later, I left.  Beyond Fabrics gets an A.  I will go back next year assuming we are in the area.