Shelling

Yesterday it poured all day so today the dogs were really ready to go do something. So Mike took them for a nice hike in morning. Due to all the rain yesterday there was water everywhere….which means the alligators think they have a lot more space. So Mike kept the dogs on leash. Good thing!

This whole area is known for it’s shelling – collecting shells. I had been wanting to go shelling so Mike found a place where I could go shelling. While the dogs weren’t allowed on the beach there was a trail right there that they were allowed to go on. So while Mike and the dogs hiked the trail I went down to the beach.

When I first arrived I immediately noticed a large flock of pelicans circling over the water. These birds were very high up in the air and it seemed as though missiles were being shot done from the sky. I don’t know how they could possibly see fish from way up there. But they would dive straight down…..



And enter the water. I thought it was very interesting to see how their wings were when they enter the water. I'm surprised their wings don't get ripped off as they enter the water with such speed.



And they make a huge splash as they enter. I'd say the splash was a good three to four feet tall.



After about five minutes I guess they'd eaten all the fish as all at one time they just left. I suddenly realized I'd been easily distracted from my task of shelling. So I decided I'd better get on task when I noticed this pretty bird. Mostly I noticed him because he came and landed just a couple feet from me. He acted like I was supposed to feed him - but I had nothing.



Mike had told me that I could go shelling but that I wasn't allowed to actually collect any shells as we had no place in the RV to store them. So unlike everyone else I just took pictures of the shells.





I was not the only one there shelling. There were a lot of people shelling - I was just the only one shelling in hiking boots! Everyone else was barefoot which really is the way to go as I had to keep running up the beach every time a wave would come - I think the tide was coming in. The couple on the left of this picture were multi-tasking even at the beach! They were fishing, shelling, reading a book, and knitting. I asked the guy if he was catching anything. He said "Not a thing but it's a lot better than being up north in the cold and working." I sure couldn't argue with him there!



There were so many people shelling that I began to wonder what it really was that everyone was searching for as I didn't see anyone with a bag or pail to put all their shells in. So I stopped this very nice lady to ask if she was searching for something in particular. She informed me that everyone is searching for sharks teeth. She showed me some that she had found and explained that these teeth are hundreds or thousands of years old....she told me which but I forget. Anyway, they are very old and very polished. Most are fairly small although I did find one fairly large one. I did collect a few teeth so I could show them to Mike.

Since Mike and the dogs had to go a different place from me, I didn't shell too long as I was worried they'd be waiting for me at the car. As I was going back I noticed an opening in the foliage just across the street. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Great Blue Heron standing right there only a foot or two away from me.



Many of the Great Blue Herons we have come across have been very tame. The fishermen tend to feed them often so they just think of people as food dispensers. This was just a cove but it was beautiful and so peaceful. Just me and the Great Blue Heron.



I decided to walk down the path to see if I could find my family. The path was made of shells. It seemed too pretty to be walked on but that was the path for a while.



As I continued on the path changed to dirt and there were pretty trees around.



I have no story about this picture other than I just thought it was pretty. These are large mushrooms growing on the tree.



I finally found my sweet family coming back up the trail. Slugger loved this trail as there were a lot of lizards. Which of course makes for a very slow walk!



Here is a map to give you a little idea of the area we are exploring. Up on the right side of the land there is kind of a sticky out bump where you can see a city called Punta Gorda - it's the only city shown on the right side. That's where we are living. On the left side you'll see some red dots. The place we went shelling is the uppermost red dot.



Just before we were leaving I got a phone call from Dave, my brother. What a very pleasant surprise! When he told me it was -22 where he was (not including the wind chill) I was very happy that I was the one on the 75 degree beach! What is he thinking!!

On our way home Mike decided to stop and show me the place he and the dogs had been hiking the other day where they saw the alligators. It's less than a block from where we are staying.

Sure enough, as soon as we got to the pond we saw two alligators sunning themselves. I'd say this one is probably about 12 feet long.



Closer to us was a small gator - probably in the range of 9-10 feet.



As we were walking away I noticed this smaller one near where we were standing.



We sure have noticed a lot more alligators as we've gotten further south in Florida. The guys are really going to have to stay on leash!

Debbie
2/13/07

New Wildlife

Yesterday we moved....again. This time we drove back across the state from the east coast of Florida southern to a place on the west coast called Punta Gorda. I think this must be the senior retirement capital of Florida. It seems as though there are RV parks for miles and miles.

We are staying at one of the many parks along Alligator Creek. We took a walk down to the creek but didn't see any alligators....thankfully. The park does have quite a stretch of waterfront. They have an activity center there as well as many outdoor activities, a dock, and benches along the water. It is a very pretty place to sit on a nice day. It is so quiet here compared to the last park we were at. What a nice change - although the dogs really miss the two acre dog park.

Like at all Encore parks the place is packed. I'd say probably 80% of the people here are permanent residents. And many of them have really fixed up their "yards" very nicely. Keep in mind their yards are all of 60' long and 6' wide!

This morning Mike and the dogs went off to explore some nearby trails. No one was around so Mike let the girls off leash like usual. As they were hiking they came across a bunch of bee boxes (I don't know the real name). But there were bees swarming all around the boxes of course. Mike tried to call Sparkie but she just kept romping around....until she got stung. Then she ran quickly back to Mike crying the whole way. Things seemed to calm down for a while until Mike caught something out of his eye and looked down to see the tail of a 10' alligator. Needless to say, Mike rounded everyone up pretty quickly. He said he saw six or seven alligators within close range that were all 8' -12' long. I suggest they hike someplace different tomorrow.

As soon as they got home, Mike and I went exploring. We found a touristy area called Fisherman's Village. It was an extremely colorful place with many shops and a few restaraunts. We ended up eating outside at one that was right on the water. In fact just below where we were sitting people would drive up in their fancy boats and tie up and come to eat. We figured we had found the place to eat as it was totally packed. While eating we commented that we've probably seen all the different kinds of wildlife that we're going to see in Florida.

After lunch we drove a short ways to Ponce de Leon park. It was so crowded and we really couldn't figure out why...at first. Along the shoreline we saw purple seaweed - this was a first for me.



From there we went out onto the dock. The water was extremely deep so you couldn't begin to see anything in the water. However, this was obviously a very popular spot for very fancy boats to be put into the water. And there were a lot of them. It was almost like a freeway. We enjoyed looking at all the various types of fancy boats as they went by.

As we started to walk back to the car we noticed a small trail kind of hidden off in the bushes. We're really glad we saw that as by going there we added quite a few new animals to the list of wildlife that we've seen on our U.S. tour.

Only about 10' into the trail we came to a small bridge that took us over a small canal.



It may not look like much but if you look more closely it is quite the spot! We saw so much wildlife that was new to us. The first thing we spotted were four Yellow Crowned Night Heron.



We saw both a male and a female - but I don't know which is which. The only difference is the color on the top of their head. Notice the one in the above picture has white on top whereas this one has brown on top.



Here's a nice close up of this very interesting heron that sat just a few feet away from me for quite some time without moving.



When I saw him looking down into the water I thought he must be about ready to dive down to get a fish.



But instead of diving he just opened his mouth.



I was so glad I snapped this picture the second he opened his mouth as if i'd have waited another 1/8 of a second I'd have gotten him doing a huge throw up. It was really gross. Guess he'd eaten a bad fish.

Hiding back in the trees we spotted a Black Crowned Night Heron. He was very shy as he never came out where we could get a better look at him.



And the last bird we saw was the Immature Yellow Crowned Heron.



The water level was really low here so we could see some things that would normally would be covered by water. We saw some mussels....or maybe clams of some sort.



It was interesting to see how the oyster shells were attached to the tree roots.



Just as we were leaving that area I spotted a crab under the water.



As we walked along the boardwalk we saw a sign telling about the Fiddler Crab. We looked and looked but all we could see were holes in the ground. We had just about given up thinking there was nothing there when we noticed that when we would put our arms out over the railing there was a bunch of movement on the ground. It turned out to be the Fiddler Crab. In this picture you can see why it is called the Fiddler Crab.



In this picture you can see one large crab and three smaller ones.



As we were leaving we saw a few pretty flowers. I don't know anything about names of flowers - I just think they are pretty.



The above and below flowers are both red but the ones above where much larger than the ones in this picture.



Of course what would a visit to Ponce de Leon Park be without a picture of me together with my buddy Ponce.



Debbie
2/10-11/07

Not For The Squeamish

If you’ve been following our blog you know it is very clean. Just wholesome stories about our adventures around the USA. So let me warn you now, if you’re not into odd, gory, or gross topics you may want to skip this post. Consider yourself warned.

Okay, here we go…..

I just can’t help but add a little story here that I was reminded of when Mike went to the Space Center. I’ll use totally fake names in this story as I’m not sure my cousin wants this kind of fame!

My cousin, Donny, and his wife, Carrie were in Florida to experience Disney World. While there they went on a nice day trip to explore the Kennedy Space Center. They took the tour and then went to this big warehouse sized room which had a lot of smaller objects in it, such as the moon buggy. Donny sat down on a bench while Carrie went to use the bathroom. While he was sitting there, some guy came out dressed in a space outfit and sat down on the moon buggy. People would sit next to him and have their picture taken. Carrie finally came back from the bathroom and saw the moon buggy with the spacesuit and asked Donny to take her picture. So, she got in the moon buggy and put her hand on the crotch of the space suit. Donny started laughing and told her that there was someone in the space suit. She said that she didn't believe him. Then the guy in the space suit lifted his arm. Carrie screamed and jumped off the moon buggy. From what I’m told, everyone around had a good laugh about that. I would have loved to see the look on Carrie’s face! I hope Donny got a good picture of that!

Speaking of pictures, I didn’t take any pictures at all to go along with our next adventure. We were out on a morning hike after we’d all had breakfast. It was flat terrain with low, uninteresting bushes and trees spotted here and there. Sparkie kept going into the bushes and just would just stand there eating berries. Mike kept telling her to stop eating the berries. Finally after telling her to stop at least 30 times Mike was getting a little agitated with her. So in a stern voice he said “Sparkie, stop eating berries and come over here.” A few seconds later she came out of the bushes with her little cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk that has a month’s worth of nuts in his mouth. As she came to Mike you could just see her trying to talk without opening her mouth saying “What Dad? I’m not eating anything.” It was so funny we both just burst out laughing. I’ve never seen a dog’s mouth so full – and have them act like they have just gotten away with something as we certainly couldn’t see the 40 berries in her mouth.

The next day as we were walking, Sparkie kept stopping to poop every five minutes. Each pile was nothing but pure seeds from yesterday’s berries. It looked just like a bear had been by here. She doesn’t realize it but we caught her big time….both going in and coming out.

Today was our last day in the area so Mike decided to take me along on the morning hike. It was flat, however the footing was soft and bumpy sand. This meant the going was going to be slow with me along. The scenery was the same as the other day. Just a bunch of low bushes (all the same type) with palm trees scattered about. We didn’t see any signs of any wildlife other than an occasional small bird flittering by real fast.

First we came to a river. According to the signs this spot was a canoe launch. We were the only ones anywhere within the many hundreds of acres in this park. So needless to say we didn’t see any canoes.



It didn’t really seem all that hot to us – I had on a short sleeve t-shirt and a long sleeve t-shirt on over that. Hmmm, now that I think of it, that really doesn’t give you much of an indication of the temperature. I still get teased about the time I wore a flannel shirt to play 36 holes of miniature golf in Phoenix in the summer on a day that was 115 degrees. And the time I was in Mesa with my grandma and we both went into the pool for just a couple minutes. When we came out we went to lay on the chase lounges. Naturally, I had goose bumps all over and was shivering. My grandma had to call all her friends over to so they could see this for themselves. They all got quite a kick out of it as they had never seen anyone have goose bumps when the nearby thermometer showed 109 degrees.

Oops. I digress. Okay back to today! It is in the upper 70’s but for some reason the dogs seemed to be getting particularly hot. The girls were off leash so they could run around but they weren’t straying far at all. In fact, it seemed as though they were staying just ahead of us on the trail most of the time. But as you can see, after only about 45 minutes we saw some big tongues.







It really was a bit of a boring hike but any chance to let the dogs get out and hike is a great thing. There is nothing betting than seeing the dogs run and play without always having to follow so many commands. They can just be dogs – usually that is a good thing.

Suddenly Wazzu and Sparkie took off running into the bushes. They must have smelled something as we certainly didn’t hear or see anything. We called them back and Wazzu immediately returned to us. Not uncommonly, Sparkie didn’t return right away. After a minute or so we heard her barking frantically. Now Sparkie has two very distinct and different types of bark. One is the “I found something, I’m chasing it, and it’s small so I’m scared” bark. The other is the “Hurry daddy come help me as I’m scared to death.”

We mostly hear the “I’m scared” bark as the Whippet side of her comes out very quickly when she perceives any kind of potential danger. Well, this time we were definitely hearing the excitement, non-scared bark. Mike heard her do this exact bark yesterday when she and Wazzu found an armadillo. (I never seem to be along when they find the armadillo, darn it.) Anyway, Mike figured she must have found an armadillo.

The barking didn’t last long – just maybe eight or nine barks. Then quiet. So we figured her attention was now off whatever she’d seen and she could now respond to our calls. So Mike started calling her as she’ll usually come back immediately after the chase is over. But he called and called with no response whatsoever. Mike and Slugger continued forward on the trail while Wazzu and I started retracing our steps back the way we had come. We could each hear the other one calling Sparkie.

Way off in the distance we heard some kind of animal squawking loudly. This was the first sign we’d had of any kind of wildlife other than the occasional bird as I mentioned earlier. But the noise didn’t last very long. We each continued calling and called as this was fairly unusual for her not to respond.

Finally, way off in the distance, I could see her running just as fast as she possibly could. I started calling and waving my arms. But she was so far away that I guess she couldn’t see or hear me and as she got to the fork in the trail she turned and headed toward where she had come from when she left us. So Wazzu and I started running down the trail screaming Sparkie’s name and also yelling as loud as I could to let Mike know that I’d found her.

After a while Sparkie came zooming back onto the trail leading to us. At this point in the hike the trail was very long and perfectly straight so I could see her from quite a distance. She was running just as fast as she possible could – she was truly frantic. As she got closer to me it seemed to me as though she didn’t look quite right but I couldn’t tell why. Soon I could see she was definitely red so I started yelling to Mike “she’s hurt, she’s hut.” As she got closer to me I could see that she was indeed red and the red was blood.

I had never seen so much blood on a dog. She was completely and thickly covered with blood from her elbows onto her entire chest, her neck, fact, nose and forehead. And as she got closer to me she started to slow down and seemed to stagger. Besides being bloody she was exhausted. There was so much blood everywhere that I couldn’t tell where she was bleeding from. But I knew we had to get it stopped right away. (Needless to say I totally became a concerned mom and completely forgot about taking pictures!)

We got out one of the bottles of water that Mike always carries on their hikes. We washed and washed as fast as we could to try to find the source of the blood. But after washing her for a good 10 minutes it was clear to us that not one drop of this blood was hers. We were extremely relieved but very saddened at the same time to know that something lost its life. We can’t imagine what would be small enough that Sparkie wouldn’t be afraid of it yet would have that much blood. That will forever be a mystery. But you can certainly bet we’ll be making a sizable donation to a wildlife organization.

After spending at least 10 minutes washing her, it finally dawned on me that I should have taken a picture. So here she is AFTER being washing for so long. Notice that she is still a little tuckered.





Slugger had been on leash this entire time but of course when he heard Sparkie barking he wanted to go get in on the action. So he was pulling Mike for all he was worth the entire time Sparkie was gone. I guess this was very tiring as Slugger got a huge tongue.



Mike got out another bottle of water so the dogs could drink. But before the others had a chance Sparkie drank the entire bottle of water. (Collapsible water bowls sure were a good invention. Now if they can just invent water that isn’t so heavy!) Fortunately we had a little bit more water for the other two to share – but nothing left for us.

As we were walking back Slugger would literally stagger and fall to the ground. We would let him rest until he felt like he could go again. But he wouldn’t make it very far before he would plop on the ground. He was so tired that he flopped his upper body onto the ground. Of course he was very hot so his tongue was very large and hanging out of his mouth. So when he flopped his head to the ground he got a whole mouthful of sand. He didn’t like that one bit. So he picked up his head and I did my best to get the sand out of his mouth…..then I took a picture.



While we were waiting for Slugger one time I noticed a large trap just off the side of the trail.



I don’t know what they had been trying to trap but obviously something rather large. I’m sure glad none of the dogs made their way into one of the traps. It did look as though the traps hadn’t been used in a while as we didn’t see any bait.

Yesterday when Wazzu and I had been at the dog park it was an extremely busy time as there were 12 other dogs there in addition to us. I got to talking to one of the couples and they mentioned that their dog just loves to swim so they take it swimming every day. Of course I had to find out where as we always love to take Slugger swimming. It was fairly nearby so we had thought we’d take the dogs swimming after our hike. Now we knew for sure that we were going swimming as Sparkie still needed some cleaning.

When we got home Mike gave Sparkie a bath. She looked much better but definitely had a pink tinge to her. So off we go to find the swimming area.

It was a nice little beach but right on a very busy highway. The beach area was only about 30 feet wide and 20 feet from the grass to the water.



When we have to keep Slugger on leash to swim we put him on a long line. To keep from choking him we remove his collar and have him wear a very sturdy harness.



As you can see he loves chasing his toy.



But even though it was close to the road at least it was a place to swim. Of course due to the proximity of the road all the dogs had to be on leash. The girls didn’t really want to do anything on leash so they just stood next to me as I watched Slugger play in the water.

Most of our swimming adventures are about the same. But this one was interesting as there were four pelicans watching us. Each time Mike would throw Slugger’s float toy out into the water the pelicans thought it was a fish jumping. So they would race to they toy and dive down trying to get it. Slugger didn’t seem distracted by this one bit. He’d just keep on swimming.





After a while they realized it really wasn’t a fish so they just floated in the water. But just in case it really was a fish they decided to watch from nearby.



I just had to include this sweet innocent little face. He's so patient and attentive as he waits for Mike to throw the toy again.



Well, that was quite the day. It really tired Sparkie out. And what better way to wind down than to spend the evening watching TV and sleeping with your daddy.



Wazzu didn't have any big adventure today so she's patiently waiting for her evening walk.



I have a feeling it could be a late one since the other two look really comfortable.

Debbie
2/9/07