Thursday, May 22 - We started packing up about 7AM and were on the road a little after 9AM. We arrived at Falling Waters SP about 12:30 after driving 118 miles. The drive was very nice with little traffic and much less windy than our last trip. When we got here the ranger informed us that the folks on the site we reserved were not out yet and check-out time is not until 1PM CDT. We were still on EDT. We drove down to the sink-hole and falls area and parked. We had a quick snack then hiked the trails that go down to the sink-holes and the falls. They are quite impressive even though the falls had barely a trickle coming over it. The park is really beautiful and so different than St. Joseph Peninsula. The campsites have been recently redone and are excellent. They are more open and much cleaner. It is also very quiet here, with almost no road noise. We were finally able to set up, which we did in good time. We have had to install a large fan under the tarp to vent the air conditioner and keep it from overheating. It will be nice to have the tarp up again and keep things cleaner. We will put the other tarp over the picnic table tomorrow. We also need to do a Wally run and will check out the Chipley area at the same time.
Friday, May 23 - Today was an errand day which included a trip into Chipley to Walmart, an eye appointment for John to get new glasses to replace his scratched ones, a tour of Chipley, and lunch at a nice sandwich shop. Coffee walks here take about 10 minutes to complete the loop, unlike St. Joseph Peninsula where the loops would take between 30 and 40 minutes. The surroundings here are very different as well with pines and hardwood replacing the palms and scrub. We are getting information from locals on where to launch the kayaks as there is no place here in the park. Some of the better places are a bit far for a day trip, especially with nearly $4 gas. We got neighbors who are set up very close who came in late yesterday, but they have not been excessively noisey. John thinks they are an A.A. group, but Joan is not so sure.
Saturday, May 24 - It was quite hot today with very little breeze. It must be getting to be time to head further north. We took the opportunity today to avoid places where there would be crowds and stay around camp and do some cooking for future meals. We cranked up the charcoal grill and filled it up with chicken. Joan had the crock pot going with more chicken for salads and sandwiches. Late in the afternoon we went to the fire ring (no fire) for a ranger's talk on prescribed burning. The hosts were also there and we had a nice talk with them. They also made peach cobbler in a cast iron Dutch oven. It was outstanding. Now we have the bug to buy one, but will have to wait until we get back home. Our night was not very quiet due to neighbors who are next door who were not particularly considerate of fellow campers. We've come to expect this on holiday weekends and know that by Tuesday all will be quiet again.
Sunday, May 25 - We got up early and went a short distance to Courts of Praise International Fellowship for worship. The music was very good and the worship meaningful. Folks were very friendly as well. We are trying to decide when to celebrate our anniversary. We were married at the P&W service on the Sunday during Labor Day weekend on May 29th. So, do we celebrate today or wait until Thursday. Maybe we'll do both, since both the date and day are meaningful to us.
Monday, May 26 - Even though it is Memorial Day, today is very quiet in the campground. Most people were gone before noon, even our next door neighbors. The rangers gave them very strong warnings about holding down the noise and about complaints they had received. They heeded them and were quiet after 11 PM last night, which is quiet time here. We needed to go to Walmart again to pick up a few needed items. Fred & Judy arrived yesterday and will be joining us for dinner this afternoon. Joan is trying out a new chicken salad entrey and John is experimenting with a blackberry cobler done on the RVQ. Nothing like good friends to experiment on.
(Later) Dinner was a success, except we decided to wait on the cobbler, since it was getting late and we wanted to go down to the lake and fish. John fished with the fly rod while Fred used spinning gear. Fred took little time to hook a nice bass and nearly had it all the way to shore when it escaped. John had a couple of nice attacks on his floating popper, but alas nothing hooked up. It was a beautiful evening though, with a nice breeze and cooler temps.
Tuesday, May 27 - We all got up relatively early and went for a hike past the lake to the waterfall and sink holes. We have pictures this time. John & Joan walked right by the snake in the picture without even seeing it. It was not moving very fast and John had to coax it to get it off the trail. John looked it up later and found that it was a corn snake, which is a nice, friendly, non-venomous one. If you like, you can find out more at: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/FL-GUIDE/Elaphegguttata.htm. The waterfall is still dry, but impressive anyway. We returned to camp and headed out to do some errands. It is fairly hot again today, so we will lessen the amount of exertion.
Wednesday, May 28 - The four of us left fairly early this morning and drove over to Ponce de Leon State Park near the town of the same name. We waded in the quite cool water (68 deg.), which kept us nice and cool. The springs put out about 14 million gallons of water a day, making it a first magnitude spring. We had a picnic lunch there also. The park is beautiful and nicely kept. Next we drove to Vortex spring about 8 miles north of there, but it was not nearly as nice. It was quite expensive and although the spring itself was nice, the area and facilities were not very well maintained. We would not go back there. The two of us had dinner then went down to the lake to fish for awhile. Even though Joan put repellant on, the gnats would not leave her alone. Maybe they liked her repellant, because they did not bother John at all even though he was repellant free. We caught a few small bass, then decided to call it a day. On the way back we heard a fairly large animal that sounded like a ferral pig moving through the brush. Joan was so busy looking at where it moved into the woods that she didn't see a snake until it scurried away. John is pretty sure it was a pigmy rattlesnake. He was quite small and never appeared threatning, thankfully. See: http://www.floridaconservation.org/viewing/species/snakesv.html#pygmy for mor information.
Thursday, May 29 - We went over to the farmer's market in town and picked up a few veggies, then WalMart to get other stuff for dinner. Joan made up a dish from her Kraft magazine that consisted of spinach, sausage, pasta, canned tomatos, and 2 cheeses. John cooked the sausage. It was very tasty. We invited our camp hosts, James and Carmen, over for dinner, then had F&J over later for anniversary apple pie. We got a nice rain in the evening, which cooled it off nicely.
Friday, May 30 - It rained again in the night fairly hard, so we figured maybe there would be some water coming over the falls. We got up early and took our coffee down to the falls area, but were disappointed. Maybe the drops were coming a little faster, but alas, no falls. Still, it was a nice hike, and cool. It didn't take long however, for the day to heat up. We used that as an excuse to take it easy, catch up on reading, and do some light chores around camp. Our camp hosts invited us and F&J over for dinner. We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed checkers and dominos. John actually managed to win a round of Mexican Train. So Sally if you are reading this, take note. When we returned to the camper we watched the rest of Dances With Wolves that F&J loaned us.
Saturday, May 31 - We slept in this morning, then had pancakes for breakfast. We have been discussing where to go from here. We are thinking we might skip Walter F. George lake and go on to West Point Lake by La Grange, Ga. We need to get a little farther north and the 10-day forcasts for WPL are about 5 degrees cooler. We have not been able to get the kayaks out here because of the heat and having to travel several miles to launch.
Sunday, June 1 - We discovered that the Methodist church in town has a contemporart service at 9:32 EDT, so the four of us decided to go. The people there were very inviting and friendly and they had a nice service, even though they were struggling with some expected issues that come with starting anything new. The message was good and focused on how to stop worrying. The pastor's text was Jesus' sermon on worry found in Matthew Chapter 6, vs 25-34. In the evening, F&J, Carmen & James, Mary & Sara (ladies working at the campground), and J&J brought dishes to pass for dinner. We had a nice time and great food. John set up a fan that he plugged into an inverter connected to a deep-cycle battery to help keep us cool and discourage the gnats.
Monday, June 2 - We got up early and headed over to Mill Pond for a little kayaking and fishing. We fished mostly bass and saw some large ones, but not would hit. We found that most people fish for shellcrackers, or redear sunfish, using live crickets. John tried the fly rod, and they bumped the popper, but would not take it. We also saw some carp and a gar that were nearly as large as the kayaks. Needless to say, we did not try for them. The water was crystal clear because it is fed by Blue Spring, a first magnatude spring. This makes fishing more difficult, especially during the day. It got very hot, so we stopped and headed into town and had lunch at a nice restaurant. They were very friendly and made us feel like we were regulars. We also stopped at Walmart for some necessities and at Lowes for a bypass hose for the camper's hot water heater and some pvc to make a shower enclosure. We have outside shower faucets and this will allow us to take showers outside the camper. We will clamp curtains around it and attach it with clamps to the side of the camper.
Tuesday, June 3 - We got some rain during the night, but no violent weather. We got up fairly early and had breakfast before heading out. We drove down to Panama City so John could pick up his new eyeglass lenses and then headed to Valparaiso along I-98 so Joan could revisit where she lived in the 70's when her son Jean-Paul was little. We drove past her house and visited a nice park where she and JP had many hours of enjoyment. We had picked up subs and had a nice picnic while watching the bay. There was a nice breeze there and Joan said that she could remember that there was always one there even on the hottest days. We stopped at Rocky Bayou State Park and checked out the campground and facilities. Everything was very nice, convincing us that we need to stop there next year. When we got back to camp storms were again in the area, but they missed us. The temperatures thankfully dropped anyway.
Wednesday, June 4 - It is quite hot again today with no change in sight. We leave tomorrow, so we spent most of the day getting ready for our stay at Cotton Hill Corps of Engineers CG on Walter F. George Lake near Ft. Gaines. We also got last minute food items at Walmart because there are no good grocery stores near there. We spent some time with our friends James and Carmen who are hosts here came back from their two days off. The brought over cupcakes for our dessert tonight and some fig jelly for us to enjoy. They are great examples of the wonderful people we meet on our travels and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.
View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/FallingWatersStateParkMay22June05
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