O’leno State Park, High Springs, Florida
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. ~ I Corinthians 10:13
I want to apologize to those who look for updates daily, or nearly every day. We’ve been out and about quite a bit and then today, Saturday, the internet suddenly slowed to a crawl. Of all days! When we’ve planned on resting and getting caught up with all our “paperwork” (blogging and research).
So now, what has probably happened before you read this is, there are 3-4 days published together. I know that can be a pain, and for that, I sincerely apologize (especially to my mother 😊).
This morning was for recuperating from previous days’ activities by typing and attempting to research, but with turtle-slow internet today, it was next to impossible and tremendously time consuming. I kept typing and Blaine gave up and went outside to work on some coach stuff and leaving his carefully laid out paraphernalia waiting and hoping for faster internet – – which never came. Evidently, people are staying home and shopping or googling today . . .
This afternoon, once we’d thrown in the towel, we took on the River Walk again, stopping first at the Nature Center which was open because it was the weekend (10am-2pm).
However, no sooner had we walked in the door than a Ranger ran (almost literally) outside and took down the “Open” sign. They were about 20 minutes late. 😊 We remember this Ranger and the retired one who was inside from last year. What we didn’t remember was the Florida King Snake. He was really active!
If you don’t care for snakes, don’t watch. : )
But he was beautiful and amazing!
The younger Ranger remained outside feeding the Gopher Tortoises and when asked about their captivity, informed us that one was born in captivity at Silver Springs and had always been hand fed. The other has a missing eye. He also told us that they can’t burrow their way out because their pen sits over asphalt.
The older guy enjoyed regaling us with tales of how a glass-bottom-boat friend of his from Silver Springs has been asked on multiple occasions to stop the boat so people can hold their children over an alligator and take a picture. Really? It’s hard to imagine people are actually that stupid. But I guess they are – and have been for years. He also said they had an unfortunate incident here in this Park a couple of weeks ago when a family took their dog off-leash and let it jump in the waters of Ogden Lake. A gator got ahold of it – the one the signs warn about – the gator they also post “keep your dog on a leash” signs for. Fortunately, the dog received emergency surgery at a veterinary hospital and survived. Wonder if that dog will forever be afraid of water now?
We walked the trail and returned home to leftovers for dinner. And we had fast internet service for about 15 minutes and then . . . nothing. Sigh . . . .
I point it out because if I didn’t, you’d never find him.
And you’d wonder why I took this horrendous picture. : )
This one was constantly fluttering it’s wings.
I’m surprised I captured anything at all.
It’s supposed to rain all day Monday, so we’re hoping to return to this tree and capture the difference!
So let me tell you about my new shower observations. Just because I’m in the mood.
I walked in and went straight to ‘my stall’ as usual, but was stopped short. The place was loaded with long, black wet hair. All over everything! The floor, the bench, the curtain. Everywhere! How is that even possible? I know I shed a lot, but this? This was unbelievable! I felt sorry for the campground host who’s responsible for cleaning it up.
I quickly backed out and went to number 2. It had also obviously been used recently, but at least it appeared clean. I assumed the two stalls, which share a common wall, would be identical, but they weren’t. Number two’s control was loose and difficult to adjust. And believe it or not, it was closer to the shower head than Number one! How is that possible? I thought I must have lost my mind, but I counted the tiles – and later counted the ones in the other stall. There are six more four-inch tiles in ‘my stall’! What??
The other weird thing was that after I started, someone else came in and showered next to me. I’ve never showered with strangers before. Yes, there’s a 10-foot tall, 3-4 inch thick wall between us, but still . . . .
It was just weird. And the water thing was a bit of an issue – both in temperature and in pressure, but just like the toilet, once theirs was adjusted, everything returned to normal.
In Number 2, the longer the water ran, the hotter it got! By the time I was done, it was almost scalding! I tried to adjust it, but with the loose control, it was impossible to get it right.
I sure hope my stall is available and clean tomorrow. I’ve been enjoying my leisurely, high pressure, warm shower these past days!