Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area, Flagler Beach, Florida
For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ~ Isaiah 55:12
Another laid-back, gentle day as I continue to heal. I’m really, really, really tired of coughing! And now, my throat hurts from coughing so much. And it’s not usually dry coughs either, but at least it’s not coming from my lungs anymore. Now it’s all in my head. 😊
We planned menus, grocery shopped and later, took off on our bikes again, stopping at the Park’s nature trail for a walk before we rode out of the campground.
The underbelly of a mushroom. Pretty!
Here’s the top.
And no, we didn’t knock it over. We found it like that.
Whoa!
Look what was around the bend! That’s pretty cool!
I took this picture of the side so you can see how whoever created this had to smooth the bark.
The trail goes right up to someone’s yard!
Just thought this was pretty.
Pictures from the Park’s butterfly garden.
It’s another spectacular day! Sunny and temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s! Perfect!
After our walk, we rode across the street to check out the ocean-view campground. Some of the sites are wonderful with views of the ocean, but some have so much foliage, you can’t see the water, and all the ‘second row’ can see are the campers in front of them. And everyone is really close together. I think there were only two sites we could’ve fit in that we would even consider over there. We’re happy with where we are. Especially if a storm blew up! 😊
Cactus – on the Florida Coast? In the campground?
Eyouch!
That’s the campground on the left.
Not a bad place to stay – – if you have the right spot. : )
What in the world is that????
It was on the sidewalk and Blaine almost ran over it. It’s about the size of a large praying mantis.
And it never moved while we were checking it out.
The Park was offering a talk this afternoon, so we stopped and listened to that. There were at least a couple dozen people there. It was pretty interesting, just hearing about a brief history of the beach area. The part where we’re camped has only been in service for three years. Flagler Beach has a history of life-saving from shipwrecks off-shore – 186,000 men in 100 years! We never would’ve guessed that many! And that’s before the coastguard! And even before they had rescue boats. Before the Coastguard, there were Houses of Refuge. These houses were positioned every thirty miles along Florida’s coastline. The keepers would walk fifteen miles each direction (for a total of 30 miles every day!) looking for bodies or surviving shipwrecked men.
Now, I want to be perfectly honest here. This fact-stating by Tom seems like a “walking to school in the snow uphill both ways” kind of statement. It’s just not possible for a person to walk that far (on a sandy beach no less) and get anything else done. In addition, if they were responsible for 15 miles of coastline on either side of their House of Refuge, that’s 60 miles of walking every day, not 30. Hmmm . . . . . Now his other “facts” seem to be in question . . . . However, after I briefly looked a couple of these things up, everything else seems to check out.
During WWII, there were watch towers erected so people could keep an eye out for German invasions and u-boats. There was also an Army base here.
That’s Tom
He’s a State Park Ranger here.
This is the official name of the Park.
According to Tom, it’s the second longest name of all the Florida State Parks.
Someplace has one that’s 4-letters longer.
This is who the Park is named for.
I’ll check into him at a later date.
And they see Right Whales along this coast – right off the beach. Wouldn’t that be something?!? Although they also said they’re the most endangered of all the whales and there are only 300-350 currently in existence.
Another cool thing? There’s cactus here! Right by the beach! If we remember correctly from our past visit out West, these are prickly pear cactus, and the red knobs are the fruit. Out West, they make jam, jellies, sauces and salsas out of it.
Another blessed day comes to a close. What blessings will God choose to bring us tomorrow?