Happy St Patrick's Day

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Happy St Patrick's Day.

The weather has heated up and become more muggy. The forecast is for thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow morning along with 25 mph winds. At 8 am the temp was already 77. I know boo hoo for me!

Today was the day for exploring Long Key State Park which is about 17 miles north of here. I packed up the cameras, water and Oscar, put the top down and off we went by 10 am. Now that's early for me..

The drive was beautiful and when we got to the park we found the hiking trail right away. It is a small park so not a lot of confusion finding things. The first part of the journey was on a board walk over wet lands filled with mangroves. Oscar became very nervous when he discovered there was water below him, hence the low crawl in the picture. The area encompasses several different vegetation environments so there were many changes in a short distance. pictures..

Oscar was getting really hot so we stopped for a drink of water, well he did. He drank 1/2 the bottle of water, poor hot dog. Just a short distance from the water stop we encountered a puddle that he just plodded through and thought about doing it again. That saved him, and me from carrying him.

The hike was over an hour so he was good and tired when we got home. I made lunch and went down to the grassy beach area to sit in the shade and breeze and read my book.

It was a quiet rest of the day. The clouds moved in and there was a queer, eerie silence about the park. I don't know where everybody is but no one is about and the wind has calmed to make it seem more quiet.

I went back to the camper and rolled in the awning AGAIN ! Don't know if it will get really windy later but better to be safe than sorry.

So we are all hunkered down waiting for the big blow.

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Photos

boardwalk section
Oscar hates this part

crab holes
some of these holes are 5" in diameter

mangrove roots
you can see why they are called the walking plant

desert like section
this part is flooded a lot of the time

this is the highest part of the hammock
they call this the hardwood hammock

hardwood tree
this tree is used to carve carousel horses because it doesn't split when it dries. It's bark flakes off and is thinner than paper

golden orb spider
there were several webs here and there. I was very happy a tall man was on the trail before me. One of the webs spanned 15 ft.

Japanese Man of War
This is dried up and on the beach
Swimming anyone?

Comments

[margi]

a wonderful trip
sorry i didn't comment on the blog site. i have so enjoyed watching your trip unfold. every time i read a blog i feel connected to you so don't miss you as much. and watching the weather in the north east have been thankful you are in florida and not suffering cabin fever. i just reviewed pictures on the large computer at work. those hermit crabs are fascinating. loved all the wildlife. you are so knowlegable about the flora and fauna. here is to more adventures in penelope. how about berkely springs in may? love you