Tue, Nov 15, Lake Manatee State Park, Sarasota, FL:  Saw the first snake in here while I was on my morning walk.  A small black snake.  Harmless.  Walked to the lake and back.  Mike joined me as I was coming back.  Waited for the RV repair guys to show up, which they did around 3:00.  The part needs to be replaced, so we’ll probably have to wait until we’re on our way home to get it fixed.  Played Trivial Pursuit for a while.  Mike won (sigh).  Was cloudy most of the day.  It finally cleared around 3:30.  Tomorrow should be nice.  73 today and breezy. 

Lake Manatee
(picture by Sandy)

Mon, Nov 14, Lake Manatee State Park, Sarasota, FL:  Not a very nice day today.  I took a walk in the morning and got sprinkled on a little bit.  We decided to go see a movie—“The Accountant’.  A good day for it.  While we were driving by a golf course, we saw a guy relieving himself against a tree.  There’s some golf etiquette for you.  Guess it’s the Y chromosome. A mobile RV repair guy is scheduled to be here tomorrow between 3 and 5.  So, we’ll be hanging around tomorrow—in the afternoon anyway.  73 here today.

Lake Manatee

Sun, Nov 13, Lake Manatee State Park, Sarasota, FL:  A beautiful day today.  My sister, Sandy, and her husband, Dan, showed up around 10:30.  We sat around talking for a while.  Sandy and I walked down to the lake.  Around 3:30 we headed out for an early dinner and then they headed back to Tampa and we headed back to our site.  A nice day.  83 here today.

My sister, Sandy.

The four of us
(picture by Sandy)

Sat, Nov 12, KOA, Perry, FL, to Lake Manatee State Park, Sarasota, FL:  On the road this morning by 9:30.  I drove to just south of Ocala and then we stopped for food and Mike took over.  The Ocala area has some beautiful horse ranches.  We continued on ALT 27 out of Chiefland and then got on I75 in Ocala.  I75 seems to be in a constant state of flux.  There are construction zones everywhere.  We arrived at Lake Manatee SP and were set up by 3:30.  Made a grocery run and relaxed the rest of the evening.  My sister, Sandy, and her husband, Dan, are visiting tomorrow.  83 when we arrived here, but cooled down quickly as the sun set.  

Key West Harbor

Fri, Nov 11, Ft. Pickens, Pensacola, FL, to KOA, Perry, FL:  Left at 9:30 this morning which we thought was pretty good, but we forgot we lose an hour because we’ll now be on Eastern Time (ugh!).  Took us 45 minutes just to get to I10 where we continued east and dropped south on 19/27 which is a limited access four-lane highway.  This is a pretty drive on 19/27 through a rural area of sprawling ranches with huge live oaks covered in Spanish moss, all enclosed in neat white- or brown-board fencing.  We drove through tiny little towns with names like Eridu and Iddu that haven’t changed for decades.  We pulled into the KOA in Perry at 4:30—just in time for dark (sigh).  Leave tomorrow for Lake Manatee in Sarasota.  

Thu, Nov 10, Ft. Pickens, Pensacola, FL:  After breakfast we headed back to the ACE Hardware Store in Gulf Shores to return some things and get a towel bar for the bathroom.  After that we came back and parked by the campground store and walked out to the beach.  A beautiful, sunny day today.  While at the beach we heard some plane activity and headed down to the fort to watch the practice session.  The stunt planes were performing first.  Watched for a while and then headed to Pensacola Beach to get some lunch.  Went to Peg Leg Pete’s and we both had Cajun shrimp wraps.  Really good.  We were starved by then.  Back to the campground and the Blue Angels were rehearsing.  Saw the show from our campsite.  They are spectacular.  Their homecoming shows are Friday and Saturday.  They’re gone all summer performing in other parts of the country, and they come back “home” for the winter.  They lost one of their pilots at an airshow a few months ago.  74 today and beautiful.  We leave tomorrow morning for Perry, FL, for one night and then on to Lake Manatee for a week. 

Looks more like Minnesota in the dead of winter than Pensacola.

o 

Some of the flora on the sand dunes.

The beach is pretty--and devoid of humanoids.

The Blue Angels as seen from our site.

Wed, Nov 9:  Ft. Pickens, Pensacola, FL:  Cloudy and cool, but not raining this morning.  Around noon we headed over to Gulf Shores to see the movie, “A Man Called Ove”.   After the movie, we stopped at an Ace Hardware in the same strip mall and picked up a couple of things and headed back.  Drove down to the fort before going back to our site.  Still cloudy at this time.  The fort is directly across Pensacola Bay from the Naval Air Station where the Blue Angels fly out of.  What a great viewing spot for the air show.  If the show is early enough Friday morning, we may watch the show and then head out.  We’ll see.

The beach here in about 10 miles long.  Hardly anyone around.

Ft. Pickens is a pre-Civil-War-era fort.  Constructed in 1834.

These gravestones are from Stonesfield Plantation Cemetery, on land that is now Pensacola Naval Air Station.  Chasefield Plantation was the home of Major William H. Chase, who supervised the construction of Ft. Pickens in the early 1800s.