New and Old Friends on a Tour of the Sites

Wednesday January 28, 2015
Myakka River State Park
Big Flats Campground
Sarasota, Florida

 

 

Nancy and Bill met Michelle and Peg at an RV Dreams Rally we were unable to attend.  They wanted to introduce us so when Peg and Michelle came over to Myakka for a bike ride, we were invited to join them all.  You bet!    They even came to our site to pick us up.   Nancy asked if I could come out and play.  I told her my daddy says I can.

 

 

 

We head out toward the bird walk.   And when we get there, we find a juvenile eagle flying over head.  Or at least that’s what we think he is from such a distance. Nancy has better pictures.  He is great fun to watch as he soars through the skies. 

 

 

The water is way up and there aren’t the tons of birds we have seen here other years but the usual cast of characters are around.

 

 

 

 

Little blue and snowy egrets

 

 

 

 

 

We saw the eagle again on our way back to our bikes to peddle over to the Outpost.

 

 

Why did the turkey cross the road?  So Michelle will get off of her bike and take his picture and Sherry will get off her bike and take a picture of them both.  Wild turkeys are smart birds.  They also have subtle but beautiful colors.

 

 

 

 

When we reach the outpost we walk on out to the weir.  Bill says he’s seen it many times so he voluteers to stay with the bikes so we don’t have to lock them up.  Nancy and Peg pose with a venerable old oak on the walk to the weir.  Michelle wants Peg to climb up and sit in the saddle but Peg declines.

 

 

 

Nancy is horsing around behind the tree looking for a way up. Her head peeking through does give a better idea of the size of the tree, and the size of her head.  <grin>

 

 

This is the first time I have ever seen the water level so high that water is running over the weir.   They have also finally locked the gate here to keep people off of it.

 

 

When we get back Bill shows us what he used to defend the bikes against  all comers.

 

 

 

The four of them bike back to Bill and Nancy’s for their picnic lunch and plan to go over after that to see the Canopy Walk as the last thing on the Major Sites of Myakka Tour.  We decline that invitation thinking there will just be too many people in the park in mid afternoon to want to do that based on our siting of the full tower just yesterday.  

We really enjoyed getting to know Michelle and Peg.  If we’d known they were going to go back for a chat at Nancy and Bill’s we would have come up to say a proper good bye.  We hope we’ll see them down the road.  They’ve just started full timing and it seems to suit them perfectly.

In the evening I walk out to get the sunset.   I still think it looks almost like a tropic island with the palm trees although that isn’t water between them and the sun, it’s the prairie.