Author Archives: Jill and Bud

This is a very different state park from any we’ve been in. It has 496 campsites all with electric, water, and sewer. It has 8 tent sites.

You can stay here for the season (if you apply the November of the previous year and are lucky enough to get a spot). Some sites are short term only. Our neighbors wanted to stay 6 weeks and ended up with three different campsites, each for two weeks. I waited until October 26 to reserve a site and could only get two nights.

With so many campsites it does somewhat resemble a village.

However, it has 6,000 acres and over 28 miles of trails. It also has two miles of beach, right on the Gulf of Mexico, two restaurants, a lodge, cabins, nature center, pickle ball courts and more. No wonder it’s so popular.

I prefer the foot trails,

but most of the trails are gravel, paved,

or wide boardwalks suitable for biking. Biking is very popular here, there even seems to be a bike club! I’ve seen several signs in front of campers that say “Folks on Spokes, Gulf Shores, Alabama”. It would be a nice place to spend some time, but we’ll enjoy our two nights.

Yesterday we moved west to Big Lagoon State Park tucked in on the north shore of the Intracoastal Waterway just southwest of Pensacola. We have a nice spot with internet and TV. This was a substitute for Falling Waters State Park where I had a reservation. They are rebuilding a road and closed the campground.

I was glad to find another state park and happy to find a nice, though sandy, trail.

Of course Matey and I went exploring. We followed this boardwalk…

and found the sandy trail and Long Pond.

We did not find Big Lagoon because the boardwalk was blocked on the south shore of Long Pond. The entire southern half of the park is still closed due to damage from Hurricane Sally, a category 2 storm that made landfall a few miles west of here in September of 2020. We are only staying two nights so we have enough to explore, but it’s too bad the rest of the park is still closed.

After staying five nights at the Buffer Preserve, we moved the trailer about 10 miles to Aqua Bay RV Park in Highland View, which is on the northwest edge of Port St Joe.

We’ve been here for a week. Matey likes the little beach just across Route 98, two blocks from the camper.

I’ve enjoyed revisiting my old haunts, like this park just bayside of downtown. That’s the lighthouse that was moved from Cape San Blas, along with two keepers houses.

It’s nice to see the marina finally rebuilt after Hurricane Michael (October 10, 2018). They seem to be just finishing the docks, now.

Bud has golfed twice with the old group, I went to a garden club meeting, saw my old pals from Master Gardeners, and we had some of our old neighbors over. It’s been fun. Today I walked the walking trail behind our old house. It’s the grey one you can see past the trees.

It was a cold and blustery day,

but Matey and I enjoyed walking the familiar, but still lovely trail.

We visited our favorite beaches; the beach at Salinas Park,

the Stump Hole (which used to be where the lighthouse sat until it eroded away),

and Windmark Beach.

I stopped to say goodbye to Zana, at Bow Wow Beach, our old pet supply store. She told me that despite what Matey’s trainer told me, dogs, especially small dogs, shouldn’t really have leashes attached to collars because even gentle tugs can eventually scar their tracheas. I was dismayed and said I would go and search out Matey’s old halter, but instead she decided to give Matey a gift and we walked out with Matey wearing this lovely blue halter.

I don’t want to live in a house, and I don’t want to live in Florida anymore; but if I did, I would have to come back to Port St Joe.

Back when we lived in Port St Joe I was working on setting up an Herbarium at the St Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve. I did this as a project with the Master Gardeners of Gulf County. When I told Dylan, the manager, that we were leaving he told me if we ever came back by we should let him know, as they had an extra site for volunteers and we were welcome to use it.

Well, we’re back at Port St Joe. And Dylan still had the extra space.

So we are here in the third volunteer space.

The Buffer Preserve Center is a nice building. It used to be a hunting lodge for the private hunting preserve owned by the St Joe Company. It was given to the state as part of a deal where the state moved highway 98 inland so the St Joe Company could build Windmark Beach Development between the highway and the beach. The company also built public beach accesses at either end of that property and turned the old road into a walking/bike path. The land in the Buffer Preserve is being managed by the state to restore the native habitat and help protect the water in St Joseph Bay.

It is certainly a nice place for us to be. This is our back yard.

And this is the view from the window over our sink. The window blind is blocking the edge of the bay,

but the bay is right there.

Our last stop before a stay at Port St Joe is Ochlockonee (o-KLOK-nee) River State Park. We had stopped in here before on our way home to Port St Joe from Tallahassee when we had a Florida Parks pass and I didn’t expect much except a place to spend the night.

I was pleasantly surprised. It is lovely and very peaceful here. When I walked Matey in the morning it was so quiet that the sound of a little bird’s wings was startling.

There are several trails here and they are very well groomed.

As a bonus, they have white squirrels. These are not albinos (notice the dark eye) but a genetic variant that live in this area.

They also have one white deer. She really stands out. There are three deer in this photo, but you only notice her.

We saw her in the distance while driving on the “scenic drive”. We stopped in the road and she obliged by crossing not far in front of us. She’s obviously used to cars and people.

It would be restful to stay here longer, but today it’s on to Port St Joe.

The problem with Florida is that it’s just too nice.

It has moderate temperatures, plenty of sunshine and lots of rain.

Things just grow here. They grow fast…

and they grow huge,

really huge.

There are lots of plants, lots of blue sky, beautiful water,

and wildlife.

Whether you stay here in a camper

an old single wide trailer or a fancy house you are surrounded by beauty.

You are never far from beauty…

that seems almost magical.

So lots of people want to live here.

And it’s pretty easy to transform a huge scraped field of sand…

into an inviting neighborhood.

So now there are miles and miles of suburbs whose traffic requires six and eight lane streets.

Until the roads are widened you get traffic jams, in what looks like the middle of the country.

Florida would be wonderful if only the rest of you didn’t think so too.

I’m just not used to this kind of traveling. Usually I explore new places with Matey and stop and snap photos along the way…when I think of it. But Monday we went to meet an old friend from our boating days at a restaurant. She surprised us by bringing along two other couples from our old yacht club, Tuscarora Yacht Club on the Wilson harbor on the south shore of Lake Ontario.

It was great to see all of them. Sharon, Bob and Donna, and Marcia and her Bob, Bud and I all had a great time eating, reminiscing and catching up. Two hours later we had all gotten up and gone to our cars when it occurred to me, I hadn’t taken a single picture!

Then we drove to Rick and Tracey’s new house which is mid-renovation after flooding rains from Hurricane Ian, which had ripped off the shingles. It’s a lovely house. We visited briefly on their back patio, by the pool, in the screen house, which are all now intact and gorgeous.

We jumped in Rick’s Jeep and drove five minutes to Save Cove where Jim and Margaret were arranging for the repairs to their 44 foot Morgan live-aboard sailboat. These folks had never met, but had heard much about each other and were now practically neighbors, at least until the boat gets fixed and/or sold.

Margaret and Jim with their boat, Well, Why Not?, and in this view the boat looks scuffed up but sound.

And it would be except for the jack stand base it fell on that is now sticking out of the hull.

Yep, it goes all the way through! You will notice I did get pictures of the boat.

By the time the 6 of us old sailors got done talking (not done, really, never done) it was getting to be evening and Bud and I hurried off without even stopping back at Rick’s place, so no pictures of that!

Yesterday we met another couple, friends from TYC, for lunch. We were so happy to see Pat and Gay and to know that they had sold their house on Matlacha long before the hurricane. Matlacha was pretty much destroyed. Pictures of the wrecked homes even made it on the Weather Channel so you know it was bad.

Another great reunion and fun lunch and as soon as we got in the truck and were driving out it hit me, no pictures!

I’ll try to do better, I promise.

We’ve made it as far south as we’re going in Florida; we’re at Sunshine RV Resort in Lake Placid. Our intention was to go down to the Port Charlotte area, but after Hurricane Ian any campgrounds still operating are full of displaced residents or the workers in town to rebuild.

This place isn’t terribly picturesque, but it’s quiet and friendly and as close as we could get to some friends.

Saturday Rick and Trace came. They are living in an expensive little place while they oversee the restoration of their house. They only got one season to enjoy their Florida house before Ian ripped off the shingles and drenched the interior. But they are soldiering on with determination and good humor, which is standard operating procedure for them. It was great to see them again.

Today Jim and Margaret came to visit. They are in Florida just for a week to see to the repair of their sailboat. It was in a boatyard all tidied up and listed for sale when Ian dumped it on its side and generally wrecked havoc with it. Since our visits coincided they made the drive over to see our new house on wheels.

Margaret wanted a picture of Bud and me next to our travel map. She shared it with me, so I will share it, too.

Rick and Trace were some of the first friends we made sailing at Tuscarora Yacht Club on Lake Ontario. Jim and Margaret were about the last friends we made sailing; we were at a marina in Palmetto, Florida, just before we sold our boat. None of us are still sailing, but they are still our friends. Boating friends are the best!

We are now well down the center of the Florida peninsula at this small state park. Typical of Florida State Parks, the camp sites are close together, but there are nice trees. And we need the shade as it’s in the 80’s!

Hammock is a Florida Cracker term for a shady place, and I have walked trails that are very jungly.

My favorite has been the Big Oak Trail, even though only the trunk is left of the old oak that was here.

We also walked an uplands trail with the typical Florida plant community of pine, wire grass and saw palmettos.

These areas support a lot of species, including flowers in January…

and gopher tortoises, like this one we met. Third one I’ve seen this trip, a record!

I had sent my Uncle Al a copy of our itinerary, which he never got. So I called him to get a new email address and resent it. He commented that he’d like to get together, perhaps with my brother also. Two days before we left our last campground I sent another email to him and to my brother saying where we were and when we would be moving on to be near my brother and asking that they make a plan and let us know when they would like us to meet. Uncle Al got that email and called me.

Turns out we were only seven miles from him where we were at Lake Griffin State Park. So the last day we were there we met Uncle Al and Aunt Fran, went out for lunch then back to their place for an afternoon of Euchre. Al and Bud won three games in a row, but Fran and I won the last one, so she says we won overall. Sounds right to me. In any case we had a wonderful day and I forgot to take any pictures, so hence this description with no illustrations.

For the first two days with my brother I also forgot to take pictures, but Jim took some and sent them to me.

On our first day together we took a hike in Hammock Park near our campground in Palm Harbor. This is Bud, me, Matey and Goody on the hike.

Then they called their son, Gerry, to see if we could meet him where he works. He had left but went back and met us. He works with a crew that contracts to keep weeds out of the docks around Lake Tarpon. Here we are inspecting the boats they use.

Bud and Jim climbed aboard for a ride.

The boats are propelled by side paddle wheels driven by diesel engines.

The front end has blades and then a conveyor ramp to bring the cut weeds aboard.

Gerry told us they do over 150 homes every month to keep their lake fronts and docks weed free. He loves it.

We then all went back to Jim and Goody’s for dinner.

I finally remembered to take a picture the next night when we had them all over for dinner at the camper, so this is the only picture with Jim in it. That’s Gerry and Jim on the coach, Goody and Bud in the chairs. Matey was ignoring me.

We spent today with Jim and Goody playing disc golf and going out to lunch. It was hard to say goodbye, but made easier because they are planning to stop out and see us when we come back up this coast and stop at Hillsborough State Park.