Port Richey

We  did a lot of getting ready, putting stuff away, etc. yesterday, but it still seemed to take us much longer than usual to get going this morning. Our neighbor, who works for the RV park, assisted us around the tight turns to leave the park. His stories, along with others we had heard, should make a believer out of any one departing that park. It seems the low curving branches of the many live oaks have done their share of damage to the rigs of cocky drivers.

It was a short trip up Hwy 41 to Hwy175 to I-75, then on Hwy 52 to US 19 to Ja-Mar Travel Park near Port Richey. Rigs here are parked at an angle and it was an easy back-in even though our new neighbor thought he could give better directions to Forry than I could... Once again, we are parked under a large live oak tree, so no satellite TV!

The sites aren't quite as close together as this picture makes them appear. The streets are fairly wide and they are all paved. There is a paved slab in front of the site where they want your tow vehicle parked. We got the bikes unloaded and unfolded and even got in a ride around the park before dinner.

There seems to be quite a bit of bird life around the park. This Northern Mockingbird claimed the territory around this power line --

It's wing bars and long tail are quite distinctive --

The first thing I did after we got settled in was to call a dentist's office that has an advertisement in the RV Park's brochure. Last night when I was flossing my teeth, the cap on one of my front incisors popped off... I was able to get an appointment to have it re-glued on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, I hope the do-it-yourself glue from the drugstore works!

We received an email from Pastor Matthew last night saying that our friend Clara had passed away during the afternoon. RIP dear soul. It is going to be hard to be away from Menno when her Memorial Services are held.

A Trip to the Gulf

This afternoon we drove down Highway 231 towards the Panama City beaches. We had picked up a brochure at the Florida Welcome Center that told about the nature trails at St. Andrews State Park, so we went to check it out. The area is full of palmetto thickets and a mixture of pine and deciduous trees --

We drove into the park and down to the jetty where we spotted these two Brown Pelicans resting on the rocks --

This Great Blue Heron was standing in the shallows, patiently waiting for a fish --

A Great Egret flew in to the edge of the rocks --

Then waded in closer to shore. It was not the least bit concerned about me standing there --

There was a very nice new boardwalk that went out to Alligator Lake. It was chilly and we saw no alligators, but watched several herons and egrets fly in to roost for the night on the opposite side.
 

This incredibly white sand is said to be quartz washed in from the Appalachian Mountains?

We saw this Northern Mockingbird and several of his family watching all of the park activity --

As we were driving back to Pine Lake RV Park, we watched the clouds turn all shades of pink in front of the almost full rising moon --

It was a nice afternoon, but we want to come back and spend more time exploring this beautiful park.