Easy Pace at Gamble Rogers

Friday through Saturday                                                                    Most Recent Posts:
November 25-December 2, 2017                                                        My Week Alone
Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area                                               St.  Augustine Lighthouse
Flagler Beach, Florida

Our second week at Gamble Rogers isn’t much different than my first week here alone (see link above).  It’s just as wonderful.   We are mesmerized by the waves right outside our window and go to the beach often since it’s just steps from our front door.

I’m up for dawn every day.  David’s lucky to make sunrise even though it isn’t until 7am.  But, he needs a lot of sleep and his medications make sleeping difficult for him.  Still, I’m sorry he misses the best color.

The birds like dawn too.

The sun has its own routine and I watch it as I walk along the shore..   Even though the horizon is lined with dark clouds, when I watch carefully I can catch those first glimmers of where the sunrise is actually going to be.

As I return to Winnona, the sand glows golden and I am again struck by how easily another storm could wipe out these fabulous campsites.

On Thanksgiving I showed my neighbors not unexpected disappearing act.  New neighbors have moved in and they amazingly don’t even have a tent.  No idea what they will do if/when  it rains.  They are car camping in the true sense of the word.

But what’s most interesting to me is that among all the things they removed from the car was this cage.

I’ve never seen a camping parrot before.  I can’t say that he looked or sounded any too happy to be confined in such a small cage.  I just can’t help but feel birds really don’t belong in cages no matter how selfishly we want to “own” them.

Of course David can’t spend all of his time sunrising, sunsetting, beach walking and reading.

So Sunday is dog house insullation day.  He decided recently that the noise from the engine seemed more noticable than in the past.  Not sure that’s true but it’s how it seemed so David ordered a  Fat Mat soundproofing kit that included a roller and a cutter along with the fat mat material for about 18” by 4’.   This turned out to be just enough to cover the under side of the dog house.  Cost about $40.

To start the process he cleaned the fiberglass with Awesome and then with ethyl alcohol. It took a while to figure out how to deal with all the curves. They didn’t send much in the way of instructions.   He found cutting it into 3-4” strips worked best.

All smiles when it’s all done.  The subsequent verdict is that it make a noticeable difference.  There seems less heat coming into the coach from the engine and less noise.   The installer says it was worth both the money and the time.  I recommended that makers of gas rigs get the hint and do this at the factory.

In my previous post from Gamble Rogers, I showed the things I saw and experienced as I hiked North up the beach toward the town of Flagler Beach. 

This week at sunrise one day I set out going the other direction, south down the beach from the campground. There is a small section of non state park beach front just beyond Gamble going South and just north of its sister park Northern Peninsula State Park.

I’m not sure who owns this small amount of in between land.  There are no campsites or structures on the beach but 3 condo complexes are on the other side of the beach road between the two parks.  Swell  neighbors for them.  I suspect the developers grabbed the land before the state could.

North Peninsula State Park, like Gamble Rogers, has land on both sides of A1A.  It has more than 3 miles of unspoiled beach on one side of the road and stretches on the other side to the intracoastal waterway.  In these acres you can hike through coastal scrub, maritime hammock and salt marsh habitats.  North Peninsula is administered by Gamble Rogers and is all within walking distance just down the beach or biking on the trail next to A1A..

I’m on Northern Peninsula’s beach when I find this interesting post and piece of rope.  No idea what it could be for or how it got here but I thought it made an interesting picture.

After the sun has finally risen I’m no longer looking directly east but now see interesting things at my feet like this crab artwork in the sand.   It would be even more interesting without all the human footprints.  I think of his little hole as a tiny sun with all the rays shining down from it.

Up near the dune I notice this taped off area.  Pretty sure I know what it is but I thought it was really too late in the season for this.  Hope the little ones aren’t lost.

Not so excited to see this all alone on the shells.

The Northern Peninsula State Park beach is a long lovely stretch right along A1A south of Flagler Beach. 

Beautiful day for a beach walk.

Every day I’ve been here,  there have been fishermen along the shore having pretty good luck they say.  I always ask what they catch, they always tell me, I never remember.  I’m not a fisherman.

I’ve seen numerous sea beans among the shells in the wrack line.  I’ve also seen a few coconuts.  Someone has had a good time with this one.  It makes me smile.

I marvel every day that this is my view from inside.

And that this is my view from outside.

We while the days away between sunrises and sunsets for our last few days at Gamble Rogers.

Sundrise on the Atlantic                                           Sunset on the inlet

But I don’t take many pictures of anything but the sun.   It’s just fascinating in how it rises every day and in nearly the same spot and yet never ever looks the same.   At the risk of sunrising my readers to death and because this is the very last one from this spot,  I am going to close this post in a blaze of rising sun.

Just peeking up and shining into a rack of clouds.

Zoomed out I can see a bit more of the rainbow of colors.

Balanced on the horizon it lights up those cloud rims.

It slides up through the cloud and on into the sky.   Day beings.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high

And now it’s December the 1st and time to leave this view, this yard, these neighbors, this routine  and move to another one.

We move 100 miles to slightly west of Orlando.  We’re at Lake Louisa State Park  in Clermont Florida where our new view is of the lake.  The park actually has three lakes and we are on Dixie Lake.

Our view is no longer the ocean out our front windows, now it’s the lake out the bedroom and kitchen windows.   Pooh enjoys the view too.

Pretty sweet patio breakfast spot but we won’t be here to enjoy it long.  Just two night and then we leave on Sunday for Disneyworld.  My next post will hopefully be from there and will be coming to you in real time for the first time in a long time.