Brooksville and Beyond

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We have just over a week left here at Belle Parc Resort. It’s amazing how much of our stuff gets taken out of its storage location when we stay in one spot for nearly 5 months. I’ll need to start putting things away a few days before we are to leave just to get it all taken care of. That doesn’t mean that we won’t get a chance for some more outdoor recreation. Our go to spot is at the Croom WMA and it’s 50 miles of single track mountain biking trails. We are going to miss Croom and it’s wide variety of trails. In the last 9 days in Brooksville we will make it there 5 times. We hadn’t started to ride here until mid December for fear of running into hunters but in those intervening 100 days, I got in a mountain bike ride at Croom 35 times - pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Towards the end we tried a few different sections of trail that we hadn’t tried since last season when we first arrived.

During one of the rides, Chris asked if we could take a detour over to the paved Withlacoochee State Trail and go the mile or so up to where someone has a large number of sheep in a fenced in area right next to the trail. She was hoping that we would find a few lambs since we last stopped here. Turns out her intuition was right. There were likely a total of 20 sheep and several lambs. They were near the fence line and I just assumed they would run off as we stopped and walked over. Instead, they came over as if saying “feed us!”. Unfortunately we hadn’t brought along any food and after they realized that fact, they headed away from us. One of the lambs did stop at the base of a nearby tree and I was able to get a decent photo of it gnawing at an exposed root.

Got Food?

The Whole Herd Arrives

In the Shade of Shelter

Lamb Licks Root

Heading back down the WST to the car, we saw a sign we had never noticed before. It simply had the word River and a dirt trail that went several hundred feet to the edge of the Withlacoochee River. It’s hard to believe that we likely biked past this side trail dozens of times over the past 2 seasons but never noticed it. We didn’t see any gators or boats and just a few fish but it was a pretty spot.

Approaching Withlacoochee River

Quiet on the River

On another ride in Croom, I brought Chris along to the Smith Prairie Trailhead where the Red Trail starts and will lead us to a section of the trail that is nearly solid lupine in bloom. This trail can be a little more sandy than other sections and the two large rain events we had in the past couple of weeks seems to have washed the sand on all the small hills to the bottom making for even more treacherous biking in the deep sand at either the beginning or end of the hills. I had finally mounted my GoPro on the bike to try to get some photos and video of the ride. I’m including a few of the pictures it took during our 7.5 mile ride.

Entering Lupine Area

Short Sandy Section

Heading Up Small Hill

Deeper Sand

I managed to remember where all the different things belong in the rig so that everything fits. We had reserved our spot thru the end of March, but we were leaving 5 days early in order to go to Independence RV in Winter Garden Florida. As a reminder, shortly after we arrived here in November, I discovered that the motor which drives one of our slide outs had a cracked case and was only being held in place by 3 of the 4 mounting bolts. Even though it hadn’t made any unusual noises when I moved the slide out upon arriving here, it didn’t look like it would have many more cycles before it completely broke.

Close-up of Cracked Mounting Ear

We had scheduled a Newmar mobile service tech to replace it in late January but he arrived to tell us that this style of drive mechanism is prone to breaking during a motor swap and if it did break, he would be unable to fix it in the field. He worked with the service team in Winter Garden to get us schedules for a late March appointment even though they were actually scheduling out thru late April at the time. I had bought the motor from him for $769 just to make sure there was one available when we arrived at the service department.

The day before we left, we crossed our fingers that the motor would last for at least one last retraction and I pushed the button. We normally would close slides the morning we are to leave, but if the motor broke, I would need to find 10 strong men to help push our largest slide in and I wanted to have time to locate that many guys in the park that looked like they could actually help push without hurting themselves! Fortunately the slide came in just like normal and had I not noticed the damaged motor housing back in November, I wouldn’t have realized we were on the verge of slide failure.

It’s less than a 60 mile drive from Belle Parc to Independence RV but it would mean leaving awfully early on Monday morning to be there for 8 AM. We knew there was an Elks Lodge within a mile of the RV dealer. They don’t list allowing overnight RV parking, but we called a week in advance and asked if we could dry camp in their parking lot Sunday night. They were fine with that but suggested we don’t show up until about 6:30 PM since the lodge closes at 7 on Sunday nights. We pulled into the small parking lot and there were still 10 cars there. We just barely fit but figured we could reposition after the others had left for the night.

We went into let them know who we were and what our plans were. It turned out one of the members had recently gotten a fifth wheel trailer and was hoping to do some extended traveling in the near future. She had all sort of questions and we were more than willing to help her out. We ended up each having 3 beers in the process and sat at the bar talking until nearly 8:30. It turned out they actually did have a 30 amp electric outlet that is normally inside the small shed next to the parking lot. They pulled the connection out and we were able to move the motorhome up to it and plug in for the night so we wouldn’t need to run our generator.

This place worked out wonderfully for us. The next morning, Chris drove the Jeep to the service center to confirm the gates were open and called when she saw it was all clear for me. I pulled in a few minutes later and the service advisor came out to check me in. We were told that if the motor removal didn’t break the drive mechanism, the replacement would take several hours and we would be out by early afternoon. If things did break, it likely wouldn’t get done in one day and they don’t allow owners to stay in their lot after they close for the day. We were hoping it would go well and we wouldn’t need to find a motel for the evening. Several other rigs pulled in over the next hour or so. I’m glad staying at the Elks Lodge got us in first.

While we were sitting on the nice covered porch area out front, we met the couple that was just behind us during check-in. They were snow birds from Ohio - living only an hour away from where I was born and raised. They were in for slide problems as well. I told them my story of trying to use the Newmar mobile service for our repair but not having luck other than to buy the motor that had been in short supply at the time. An hour later his service advisor came out to tell him the problem he had was with the motor but his slide has 2 of them - at $1140 a piece plus labor to do the work! They hadn’t realized it would be a big job so they hadn’t brought along their car. At lunch time, Chris offered to take the wife to go find lunch for us and a short time later we were all enjoying our meals.

I would occasionally walk past our rig to try to determine how things were going. I was able to see the old motor sitting on the ground so I knew it was removed and the technician was still working on it. I finally caught him when his head wasn’t buried inside our basement storage bay and found out he had succeeded in not breaking the drive mechanism in the process! He asked if I needed the old motor. I could see that the second mounting ear had broken off in the process and there wasn’t any real value in hanging onto a damaged motor. By mid afternoon we were all set and pulling out.

Our Rig in Service Bay

Original Motor Removed

Brand New Slide Motor Installed

Mounting Side of Motor

We had made a couple of reservations for camping as we headed up towards Charleston SC but hadn’t booked a spot for this evening figuring we might be stuck in a  Winter Garden motel room for that night. Our contingency plan if all went well was the Elks Lodge in Eustis FL less than 30 miles away. They have six 30 amp with water sites in a lot next to the lodge. A small travel trailer and larger motorhome were already there when we arrived. It isn’t a very level lot and the other motorhome had its front tire at least 8 inches off the ground - a real no-no in my book. We managed to back into an open spot and use some of our pads to get level. It was a fairly quiet place and it felt good to have our main living room slide working again. The travel trailer next to us seems to have been there for some time but I didn’t get a chance to meet the owners to know the details.

View at Eustis Elks Lodge

Long Term Campers at Elks Lodge

The next day, we only had a 90 mile drive to our reserved campground in Waldo Florida so we were able to be lazy in the morning in order to not get there too early before check-in. We had picked Gainesville RV Park because it was close to another mobile RV service guy. I know, we just had service done, why do we need a mobile service guy? Well this guy has a rather specialized service - pressure washing black and grey holding tanks. Let’s just say he knows his shit! Anybody that has an RV of any kind, knows that the tank sensors on these holding tanks are prone to misreading the tank level. Ours has three sensors which gives us the following readings on the display: empty, 1/3, 2/3, full. Our rig is 10 years old and we have been full time for nearly 6 of those years. I cannot recall the last time we have seen the “empty” reading on our black tank even after dumping and using the tank rinse several times. Our hope is this guy will be able to remedy our problem.

Doug of D & D Tank Cleaning Solutions shows up right on time the next morning. He lives near this RV park so he didn’t have a long commute. He’s been doing holding tank cleaning for the past few years. He has a territory around this part of Florida where he will travel to plus he attends several rallies around the country where there are a large number of rigs to work on. The concept is rather simple. He attaches his sewer hose and dumps the tanks like normal. Then he adds in a clear section of pipe between the rig and the hose that had a hole in the top. He uses a small pressure washer with a rather stiff hose which has a head on the end that sprays out several high pressure streams in various directions. The head also has a small weight on it so the end of the hose doesn’t flop all over the place. Since there is a limited amount of water exiting, the hole in the pipe doesn’t experience any leaking. Initially, the water exiting the tank is quite dirty.

Tank Cleaning Setup

He can control the location of the head by feeding the hose in and out and also twisting it to make it move left or right. He doing this mostly blindly but he can tell by the cleanliness of the exiting water whether he has thoroughly cleaned all parts of the tank. In the process, he switches to a couple different hoses that have different nozzle head designs. At one point, larger flakes of something called struvite start to come out. He stops the process and actually takes a small amount of it out of his connection pipe in a small pan. It appeared to be less than a 1/16 of an inch thick. It is formed more from minerals in the water supply rather than human waste. The minerals form thin sheets on the bottom and sides of the tank. Once this portion was cleaned, the water started to exit perfectly clear. Doug continues until the exiting water looks “clean enough to drink”. I’ll admit the water was perfectly clear coming out but I will pass on the offer to drink it!

Struvite

Next he switches gear to the grey water holding tank. This one is a bit more difficult to start since the pipe out of this tank is half the size of the black tank. Once he gets the pressure nozzle in, it doesn’t take long for the water coming out to also look clean enough to drink. He was there just under two hours and it cost $250 for both tanks to be cleaned. Best of all, the sensors appear to be functioning properly again.

Cleaning Grey Tank

Rain was expected for the following day, so we decided to spend the nice afternoon we were having for a bike ride. The Palatka to Lake Butler State Trail is a planned 47 mile paved trail just to the north and east of Waldo. The key word here is “planned”. The section that hasn’t been completed apparently can be traveled by mountain bike but the conditions sounded terrible. We decided to do a completed section and start at the Twin Lakes Trailhead. There is a large park with tennis courts, soccer fields and a large parking lot. Only a few cars were there when we arrived - probably others out for a bike ride or walk. We make a quick detour for a geocache hidden in the woods next to the park.

We head east out of the parking area to start our ride and stay on what we believe to be completed trail. It is a nice trail with one major drawback. Much of this portion of the route follows along FL-100 which is quite a busy road. Not that trail is a bike lane along the road. Often it is a hundred feet or more from the road and separated by trees, but the noise seems quite persistent. The are some ponds along the way and a few spots where the cattle were out grazing. We stop at a small park in the town of Florahome for another geocache before continuing east. At about the 11 mile mark we decided to turn around and head back. Since the wind had been mainly out of the east we had a slight tailwind to help us back to the car.

Palatka to Lake Butler Trail

Small Pond Along Trail

Water Lilies

Grazing Cattle

Small Stream

The next day did turn out to be a rainy one so it was good we explored when we did. Our next stop would be a one night stay in Georgia on our way north. That would put us at 153 nights in Florida this season. With our plans for Colorado this summer and fall, we will be staying out west next winter so who knows when we will make it back to our home state. We have stayed in the Brunswick Georgia area twice before. Once for a week on Jekyll Island and another time for just a night last year heading north. We would have picked the same campground as last year but we were coming in on a Friday and our Passport America discount doesn’t work there on weekends. So we decided to head to Coastal GA RV Resort. It is a bit higher-end place than we typically stay but works fine for the one night we are here. The place is a bit more hands off than most resorts like this. We got here early afternoon but they just had a self check-in packet for us and nobody in a golf cart to escort us to our site.

Since we got in fairly early and it was a very nice day, we decided to explore the area. During our weeklong stay back in the fall of 2018, we were stuck on Jekyll Island without a car while it was in the shop for service so we really didn’t get a chance to explore the Brunswick area. The first thing that caught our eye was Fort Frederica National Monument on nearby St Simons Island just north of Jekyll Island. It wasn’t clear what was there was to see and do at the fort, but figured it was worth a visit to find out. Fort Frederica is only about a 20 mile drive from camp. There is just one road from the mainland to the southern end of the island. The drive onto the island was fine, but once on the island, we ran into a massive traffic jam. Fortunately it was worse heading the opposite direction but it did slow us down quite a bit.

Entering Fort Frederica NM

There is a nice visitor center that has a large number of indoor displays as well as a video that runs every half hour. The fort and town were built by the British military in the mid 1730’s to early 1740’s. It was one of several forts built to help defend the area from advances by the Spanish, north out of present day Florida. Next to the fort were 84 lots that homes or businesses were built. With this basic info in mind, we head outside to walk around the vast grounds.

Display in Visitor Center

The town had been placed on a grid and with old documentation and some excavation, there are street signs to indicate where the old streets were. Some of the old lots have been studied by archeologists and have had their foundations exposed - often with remnants of a chimney or steps. Each lot that was studied, has an information sign explaining who lived there or what business resided there. Given the age of this community, much of what is presented are the conclusions of the investigation at each site.

Primitive Shelter

Broad Street

Old Home Foundation

Another Foundation

Several “streets” south of Broad Street was a large tent-like canopy covering a hole in the ground. We saw a couple of people working there so we headed over to check it out. The two young women, likely archeology students or recently graduated, we “playing in the dirt”. One of them stopped her activities and came over to explain what was going on and what they had uncovered so far. Apparently the town grounds had been mapped with ground penetrating radar to better identify where there might be old foundations. This particular site was the current spot to be analyzed. She showed us some of the artifacts that had recently been unearthed. The canopy while providing shade for the workers, was actually there to protect the site from rain so it didn’t need to be covered each night. Excavation started on this site in early 2020 but did get disrupted by COVID early on in the work. Interesting but it looks like rather tedious work.

Dig Site

Next we head over towards the Frederica River and the remnants of the old fort. Given the building is well over 250 years old, it is in remarkable condition. It is built of a material called “tabby”. A combination of lime (from burned oyster shells), sand, more oyster shells and water, it forms a masonry building material that is quite durable. We have seen several other tabby remains in Georgia and Florida over our years of travels. The fort was strategically built on a bend in the river that would permit for better defensive posture from water based attacks. A few old cannons are positioned around the perimeter.

Large Tree Near Fort

Fort Frederica

Overlooking Frederica River

Cannon by Fort

One other large building was visible to the north of the fort. This was the remains of the tower portion of the barracks constructed on the grounds. At over 2 stories tall, it too had stood the test of time. Fort Frederica NM was an interesting stop. We likely spent 90 minutes exploring and pretty much saw it all.

Remnants of Barracks

It was still well before dinnertime so we looked to see what else there was to see or do on St Simons Island. We saw there was a highly favorited geocache on the south end of the island at a lighthouse. The traffic jam had subsided by then so the several mile drive wasn’t too bad. Turns out the geocache was inside the lighthouse which has a $12 entrance fee and was closing soon. So the best we could do was explore the outside  grounds.

Lighthouse on St Simons Island

Beautiful Home by Lighthouse

There was a rather large beach area starting near the lighthouse so we decided to do a bit of a walk along the Atlantic. It must have been near low tide and the sand was quite firm, so the walking was easy. We likely only walked half a mile or so up the beach. It wasn’t very crowded although it was getting to be late in the day by then, so we turned back to head home for some food. I’m sure there is lots more to see in the area but be only had an afternoon to explore before we head out.

Nearly Empty Beach

Sidney Lanier Bridge over Brunswick River

Some Beach-Goers

Lighthouse Seen from Beach

Water Runoff Along Beach

Whale Statue at Park

Brooksville Part 11

 Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

We have been at Belle Parc nearly 4 months and have less than a month to go before we head out. I feel like we have accomplished a lot of chores on the rig and visited many great parks and preserves, but there seems to be a large number of things I would like to get done before we pull out. With just a few weeks remaining, there is a good chance it won’t all get accomplished. Such is life.

The bird activity near our site seems to be rather consistent. The osprey definitely have an egg or two in their nest since there is always one adult present – it’s head just barely visible from my viewpoint. Other birds continue to use the fence to perch on while preening their feathers or drying in the sun.

Snowy Egret Scratches

Osprey Patiently Waits for Lunch

Small Gator

Pied-billed Grebe

Gator Again

Damsel Fly Pauses

Egret and Anhinga Atop Fence

We had my sister and brother-in-law over for lunch and to see our new furniture and check out our site next to the pond. While sitting out behind the motorhome, there was a fair amount going on. Not just birds and gators but also the herd of cattle were on the far side of the pond grazing on some land that just a few months earlier was completely submerged. I’ve seen these cows many times but their behavior today was odd. The farmer has two young boys that we frequently see out fishing. I noticed the boys running from the house towards the cattle. At first the cattle started to run towards the kids, but the boys saw the reaction and turned around and ran back. But then for some reason the cattle turned and ran the opposite direction. Even though the water was down 18 inches or more from when we first arrived, it was still pretty deep in the direction they were heading. Not all of them picked a route that was shallow enough to run across and I think a few of them weren’t expecting to need to swim across. It still wasn’t clear why they seemed spooked.

Little Blue Heron on Prowl

Spooked Cattle

Out for a Swim

Fish Surfaces Behind Rig

We had visited Annutteliga Hammock Preserve earlier in our stay but saw there are actually two parcels of land that make up the preserve so we decided to try the other one for a hike and a few geocaches. This second one is a little bit smaller in size and just off of Route 19. The parking lot was empty so we had the place to ourselves. We had a couple different trails listed on our phone apps so we started on one of them that we hoped would get us to the geocaches hidden there. This preserve is much less wooded and more sandy than the other one. We followed our trails and found the caches but when we attempted to follow the trail we expected to loop back around to the car, we ran into problems. We bushwhacked thru some dried up brush attempting to stay on the trail our phone showed but never ran into an actual trail. I suspect this part of the preserve is a low area that gets flooded seasonally so the trail doesn’t get used much (if at all!). We eventually spotted some marked trees on the far side of the field and headed to them. Sure enough it was a real trail but not one that was heading back to the parking lot. By now we had gotten to within a quarter mile of a trail we had already walked on, so we simply bushwhacked some more to intersect it and make it back to the car. This definitely isn’t one of our favorite trails in the area.

Sandy Terrain

Pleasant Section Through Sparse Woods

The following day we headed for a state park we had heard good things about from others in the area. Colt Creek State Park is southeast of Brooksville not far from the town of Dade City. They have both hiking and biking listed as options so we came prepared for either since it isn’t all that close and we likely won’t make it back a second time.

Beautiful Day at Colt Creek State Park

As we entered the park, the ranger at the entrance booth informs us that a portion of the Orange Trail is closed for a prescribed burn. Just our luck since our original investigation of the various trails had us planning on trying this 8 mile loop trail – by bike if possible or as a hike if necessary. We head to a parking area near Mack Lake to come up with plan B. It’s a nice spot. There are several people out on the pier fishing and few others out kayaking on the lake. They appear to have rental boats so that could be something different. There is a half mile nature loop from this area so we head there for a quick walk and a geocache.

Overlooking Mack Lake

After that, we sit down to have an early lunch back near the lake and decide to try some bike riding on an open portion of the Orange Trail which will lead us to the Yellow Loop trail on the south side of the park. After a short ride along the Orange Trail, we see the sign for the closure of the other section of the trail. By now it was early afternoon, yet we were not seeing any signs of smoke or other activity associated with a prescribed burn. We decide to not press our luck by continuing past the closure sign and passed thru the equestrian campground to reach the Yellow trailhead. We picked counterclockwise simply since it was the trail sign we encountered first. It started out along a small canal or possibly Colt Creek since that is the name of the park? It was a pleasant ride in the shade of large trees. We only spotted one gator along the way.

Starting Out in the Yellow Trail

Big Gator Across Water

There were only a few sandy sections but none so bad as to require us to walk them. After about 5.5 miles, we were back to where we had started. Being a Tuesday, the park was rather quiet so we just biked the park road back north. The park’s campground was along this part of the road so we did a quick ride thru it. Looks like a nice campground and fairly new with many sites large enough for a rig our size. A short distance from the campground is the Orange Trail intersection and then headed west into another shaded portion of the park. This eventually looped around a few small ponds. I found it amusing that a sign is required to warn people to not swim with alligators! The Orange Trail continues into the northern portion of the park but we knew there would be a closure sign somewhere along the way and it wasn’t clear if there would be an alternative route out other than backtracking, so we just biked back to the car to call it a day. Even though we weren’t able to do the route we had hoped, we still found Colt Creek State Park a nice place to visit.

Please Don't Swim with Gators!

One of the repairs I needed to make on the motorhome was the central vacuum system. Yes our rig has one, but if you have ever camped before, you know that all sorts of stuff gets tracked into the camper, so having it is quite convenient. Ours has been having problems for nearly a year. It works much of the time but often will only run for a few minutes before shutting off. Waiting a few minutes may get it to work again for a bit but not always. Saying it is a nuisance is an understatement. I would have gone into troubleshooting mode earlier but the vacuum is mounted on the side wall of one of our basement bays right next to our furnace/water heater. Access was very limited, and looked like it would be a real pain to remove. Being stationary for 5 months and having the ability to receive deliveries, Chris convinced me that now was the time to fix the vacuum.

I was right, gaining access to the four mounting screws was nearly impossible. One extra joint between my wrist and elbow would have been helpful. After a lengthy struggle, I got it out without damaging something else in the process. When I set the thing on the picnic table to play with it, I could not get it to fail whatsoever. After an hour, I discovered that I happened to have the thing sitting in a vertical orientation whereas it is mounted in the rig in a horizontal fashion. Surely that wasn’t a factor since it may be mounted in either direction. But as soon as I flipped it to horizontal, it started to act up! I played with it the rest of the day and part of the following day and came to the conclusion that a small relay board inside the unit (which turns the vacuum on/off based on whether the vacuum port door is open or closed) was starting to fail. I found I could get a replacement board for about $80 and I was sure it would fix the problem. I searched a bit more and found the actual relay for $3 online. All I would need to do was unsolder the old relay and install the new one.

Of course, while I was in troubleshooting mode, Chris was doing her own investigation. She discovered that Dirt Devil had a newer model that has the same footprint as ours but is quieter and has more power. I never did get to try my $3 solution but instead ordered the new one for $186. As an aside, we discovered that these are made back near my hometown in Louisville Ohio where I have many relatives living to this day. I wonder if any of them happen to work there and assembled my vacuum? It arrived a few days later and after an even bigger struggle, I got the thing installed and it does live up to the hype – much quieter and it does really suck!

Chris had found a good family run produce stand at a farm near the place I mountain bike at quite frequently. One day after our ride, we stopped by to pick up some vegetables and check out the real reason Chris goes there – goats! I’m not positive where her fascination is with goats comes from but it is quite real. While Chris did some shopping, I wandered around the various pens to check out the other animals that are living at Beasley Farms. The chickens and goats were more accessible than the horses and cows which were way out in one of the large pastures.

Cluck, Cluck

Snoozing Rabbits

When Chris finished with her shopping, we headed over to see the goats and feed them some of the scrap lettuce set out by the farm owners. The goats were definitely happy to see someone coming over with food. There are more than a dozen of them and a few are rather assertive when it comes to feeding. We did our best to distract those mean goats while feeding the less pushy goats.

Approaching Goat Area

Goat Checks Me Out

Resting in the Hay Trough

Chris Makes a Friend

Coming Over for Food

Yum Yum

On one of my solo mountain bike rides at Croom WMA, I rode a trail in a portion of the park I typically don’t ride in. The Red trail is on the south side of Croom Road and starts at the Smith Prairie parking area. It can be turned into a 7.25 mile loop fairly easily. It was nice to ride a trail different than my normal route. At one point I got to a section of the forest that was completely filled with lupines in bloom. They were so prolific and beautiful, I even felt obligated to stop to send a picture to Chris so she could see what she was missing.

Lupine Along Red Trail at Croom

In mid March, we had a storm front move thru and there were lots of watches and warnings. We decided the laundry building 100 feet from our rig would have to be our “safe place” if it came to that. The storm came thru and we didn’t experience a tornado although there were reports of one 30 miles to the north. We didn’t experience any real issues – just some small twigs, leaves and lots of spanish moss littering our site. The following day, I hear what was clearly a large vehicle working just 7 sites up from ours. I stepped out and saw a dozen or so people watching something so I felt obligated to go see for myself. Apparently the storm had snapped a tree on the farmer’s property and it had fallen onto one of the travel trailers. Fortunately, the rig did not suffer a direct hit and seemed to have some cosmetic damage. The motorcycle that was parked next to the trailer had a bit more damage but wasn’t completely destroyed. While I watched the farmer use his huge pay loader to removed some of the remaining tree debris, I was talking to one of the other residents. As we commented about the damage on this site, he asked if I had seen the damage in another part of the resort. I told them I hadn’t so he told me where to look. Later in the day on our way out, we drove past the site. It turned out this one was just 4 sites from where we were last season. This guy’s F150 pickup truck apparently was no match for the two foot diameter tree!

Mushed F150 and Remaining Stump

Here are a few more random photos from early March, all taken from our site. One day I happened to be sitting behind the rig and the small gator was resting in the shallow water. Several birds came by and got a bit closer than I felt would be safe. I was ready with the camera in case the gator went for one of them. The ibis got the closest but the gator ignored it.

Large Gator

Seven Turtles Lined Up

Small Gator

Three Cormorants

Ibis with Gator Just Beyond