Feb 10, 2015   It was hard to leave Anastasia State Park.  There is so much to do there and it is so beautiful.  As we were leaving I had to snap a couple of more photos of “my friends” before we left.  It was as if they flew by just to bid us farewell.

We are on our way to one of mine and Davids favorite Florida State Parks, Jonathan Dickinson.  We have no reservations.  We tried, but they book up months in advance.  You can book Florida State Parks 11 months to the day, prior to arrival.  In January, February and March it is a real challenge to reserve a site. There are a few first come sites and “specialty” sites that with a great deal of luck you can drive up and get.  We got lucky at Jonathan Dickinson.  We are staying for two nights at the riding stables.  There is a campground called Eagles View. It only has five sites which are held for equestrians.  Our neighbors are beautiful horses. E T is mesmerized by them.  I should record how many hours she spends sitting in front of camper starring at them.

After  we get settled, David takes the Volvo to get gas and a few groceries.  He runs out of gas.   He gets chauffeured to a gas station by a Florida Police Officer. The Officer is a car guy. Is that a surprise!  If the officer wasn’t on duty I’m sure they would have gone for a ride. David would probably have even let him drive. I would have!!!  When he gets back there’s some guys card on the windshield. Is the car for sale?  If we’d been in Miami it probably would have been gone.

While David is gone, I took E T for a walk on one of our favorite bike trails.  Ooops! It’s an alligator pond trail. You’d think I would have remembered that. I’m sure I would have if we’d ever seen any alligators.   We were fine until some guy rode by us on his bike and spooked me.  He said “Wow!  you made it by two ponds without a problem.”  We hopped a fence and walked back on the road.  I really don’t think alligators hang by the paved bike trail waiting to eat dogs or people.  I do believe in jerks being jinxes. I wasn’t taking any chances.

I know the north is getting slammed with cold and snow and some people might not want to here this,  but it’s hot and sticky here. I actually mentioned to David that we might want to use the air conditioning tonight.  The weather at Anastasia was my kind of weather, high 50’s mid 60’s with gentle breezes.  It’s funny,  but  just like in Connecticut there is a fine line of where the weather changes.  In a few days we will be in my favorite place in Florida, maybe in the whole U.S.A., The Florida Keys.  I’m going to reserve judgement on committing to my favorite place until I’m too old to travel anymore and then I’ll choose 🙂

This is a wonderful country we live in with many, many magnificent and majestic places.