Just another day in paradise

Its looking like its gonna be another nice day in paradise here at the park. Started out a bit cloudy and with a few tiny sprinkles, but the sun is out in full force now and its quite warm, a gently breeze blowing every now and then. Just right for my birthday. Thought I would share a few pictures I took yesterday around the boat ramp area. While at the boat ramp, right around sunset, a tourist fishing from the dock caught a small Bonnet Head shark. He released him unharmed. Hope everyone has a wonderful Spring day.

STARI

Well I managed to get up close and personal with one of natures little critters. I was bitten by a LONE STAR TICK behind my right knee. (see photo, stock internet picture) Along with his nasty little bite, and he was attached well, came STARI. Southern tick-associated rash illness. Its rather red and fevered at the location with a distinct "bulls-eye" center. It can heal on its own some times so I am giving it a chance to do that. I was bitten Wednesday evening. If all isn't better by Monday, I will have it looked at. Common treatment is oral antibiotics. The most common symptom other than itching is fatigue which I have seemed to be experiencing. But there is some good news in this story. Lone star ticks DO NOT carry lyme disease, so I am safe from that.
Will check in with everyone soon. And watch yourself when playing in the woods or hiking in nature.

Just saying HELLO

Just stopping by in this blog post to say Hello to everyone who has been reading and following our blog. It was a bit breezy today but otherwise nice, so we were out and about in the park enjoying a walk along the lagoon and down to the jetties area. Hope every ones day was as filled with sunshine as ours was.

Boats

St.Andrews State park is a great boating location. The Gulf of Mexico, The St Andrews Bay, and Grand Lagoon all come together right here. So many boats, and many different kinds can be spotted out and about in the area waters enjoying the great weather like we had today. The sailboat is moored in The lagoon. We walked along the lagoon beach today and enjoyed watching the many boaters out enjoying their day. The Sea Dragon Pirate ship was also out filled with tourist enjoying a ride as was the Sea Screamer. They are both area tourist "attractions" here on the beach.

Just a walk in the park

Today was such a great day with 70 degree temps and lots of Sunshine so we took a walk along several of the trails at the park. Ran into some "local" wildlife and though I would share with everyone. Both the squirrel and the deer were quite close to us as you can see and showed very little fear of us as they are quite use to humans here in the park (which really helps with up close photos) The Moore Hens (bird in the water) were out in numbers at Gator lake (located in the park) and were busy swimming near shore and feeding. I can sit and watch them for hours ducking under and bobbing back up as they feed on the tender water vegetation. The Heron was hanging out at the boat ramp, standing on the fish cleaning station located there hoping for a free meal from a fisherman cleaning his catch. As I type this now, I can see the fish cleaning station from here and its surrounded by Brown Pelicans eating fish scraps from a local fisherman cleaning his fish. So now as the sun starts to set, we can truly say its been a great day here at the park.

We made it

Well everyone, sorry its been so long since my last post, but WE MADE IT. As most of you already know, we broke down in South Carolina on the way here to Florida and had to leave our Land Rover behind. But with the use of a rented Uhaul truck, we arrived at St Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach Florida on March 4th. We are all set up and settled in our tent. Its an average size dome tent (Target brand) and its a tight fit but we are comfortable. The weather here hasn't been the greatest since we arrived , but it is starting to improve. I hope to start posting to the blog much more often and keep everyone up to speed on what we are doing. We have had some leaking issues in the tent with two hard rains since we arrived but hopefully some seam sealer and waterproof spray has fixed that issue. The pets don't seem to mind the cramped quarters as even in a mansion, they all would want to be on top of us anyways. I found out I can pick up free Wi-fi from the Marriott resort located right across the lagoon. So just a short bike ride from our site to the boat ramp puts me in touch with everyone. So everyone, keep watching and reading and I will do my best to keep blogging.

Last Walk

Ok, I know I said my last post was "My last post for North Carolina" and now here I go again. (I really love this blogging thing) We took a last walk around Edenton today. I rarely step outside my front door without a camera and today was no exception. As we were leaving the house, Rocco asked why I was taking my camera. He figured I had photographed everything worth taking pictures of in this town. But if you take the time to get out and really look, there is always something new and exciting to find, even if it is in your own backyard. Even if its nothing new, it might be something you have seen before but today was a chance to see it from a new perspective or a different angle. Like the tiny buds of the Dandelions that were poking out from the still brown winter ground, or the seagulls all lined up on the railing along the waters edge, or the Canadian geese as they were foraging along the waterfront. It might be simple things that surround you on a daily basis, But I think we should all take time to stop and smell (and maybe photograph) the roses.