Fort Pickens National Park, Gulf Breeze, Florida February 24 – March 3, 2014

Ship in Pensacola Bay

We had heard about Fort Pickens from some folks at Torreya and decided to give it a try, since the weather was iffy at best. It was a short drive from Blackwater River, so we stopped to get groceries in Pensacola on the way. The beaches here are the quintessential white sand and the water clear and several shades of blue.

The campground is very crowded, open, and depending upon the amount of rain and the tides, many sites are under water except for the raised parking area. The frequent unexpected high wind gusts make it impossible to have an awning out for shade (one unsuspecting camper had left his awning out and when he returned a few minutes later a gust had twisted it up beyond repair) and there are very few trees in the campground. While we would ignore any single drawback (in our view), all of them together are more than we want to put up with. The park is, however, well-loved by folks who like having lots of people around and spend most of their time out shopping, sightseeing, visiting friends, or just hidden away in their RV.

Drive along the beach

While we were at the park, Rich tried a couple of days of fishing and I took a couple of hikes. Rich caught no fish, but I had a good time hiking. Didn't see much in the way of animals, but osprey and great blue herons abound in this area and I got some nice photos of young herons on the nest. Although they are not ready to fly, they are already the size of their parents, and the young birds may be seen standing in the nest atop snags all through the area. It was quite a sight.

Wet and crowded campground

The Pensacola Naval Air Station is located just across the bay from the barrier island on which we camped and during one of my walks, I watched a helicopter pilot practicing hovering. We also saw and heard AWACS (weather plane), numerous fighter jets, and, during one of the Mardi Gras parades held in the area, two little biplanes flew over.

We did find a wonderful Asian grocery in Pensacola where I found the Jasmine tea brand I love and I bought four pounds of it while we were there.

That electric hookup looks scary!

We spent several hours visiting Fort Pickens, which is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay, Florida and its navy yard. The park, built on the barrier island across the bay from Pensacola, is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore which stretches 160 miles across three states. The barrier islands were created from white sand carried seaward by rivers draining from the Appalachian Mountains. The sand is what is left of the granite rocks that broke off a mountain and tumbled into a river. Many thousands off years later, all that is left of the granite are small granules of quartz, which eventually travel downstream to the barrier islands.

Young great blue heron on next

American Indians inhabited the area, then the Europeans came and with them years of struggle for territorial control. In 1828, after Florida and Mississippi became part of the United States, the first federal tree farm was developed at Naval Live Oaks Area. The sole purpose of this tree farm was cultivating live oaks to be used in shipbuilding.

The US began fortifying the nearby area against foreign invasion in 1829. During the Civil War, the Union Army staged the capture of New Orleans from this fort. As time passed and new weapons emerged, the fort became obsolete and after World War II, the military eventually abandoned the forts.

Osprey

Fort Pickens is quite different from most of the other forts we have visited, but of course, it was built much later. It is a very large structure and, as a result of the new weapons that were developed, there is a second large structure in the center of the original that held two “disappearing” guns in 1898. These 12-inch rifles as they were called, were on carriages, and after shooting a 1,070 pound shell at a target 8 miles away, the carriage would allow the rifle to disappear below the wall of the fort. From the photographs we saw, it appears that it took about 18 soldiers to load these large guns.

Pelican

The tour of the fort is self-guided and a video at the beginning of the tour gives a nice over-view of the history. We spent a couple of hours going through the fort and nearby museum and enjoyed the entire experience.

Now that the weather has begun to moderate a bit, we're going to head west – first stop is our old standby, Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana.

Mockingbird

Helocopter hovering

Pensacola across the bay

Part of a sand dollar on the beach

Beach

Cool design in the sand from the tide

 Rich and one of the cannon

 The fort is a labyrinth of hallways!

Parade ground inside fort walls

 Gulf-side of the fort - there would have been cannons in each of these arched areas.

 Rich atop the fort walls - it's a long way up

Original location of the disappearing gun

Disappearing gun in firing position

Disappearing gun "hiding" behind the wall

Blackwater River State Park, Holt, Florida February 17-24, 2014

You have probably noticed that we've been to this park a number of times as we left or returned to Florida and that is because the facilities are clean and well maintained and it's pretty much on the way if we are traveling west. This time, we vowed to walk some of the trails in the park. Nature and maintenance had not been consulted and we only managed to get to one – the others were under water or being worked on. The one we took was a nice walk of about a mile and a half through a pine forest and along the Blackwater River, where there are some man-made beaches thrown in for good measure. We also stopped at a trailhead near the river and managed to walk the 500 feet or so to the river without slipping in the muddy trail. There is swampland throughout this area so you never know what you're going to see. This trip, it wasn't much in the way of wildlife, but the scenery was nice and the weather perfect.

Now, it's on to a new park for us which is located on a barrier island across the bay from Pensacola – Fort Pickens National Park, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Torreya State Park, Bristol, FL Febuary 14-17, 2014

We were here one Christmas around 1997 or '98 and remembered it as a pretty location. We were still tent camping back then and one night was cold, windy, and wet – the only time up to then that I almost gave in and suggested we go to a motel for the night. (A number of years later we did abandon our campsite one night in the Smokies when 45 mph winds were forecast and we weren't comfortable being in our pop-up in a forest with winds that high.) We'll have to remember to get a site on the far side of the loop where the sites are about three times larger than where we were if we go there again.

The campground is built on a bluff high above the rest of the countryside and the view from the deck overlooking the vista to the north was very pretty. Also in the park is the Gregory house, a fully furnished plantation home from the mid-1800's that is often open for tours which we had found interesting the previous time we visited but opted not to repeat the visit.

We did take a short (1 mile) hike through the forest, but saw nary an animal, reptile, and only a few birds.

The most interesting thing we found about the park is the Florida Torreya, (sometimes called a pine but actually a member of the yew family) which is nearly extinct in the wild, threatened by a fungal disease and loss of habitat. It is known locally as “stinking-cedar” because of the pungent odor given off when the leaves are crushed. It was first discovered in 1833 near the Aspalaga Crossing on the Apalachicola River. We were told by a park ranger during our last visit that the species was brought to Florida by a glacier hundreds of thousands of years ago, but I couldn't find mention of that in a brief online search.

We leave here for another stay at Blackwater State Park.

Rodman Dam State Park, Palatka, FL; January 30 – February 10, 2014

Rodman Campground

Rodman Dam was originally an Army Corps of Engineers project when the Cross-Florida Canal was a possibility. The campground lies along what I presume is part of the canal. There are two campground loops – one is an old one and was mostly underwater when we were there and the other a newer and higher loop with new restrooms and showers and sites mostly above water. On Friday nights, it gets pretty loud late at night from a bar that is down the canal. The sound travels along the canal and it seems to act as a megaphone.

Masks 

While at Rodman, we went into Palatka a couple of times to grocery shop, Rich found another Navy vet to chat with, and the highight was a trip to St. Augustine where we met Rick, Sam, and Emilia for a day trip to Castillo De San Marco National Monument.

Walking from the visitor's center toward the fort, we were greeted by a set of masks decorating a fountain. These masks were a gift to the city in by its city sister in Spain, the city of Avilés where in 1565 the founder of St. Augustine Pedro Menéndez was born. Just beyond the masks was a beautiful old cemetery. It would

Old Cemetary

have been a good place to wander through, but we were scheduled for rainstorms in the afternoon and hoped to be on our way back to camp before that.

Since the fort is a national monument, our senior pass once again came in handy. Sometimes it does pay to get old :) We caught a ranger talk, went through the self-guided tour, and Rich and I stayed with Emilia while Sam and Rick went up to the sentry positions atop the walls where they got birds-eye views of the area.

Outside the fort

While there was a lot if information available, two things struck me (personal comfort items, which I suspect caught the attention of many visitors: The bunks soldiers of the late 1700's slept in were a surprise: each set of bunks would have slept four (yes, that's 4) men – two on top and two on the bottom – and all their gear would have been stored on or beneath the bed as well. At the foot (left) of the bed was space for four guns and four coats. The other major yuck factor was the bathroom, or necessary room as it was called then. While it was located in a (very small) room within the fort walls, it was still for all intents and purposes, an outhouse, although, in one respect, it was a bit better. The

necessary room had a tide-operated flushing system. At high tide, the waste pipe would be flushed out into the bay. Between high tides, there was a barrel of water and a bucket with which to flush. Add the less than sanitary flushing system and multiply it by the number of soldiers at the fort and the heat – well suffice it to say, I don't want to go there.

The fort walls were quarried in the 1860's, 500 Chiricahua Apache's were brought here as prisoners for more than a year, some of whom were part of Geronimo's family. The carving of an Apache Fire Spirit is still visible on one of the

walls.

Star of the day - Emilia

By the time we finished looking through the exhibits at the fort, we headed down to de Noél, a favorite Belgian pastry shop for lunch including the best croissants you've ever eaten and a cup of espresso. Once finished, we headed beck to the parking area. About half-way there, the sky opened up and we all got soaking wet. We waited out the worst of the storm in the courtyard of a restaurant, and when the storm was over, walked on back to the trucks. We had a ball with Rick and Sam and Emilia was still a happy baby. The drive back to the campground was, thankfully, uneventful, as was the rest of our stay. We returned to Paynes Prairie for another week before it looked as though the weather was going to settle down enough to begin our travels west. Our next stop would be Torreya State Park near Tallahassee..

This bunk bed slept 4!

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs, FL January 20-24, 2016 (Manatee Springs and Paynes Prairie, January 24-30)

Telford Hotel

Stephen Foster is such a pretty place and we haven't spent much time exploring the park or the area, so we're happy to be here again. This time, we stopped at the old Telford Hotel, built in 1902, and the only hotel left from the heyday of White Springs. (Florida has over 600 springs – more than any other region in the world.) Even before the 1800's though, White Sulphur Springs was well known by the Native Americans – in fact, it was considered a sacred healing place and so important that even warring tribes put aside their diffences to drink and bathe in the mineral waters without fear of attack. In 1835, Bryant and Elizabeth Sheffield discovered the springs after they purchased the property.

About the springs

Apparently Mr. Sheffield had some health problems, and after drinking from the springs he began to see improvement. News like that gets around quickly and as people began to travel there to visit the springs, Mr. Sheffield built a log hotel and bathhouse around the spring. Florida's first tourist destination was born!

Droves of people appeared, searching for cures for all sorts of ailments and by the late 1900's, there were 14 luxury hotels in town and boarding houses galore. In 1908, the original log bath house was replaced by a four-tiered building and gated concrete and coquina wall, which still stands. The building boasted dressing rooms, restrooms, a concession

Springs building

area, and a clinic. By the 1930's, mineral springs fell out of favor and the town began to die.

Nowdays, it seems that the biggest draw is Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center. It's no wonder, really, since there are so many things to see and do: the memorial carillon, a museum, visitor center, and several small buildings that house craft demonstrations throughout the year.

The 97-bell carillon, installed in 1958, is housed in a 200 foot half-

Inside the springs building

million dollar tower and many of Stephen Foster's more than 200 compositions are played on it. The bells strike on the quarter hour and at the top of the hour, several compositions are played on the bells as well. There is a pamphlet that tells how the carillon was chosen and about the tower that is fascinating.

Near Stephen Foster is a popular spot for hiking and kayaking – Big Shoals, which has 80 foot high limestone cliffs overlooking the largest white water rapids in Florida.

River outside the springs

In spite of having spent most of my life in Florida, I'm constantly amazed about all the new, interesting places we are finding now that we are living on the road.

From here, we go to Manatee Springs and back to Paynes Prairie, but we didn't take any photos nor did I do much at Manatee Springs besides curse my new computer as I was getting it loaded and on line. At Paynes Prairie, we again spent time at the house and from there we head to Rodman Dam – another state park which was originally a corps park.