Second Largest Lake in the US

This afternoon we decided to take a drive to explore the second largest lake in the United States - Lake Okeechobee. At our first stop there was a pier that went out over the water. Before we even took a step on to the pier we could see a very large alligator sunning itself in the lake.



This really was a pretty spot. This certainly is a large lake as we couldn't begin to see any sign that there was another side to this lake. It might as well have been the ocean!




And a very cute Little Blue Heron that walked around chasing...and catching...many little fish. He was so cute to watch.



Just along the water line were a bunch of Common Moorhen. These really are very pretty birds but unfortunately they just aren't showing up well on the web for some reason. Their beaks are a brilliant red with a bit of yellow on the tip.



We also got to watch a Caspian Tern dive into the water and catch a fish. There must have been a lot of fish around this part of the lake as all the birds seem to be finding plenty to eat.





After leaving there we drove a short ways where we saw a place we could pull over and have a pretty view of the water.




Mike saw a place where the grass was all flattened down that led to the water. It turned out to be where the air boats go out into the water. On either side of the smashed down grass was the grass that hadn't been flattened. It was probably 10 - 12 feet tall. Here Mike is examining this interesting grass.



Mike thought this would be a fine place for us to be able to walk down to the water. All I could think was that this looked like the perfect place for alligators to be. Needless to say, we kept the dogs on leash!

It was very funny because I was so nervous about walking there. Instead of taking many pictures I was very busy keeping my eyes open for alligators. It didn't help when Sparkie would stop and stare into the grass - I was sure she was seeing an alligator. We could tell that Wazzu knew I was very concerned. As we were walking along my foot snapped a stick. Wazzu spun around and jumped about three feet off the ground. She is more in tune with my feelings than I am a lot of the time.

We finally made our way down to the water. We were very surprised the dogs could walk without limping as the shore was completely, and I truly mean completely, covered with shells.



Even though I was keeping a very close eye out for alligators I did manage to glance up once or twice and the scenery really was very pretty.



Just behind where we parked the car was a small very shallow pond. Here we saw a Glossy Ibis. They have an extremely long beak that is a little crooked.



We decided this really wasn't the safest of places to be walking so we drove to the formal trail they have built up on a dike that goes 110 miles all the way around the lake. It is a very nice paved trail and is open to foot traffic and cyclists. As you can probably guess, we didn't do all 110 miles! We actually didn't walk real far as the dogs were pretty hot.

But it was a beautiful walk. Off to one side was the lake while off to the other side was a very pretty canal. Pictured here is the lake side.



The canal side was much closer and was very interesting. All along the opposite of the canal were RV parks. They were all extremely pretty parks. Many of the RV sites had little docks out over the canal for fishing. There must be a lot of fish in there as there were a variety of birds along the canal. And they were numerous.

Here are some Wood Storks. Previously we had only seen these at a nature preserve.



Right along the side of the trail we saw a Cattle Egret who didn't seemed worried about us at all.




We also saw numerous pelicans but I figure you've seen enough pelican pictures! In the bushes on the lake side we saw a couple birds that looked like they were sunning themselves and drying off. We thought they were pelicans. But when we got home and looked at the pictures it was very clear they weren't pelicans. But we have no idea what kind of birds they really are.



The grass on either side of the trail was filled with stickers. After a couple trips into the grass the dogs decided the trail was the place to be. So when Sparkie heard/saw something she did a beautiful "point."



Just before we got back to the car, all three dogs thought there was something interesting in the bushes. This shot was just too good to pass up.



As you might expect - that's the end!

Debbie
2/8/07

It's About Space

I (Mike) took a break today from being a full time dog walker and went to visit the Kennedy Space Center, about 60 miles north of where we are staying now. They have built some very nice and interesting visitor centers since I was there as a kid in the 1960's, but because of 9/11 security you can't get very close to actual working areas any more.

Rocket Garden at the main Visitor Center

The smallest rocket, right in the middle to the picture above, is the kind used for the early Mercury flights. It seemed pretty small even compared to the rockets for the telecommunication satellites, and the Mercury capsule is not much bigger or more sophisticated than a big garbage can. Those first astronauts were either very brave or not too bright.

Apollo era space suit

Launch pad 39 used for Apollo and Space Shuttle launches

The tour went by the two launch pads, 39A and B, originally built for the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo program and now used for shuttle launches. The water tower in the picture is used to spray 30,000 gallons of water on the pad during launches, to reduce heat damage to the pad and dampen the noise. Still, they said anyone within a mile of a launch would be killed by the intense sound. They use sirens, firecrackers and helicopters to chase birds away from the site before launches. Good thing, because there are a lot of birds in the area. The north part of the federal land is an actual National Wildlife Refuge, and the working parts of the center have a lot of undisturbed habitat and lots of wildlife, including an estimated 5,000 alligators. The guide said the gators are considered unpaid security staff. We saw quite a variety of raptors and wading birds just from the bus on the tour, plus many big black vultures, which seem to be the Florida equivalent of crows.

Shuttle Explorer, now on display

Mike 2/06/2006

In Search of a Beach

This morning Mike took the dogs on a hike nearby. Each time we get to a new place, Mike and the dogs go scout out the nearby hikes to see if there is one suitable for me. According to Mike, the hikes that are close wouldn't be so good for me.

So after he takes the guys on an hour or two morning hike they then come back and get me and we go out sightseeing. I must say that a lot of Florida is just not friendly towards dogs. We have had so much trouble finding any beaches were dogs are allowed. So the first couple days our trips were strictly driving as everyplace had large signs saying NO DOGS.

Today, we ended up going to a Savannas Preserve State Park - not on the beach - a couple hours south of Vero Beach. There were a lot of signs saying to watch out for alligators. But, now that we've been around here a bit, we know that alligators don't really come out in the cold weather. And believe me, it is cold - and windy. As we started our walk we started wondering whether another tornado may have been forecasted. Since we don't get local TV we really have no idea what may be going on weather wise. We then had a discussion about getting a weather alert device that they now make that will warn us when there are dangerous conditions. Needless to say, we were the only ones there.

Anyway, this was an unusual place. This time of year anyway it was very uninteresting. There were numerous ponds around. It was very easy to see that they were MUCH lower than normal.



The lily pads reminded me of the ones I would see on the lake we lived on while I was growing up.



The scenery wasn't all the pretty and there was no wildlife at all - at least that us humans could see. The dogs on the other hand thought this was the most fascinating place we have been on our travels. HUH?! It's very obvious we live in different worlds!

We don't know what they were smelling but Sparkie was running around at breakneck speed and hoping like a kangaroo. Wazzu was pouncing and rummaging through the brush non-stop. And little Slugger, instead of walking along nicely like usual, was pulling Mike the entire time - and most often pulling him into the brush.

These aren't the best pictures but I thought they would show a little bit of how Sparkie went non-stop for close to two hours. There was so much going on she couldn't decide which way to look.



She did hundreds of kangaroo hops - I wasn't fast enough to get her going up!



Full speed ahead.



Ears going every which way.



More ears!!



Notice the grass she was running through. Interestingly enough, on the other side of the pathway the terrain had been in a severe fire. I wonder now if the path we were walking on was the fire line they made to stop the spread of fire.



The dogs didn't really go to that side much at all. Not so many interesting smells there I guess.

As we got closer to the end of the walk we came across all this stuff that looked just like fishermen's nets. And it acted exactly like nets too as everything got caught in it and all tangled up - including the dogs! They got all tangled and couldn't get out. Mike had to help them. Slugger had marks all over him when Mike finally got him out. In actuality it was some kind of vine that had definitely taken over.



I did find some pretty grass in front of one of the ponds.



On our way home we stopped at a few beaches on the off chance that the dogs would be allowed - but no such luck. You'd think especially on a day like this where we were the only ones outside that it wouldn't hurt to let the dogs walk on the beach somewhere!!

Still looking for a beach.......

Debbie
2/5/07

Moving Day

Nothing real exciting to report today as we just drove to our next destination - in the rain!

However, we did find an unexpected surprise when we arrived at the RV park in Vero Beach, Florida. The park holds 300 RV's - 298 of those spots were filled when we arrived. Good thing we had reservations!

Unfortunately, the spot they have for us is right next to the freeway. You know how when you stand next to a busy, high speed road waiting for the light to turn so you can cross and cars go by and you feel the "woosh of wind" as they pass? Well, that's what it feels like INSIDE the RV. It feels like the whole RV gets nudged as the semis and other cars go by. And, especially in the bedroom, it sounds as though they are driving right through the RV. Sure hope we can get some sleep this week.

While we weren't expecting that, that wasn't the surprise I mentioned. When we checked in they gave us two little bags of treats for the dogs. How nice is that. But even better is that they have a TWO ACRE fenced off leash dog area. This is a first for us at an RV park.

The dogs absolutely love it. Needless to say, we only let our three loose when there aren't any other dogs in there. Oh, our dogs get along well with other dogs well enough. But our three have a special game they play. Other dogs don't understand the game at all. And our dogs don't like other dogs trying to join in the game. So we only play there when other dogs aren't around. It is a busy area, so often when we get there we have to just continue on by.

For those of you that haven't seen the game, it's called "Smash Puppy." The name dates back to when Slugger was just a puppy. The game hasn't changed since then except it has gotten even more rough as time has gone by. Oddly enough, Slugger thinks it's a fun game.....for a while. Then he comes running to one of us for protection.

Time to go see if the park is empty for another round of Smash Puppy!

Debbie
2/3/07

Safe From The Storm

Last night was quite the night. I think it must have rained six inches throughout the night. I'm so glad that none of our dogs are afraid of thunder as we had lots of it.

Since you are reading this post you now know that we are safe - and not one of the at least 19 dead. A couple tornados touched down last night doing massive damage. And it really wasn't all that far from us - only about half an hour away. Just yesterday on our driving trip we were exactly where one of the tornados hit. We have been so lucky. On our trip this year, four tornados have touched down within 30 miles of where we have been camped. We had some wet and rough times being so close but have been safe each time. We're sure hoping our luck holds out.

This morning when we got up it was calm out - but very wet! It was supposed to be warm today so we decided to take a nice hike since a cold front is supposed to come through starting tomorrow with highs only in the 40's for a week or so.

We went to the Florida Scenic Trail in the Ocala National Forest. It was pretty as we started out on a lake and came to three very large ponds on the way. I wonderful what defines a lake versus a pond? Well, the dogs don't seem to care as long as it's water.



The ponds looked like nice places for alligators but I just couldn't believe there would be any there since we had to hike a long ways to get to the ponds. So we decided it would be safe to let the dogs go in the water.

The Pointer in Sparkie came out and she had quite the time running around the edges of the pond flushing out birds.



Wazzu was sure something had gone in to the water as she arrived. (We're guessing it may have been a frog.) So she spent most of the time hunting for whatever it was.



She was quite thorough checking both the water and the grassy areas. I guess at one point she thought she might have found it under the water.



The dogs didn't want to leave but we finally convinced them it was time to move on. Shortly after we got back on the trail Wazzu took off - fairly unusual for her. She came back a short time later all excited and acted as though she wanted me to follow her. So I went on ahead with her and she led me right to this very large Florida Red Belly turtle. She was so proud of her find.



Sparkie's first reaction was to try to pick it up - which of course she couldn't do because it was so large. And Slugger, as usual, was afraid of it.



And I guess he wasn't real thrilled about having his picture taken as you can see here.



Along the trail in quite a number of spots was what the call Deer Moss. It was very interesting stuff. It looked like little sponges - kind of like what you would use in a fancy spa.



After the long warm hike we let the dogs stop at the lake to do some swimming since that is Slugger's favorite activity - and his only opportunity to be off leash.



He was especially excited to swim today. I think the combination of it being warm and the water temperature was warm too so that made for perfect swimming. Wazzu, on the other hand, much prefers wading. I only included this picture so you could see how clear the water was.



Sparkie had gone in for one stick chase and immediately decided she was too cold. So she sat back up in the forest looking so pitiful.



That was our clue that it was time to leave.

As you could probably tell from my post a day or two ago, I'm really not much into museums. So after dropping us off at home, Mike went out to do the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum tour.



He found it very interesting and he really learned a lot of new things about lighthouses. Each lighthouse has it's own striping that is a little different from the next. That way during the day a ship can tell just by looking at the lighthouse what place he is at. During the night they can tell by the different light rhythms. Another thing he learned is that they have a LOT of steps - 220 to be exact!



But he found the view on the way up to be very pretty....



And the view looking down to a bit scary!



He did catch the sun coming through the clouds while he was up there.



I wonder if he slid down the banister on the way down. Knowing Mike, probably not.

From there Mike went to explore a little more of St. Augustine. Mostly he found hundreds more little stores with various interesting items. Along the way he did come across a few pretty spots.

This is a picture of the gardens at the nations oldest house. You had to pay to go in so Mike just snapped this picture from the sidewalk.



And this is in front of the nations oldest military barracks.



Since St. Augustine is right on the water there were many seafood restaurants. We figured better to eat seafood here than in the middle of the country where there isn't an ocean. So we found a place that was absolutely packed. We figured that was a good sign of good food. We stopped and placed a To Go order and while it was being prepared we took a walk along the beach with the dogs.

It was actually busier there at night than it had been during the day. It's really hard to take a picture at night but I tried. You can't see it from the picture but the moon was a really bright orange.




After getting our food we went back to the RV. It was dark out and I reached up to open the door and got a handful of something. It startled me! Turns out it was a frog. I guess it has been so wet that the frog decided that sitting inside our door handle was a good spot. I think I could have found a better spot! Once I got over being startled, he really was a very cute but fairly large frog.

We now know why the restaraunt was crowded. The food was fabulous. If you ever get to St. Augustine be sure to go to the Sunset Grill for dinner. You'll be glad you did!

Debbie
2/2/07

Beach Day

Today we took a driving tour along the coast. We stopped to take a walk on a beach that allowed dogs.

As soon as we got down to the beach the dogs wanted to chase a ball. But we had forgotten to bring one - silly us! Since there are no trees anywhere near the beach there were no sticks to play with either.

The only thing we could find were little shells - about the size of a quarter. The girls weren't impressed at all but little Slugger isn't too particular it turns out. I'm not sure this picture will be big enough on here for you to see but he is carrying that tiny shell with his front teeth.



Even though we didn't have much for them to chase they did enjoy their time on the beach. Mostly the played "chase and beat up Slugger." Normally he'll run as fast as he possibly can until the girls catch him. Then they knock him down, he rolls over, and gets up running again.

They did this again on this trip too but at one point they caught him and knocked him down. He tried to roll over so he could hop back up but the sand was just the wrong consistancy and he just slid on his back for probably 12 - 15 feet. It seemed as though he was never going to stop sliding. I think all three dogs were a little mystified. Needless to say, I didn't catch that one with my camera.

After they got tired beating Slugger up they decided to play a little more nicely.



Once we wouldn't let Wazzu chase Slugger anymore she didn't have much interest in playing. But the two youngsters had a good time playing keep away with the tiny little shell.





As we were walking back down the beach, Wazzu found a Margined Seastar. It was upside down in the sand and was mostly hidden. Good find, Wazzu!



We turned it over and it was beautiful.



Hoping that maybe it would live we took it down and put it in the water. After we got home we read that these starfish are very common in the deep waters off the coast of Florida waters but that they often wash up on the shore in the thousands. We didn't see thousands but did end up seeing a number of them.

After getting the dogs tuckered, we drove down the coast some more to see more of the sights. It's so interesting how beaches differ from place to place.

Debbie
2/1/07

History...Old Stuff

This morning Mike took the dogs on a nice long hike so that they'd be tired enough to stay home while we did some touring without them. After a four hour hike they did indeed seem tired.

So later this afternoon we went to explore St. Augustine - the oldest city in the United States. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. More simply put - some old fort.

As with all forts you must have a guard. Can you tell which one is the guard?



Just after we entered the fort there was a guy giving a talk about the history of the fort. I guess it was very interesting as just about everyone in the place (except me) gathered around to listen.



Basically there were just lots of rooms with signs telling about what each room was used for. Can you tell I'm not much into history? Well, I did enjoy the view from the upper level of the fort.



As we were leaving the fort I heard some very familiar music. The first thought that entered my brain was "oh, someone isn't allowed to practice at home." Mike said he didn't hear anything. But sure enough as we got nearer the road we could see the musician.



I remember when I used to practice - it pretty much disrupted anyone within a few block radius!!

From the castle we walked through old downtown. Let me tell you there is no shortage of shopping. All the shops were very quaint and there was quite a bit of interesting stuff. But the only thing we bought were a couple cannoli to take home for desert.

Our next stop was Mission of Nombre de Dios. I guess it was the first church build in St. Augustine. It was a very pretty setting. In the front was a pretty little fountain.



From there you went over a bridge that led to a cross that was at least a couple hundred feet tall.



As we crossed the bridge we saw some very cute Hooded Merganser.



They were busy little guys and I had a lot of trouble getting any good pictures of them. Here's one of them in the midst of his bath.



Even without the dogs with us we managed to scare an Egret off.



There were lots of beautiful gardens there although I guess it isn't really the season for flowers. But I did find one in bloom.



Well, time to go eat my cannoli!

Debbie
1/31/07