Welcome to Florida...."bug central"

Our first overnight stop in Florida was in the town of Live Oak. It is in the top part of the state right off of I-10 and I-75. We got a site for 2 nights at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. It is a huge facility bordering the Suwannee River (way down upon the Suwannee River). Warning bells should have gone off in my brain when we selected this RV park....but it was a free park to us....so I guess I ignored any possible bell ringing. Everything is first rate at this park and we had a nice location under some shade trees. The big issue is the fact that I forgot that Florida is "bug central" as far as I'm concerned. We took a walk that first afternoon when we arrived and we walked down the road to see the Suwannee River. It was about 1/2 mile from us, so that meant a 1/2 mile back to the RV home as well. By the time we got to the river I had approximately 25 to 30 mosquito bites. We had no option but to walk back and the mosquitoes enjoyed biting me a lot more times. Holy Smokers, I itched for several days after that.

Here is a photo of some of the weird swamp trees you can find in the Deep South. I think they are really cool.

You will also see lots and lots of this Spanish Moss hanging from trees in these southeastern states.

After we left the area around the Suwannee River, we drove south to the town of Clermont. It is in the mid-central part of Florida. We stayed for 3 nights at the Clerbrook Golf Resort and RV Park. This park has a mixed population of park model homes and RV's. This time of year all of the snow-birds have gone back north for the summer and all that remain are the few die hard full time residents. Mostly the RV parks in Florida resemble ghost towns this time of year.

While staying in Clerbrook we saw many of the Sandhill Cranes walking about the grounds. They are a protected species and very fun to observe. They are a skilled soaring bird with a wing span of up to 6 1/2 feet. They make a loud trumpeting, honking sound when they fly. I guess that means they are happy. Here are some photos of the Sandhill Cranes. They are very tall birds, maybe 3 feet in height.

All around the creeks and ponds throughout the Clerbrook Resort are signs posted "Watch out for Alligators". That is no joke. The alligator are plentiful in all parts of Florida and if there is water nearby....so might be the alligator !!

Next stop: a 6-day stay in Kissimmee and we will visit Walt Disney World.