Mini-Series Part 1: South

This is the time of year when Bill and I get itchy feet, and start thinking about Hitting The Road. Which, in our case, since it’s November, means heading South.

Smart people and birds head south in the winter. Since this year it looks like we may be slogging through our first winter in Connecticut (gasp!) in 7 years, I can only dream about South . . .

Which leads me, naturally, to dream about West and North and East, too. Which leads me to say to myself, “Hey! You like mini-series! And you like the points of the compass! Why not a mini-series blog?!”

South
In January 2001, when we first started our travels, Connecticut was covered in snow.

In fact, I fell on the ice-covered driveway, right before we left.

(I'm waving at Mistah; no one else was around to see us off.)

.

We left on January 11, 2001 . . .

. . . and got to the Florida Keys 5 days later. Key West is a really good place to let bruises heal. We arrived in 5 days, and stayed for almost 3 months.

We have spent a lot of time in the Florida Keys over the last 7-1/2 years, and have lots of great photos. But I am not prepared to fully dive in to the Keys world at this moment in time. That is a blog for another day . . .

In more recent years, we don’t head straight to the Keys when we get to the Sunshine State. Instead we stop in north central Florida, and stay a while in one our of favorite state parks in America: Gold Head Branch State Park, in Keystone Heights.

We get to camp there for a couple of months at a time, because we’re “volunteers”, which really means we use the state vehicles to get free firewood for ourselves from the big wood pile, and drink beers around our campfire with Ranger Steve all night. But don’t tell the Park Manager that.

Gold Head is full of live oaks (which I find absolutely charming. In Connecticut they’re just oaks: the “live” part is assumed) covered in Spanish Moss.

There are some seriously majestic trees there . . .

. . . and Mistah really likes photographing trees from this angle.

The Spanish moss is wild.

It covers everything.

And it’s just so mysterious and beautiful. We always take some with us and hang it in our Westy when we leave, and it lasts and lasts.

We have a great campsite there . . .

But the Central Ridge of Florida is made of sand, which covers every surface and gets into every crevice of the Westy.

Part of the Florida Trail goes through Gold Head, and that packed sand is great for hiking and running.

And sitting. Trails are great for sitting and yakking with Ranger Steve.

Gold Head’s got Deer Lake and Sheelar Lake . . .

. . . and lots of these big fern fronds (that’s what I call them) that seem to actively, purposefully play with the sunlight.

But one of the best things about this great park is there is practically no ambient light.

So you – well, Mistah – can have loads of fun taking photos at night.

That’s Full Moon Behind Long Leaf Pine . . .

. . . and this is Moon Pine. We seem to get more than our fair share of full moons when we’re there.

But when there's *no* moon, the stars are pretty great.

Besides the trees and the lakes and the birds and the moon and the stars, the best thing about Gold Head is our eternal campfire.

There’s nothing like gazing into a fire, listening to music, talking, and thinking Deep Thoughts . . .

. . . usually from the bottom of an empty wine glass.