Another week in paradise

Another catch-up post.

Sunday March 23 (Myakka River SP)

Cloudy and damp for Easter Sunday. We cooked a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs to see us thru the day until Easter Dinner. After we had things cleaned up we decided to catch up on the laundry. Off to Old Prairie campground where the laundry is. The sun started to make a showing so after getting things started Suzette did some knitting while I went across the road to look at where they had staked out the new campground. The information from a campground host is that the new campground will have 50A service as well as sewer hookup's and water. He also said that sites would be removed from Big Flats. When that is completed Myakka will be very nice with the new outpost building.

After the laundry was done and put away we headed for our dinner date in Sarasota. We had a very nice time with our friends Wally, Ann, Judy, Matti, Jean and a great dinner.

Monday March 24 (Myakka to Oscar Scherer)

After breakfast we rode our bikes to the new outpost to take a few pictures and have a look at the lake. It was very windy and the lake was more than we wanted to kayak on. They couldn't take the tour air boats out. Since this was a travel day we decided to just chill for a while before we hooked up and headed for Oscar Scherer.

We arrived about 12:30 and got checked in and headed for our site, 11. Another pick via Google Earth and ReserveAmerica. When we approached the site we saw another camper backing their 5er in. Their truck was half on the road when they unhitched. What did we get into? So I got out and walked to our site. Narrow entry, hummm. But it opened up in the back and was quite roomy and deeper that site 10. It was an easy back-in. The sites are somewhat close but there is sufficient vegetation to provide a nice separation between the sites.

Off to Wal-Mart and Tervis Tumblers and then back to camp. We left for Steins and then Ed Smith stadium to watch the Reds and Blue Jay's play. Reds won.

Tuesday March 25 (Oscar Scherer)

Cold 44 this morning, well it is Florida. Furnace on! The Nature Center is open for coffee from 8-10 so after our breakfast we head over for more coffee and to see what is going on. Later we biked to the ranger station and looked at the picnic area and canoe/kayak launch and marveled at how low the stream is. Duh tidal. Back at the site we picked up the green trail and did about an hours ride.

Steins arrived about 1pm and we headed out for a ride. Took part of the yellow trail over to the new bike path, Legacy Trail, which was still being worked on. I guess we weren't susposed to be on it yet. The grand opening is Friday. Oh well there were lots of folks on the trail. We rode about 3 miles from the park to Laurel Road and back. We were pretty tired so we just chilled for a while then off to Capt. Eddie's for dinner followed by a trip to North Jetty at Venice Inlet to watch the dolphin's. Well we saw one and a lot of birds. We watched the pelicans dive into the water for fish. Cool.

Back to the park and visit for a while.

Donna called to let us know that Matt and Tyra had a new daughter, 9#7oz, 20&1/2. All are doing well.

Wednesday March 26 (Oscar Scherer)

Rich and Linda arrived about 9:30 and we had a nice long visit before lunch. After lunch we headed out for a bike ride on the Green trail. While on the trail we saw a gopher tortise. It watched us for a while before heading off into the brush.

More visiting before supper. Linda had brought a Key Lime pie and several gifts, we were kind of "flocked" since everything had Flamingo's on it. Really cool.

After they left we went to the Nature Center for ice cream, 2 scoops for a $1.

Thursday March 27 (Oscar Scherer)

Today is beach day. We went to the Nature Center for pancake breakfast and of course we took our own Maple Syrup. I'm sure not using Maple syrup on pancakes is against some Vermont law. Great breakfast for $4 each.

After taking care of Logans needs we headed for Casperson Beach in Venice. Steins catch up with us along the way. They had rented a 2 person kayak so all of us were able to paddle. We headed thru the mangroves to the intercostal. I'm not sure how far we traveled but we were out for about 2 hours. When we returned we had lunch and then the girls headed for the beach while Wally and I went out for another paddle. We were gone for about an hour before meeting the girls at the beach.

We soaked the sun and walked along the beach getting our feet wet in the Gulf. We left about 3:30 so we had time to clean up and meet for dinner at the Schrine. After dinner we returned to Steins and played a few games of Rummikub, Suzette won 3 games and I won 1.

On our return we stopped at a Shell for fuel, $4.039 but I get -5%/gal for using my Shell CC.

Friday March 28 (Oscar Scherer to Suwanee River)

Traffic was a bitch on I75. On and off the brakes a lot. No accidents but a lot of rubber necking for any stopped vehicle. We arrived at Suwanee River about 3:30 PM and backed into site 25. This is a nice little state park in the middle of no where. For $15/night we get WSE as well as a listening to a train on occasion. The sites could use a little grading but otherwise all looks very new. Very nice. Shower house is very nice and clean. We biked around a little and checked out the boat launch area. We will do the river tomorrow.