Ortona South C.O.E., Moore Haven, Florida
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAY LYNN!!
We woke up to really heavy fog this morning. I love morning fog. There’s just something about it that makes me feel peaceful. Today’s fog was so heavy that my hair got wet as we walked around, but it made for some pretty nice pictures.
The sun was up and in full force, but you could hardly see it.
Until it started burning through.
Back home, Blaine was working on some things outside and called me to come see his discovery. There were little froggy prints on the side of the coach! We’re assuming it was the same one we thought we’d gotten rid of – but were they old prints brought out by the dew and lighting? Or were they new ones?
We spent the day around home, cooking and cleaning a bit because . . . .
We’re getting visitors tomorrow! Blaine’s sister and brother-in-law that we visited last month are making a 2 hour journey to come see us for the day.
I was inside working, the windows are open, there’s a breeze today and this wonderful sweet, flowery smell is wafting through the coach! Not quite as wonderful as orange blossoms, but there are these three flowering bushes right beside us and the breeze was blowing the right direction. inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale . . . .
During my endeavors, I noticed a woman outside with binoculars, so I got mine out to see what she was looking at. It was an eagle! Perched on a dead tree across the water! Too far away for a picture, though.
Later, Blaine discovered there’s a red shouldered hawk’s nest in the tree across the road from us! At one point, he said it swooped down over him when he crept too close. Way cool! We can watch anytime we want! No pictures of this today. Too many branches in the way for our phones to pick it up.
And he found a coconut at the abandoned site next to us. We’ll have Eric bring his machete tomorrow so we can open it up! Yum!
So Blaine’s outside greasing and waxing and doing his coach maintenance stuff, and he looks under the slide topper and lo and behold! Guess what he sees??? The frog!!! Can you believe it came all this way with us?? 72 miles! Of course we can’t positively ID it as the same one, but what are the odds that it’s not?
He stuck the broom up there to try to coax it out so he could dispense with it somehow, and it took off from the middle of the slide, soared right over Blaine’s head and landed on the cement, where it politely sat and waited for us to take his picture and capture him . . . . again.
Yes, this picture is intentionally crooked.
I wanted you to see how far this single leap was!
Look at those little sticky pads! This frog reminds us of the toy the boys used to have where they’d throw it against the wall and they’d stick and “walk” down! : )
Frog under glass
Blaine took him further away – through our backyard to the field and tossed him over the fence. If he comes back this time, we may have to keep him as a pet. Hey! Who else around the campground could boast a pet Cuban Tree Frog??
We walked down to the lock before dinner, just checking things out. They have a kiosk that plays a video about the importance of maintaining the lock system for the protection of the environment and people living around here. They also talk about how the lock works – including sonar so the doors won’t close on manatees. They call it MPS for ‘manatee protection system’.
There was also an information board with some interesting facts on it.
That’s a really big boat for the rangers to use.
A dead fish
I love that they have flowers in early March!
You know, I thought I was done for today. I was prepared to have Blaine post, but then we took a walk to watch the sunset, and we saw even more critters! Two otters (no pictures, as it was too dark), a raccoon and some very large fish jumping clear out of the water!
It doesn’t show properly, but the sunbeams were stunning!
Sunbeams and two boats waiting to enter the lock.
A small personal boat entering the lock headed for Lake Okeechobee.
Can you spot the turtle?
Hey look!
The dam side is open now!
Maybe they’ll let us walk across tomorrow!
We watched this raccoon walk all around the rocks.
Sometimes he’d go inside them.
Here he’s coming back out. Cute!
Probably too many of these, but I was trying to get a good picture to share.
And then I couldn’t decide. : )
Along the way, he spotted a ‘lizard’ and went chasing after it, sticking his paw in a hole and swiping around. : )
He wasn’t successful.
Another gorgeous sunset!
God is quite the artist, isn’t He?
Speaking of all creatures great and small, we’ve noticed the ladybugs have finally moved on. It only took 4 months . . .
We sure had a lot of critter excitement today. Maybe we should stay home more often.
TOTAL HIKING MILES: .5
Year To Date: 169.5
Daily Average: 2.77