Florida Camping 2012 Feb 11-14

  On Sunday morning we wrapped up our stay at Cedar Key and headed east 59 miles to a State Park called Paynes Prairie.  This expansive wild life preserve is located on the south tip of Gainesville FL and a few miles east of I-75.  It got its name from a Old Seminole Indian leader named King Payne.  Now, King Payne was the son of a Chief named “Cowkeeper”.    Back in the early 1800’s Col. Newnan and his company of Georgia soldiers marched down to Paynes Town to drive the Indians out.  Newnan was defeated.  A year later they returned and captured 450 head of cattle that belonged to the Seminoles  -  shortly after that  Paynes Town folded and was no longer.. 

Paynes Prairie reminds me a lot of Myakka SP in South FL.  It’s an old park – very large – and very wooded camping sites.  Driving thru this park and its campsites is a challenge in itself.  One must traverse thru the forested lanes like an obstacle course; you never can tell when a tree might decide to get too close to you  - (like one did to me in the Okeefenokee).

Settling in for the evening, last night, I wrapped up the water hoses because the weather was rumored to be changing.  (It got down to 23 degrees.)  And of all things the park lost electrical power at 5am this morning.  No power, no heat, no coffee.  We did find a Waffle House down the road that had all three, so we ate a good-ole Waffle House breakfast. 

Today we plan to do a lot of hiking on the prairie.  This place is loaded with wild horses, bison, and many other assorted 4-legged creatures.   Did I mention that when we went to the Visitor’s Center yesterday we watched a Bald Eagle as it landed in a giant pine tree next to the Center?  Yes indeedee, there was a huge nest in the tree, which the Eagles have been using for many years.  I’ll include pictures of our hike in this posting. 

……We just returned from a hike in the prairie.  About 5 miles of hiking and 2 of biking.  We did see some wild horses but they were 300 yards away and kept walking the same direction we were walking – so we didn’t gain any ground on them for picture taking.  We also couldn’t get any photos of the Eagle!  Dadgummit, we didn’t see anything else worth framing on this hike, so we headed back to the camper.

After a day in the preserve, we decided to venture into Gator country, to take in a movie.  Gators, Gators everywhere and not a Bull Dawg in sight  (except us)…. So we hurried into the theater and took in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I thought it was a pretty good flick… at least the second half of it.  I had read The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, (one of the three series books written) so I could follow the story line  easier than Brenda, whom I kept informed of what was happeningJ

All in all, we found it to be a pretty darn good time at Paynes Prairie .  Tomorrow we will pack up and head further east to the Florida coast.  Our stay at  St Augustine promises a warmer climate and with interesting days in the old Spanish town looking for the Fountain Of Youth!

I shall give a full report tomorrowJ

**News Flash**  Today is tomorrow!  The good news is that we have wifi in this St. Augustine KOA Park.  The bad news is that this is NOT a park that we’d stay in if we had seen it first.  First of all, it’s 52 bucks a night and secondly, the beautiful lake that it sits on is a drainage ditch!  It’s gotten too dake for me to take any pics of it right now, but Grammy posted one on Face Book earlier from her I-phone.  Don’t know what you can tell of it, but it ain’t a pretty site.   Well, we’re only parking here – the days will be spent in St. Augustine….looking for that Fountain of Youth.  …..And if we find it, we’ll bring some of it’s water back to this ditch and hope it helps while we’re here.  It’s the least we can do for these poor folks here at the KOA, NOT!

           

 Happy Trails! 

 Pappy & Grammy aka Ah-Pa & Gigi