From Peanuts to Oranges

Today we are traveling from the Peach State, Georgia to the Orange State, Florida. We won't have time this year to explore the "heart" of Florida and will leave that until next year. We will spend a few weeks exploring the panhandle. I wanted to get reservations in the Jacksonville area but had to settle for Suwannee Creek State Park as we could not find anything available in our time window that was large enough for our coach. Suwannee Creek State Park is a nice park of only 30 campsites. If you like remote camping, this is your kind of place. Each site has full hookups and there are three sites with concrete pads. We also shared our site with a vast array of spiders, mosquitoes, fire ants and of course, Florida's favorite flying object, the LoveBug. Getting there was half the fun....

Georgia loves it's peanuts and they show it. Almost every gas station sells boiled peanuts. I love peanuts, but I think I'll stay with the salted in the shell variety....

Florida is proud of it's oranges, and although it proclaims itself to be "The Sunshine State" the weatherman was predicting plenty of rain.

We would only be 251 miles from Ron Jon's Surf Shop at Cocoa Beach. I was amazed this sign would be posted so far from it's advertised location. 

Finally off the Interstate, my trusty GPS was guiding me toward our destination.

Sorry about these pictures but these little "friends" create a mess on the front of your coach, your car and your windshield. If you look up the word "pest" in the dictionary, you'll see their picture.

From the Interstate, the GPS flawlessly guided us up Florida Hwy 6 towards the State Park. There was a sign directing us to the park but the GPS begged us to go straight, so we pushed on.

"Turn Left in half a mile" the GPS directed. Turn I did, down this dirt road for 1.5 miles, which brought us back to the road which we had passed earlier. I had programmed the GPS for shortest route instead of fastest, so it gave me what I asked for. (Note to self - verify route with map in future)

After a short adventure, we finally arrived at the Suwannee River State Park. The Suwannee or Swanee as Stephen Foster misspelled it, starts in the Okefenokee Swamp and separates Florida's panhandle from the rest of the State. Even with his misspelling, Stephen Foster made it famous with his "Old Folks at Home" recording, now Florida's State song.

While many States ask that you share the road with bicyclists and motorcyclists, Florida asks you share the road with golf carts.

 Here's Florida's favorite bug and my least favorite bug. These are actually two separate bugs. They attach during mating and remain attached for days or until they splat on my windshield! When killed, they emit a form of acid that, unless removed soon, will etch the paint on your vehicle. They come in the hundreds and often will mess up your windshield so badly, your vision is obscured. 

They get no "love" from me!

I'll leave you today to this beautiful creature. Fortunately, this is an Orb Spider. It is non poisonous and is not as bothersome as it is unnerving to anyone who does not like spiders. They're pretty large.