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Published: February 2nd 2013
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Company!
My sister Denise came for a visit! I drove my little car to the Tampa airport yesterday and picked her up right on schedule. It was a beautiful trip through “old” Florida, cattle ranches, orange groves and phosphate mines. Dee loved seeing the sunshine and we rode most of the way home with the top down. The smells were incredible as they were picking some of the orange trees and others were in blossom.
We made it back in time to have lunch, take Oscar for a quick walk and get to the meeting place for a tour of an animal sanctuary just across the highway from our campground.
We were greeted by a black cat that acted as our tour guide and went with us on the whole trip. They have an elevated boardwalk all around the compound so you can look down in the cages to see all the animals. First there were 2 ostrichs that strutted their stuff for us. Then there was the cougar pacing back and forth with an occasional roar to show his stuff.
The next cage contained a group of raccoons who were
sleeping in a net suspended high over the ground. One looked at us but the rest were really sleeping and not to be disturbed. Then we went to see the sleeping bear. It was a big black bear laying on the ground surrounded by a flock of vultures. Made an ominous looking picture. There were owls and white tail deer then the area with this monster alligator. He was on the bank on the other side of his compound and the biggest guy I ever saw. Picture
We came home to cocktails, then a delicious dinner that Kat made in her crock pot. By 8pm we were exhausted so headed to bed.
This morning we woke about 7:30 and leisurely had coffee then got ready for a visit to a nearby state park. We drove through Zolfo Springs and more orange groves and cattle ranches to a dirt road that took us to Hammock State Park. I didn’t realize it was so large at first but they have a campground, several miles of trails and a museum. The park was built in 1939 with the help of the CCC (civilian conservation core) and some of it
is still used today. There was a 1000 yr old oak tree, a Cyprus swamp walk, an orange grove walk, and a forest primeval walk. We enjoyed them all but really loved the old forest with it’s huge old oaks. We even saw orange and grapefruit trees growing in the forest with the old oaks and palm trees. Interesting mix.
Back at the campground we attended to the dogs. Ginnie and Kat went to pick up a camping friend of ours at the Orlando airport, Joanne, who will be spending 10 days with Ginnie. The dogs needed to be let out and walked a little, but it was hot in the sun so they decided to go back into the house til it cooled off.
Dee and I read our books, made spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight and when Ginnie, Kat and Joanne returned we had cocktails and caught up with each other. Dinner was in Kat’s new rig, she had more room, and we all feasted on the spaghetti and salad.
Again we were tired from our busy day so we were back home by 8:15. It was a great day, lots of activities
and fun.
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