Sunday, May 11 - We left the Chassahowitzka River at 9:11 am and arrived at St. Joseph Peninsula at 3:19 after driving 264.9 miles. The trip included a 45 minute stop at WalMart for supplies, since we are about 20 miles from the nearest store. We have no cell phone service here and are amazed that our Verizon Wireless Internet Card actually works, although pretty slow. It was very windy all the way here with a strong cross wind that pushed us around pretty severely at times. The surf is definitely up here and will provide pictures when we get better internet service. We have a fairly nice site, although it is quite narrow and allows us to barely get our awning up. There are many nice boardwalks across the dunes to the beach, which goes on forever. We are anxious to explore, launch the kayaks, and fish.
Monday, May 12 - It was a very windy night and we could hear the wind blowing in the tree canopy and hear the surf crashing on the beach, but we were not affected very much at all. Being in the trees made a hugh difference. We got up and took our coffee walk on the boardwalk down to the beach and to the other campground. We got back to camp and had breakfast, then took a bike ride to explore the park. We found a couple of places to launch the kayaks, but today was still too windy for us to go out. Tomorrow promises to be calmer. We did some work around the campsite and put up the add-a-room with some extra screening to try to ward off the no-see-ums. They are around, but not terrible. In the afternoon, we walked down to the beach and sat for awhile and enjoyed the surf crashing. In the evening, after dinner, we walked back down to the beach and took some pictures of the sunset. It was very nice. John will put pictures on when we get a better connection. It is taking quite long just to get this updated. The speed is too slow to upload pictures.
Tuesday, May 13 - The wind died down considerably, but the weather is still very comfortable with low humidity. We slept very well last night and got up not too early and took a coffee walk. We walked the beach and Joan picked up many shells. We had breakfast then decided to go back to the beach and fish the surf. We really enjoyed that, but no fish. We saw some stingrays cruizing the shallow water, but did not see anything else. The internet connection is working better this afternoon, so John was able to get some more pictures downloaded. We are planning on taking the kayaks out after dinner. We will drive them down to the boat launch, because the walk to wheel them down is pretty far and all in the sun.
We launched the kayaks about 5:30 and fished until just before sunset. John started the action by bringing a quite large ladyfish to the kayak. Joan then followed with a bluefish and a little later a flounder. We didn't know the regulations for bluefish and the flounder got away before Joan got a chance to measure it. The evening was beautiful, with a fairly strong breeze coming from the northeast, but not enough to bother us.
Wednesday, May 14 - We reversed directions on our coffee walk this morning by taking the boardwalk to other campground and then following the beach back to our area. We called our friends Fred and Judy from a public phone to let them know about some wild fires they may encounter on the way. Hopefully they will be under control before they get there. They are going to be camping near us for a little over a week. They will then join us at Falling Waters State Park after that. We met them at Cotton Hill COE campground last year and have kept in touch.
We took our bikes down to the entrance gate and stopped at the boat launch, point, and picnic areas on the way back.
Fred and Judy arrived about 4:30 and got set up on their site. We had them over for dinner, went for a walk to the beach and boardwalk, and then went over to their place to visit.
Thursday, May 15 – We took our coffee over to F&J’s and had cereal with them. We decided to go to the beach for John & Fred to fish. In about 5 minutes Fred caught a nice sized ladyfish. Everyone was very excited. In the evening we had a great sausage, potato, and sauerkraut dinner with them and then went for a relaxing evening walk.
Friday, May 16 - We took our coffee walk around our camping loop then down to the beach and walked the opposite direction we usually do. It started to rain, so we went inside and checked the weather on the tv. There was a broad line of storms that looked to be headed our way. Thankfully, most of the serious weather went north of us. We drove down to the boat launch thinking we would fish from there, but another storm came through, so we went back to camp. After things cleared up in the afternoon we went back to the boat launch and fished for a little while, but since there was no action we decided to launch the kayaks. It was still pretty windy, so fishing was difficult. Joan managed to land one trout that was a little too short to keep. We went around the point to get out of the wind, but we not able to catch anything there.
Saturday, May 17 - In the afternoon we rode our bikes to the Visitor's Center that we were promised would be open, but alas it was still closed. We rode back to the front gate so Fred & Judy could try to reserve one more day, but the campground will be full. We went over to F&Js for cheese & crackers and then they joined us for spaghetti dinner. After dinner we went to the beach and John fly-fished and Fred spin fished the surf while we all watched the sunset. It was still quite windy, but a beautiful evening.
Sunday, May 18 - We got up early this morning, showered, and headed into Apalachicola with F&J to church. We found a Baptist church that had an 11AM service. The folks there were extremely friendly and inviting and the service was good. The pastor had a strong message that was an introduction to Revelation. He made us want to come back to hear the teaching. We left and with a recommendation headed to the Owl Cafe in town. The meal was very good, but a little pricey. We then walked around town, looked through a couple of antique stores, then an art show for young artists. It was excellent. We had ice cream cones for dessert at a neat little shop with an old time soda counter. In the evening, Joan searched the beach for shells while John Fly-fished. Neither had much success. When we got back to camp we discovered our mousey friend had been there, but had eaten some bait that we had set around, so don't figure we'll be seeing much of him again. (We hope)
Monday, May 19 - More signs of mousey during the night, so we set a couple of traps and checked bait. The piece behind a large drawer had definitely been sampled, so a few more should not be back. We think we know how they are getting in, so plan to do some sealing when we get to a spot where John can climb under the camper. After breakfast we went down to the beach with F&J and mostly sat, but also took turns fishing. Fred had what looked to be another ladyfish on, but it got away. That was the only action for the morning. In the evening the four of us went over to the kayak launch and Fred and John put in kayaks and fished. Fred landed another ladyfish, and John landed a small flounder and a nice sized (19") bluefish. Joan probably would not like bluefish, because it is a pretty strong tasting fish with a dark meat. We had a nice dinner at F&J's place and a nice visit in the evening.
Tuesday, May 20 - It was quite warm this morning and windy, but we decided to launch the kayaks and fish for awhile. Joan landed a small trout and shortly after we paddled around to the other side of the point where we launched, John landed an 18 incher that we brought home for dinner. We found that the trout were hanging around the sandy areas (pot holes) in the shallow grass flats. We enjoyed the trout for dinner and in the evening we took a nice walk along the beach. The breeze was very strong and the waves were crashing on the beach.
Wednesday, May 21 - We had a nice veggie omelet breakfast with F&J, then went back to our camp and got some things done in preparation for leaving in the morning, such as taking down the screening and add-a-room. We found where our mousey friends were getting in and covered the hole with tape. We discovered we had added to the problem by leaning the bikes against the back of the camper which provided them a way to climb onto the back bumper and getting into a hole above where the lift motor sits. Having the bait placed in various places we think prevented them from setting up permanent housekeeping. It has been more humid and quite warm today, but we are getting a nice breeze off the gulf. We are not sure what to expect when we go more inland on our next stop.
ViewPictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/StJosephPeninsulaStateParkMay1122
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