Sunday, November 21, 2010 (Laura S. Walker State Park, GA)

I thought I was over my super-early morning risings...but there I was wide awake laying there listening to Steve snore...and it wasn’t even 5 a.m. yet! Sheesh! My mind started racing and I knew it was useless so I finally gave in and got up. It has been quite a while since I have been up so early.

What a beautiful sunrise this morning...it was going to be another gorgeous day. Steve sat outside with his coffee enjoying the early morning sunshine while I did my exercises inside. He decided to do his exercises when I went over for my shower.

After breakfast, as Steve was getting the boat ready to take out for ride, he struck up a conversation with the couple across the road from us. They retired in May 2009 and are now full-timers in an Airstream Trailer with no slide-outs. She did say that it was a little narrow. They are from Ontario and are heading towards Los Angeles where he has family. It’s too bad that we hadn’t had a chance to talk longer with them. She seemed very resourceful in what she had learned over the last year and a half full-timing.

Once Steve had the electric motor all hooked up in the boat, we set out to go “alligator hunting”. I’m telling you...that water is such a dark coffee colour and full of weeds and critters, that the thought of accidently going overboard just gave me the willies!!!  It was actually very beautiful as we quietly skimmed slowly across the water.  Here is a picture of our campsite taken from the boat...

We saw 3 alligators...from a distance...along with a few turtles poking their heads out of the water. It got very weedy as we approached the end of the lake and of course, the weeds got all wrapped around the propeller...numerous times. After cleaning the weeds off many times, Steve decided to just row us back out of the dense weeds. Once free of the thick weeds, we headed slowly back. The wind had come up and the poor little electric motor was having a bit of a hard time going against it so it was time to go in. We had been out for an hour...we’ll explore the other end of the lake tomorrow.

I made sandwiches and we sat out in sunshine eating our lunch. There were plenty of clouds around but for the most part, the sun was managing to get through and it was very warm out...in the upper 70’s (it may have even made it to 80 but we’re not sure because we forgot to bring the thermometer outside).

After a short afternoon siesta following lunch, we decided to check out the hiking trail. The trailhead is across the highway from the park entrance. It is only a 1.3 mile hike but it has some interesting features...and critters. We didn’t see any critters but the vegetation was interesting...Saw Palmettos were abundant. They look just like a “fan palm”...I was just saying to Steve that I wondered what they were called and low and behold, the next thing we saw was a sign on the trail naming the plant. We came across a big hole that had been made by a Gopher Tortoise (http://www.gophertortoise.org/tortoise/facts.htm  )...it digs tunnels up to 30 feet in length and as far down as 3 to 20 feet!

It was a very nice, easy trail with a good portion of it a wide boardwalk over what I’m supposing is a swampy area (when they have rain).

On our way back we stopped at the park office to give them a set of keys that we had found on a bench in the park. While there I thought I would ask if by chance, there had been a cancellation for the long weekend next weekend. Not having a reservation anywhere for the Thanksgiving Weekend was really bothering us because the more people we spoke to, the more we realized that it had been very poor planning on our part. To our surprise, there had been a cancellation...2, in fact! YAY! We didn’t have our wallets with us and to reserve you need to make payment right away. So we quickly walked back to the trailer and picked up Steve’s wallet. Once back, we reserved and paid for another 5 nights...making our stay extended until Monday, November 29th. What a relief...and what an awesome spot to spend the extra time at!

Steve and I were sitting in the sunshine drinking a much needed bottle of water when we realized that it was only 2:30 p.m. It was one of those very rare days where the time seems to be going much slower than normal. It was really nice for a change.

Other than putting on a load of laundry (there are 2 washers and dryers in the bathhouse) we spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing. Steve read his magazines and I thought I would try to get some pictures uploaded into our blog so that it can be posted. I was a little behind on the postings mainly because the pictures are taking a little longer to upload using the Rogers Rocket Stick as my internet connection.

Once the sun went down, we changed into warmer clothes and Steve lit a campfire. We had a couple of drinks and then did up burgers on the barbeque. After dinner, I checked to see if Rob or Chris were signed into Skype. It was 7pm here, making it only 4pm back home but Rob was on so we called. The picture quality wasn’t good but it was still great seeing Rob and Angie and having a good chat with them. I can hardly wait to see Angie when we get home at Christmas...I need some “girl-time” with my favourite daughter-in-law!!! Steve placed a Skype call to his dad. Nothing new with him as usual...same old same old as he always says.

I had chatted with Chris briefly this afternoon on MSN...he was at work. A very important milestone (the game is going into “Alpha”...whatever that means) is coming up this Wednesday so he decided to put in a little extra work this weekend. He wasn’t sure what time he would be home to Skype us but I said that I would check throughout the evening to see if he was on. He wasn’t on yet...so I’ll check again later.

We returned to the campfire and had just re-stoked it when our neighbours, Toddie and Vic returned home. They joined us by the fire for a short visit before heading inside. They had been packing up today in preparation for leaving tomorrow so were tired from a busy day. We stayed out for another half hour or so and then decided to go in and watch the season finale of Glades that we had PVR’d.

Before heading to bed, I went on-line one last time to see if we could connect with Chris. Not yet...oh well, we’ll have to try tomorrow. With the 3 hour time difference, it was just after 7pm in Vancouver but after 10pm here and we were heading to bed. But just as I was about to sign out, I had a Skype call from my brother, Dwight. Although a bit choppy and broken up, it was great seeing and hearing from him. Sounds like it is pretty cold back home and more snow is in the forecast...unusual for Victoria and very early in the season!