Turkey Day camping!

 Since Covid 19 started, many people went out and bought campers as it's a great isolated way to relax and enjoy the outdoors.   While that's great, we noticed that many of the state parks are now booked months and months in advance, especially on the weekends.   Pre Covid, the popular parks were always an issue (going back 30 years since I started camping),  but the lesser know parks you could always find one somewhere with some availability.   Well not so much anymore, however, with the down turn in the economy, I think the people that financed a little too much camper with be dropping out of the game, but I digress..

As mentioned in an earlier post, this year has been a strange one, and we had no idea what the holidays had in store for us.  Around the end of September, we realized it would just be the 3 us together for the holiday.  I started looking for campgrounds, as why not,   I'd  rather hang out outside vs. Black Friday shopping anyway.

As you may have surmised there were no sites available any where within 2.5-3 hours drive.   Our daughter had school until 4PM on Wed and would drive to meet us.   I looked a week earlier and nothing, looked another week earlier and found the spot at the prairie from the last posting and booked it.

2 weeks ago I looked again and found space at Collier-Seminole Park SW of Naples.  We've never been there, but looking at it, there wasn't alot to do, AND that area got whacked a bit by hurricane Ian.   I looked at Jonathan Dickenson SP and in some miracle fashion. found a spot.  It said it was for a 20' and we are 23', but I know the park well and could tell from the site pic, it would not be a problem, So I booked it!

I decided to bring my smoker and smoke a turkey on the campsite.   Lucy pointed out that spatchcocking the turkey would make it cook faster.  Here she is crushing its ribcage to flatten it out after removing the spine.

I have a great smoked turkey receipe that I found about 7-8 years ago.  Here it is.  I tweaked it a tiny bit due to some comments that were posted.   I prepare as described, but replace half of the apple cider with cranberry juice, and instead of oranges, I use a carton of fresh OJ instead.  You can see the OJ and the cranberry in the pic above.  I was just about to dump the ice on top of it and let it marinate for 36 hours.

The receipe is foolproof and once again we wound up with a turkey that tastes like bacon.

I'll spare the drama, but we left the house almost 3 hours later than I wanted to (wanted to kayak the first afternoon).   The short 1 hour drive up to the park was uneventful and we arrived at the site around 15:45.

The site, 123 on the river loop, was VERY sandy.  Good thing we have a big mat to knock it off your shoes.  The 10' kayak fits pretty easily inside during travel, but blocks the walkway a bit as it sits on the floor there.  Last thing in, first out, lol.

You can see the mat is already out on the ground.  Pretty sure it was park, plug in the AC (for the fridge), pull the kayak, put the mat out, then unload chairs and accessories.

With the late arrival the sun was going down in an hour, so we set up and pedaled the bikes over to the concession stand with the rentals.  You can rent canoes, kayaks, little John boats, or take the pontoon boat upriver to visit Trapper Nelson's homestead.

Back at the site in the twilight hour got this nice shot off the back of the campsite looking toward the river (a few hundred yards away).

Lucy bought some new LEDs that came in the mail that morning so she strung them up to play with them as they are programmable.  You can see I strapped the kayak up to the ladder which was good to get it out of the way.

Another  shot of the campsite, while waiting for the coals so I could cook our steak.

Thanksgiving morning.  Many of the spots were open overnight. It was obviously foggy around  6:45AM.   I enjoy mornings like this.

Took a brief wak around the campground enjoying the serenity.   Also a great time to catch animals out and about.

Looking east toward what is the Boy Scout camp in that far line of trees.  They have property that borders the park right there and you can hear them when they have a jamboree over there.

Fog burned off before 10, and I set up the tent as there was no shade on the site.  You can see the smoker is already working so this was just after lunch.

Tommy and Hugo went out for a bike ride, he may have done a phot shoot, I was tending the turkey.

Sunset and the smoker was taking longer than planned.....Didn't actually take any food pics, but it was all delicious.  After dinner we drove up to Hobe Mountain and climbed the observation tower to look at the stars.  It was a nice clear night out and a nice breeze up top.

Black friday.  We did go out to a shop only 3 miles from the park.   Pleasure Tikis in Tequesta, FL.  Have been wanting to stop there for a long time, but it's never been convienant. Well today was the day.   Picked up a T-shirt and Lucy got a pin for her pin collection..    We came back and Naya wasn't feeling well so she took a nap.   Lucy and I biked over the the Kitching Creek Trail.

My intent was to kayak up this creek from near the campsite.  Then we found out there were elevated bacteria levels in the river AND we just had a tropical storm 2 weeks ago so there is alot of runoff going into the river.

As not to tempt fate, decided to stay out of the water this trip.

The ranger said the trail was pretty wet.   It's a loop and right at the beginning there was about 6-7 inches of water.   We backtracked and used a ranger vehicle path to circumvent the first bit of trail, maybe a 1/4 mile.

After that we tried to make the full loop, but it got pretty soggy do we doubled back and took the other way around the loop as it was close the to riverbank (and higher).

As you can see we made the creek and here Lucy is relaxing listening to the birds and enjoying the soloitude as NO ONE was around. 

Back at the campground looking like another great sunset.

So we pedaled over to the boat ramp and got this nice shot.  The no-seeums were thick so we didn't stay long.

Pedaling back to the campground we saw 4 or 5 bunnies out eating and hopping around.   We came around the corner and saw the very early waxing cresent moon.   It reminded me of the state flag of South Carolina, so I had to stop for the photo.   

Short trip, pretty lazy days, but was nice to get away.  Saturday AM we were out early for us as Lucy had to go to work.   Naya took off to visit her school friends, and I was home by 10:15 AM.

More Prairie Camping

 Lazy day Saturday.  Nothing planned and love that.   Writing this a week later, I can't even remember what we did all day Saturday...

Took this shot around 8AM leaving the bath house.  Notice the waning gibbous moon above.  Mostly Turkey vultures, but may have been a couple of Blacks in there as well.   Oddly, this was my first trip ever in 15 years out here where I did NOT see a Cara-Cara.

Saturday afternoon and only two other campers showed up.  Loved it had the whole place to ourselves.

Another day coming to a close.  Absoulutely stunning out here.

9PM ish moon rise.  Congregated at the end of the camping loop with the couple of other campers awaiting the moon's arrivale.   Again, pics don't do it justice.  You could easily see the Milky Way overhead and thousands of stars before it came up.

The park got a new buggy!  It was brand spanking new.  Ranger said it had 38 hours on it!  Taller than the old one and holds twice as many people.   I think they were 42" tires but not 100% on that.  Had ROyce military axles too, so they were screwing around with it.  A very SOLID buggy!

One of the natural depressions they used to use for bombing practice.  each circle is a slightly different height so different plants grow.

Thought the reflection in the water of the sky was pretty cool.

This one reminds me of a living Highway men painting.   Me trying to be artsy fartsy...

We got back to the campground and packed up and headed home.  Made a stop to say to Mike again as he didn't make it out to see us Saturday night.    The rig ran great all the way home with no issues.

As I type this we are getting ready to head out again tomorrow for Thanksgiving camping (a first for us).

Back in the Saddle!

 No Steven Tyler references here (although I do dig the song very much).   FINALLY, after 11 months, the Pineapple hit the road.   From sitting a long time this year due to life getting in the way, we headed out to my happy place on the Prairie.  

As you may recall from the last sortie in December of 2021, she developed a water leak and a phantom power draw.  You'd think in 11 months I would have dealt with both of them, but no,  she got ZERO love all year.

Beyond starting it and running it a few times and disconnecting the batteries I did nothing.   Like I said life got in the way and I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway back in October it became apparent that Thanksgiving this year would be different and we'd be on our own for the holiday.   I looked for sites and everything was booked up.  I backed up a week and the same, I went back to Veterens Day and boom the Prairie had one spot left.   A quck check showed I wasn't on call that weekend, so I booked it, WOOOO! we are going camping.

I started prepping the old girl as she hadn't been out much (once or twice around the neighborhood all year).   As we had a hurricane IAN kind of threatening us in the beginning of October, I got her all gassed up and took her for 20 mile drive to air her out.   Everything was good mechanically.

Luckily, that storm missed us (my friend Mark was not so lucky and lost his cars and home). The day before our departure, here comes another late hurricane, Nicole.   It's a small one, but the center of the storm goes very close to the park.   The storm hits the park early pre-dawn on Nov 10.   We are booked for the 11 and 12th!.   It's not bad and the park calls us the next day.

Not to confirm our reservation for the site, but for the buggy ride Sunday!   We say we are still in.   We head out.

We are humming along the Beeline Highway, about 16-17 miles out of Okeechobee when I hear a change in the engine.  I ask Lucy if she hears it.  She doesn't.   Next thing I know I got my foot in it and I'm losing speed.  Uh-Oh!   WTF now........ I continue to lose power with my foot down.   I have no idea but I'm sloooowing down and the cars are stacking behind me (it's a 2 lane and we are in a no passing area).   There is a passing zone coming up, but another mile down I see a paved driveway on my side and dive off the road (I"m going 30 in a 60 by this point) and all the cars whizz by.

I had said I'd stop by and meet my buddy for a few in Okechobee.  I call him and he asks how we are.  "Bad" is the reply and explain how I unexplicably lost power.   He suggests I change the fuel filter.   Ok its easy and I have one (need to buy another now).   I pull it off and thats not the issue.   I poke in around under the engine cover and find the oil pressure sender lead vibrated off, but that's not it.  

About 15 minutes has gone by and I twist the key.  It fires right up and I put it in gear and have about 20 feet of room, so I push the gas and it feels normal.   Ok here we go!  I make a 5 point turn and get us pointed out on the highway and wait for looooong gap (just in case).

It rolls up to 60 (speed limit and happy speed for the coach on this 2 lane road). and hangs there.  The next 15 miles are uneventful and we arrive.

Mike tosses me a new Ignition module and I'm tearing into the distributor and have it swapped out in about 15-20 minutes or so.  Many profuse thank yous (not the first time his advice has saved my ass).

We leave and head straight for the local liqour store (I didn't have time to show before we left), then gas and the final push for about 40 min to the park.

I have been here in the summer and considering the ranger told us they had a lot of rain from the storm the road looked great!  That said, the normal dry prairie on both sides was VERY wet.

The road on the left goes back behind the ranger station.  If you zoom in there is a 5ft gator right by the culvert.  The next day the water was half as deep.   Mind you the storm blew through about 30 hours earlier.

Late afternoon sun.  There were 2 other campers in the whole park one day after Nicole (a tropical storm) blew throught the park.  They must have thrown everyone out as the campsites hadn't been cleaned and I got a bunch of damp firewood from the sites on either side of us.  

This place has the most AMAZING sunsets.   Pics don't do it justice.

Getting ready for a lovely evening.  The storm brought in coolish air so high 60 tonight!

Lucy tending the dinner fire.  I dare say our sausages were smoked!

The boys had a cocktail party in the coach.  Hugo brought his A game looking sophisticated.

Tommy was under house arrest with his ankle bracelet, but was paroled a few days later.