Short version is I was minding my own business at a traffic light and she decided not to slow down at all and jut run into the back of me. If you are interested there is a write up about it here: RIP Jade
So the next day my AC in the house takes a powder after 25 years (no complaints, got my money's worth). Luckily a cold front went through the next day and it cooled off. Lucky for us it stayed cool for the next 6 weeks. Only in the middle of Feb did it warm up and I bit the bullet and got a new one installed.
I looked forward on the calendar to Feb and the weekend before my birthday was open at the Prairie so I booked it. Seems the days of a reservation a week or two in advance are gone as the word has gotten out about the park.
Got out of town on Friday pretty well as I worked a full day Friday. I just wanted to beat rush hour through West Palm Beach and did. The 2 hr ride to the park was uneventful and the girls (my daughter and her friend) put away their phones without me having to ask (Once on the Beeline and getting out of town, I have made it a requirement to put them down and look out the windows).
It was dark by the time we got to the park but the gate was still open, so I felt good about that (I had the code) so I wasn't too late. I did notice that the gravel road was pretty rough, so it was slow going the last couple of miles to our spot.
It was a beautiful moonrise and by walking 10 extra steps I got in a breeze and their were no bugs. I watched it for about 15 min and headed back to the coach. Both of the girls had passed out on the gaucho and it was only 10pm. I started reading the book I brought and went to bed about an hour later.
Saturday morning I woke up not too early and got outside around 7:30. Went for an early bike ride as the girls were obviously sleep deprived and out cold..... I rode over toward the ranger station and saw alot of spider webs covered with dew
I also saw a rafter of turkeys (a rafter is what you call a bunch of turkeys). There was one Tom who was strutting his stuff impressing all the lady turkeys.
I watched them for about 15 min or so and then headed back to the campsite and rousted the girls. Finally got them up with the smell of bacon cooking. Made pancakes as well and showed them a trail map and announced we were going on a hike after breakfast. We had an interesting visitor to breakfast:
Naya selected the 5 mile hike which I've done that whole trip in two different trips as it was a triangle. 2.5 out to the primitive campsite, .7 up to the Military Trail (pre WWII trail) and then straight back to the camp site. We set out at 10:45 with only 1 1/2 liter water bottle. I had pre loaded with water after the pancakes and it was pretty warm in the mid 80s....
The first part of the walk went through 3 hammocks so we had some shade
But the in between the hammock parts, there is nowhere to hide from the sun on the prairie
It was pretty brutal even for February (I cant imagine how hot it is in August), and the girls scarfed up the water by the halfway point. We hung out in the shade and there was a good breeze blowing from the South (front was coming the next day). The second half of the walk had virtually no shade for the last hour. We ran across various animal tracks and saw a couple of cool birds at the last hammock
On the home stretch I saw some butterflies and had the girls try and take some pics. They were hard to get in focus as the flitted about.....
The hike back from this point was very straight and forward ha ha
The campsite is about half a mile past that tree line. We found out the next day that the tree line is sort of man made. A drainage ditch was dug and the trees grew up around it.
Back at the campsite it was time to relax. I made a sammich and settled in for a relaxing afternoon
with a book
The girls grabbed a sheet and headed out into the pasture by the horse paddocks, where there is a nice shade tree and I had a few hours to myself. The hike of 4.8 miles took just over 2 hours in the midday sun. Probably would have been 1.75 hours without the stops, but we had a good time and girls while all hot and tired, took it in stride pretty well.
Lucy showed up and there was a beautiful sunset.
With nature's display over for the day, it was time to start cooking. Many years of field research have shown kabobs to be one of the easiest campfire meals as the meat is in small easily cookable chunks and you can rotate them around to achieve even cooking on a campfire.
Also the mini potatoes cook fairly well and quick (in the foil). You may notice their is a ton of pineapple on these. There was. It was a whole pineapple and was 2x the chicken chunks. We ate it all. The moon came up later and I made everyone stay up to see it.
The next morning was foggy and we got up early to do the buggy ride. It's a 2.5 hour ride and we covered a lot of the same ground we had hiked the day before.
The ranger was super informative and even though I've done the buggy ride at least 5 times before learned something new. Below is what healthy prairie looks like a year after a burn.
We also saw some areas where the burn was a little more recent
Until I started coming to the park, I had never heard of the Crested Cara Cara. It is a bird of prey and is only in a small area of inland FL peninsula surrounding the Kissimmee River. It is also found in Mexico and Central America. It is thought that at least a breeding pair were carried to FL in a hurricane and took up residence... They pair up and are beautiful birds
Even though it is the dry season the prairie can be pretty wet. A few years ago I biked this path with my son. The water was about 3 ft deep.
These little guys were about a year apart from the little one to the bigger ones. Kinda unusual to see them mixed like that, but there were congregated into this little seasonal pond.
As I had some things to do at home, after the buggy ride, it was pretty much pull up stakes and book it out of the park. While I went to dump the sewage, Lucy took the girls up to the spot where there are always birds and gators to take some pics.
Red Shoulder Hawk
Tri Color Heron
Wally Gator
Some kind of grasshopper
As soon as I finished up dumping and headed down the washboard road I knew something was wrong with the suspension/steering. Sure it's washboard but I felt something was off. As I idled down the the road taking it easy, Naya shot some cool pics showing the Pineapple in stalking mode...
I stopped and picked the girls up so they didn't have to ride in the T-bird....or so we thought..
It's a couple miles out of the park on washboard. Then about another 6 to a county road. Something still felt funny and I was going really slow. I pulled over just before US 98 and climbed underneath and checked everything. I didn't find any parts falling off and a tug here and there didn't show anything super obvious......So I continued on. On the US hwy it felt better but not great. I tried calling a contact to try and get ahold of Jeff Sirum from Sirum's GMC in Okeechobee as I was driving right by there. They specialize in these 45 year old machines but are closed on Sundays.
Anyway as luck would have it and I'm thankful. About a mile from his shop, I see a GMC about 1/4 mile ahead of me in traffic. Sure enough it turns into the driveway of the shop. I pull in right behind him and he's not even out of the coach to unlock the gate yet. It's one of the employees and is bringing his coach back after the weekend. As Lucy brought the T-bird up on Saturday she is behind me. I talk to him, explain the situation and we leave the coach and keys at the shop. It's about 90 miles from my front door to the shop and I'm glad I'm not blasting down a busy 2 lane road at 60 with a questionable front end.
It takes us a few minutes to empty out the food and clothes and we are on our way again...Turns out that I drove about 30 miles on a broken ball joint. The main stud was okay, but the bolts that set the joint, two had broken off so it was floating in its socket. I haven't gotten it back (this Sat) but she's all fixed up and ready for Tallahassee.
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