Panacea Florida

Dang look at all these words from the nut job again.

3/5/2020 to 3/8/2020 Elevation -6. Not sure how overrate that is, me thinks it should be +6.

3/5/2020

We pulled out of Keaton beach FL around 9:00 for our 81 mile drive. We had a pretty short drive this morning and didn’t want to leave that early but we had thunderstorms in the forecast so we went ahead and pulled out to an off and on misting rain. Again most of the drive was flat and boring and looked like prime bigfoot habitat. Fortunately our spot was open when we got here, but arriving that early someone could have very well not left yet.

We rolled in here at Panacea FL with the intention of staying 2 nights but after the super friendly lady at the CG started explaining all the stuff in the area to see and do, so Mary and I discussed it and we decided to stay an extra night. Boy, that took some finagling with the computer to make it happen. The CG has a new computer system and they had to move a couple of campers, who are not here yet but have reservations, around. More than once I mentioned that if it was too much trouble we didn’t need to stay but she was determined to make it work.

The Seinyard Restaurant

She also recommended The Seinyard Restaurant as a good place to eat, she said that’s where the locals go to eat…………. Well the food was ok, we both had Grouper, the first time for both of us. The fish was ok but I think we both preferred Cod to the Grouper. We sat next to the water the rain had faded away, we watched and watched and watched the birds on the water…………. all the while waiting for someone anyone to take our order. We were early and there were more staff around than customers but somehow nobody took our order. Finally the bar tender took our drink order, she brought our drinks and took the food order. She brought drinks only, no straws no napkins, no silverware. Later, another girl brought out our food she realized we had nothing and brought everything straws silverware napkins. I give the setting an A- the food a B+ the wait staff an F. The restruant must really be a hopping place because they had more staff on hand than customers when were there.

What?? Still more word and pictures below.

3/6/2020

Creature from the Black Lagoon

It just so happens this is one of the attractions she recommended it’s Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park https://www.floridastateparks.org/WakullaSprings . The Spring is billed as the world’s largest and deepest freshwater spring and is where most of the Tarzan movies staring Johnny Weissmuller and the popcorn popping horror classic Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) were filmed so naturally we just had to go, hence our decision to stay the extra night.

WOW!!! The recommended, by the lady from the CG, boat ride was positively worth the few $$ for the tickets. It was about an hour long. We went approximately a mile down stream, down one side and back up the other side of the river. Lots of alligators & many different birds but we didn’t see any manatees, I understand they frequent the river here. They have a couple of glass bottom boats they take out over the spring but for the last few years the the water has been to dark to see the bottom of the spring, someone said it was because of the nitrogen from agricultural runoff. I don’t know but the water looked just like in Michigan, tinted from all the pine trees and you could only see about 5 ft under the water.

What’s this still more word and pictures below.

3/6/2020

St Marks Lighthouse

After the Spring we went to the St Marks Lighthouse it was interesting and informative with guided tours by volunteers. While we were very near the Gulf we noticed a few alligators so the water must have even fresh water because as I understand things alligators only live around fresh water.

Trivia time what was the only Confederate capital city not captured by the Union Army during the civil war? Answer, Tallahassee the capitol of Florida.

What?? Still more word and pictures below this trash.

3/6/2020

Took a drive on Alligator Drive and didn’t see no alligators:)

We didn’t see any alligators but I did get to touch my first shark a small Bonnethead shark(?). As we were walking back to the jeep a fisherman had caught a small shark. The little guy was about 15 inches long. After touching it and taking a few pictures it was time to release him. The fisherman didn’t get in deep enough water and it was floundering and stopped moving so catching the waves just right, I didn’t really want to get my shoes wet, I was able to nudge him a little further out and we watched the little guy swim away, dorsal fin just above the water. As I watched him swim away, the theme song from JAWS ran through my head.

What?? Still more word and pictures below. Will this thing ever end.

Warning warning, we interrupt this exceptionally boring post with an important announcement. Yet another Smart Car and it’s occupants are missing, it’s the 3rd one this week. Police are baffled. An an off the record source tells me that it’s believed a gang of teenage bigfoots are behind this latest crime spree.  It’s believed they are catching the cars, feeding the occupants to their communal pet, the creature in the Black Lagoon, then they are ripping the body from the frame of the car and at night using the car frames as skateboards on the many paths around here.

While we were on the boat the boat operator said that a couple of their biggest alligators are missing. His theory was that the same group of kids as he called them (the same teenage bigfoots) stole a boat and the strapping the alligators to their feet and used them as water skies skiing up and down the river at night. He said that ever since Tarzan moved out the bigfoots have been getting out of hand.

So if you’re ever in the area be sure and take the boat ride keeping your eye out for Tarzan swinging through the trees and in the water for the creature from the Black Lagoon, it’s also probably a good idea to keep an eye out for water skiing bigfoot.

You see, this is what you get from me, while in the frozen south when it’s either too cold and windy or too hot and sunny to get outside, yes I know I’m hard to please just ask Mary. And if you think this little tidbit is weird you should try living inside my head!! Oh and if I ever get near Area 51 or drive on the Extraterrestrial Highway………… look out:)

Now back to the same ole boring stuff.

3/7/2020

Another day another Light house.

This morning we took a drive down the coast to St George Island where the Lighthouse and St George State Park are located. It was another COOL morning, low 40’s last night. 92 steps in the light house, we were the first ones there and attendant said we could go up as many times as we wanted. 2 times, non stop,  was enough for me. I hope I can still move tomorrow morning when we go to pull out. Nothing too interesting today. Besides the 184 steps (92X2=184) we walked about a mile on the beach in the state park and then out a fishing pier for about 1/2 mile, it’s actually the old bridge to get out to St. George Island.

YES! Still more words below.

I’ve never seen so many 1 legged birds.

This thing just keeps going and going. You guessed it, more words below these 1 legged birds.

 

This changes EVERYTHING!!

As I mentioned in this post and my last post the campgrounds are pretty full, anyway I called a CG in Mexico Beach FL, we were wanting to follow the coast, the lady at the CG  didn’t even hesitate she just said they were full. We thought if we changed our route to follow the expressway we would have better luck. Called a couple of campgrounds along I-10 that were near the distance we wanted to drive and they were full, finally found one about 50 miles less than I wanted to drive. Now to be fair I was just calling Passport America CG’s they are a 50% off and most of them are full, we’re hoping and thinking that once we get away from FL that the CG’s are not going to be as full.

Lots and lots more pictures and a few short videos at https://rmtravels.smugmug.com

Finally the end.