Welcome to Florida. Spiders and Gators and Rattlers…. Oh My!

We have officially joined the migration of the white crested snowbirds to Florida! Lol. The number of motorhomes, 5^th wheels, and travel trailers heading south on I95 is hilarious. We left South Carolina on Sunday, 10/30, with three days to drive a little over 450 miles to our next scheduled stop in Lake Wales, Florida. 

We spent the first night in an RV park in Darien, GA.  Rog scoped out RV parks between there and Lake Wales and they were pricey and pretty full. We hate to pay resort prices just to park for the night. We thought about staying the night in a Gander Mountain parking lot but nixed that idea when we realized it was Halloween. No sense inviting trouble!

We checked and the Lake Wales Campground could accommodate us a day early, so Rog opted to power through and we arrived on Monday, 10/31. We did a quick run to the grocery store just in case we had trick-or-treaters. We didn’t, but then we never do at home either and I always buy at least one bag of candy just in case! Lol.

With an extra day to play, we decided to run some errands and then check out the hiking trails in Kissimmee State Park. It was a bit further away than we anticipated, so we didn’t get there until mid-afternoon. The park had two major loop trails that were each 6-7 miles long. We opted for the slightly longer one since it seemed to be more in the forest. We were enjoying the interesting vegetation and saw lots of deer, flocks of wild turkeys, a bald eagle swooped through the trees, and a raccoon ran right down the path toward us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get good pictures and nobody, except the deer, seemed interested in posing.

The giant oaks and palmettos are sure a change of pace.

The "Zipper" canal runs through the park.

Hello! Is anybody home?

The bromeliads growing wild on the trees was just so cool!

Pretty doe and she didn't mind posing. :)

The hanging moss is awesome.

It was a great trail with lots of wildlife and that was both good and bad because then we came across the snake. Not just any snake, but a really, really big snake. Not just any really, really big snake, but a really, really big RATTLESNAKE.  We were tromping along when I stopped dead my tracks, Rog was like, “What?”. “Isn’t that a snake across the trail?”  He walks a few feet closer. Yep. “Isn’t that a rattlesnake?” He takes a closer look. Yep.

I started snapping pictures while we waited to see what Mr. I-Own-the-Trail Rattlesnake wants to do. He was content to crawl off into the palmetto bushes, but I can assure you that as I passed those bushes I was feeling decidedly underdressed in my shorts and sandals with no suit of armor. I wonder if my accelerated heartrate got me any extra credit on my FitBit. Lol.  

He was stretched across the entire width of the trail, easily 4 ft. long.

The pointy end and the noisy end. I'll avoid both, thank you very much!

We continued along the path, but let me tell you, I was keeping a pretty sharp eye out for any of his reptilian relatives. It was starting to get late and completing the loop would mean we wouldn’t make it back to the car until around 6pm so we opted to take a “shortcut”. It was on the trail map as a “fireline or dirt service road” and looked like a broad mowed track. It would cut off about an hour so seemed like a good idea at the time. The first half mile or so was just fine, but then the track got more overgrown and rutted and boggy. After encountering one big rattler we weren’t happy about stomping through tall grass and brush where we couldn’t see what (or who) we were stepping on - but we were committed (or committable – not sure which! Lol). We made it back without incident, just did a lot of high stepping and hoping we didn’t disturb anyone. At the end of the trail we came across this giant spider and loved his message. How appropriate. Lol.

Our "short cut" had us high stepping through tall grass.

Ya think?! Lol.

On Wednesday, I needed to catch up on laundry and housework, so Rog decided to check out a mountain bike trail in Alafia State Park. It is the only “Epic” rated trail in Florida and it was only an hour away – how could he resist?! He was enjoying the trail – since the topography is so flat they’ve built ramps and tricks to keep it interesting. There are lots of water crossings and  Rog was flying across one of the bridges when he heard a loud angry splash. Oops! That sounded like a gator! He stopped, but the gator didn’t make a reappearance. Rog did manage to add some tree rash and a swollen knuckle to his collection of mountain bike trophies, but nothing serious. (And he wonders why I worry! Lol.)

Spitfire Trail

Rog had a blast on the banked corners. 

Ramps, bridges and gaters in the water, keeps it interesting. Lol.

Looks like prime alligator habitat to me!

Let's race! Rog's competition on the trail.

The next few days will mostly be about the shooting. We shoot some qualifier stages on Thursday and then we have Friday free. The match is Saturday and Sunday. Wish us luck!