Sorry about the month long absence of the blog, lots of excuses. Two weeks we were really "roughin" it, no sewer, weak wi-fi and worst of all NO Satellite reception! Since then it seems like we've been on the go I couldn't sit down and devote a lot of time to the blog.
Thursday June 1, I got up at 5:30 to put the brisket on the Traeger -I hope it was worth it. Took a 8 mile bike ride then spent the day babysitting the brisket. Gary took the Jeep to back to the dealership, the sunroof leaked again during Wednesday's thunderstorm. We had brisket for dinner, I might have overcooked it a bit. We have enough to feed the entire park.
Friday, June 2, Went into Kingsland to get a hair cut, always scary. Tammy did a great job. I got caught in a nasty thunderstorm, sure enough the sunroof still leaks! I waited out the storm in a grocery store parking lot then drove to the Jeep dealership. Poor old Jeep, it's over 9 years old with 140,000 miles, I guess it's time to start having little problems. Gary cleaned the bbq, cooking the brisket made a mess. After dark Luci started barking, we had two armadillo's on the patio.
Saturday, June 3, We worked on the itinerary through the end of July. Quiet day, laundry and best of all no t-storms. We saw several huge birds flying over, we grabbed the binoculars for a better look. After research we discovered they are Woodstorks.
Sunday, June 4. After our morning bike ride, we left Luci at home while we drove about 45 minutes west to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (swamp) It is huge,, it covers 630 square miles. After picking up a quick lunch at Subway in Folkson we drove out to the swamp, it's been on fire for several weeks due to the drought and lightning strikes, we were lucky, the Suwanee Canal boat tours resumed just a couple of days before. The Suwanee Canal Co. purchased 238,000 acres from the state to drain the swamp to grow rice, sugarcane and cotton, when they realized they weren't going to be able to drain the swamp they switched to wetland logging. The company spent 3 years digging 11 1/2 miles of canal the company went bankrupt. The Federal Government , then President Roosevelt, acquired most of the swamp for a National Wildlife Refuge in 1937, Due to the drought we could only travel about 4 miles down the canal, water level was 2 feet below normal even after all the thunerstorms we've had lately. The water in the swamp is very pure, no rivers flow in, rainfall is the only major source. Two rivers flow out, the St. Mary's which flows to the Atlantic and the Suawanee flows down through Florida to the Gulf. Our guide, "Too" showed us the color of the water, looks like tea, it's very high high in tannic (sp?)acid. The European used the water from the swamp for their trips back across the Atlantic because it wouldn't grow algae. We saw many, many alligators on the boat trip, they would lazily swim away rom the boat as we approached. "Too" told us the gators can ove their lungs to different parts of their body - if he wanted to only have his head above water he would move his lungs down. They don't hibernate but do burrow and slow their respiration rate down to about 5 breaths an hour. They lay about 30 eggs but only 5-10% make it to adulthood. The temperature of the ground they are laid in determines the sex of the babies. We didn't see much more wildlife, a few turtles, sandhill cranes, woodpeckers and assorted other birds. There is a 7 1/2 mile round trip drive out to the Chesson homestead but the home was still wrapped in fire retardant material and the boardwalk was continuously being sprinkled, both were closed to the public. Fascinating area, there are water trails for canoes with camping areas out in the swamp. NO thank you!!! I don't want to sleep on the ground with all the swamp critters.
Monday, June 5 Gary took the Jeep down to the dealership to have the drains changed in the sunroof, twice they've cleaned them and still continue to leak. The good news, the estimate was $200 but the repairs only came to $76. Hope this does the trick. The weather continues to be hot and humid with afternoon and evening thunderstorms with drenching rains but no more tornado warnings.
Tuesday, June 6 We prepped for tomorrow's departure, it's such a great park and wonderful area we hate to leave. Since we've been here we've heard St. Mary's Seafood Restaurant was the best place for seafood in the area. Everyone was right, delish! After dinner we drove through historic St. Mary's one last time, this place seems like a wonderful place to live.
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