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Published: February 19th 2016
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Wednesday was a hiking day. We started out fairly early and drove to the furthest hiking trail to explore the river futher up stream. There is a suspension bridge I wanted to see and hoped for more wildlife. The bridge was closed and as I learned later was waiting the decision of a contractor to make necessary repairs. The bridge is almost 100 yrs old and the superstructure is original and has some rotting pieces. They hope to have the repairs done by next year, nothing moves very fast. I saw an allegator and a cormorant along with assorted smaller birds and talked with several campers and hikers along the way.
Tonight is Pot Luck dinner at the rec hall so in the afternoon I made my contribution for the dinner, mac and cheese with ham chunks. I drove to the rec hall parking lot and followed signs to the festivities. It was just 6 pm and already the rec hall was filled with campers eager to have dinner. The tables were decorated with balloon table cloths and they set the mood to a festive one. There were all kinds of dishing waiting to be sampled, salad, cole slaw, spaghetti,
meat balls, potato salad and my favorite, some kind of mashed up concoction with crisp onion rings on top. There must have been 30 dishes and about 10 different desserts. No one went home hungry. We were introduced to the volunteers and the rangers and we each told where we were from. It was a very warm event.
Thursday at 9 am was camper coffee at a gathering place near me. I walked there and enjoyed coffee and a donut and we met the rest of the ranger staff, more volunteers and lots more campers. After the meeting we boarded a tram and went for a tour of Fort Foster. It is a recreated fort from the Second Seminol wars of 1837 and is only available to see from a tour. We drove about 1/2 mile from the park, then left the tram and walked the other 1/2 mile to the fort. OH, was I excited to see it, it was just like my Fort Apache when I was a kid, but this one was real. Pictures
Our guide Kevin was a little slow to start but once he got into the fort he was totally anamated. He
showed us the officers quarters, complete with it's own cannon, then the munitions building, then the supply building then the infirmary. One quarter of the solders in the infirmery were injured from battle, the rest were sick from mosquito bites, or disentary.
Then we viewed the large cannon guarding the bridge. That was the main purpose of the fort, to guard the bridge to keep the road open to supply the other forts in the area. The bridge spans the Hillsbourgh River.
I loved being there and listening to the many stories Kevin related to us. One of them being that the men lived outside the fort, cooked for themselves and if attacked defended themselves where they were, the fort was closed to them. The fort's purpose was to guard the bridge and their job was to guard the fort.
The cannon was positioned inside the fort right in front of the bridge and there was a door in the fort wall big enough for the cannon to fire through. They fired the equilivent of buck shot to stop Indians from getting near the bridge. There are trees near the fort now but in it's day all
vegation was cleared within 300 yards. Pictures
When we got home it was well past lunch so I was really hungry. I straightened up the camper and one of the women on the tour with me came over and we had some wine and cheese and discussed the world. It was lovely sitting outside enjoying the evening, the end to a delightful day
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