I’ve been sad lately, thinking about a friend who’s been unexpectedly diagnosed with stage IV cancer. The fact that I can’t get on a plane or zip up in my car to see her is also like a gong echoing a reminder that I haven’t seen my son since May. Our one-year anniversary of living […]
Tag: Florida
Other Critters at Blue Spring
It’s been warm here in central Florida during the day, and the manatees haven’t been in the spring hardly at all. The sign at the entrance to the park read, ”101 manatees” the first day we entered, but today it said, ”3.” There’s nothing for them to eat in the spring; they swim up it […]
Spend a Day with Me at Blue Spring
Hey, wanna explore with me today? Come on … Let’s Beat the Crowds to the Manatees Let’s get up and ride our bikes down to the spring early before the park opens. I hear that later in the mornings the manatees are in the river eating, but early they’re still keeping warm up in the […]
Blue Spring Manatees and Motorcycles
We made it out of our truck-breakdown-pit-stop RV park in Tampa, YAY! We had to cancel one set of reservations while a mechanic changed one of the fuel filters (again), but we made it just a day late to our next reservations at Blue Spring State Park, just a little inland from Daytona Beach. This […]
Our First Breakdown
I’m writing this relieved that we avoided being stranded on the side of the road—towing our home and everything we own—with citrus-filled trucks speeding just inches by us. That didn’t happen. But we haven’t resolved the situation yet, so I could be jinxing us by writing with too much enthusiasm at this juncture. I don’t […]
The Ebb and Flow of Life at a State Park Campground
I’d forgotten how predictable—and oddly comforting—is the migration of the state park campground population. We show up mid-day on a Wednesday, often, when about half the campground is empty. Things seem slow and lazy, and we back into our site and set up in our full regalia. Then we run errands in town while others […]
Scenes from Hillsborough River
This state park reminds me of the one we stayed in in New Ulm, Minnesota, because it’s designed with lots of amenities for locals: a pool (closed now), snack bar, playgrounds, pavilions and picnic sites, kayak rentals, hiking trails. I’m guessing there are lots of large, community-friendly state parks out there with camping, and I […]
Under the Live Oaks of Tampa
I’ve realized I have a tree theme going in my pictures of Florida: the regular and Dwarf Cypress, Mangrove, Gumbo Limbo, Strangler Fig, so many Pines, Royal Palm, and, here, yet more Live Oaks wearing cloaks of Spanish moss. We’re at Hillsborough River State Park, very close to Tampa. Although I can hear the highway […]
Crappy Campground amid Royal Palms
Pro tip: Never book a campsite on the inside of a campground loop. We’re wedged in here at Collier-Seminole State Park like one of the pie pieces in a Trivial Pursuit game. The folks on the outside of the loop all have plenty of space to set up chairs and tents, but we can’t open […]
A Vast Quiet
When you look out over the sawgrass prairie here in the Everglades—where we’ve been hiking through a very wide, shallow river—you can see far across to the horizon, across limestone flats, with zero signs of mankind. The quiet around you seems surreal. Like time has stopped. In reality there are roads nearby, like this one […]
