Day 21: Lake City to Suwannee River State Park

January 25, 2014

News Flash, The florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has rescued 50 cold stunned sea turtles . Cold stunned turtles can be found floating listlessly on the surface. Good work. Now they can find time to cruise for any cold stunned Grampies rolling listlessly along the back roads.

We put in the turtle thing because it was interesting, but actually we started out cycling today at a balmy 5 degrees C. We quite quickly returned the 13km we had veered off route, and re-entered the town of Wellborn, such as it is. The main thing in Wellborn for us is a post office, which we will use to mail home pamphlets and junque we have picked up, plus our lighter weight pants. We slowly developed the idea that light weight pants are not on, for this trip. If we are wrong, we still have shorts.

We are looking forward to seeing the Suwannee River, made famous by Stephen Foster's songs. Even if you are in Europe, you probably will recognize some of them:

Old Folks at Home
Oh Suzannah
Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair
Camptown Races
Beautiful Dreamer

We also found a rendition of Old Folks At Home, by Pete Seeger, one of our long time favourites. Whoever put that up on Youtube also has lots of shots of the Suwannee River Park - no doubt upstaging photos we hope to take later in the day today.

We did arrive at the Suwannee River State Park, and have so far just had a glimpse of the river in the distance. We are supper pleased, though, because the camping here is among trees, withh a bed of pine needles, picnic table, and fireplace. Also, this evening there will be some Bluegrass picking, a $5 event,, included in our $24 site fee.

Internet is very sketchy here, but watch for possible further updates and maybe photos.

When we get better internet we will try to learn more about this

No problem, Houston. Today, temperatures and winds were reasonable.

We are sort of getting there, but it will be a while before we exit Florida!

These trees standing in water have interesting buttresses

A corn snake, in a terrarium at the state park office

A barred owl. We see a lot of live ones along the way here

Our home in Suwannee State Park. We arrived early, but the next possible stop was too distant. In fact, we have yet to even spot an on route possibility up ahead.

The ad for the Bluegrass session. Note how the lawyers got into the act, at the bottom of the sheet.Of course, this launched some good natured debate between us as to which of us might be fully qualified to attend.

The confluence of the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee

p.s. Here is more about the Battle of Olustee, mentioned yesterday:

It was a Civil War battle at happened in 1864, a little east of here. About 5000 men were involved, on both sides, and of these 3000 were killed, wounded, or captured. Proportionally, it was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Each February they re-enact it, with also a ladies's tea, period music, and infantry drills.

btw, the Confederates beat the Yankees in this one!

The evening music session ranks with the Everglades as a highlight for us so far. Words like genuine, unpretentious, and authentic come to mind when we think of the players. Most important, their music and playing were tremendously enjoyable, and we could scarcely think of a better night out anywhere.

The park ranger that introduced the event was similarly genuine. She repeated that this was the biggest event here ever, made even more stupendous by the addition of both Smores and hot chocolate! And we agree, it was great.

Also adding a lot for us was the way one and all welcomed us. We love this kind of Bluegrass/Country/Cajun music anyway, so we really felt at home.

We made some movies, whichncan illustrate the musical style, but the tablet will not play the sound so it's hard to choose a good clip. Plus the internet link we have is very tenuous, Edge only. The video, it seems, will have to wait.

And Meredith, if you are reading this, the request we wanted to make was for Starry Crown!

I didn't know what Smores was, but Dodie took charge of the supplies: graham wafers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars. Apparently every American knows all about this.

One of my favourites, but all were great!

Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 1,149 km (714 miles)

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