Retired, and in Florida

April 7, 2015 - Blackwater River State Park, Holt, FL - R

FL State Parks are a little more cramped than GA State Parks, but this one was particularly well groomed!

 However, just out of screen on both sides are our neighboring campsites.  Get ready to meet your neighbor!

Traveled across the panhandle of FL on I-10 (not too crowded) after camping near Tallahassee for a couple of days back at Three Rivers State Park.  While there we drove an hour down to the Apalachicola National Forest and hiked the Leon Sinks Geological Area (Now you gotta know that Leon Sinks is not a guy.  Stands for Leon County, and Sinks are sinkholes that are a big feature here in FL due to the Karst geology, calcium soils leaching away and collapsing.)

 Some are "wet" sinks, that are deep enough to be in contact with the aquifer, and others are "dry" sinks that are just conical depressions in the earth.

 There is a lot of longleaf pine restoration going on in the FL forests.  Connie likes to call these young seedlings Dr. Seuss trees (the Lorax?).

 Here's an example of a baldcypress, and tupelo gum swamp.

The retirees have also been spending some more time on the beach.  We traveled 45 minutes south of Holt, close to Pensacola, to Navarre Beach yesterday.

Beautiful, fluffy white sand beaches and crystal clear gulf water.  Just delightful, our neighbors (Lee and Laurel), are originally from nearby (now living in Alabama) say the beaches and barrier islands are like this from Gulf Breeze/Pensacola to Panama City.  Nice!

Today Connie and I paddled a canoe 11 miles down the Blackwater River, courtesy of Blackwater Canoe Rental.  Pristine wilderness the whole way!  Gorgeous white sand beaches on a lot of the bends.

Very gentle current, no whitewater whatsoever (we're in Florida, yup)
saw plenty of turtles, and water snakes, and a few fish.  Tricky dodging overhanging and sunken trees from time to time, but we didn't flip the canoe.