Phil & Ellie...On the Road Again: Day 3 and 4 of our trip to Florida and SE

On the Road Again......Day 3. We left the Pilot truck stop about 7:20 am 39 degrees and headed to Okefenokee Swamp. Took some side roads to get there but they were nice flat roads and very little traffic. Interesting sights along the way. In Ray City a man raking Spanish Moss at the curb, fields of blueberry shrubs, tall thin pine trees planted in rows, close together. Also saw fields where they harvested the trees. Saw debris gathered into piles and when it dries out they burn the debris. Orchards of trees, maybe peach????

As we approach Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge we see blue heron in a swamp area. We register at Stephen Foster State Park. It's 62 degrees. Talked with the camp hosts, Marnie & Gary. They are full time RV'ers, originally from Bloomington IL. Once we got to our site Phil de-winterized the RV, thus we could use the water and bathroom. The site also has cable TV but we didn't use it.

Went for a short bike ride and quickly discovered that we had not ridden bikes in years but no accidents. We will continue to use the bikes to get around. We also walked a nature trail.

We saw 4 deer. One was the look out, just watching us as the other 3 munched the shrubs. We met 2 people from Florida. Earlier we met a couple from Vermont and enjoyed talking with them. Later on a campfire. There are SO MANY stars. We watched half of a movie, Rare Birds, and off to bed at 9 pm.

Day 4, Saturday Jan. 29. Michael Ellis lead us on a Nature Walk.
He explained about the Swamp, early inhabitants, cypress trees, cypress knees, other native shrubs & trees, harvesting of the cypress, moonshining, the big forest fire in 2007, Spanish Moss and so many of the native plants.
He explained about the three kinds of lichens and how the bay trees are dying because of a beetle causing disease. He said the stars seem so bright at night because there is no light pollution.

The rust colored is the flower of "Spanish Moss". The seeds of the flower attaches to certain trees. Does not attach and grow on pines.

After lunch we took a 2 hour canoe trip out into Billy's Lake, the deepest lake of the swamp.