Okefenokee Swamp

K-Mon Dec.2, 2013-Okefenokee

Sunday was fairly nice and sort of warm. We got kayaking around 10:30. The canal you take to get to the main water was loaded with robins. I have never seen such flock of them as I saw today. Must be the the hot spot for the winter! I also heard a lot of peewees. In the area and through our our paddle.

The water was like glass. I don’t think we had ever paddled on such beautiful water. Not a ripple except from fish jumping, and bubbles here and there from turtles. I am really working at not looking “at” the scenery, but into the scenery. A dear friend of ours, Joe, says he doesn’t look at the woods but into the woods. I started doing that and you really start noticing so much more. Even when I am in the car I practice doing that. It is what I have been trying to do when we kayak, not look at the water, but study it and you can see the nose of a turtle coming up for air.  Okay, enough of my droning along!

We headed up to Minnie Lake which is a really nice paddle through the cypress trees. It is a small canal, but unfortunately, the motor boats (small Jon boats) can make there way up to it also. Some are very respectful and slow down, while others just sort of motor through, not looking at anything but to see how fast and how far they can go. This one older couple in motor boat was so sheepish about being in one that every time we saw them going up and coming back, they would cut the motor and paddle! Not a whole lot of wildlife in this area. Not enough sun for the gators to warm up in, a few egrets and we did see a Wood Stork just hanging out in a branch over the water.

Partway up this part of the swamp was a “rest area” with a picnic table, pit toilet and good place to get out stretch. There was another couple there who were from Western Mass., Amherst area.  If I got the story correct, he is a writer and had written a play based on the book “Project Not Spoken”. The book is by Merton, and it is about the cover ups of the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. And how they were all connected. We never introduced ourselves to this couple so I have no idea what his name was. I was poking around the internet this morning to see if I could find anything, but the connections is so slow I will try later.

The gentleman we were talking to wrote a documentary play(?) based on this book, is having readings all around the country to create an awareness about the cover ups. We had a fascinating time talking to him and his wife or girlfriend. They were really nice and we shared numerous stories. I will try and research it some more and try a figure out who he is. He said he had just done an interview on NPR for the show “All Things Considered”, so I will check that out.

Today we had to hang out and wait to for the insurance adjuster to call about the awning. We will meet up with them tomorrow in the town of Fargo and then head out to Florida and work on our residency stuff.

K-Friday, Nov. 29, 2013-Okefenoke

Sorry for the lack of writing. Our Internet here is really slow, so I am writing on a word document and then will copy/paste into the blog when things speed up. I can’t even open our blog page. Things got a little squirrelley after we got here. Tuesday rained pretty hard for most of the day so we took the opportunity to do some repacking after the bad, midnight packing we had done. When the rain did stop it was so nice and warm out that we were able to play cards outside and took the dogs for a walk. After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed the warm.

After we went to bed, around 3a.m. the wind started to pick up. No rain, it just got windy. All the trees around here are real skinny (not red pin but something similar), just real tall and the skinny things started whipping around. All of sudden there was a huge crash and a branch had fallen and smashed through the camper awning. Stuff was coming down everywhere. Thank goodness we were able to get the awning put away and the car and camper to parking lot in the visitor center, and parked in the middle where there weren’t any trees. We left a bunch of stuff in the campsite and spent the rest of the night in the visitor center parking lot. While we were scrambling around in the dark, a ranger came by and asked if we were okay and said a tree was down right near where he lives in the CG.

In the morning we got moved to a different site and the ranger who talked to us in the middle of the night thought we were having a tornado and ran for a closet! Where the tree fell down near his place, was right in line with our campsite, about 150' away.

Wednesday we had to shop for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) so we did a 130 mile round trip to Valdosta for shopping, the most boring drive of our lives! Just through pine woods that are continually getting logged and replanted.

However, the grocery store we found, Harvey’s, was wonderful. The place was hopping. Not your big chain store. All the staff was happy and helpful and really funny. I was able to find game hens (which being in smaller store, not sure if they would have them). The young man at the checkout was really funny. I asked him how late he was working till and he was only there until 4 pm, but he was excited about lunch because the store made Thanksgiving dinner for the staff! Everyone had to bring a side dish to share. How many places do that anymore? Every grocery store (once you leave the NE) has their “store card” and he asked me if I had one and told him “no”, he was so upset. I told him we were just passing through, and he said “I had to get one and it would just take 2 seconds to fill out!” So needless to say this makes about 20 cards! AND do I remember to bring them into the store with me? I know all of you can answer that question!

Thanksgiving was beautiful and sunny and cool. We took the dogs for a long walk down the park road, probably about 4 miles. Very flat but felt good to get moving after sitting for so long.

I talked to a couple who were just getting out of their kayaks and they had seen a bear in a tree, a buck, some gators, and a bald eagle. We can’t wait to get out the boats.

It is a bit strange not being home at TG. I am so used to cooking for 2 days with our wood cook stove going and just being snuggled in that this year, we shop the day before and don’t start cooking until 3 in the afternoon! I called an “old” friend and got nostalgic after hanging up. (Not sure if that is the right term or not)

Lot’s of people with deep fryers going. One site was doing a deep fried ham! Another site had a croquet game going through 3 different sites. They were having a blast. Our neighbors next to us have enough firewood to last for the next week!

Our TG dinner was quite yummy. I stuffed game hens with homemade rice pilaf, spinach, mushrooms and pine nuts and Tom grilled them. We also had mashed squash, mashed potatoes and rolls I had made a couple days ago. We had a New Zealand “unoaked” chardonnay. Now we have lots of leftovers that will hopefully last until we leave here.

We finally did get out in the boats for a couple hours. Tons of ibis and egrets, alligators trying to get some sun, turtles and a lot of boat traffic. The park rents motor boats, canoes and kayaks. We forgot about the fact that it was a holiday, so it was fairly busy and a tad noisy. But it was really nice and the weather was warm. There are still quite a few leaves on the more shrubby vegetation.

K-Monday,11/26/13 Okefenoke State Park near Edith and Fargo,GA.

We decided to book it out of S. Carolina in search of warmer weather. We spent Sunday night at Huntington State Park just south of Myrtle Beach. Ugh. Too much noise, traffic and people. But it is a hot spot for tourism. Just not our kind of tourism!

We haven’t done much camping in the east and especially this time of year. We are so used to lots of Forest Service Camping that there isn’t that much here for that and because of the cold, we need hook-ups for running the heater. So that adds a different dimension to how we camp.

We really wanted to spend some time in Charleston and Savannah, but that will have to wait for another time.

We are now in Okefenokee. We had been here several years ago and really liked it and the best part is it is 70 and we have all the windows open. We plan on kayaking here if the gators don’t get us while we are on the water.