Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Okeechobee, Florida
Abram said, “Your servant is in your hands, do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so that she fled from her. The angel of the LORD (preincarnate Jesus) found Hagar near a spring in the desert . . . “Go back to your mistress and submit to her. I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count. You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael (means ‘God hears’), for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” ~ Genesis 16:6-12
Note that Abram has returned the blame to Sarai. Despite it being her decision for Abram to father a child with Hagar, Sarai is now also passing blame to Hagar. And three people are now suffering consequences for their sin. Abram, because he lost faith and trust in the Lord and took on another wife. Sarai, because she also lost faith and in her anger at not bearing the promised son, lashed out at Hagar. Hagar, because she became prideful for assuming she was now bearing the promised son, and tried to put herself above her mistress. Sarai mistreated Hagar so badly that Hagar decided it was better to live on her own in the desert than to remain. I’m certain Abram was aware of this treatment, yet he did nothing to stop Sarai. The reason we know the angel is a preincarnate Jesus, is because of His use of the word “I”. Notice the blessing He bestows upon Ishmael. Ishmael is the Muslim equivalent of Isaac. And notice the compassion of God, even to those outside His chosen.
On the road again.
I don’t wanna be on the road again.
Adventure lies ahead, just like it always does
But I don’t wanna be on the road again.
Man, I hate to leave this Park so soon! I told Blaine I think I could easily spend 10-14 days here, even though there’s nothing around and no place to go. It’s just . . . . I can’t explain it . . . it just is . . .
I tried to burn the house down this morning. Was it an honest mistake, or a subconscious desire to find a way to stay? Who can know for certain? But at least Blaine kept his cool and didn’t reprimand me as he could’ve. Are you dying to know what happened?
I made us breakfast on the stove this morning. As I was waiting for the toast to get done, I turned the propane to low. I dished up the food, pushed the pan off the burner, and walked away – leaving the burner still on low. That in and of itself isn’t so bad – just a waste of propane. The problem happened when I put on the stove toppers – over the flame. It heated up the area to burning hot – even blistering the finish a bit before lack of oxygen (I guess) put the flame out. And then we smelled the propane, which is really what saved us. Thank You, Lord!
I should’ve put this in the other day when we did that 8-mile hike, but I didn’t. This is a map of the Park. See that orange? That’s our hike. Can you believe that’s all the ground we covered?!? 
A bit of semi-interesting information about the Park. : )
Once all that excitement was over, we rode out in one last effort to locate the otters. When that failed, we went to soak up the ambiance of the “oasis”.
He really didn’t care too much that we stopped for a bit to watch him eat breakfast.
I titled this “Feather With Dew”.
Whadayathink, huh?
We had an extensive prep time this morning before we took off. Neither of us were in a hurry to get things packed up, plus Blaine had to do some tank cleaning, and then, once we pulled out onto the dusty road, we drove extra slow in an attempt to keep the dust down.
And I drove! Even around a corner! Don’t give me too much credit, there were only two cars that passed us, and I kept us between 12-16mph – in a 25 zone. It cost us six extra minutes to let me drive part of the 3 ½ hour/130-mile journey today. lol (It’s really just because we were driving so slow) By the way, it’s entirely possible that the slow speed kept the dust down! There was hardly any when we arrived! What a blessing!
For the next 7-8 miles, this is all you see. . .
Everybody! Off the road!
We drove around property owned by Dominos today. Not the pizza, the sugar people! 😊 It was an enormous sugar cane crop area, which as well as I could discover, covers 180,000 acres! Part of the way around, we discovered it belongs to Domino’s which was bought by Florida Crystals in 2001. The owners of FC are actually Cuban exiles who came to America in 1959. But many claim that the company is the reason Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades are in such dire straits. They’ve built levees around to protect the fields from flooding, but that prevents the water from getting to where God intended it and that messes with the ecosystem He designed.
Did they figure this out on purpose, or was it by accident?
Wonder what he’s doing with it?
Most of the way was without incident, but there was one extensively long construction area that was fraught with peril.
As you can see in the pictures, they had the road down to one lane – orange cones on the right, solid yellow line on the left – and the lane across that yellow line, they deemed a berm which signs told us not to drive in. The speed limit was 45, we were doing 48. Several cars behind us didn’t much care for that and passed us at a high rate of speed. There were periodic signs that show you your speed, and they clocked one car zooming by us at 75!
But when a semi tried to pass, missing us with inches to spare, Blaine moved to the left and straddled that yellow line, so no one could get by anymore. 😊 Once the construction zone ended (miles later), he moved over and people resumed flying by – despite us picking up the pace to the posted 65.
Probably best. It would’ve been too scary to look at!
We’re out of the construction zone now.
Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida
Here we are, in Markham County Park. Should be quite a bit different than when we were here two years ago, because it’s closed from Tuesday – Saturday every week, in order for the County to administer Covid vaccines. They’re also not taking any new campground reservations, which means, once someone leaves, the site remains empty. Unless it was reserved a year ago by someone else. In other words, if you’re driving along and decide you’d like to stay here, you can’t. Or, if you live in the area and decide you want to take the family camping for the weekend, you can’t come here.
They flash around when you look through the lens! Crazy!
In addition, no one has access to all the other Park amenities. Things like the lake, the dog park, the biking, picnicking, model airplane flying, gun range, and probably some other things I’ve forgotten. We feel bad for the locals. It’s an extremely well-used Park. Bet it’ll be super busy here on Sunday, and maybe Monday too.
We had site B4 reserved, but when we checked in, the woman told me that there were other sites open now, if we wanted to move. We did! Turns out, B4 would’ve been less than ideal for us. Narrow, tree-covered, barely long enough, and very close neighbors. We found C6 and are very happy! Thank You, Lord, for Your constant watch care!
And a pretty sunset to boot!
