Reed Bingham State Park, Georgia - traveling in style!

 

We visited several State Parks in the month of December. 

And as much as we love camping in Florida, it's fun to 'spread our wings' a little and visit some of the state parks in neighboring states.

And it's much easier to travel now in this Coachmen Nova 20d Van camper. 

Our dealer, Sunshine State RVs in Gainesville, FL was the best ever! The link to Sunshine is HERE. And I'll put a link HERE if you want to look at the specs and floor plan. 

In these photos, the side door is open (screen closed) and the back is fully open with a screen pulled down.

We had the prettiest tree in the park at our campsite!

And this is the view of the lake from the window (and door)  facing the lake.

We loved our little travel trailer and Chevy truck but we thought this van would be easier for us to manage. Thanks so much to those who talked to us about the vans and answered our questions, especially my blog friend HERE! 

We spent a week at Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, Georgia last month and had a wonderful experience. A link to the website is HERE.

I keep a camping journal and I had so much good to write about this campground and not a single negative.

Even in December the trees had a lot of 'Fall' color! 

The Cypress trees were spectacular!

Snowy Egret

And I don't think I've ever seen such a variety of birds in a lake. 

Great White Egret

I went different times of the day so I got to see quite a lot!

It sure has been a wonderful experience to travel to so many state parks.

Great Blue Heron

Canada Goose

Mosaic of a few more! (not sure what the bird in the center is)

I may need at least one more post featuring Reed Bingham State Park. 

(We did go in search of the monster of the lake and found it...stay tuned!)

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !

The Roseate Spoonbill, my Florida Favorite

 It's hard to pick a favorite bird when you live in Florida! 

But I fell in love with the Roseate Spoonbill when I first moved here.

And we've only had a few sightings of this beautiful pink bird 'in the wild' over the years.

You would think you could go to the same trails and see the same sights but that's not at all true here in North Central Florida. 

My husband and I went over to the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve and hiked from the Pruitt Trailhead a week ago and looked up in the sky and saw Roseate Spoonbills!

 

It was cloudy and they showed up nicely against the grayish silver sky. Later we saw another one fly over when we were having a snack.

Roseate Spoonbill flock, Cedar Key

I looked back at posts that have featured the Roseate Spoonbill and found the one of our sighting of a flock of them in Cedar Key, back in July 2012 HERE.

That was the first time I had seen them in the wild and I wasn't even sure what they were!

We can see them at Ellie Shiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

This is a mosaic I made of photos we took there a couple of years ago and posted them HERE.

Close up of their feathers

So that was our excitement on Hike #104! We also had a really good sighting of an Owl but only one photo. I stood there and watched it fly by without even lifting my camera but hubby got one. It was amazing!

Owl in flight

I went back over to this trail a week later and didn't see any of the same birds. Time and chance!

Roseate Spoonbill

Hope you can get out in nature this week and see something neat. Time and chance...but you have to get out there often for that to work in your favor!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.   

Rainbow Springs State Park for special days!

We wanted to spend the day somewhere beautiful! So we drove over to Rainbow Springs State Park. (we had to drive right past Blue Run Park which was hard to do...our car wanted to stop there! lol)

 

 It's the perfect place to WALK!

And take pics of it along the way!

 

 "Ornamental gardens, man-made waterfalls and sloping hills are visible reminders of the springs’ more recent past, when the land was home to a mining operation and a privately-owned tourist attraction."

 I wore a new Columbia shirt (I got it on sale because it was 'last years' color) and the Carribean Joe shorts. My hubby already had the Columbia hat and it matched so I wore it to keep the sun out of my eyes.

 You'll notice I wear sunglasses when I'm outside. I have bright blue eyes and I need sunglasses!

 Oh, and PUT that CAP back ON! My hair is so white it will blind you! lol

The azaleas were finishing up already but there were still some in bloom and even some gorgeous Camelias!   

I love Camelias! 

 And I love my sweet hubby!

 So we had a special day and came home happy and TIRED! Good tired though! (our high was a warm 82 degrees!)

 Thanks everyone for visiting me today! I wake up every morning very happy to be blogging with all of you!!!

 I’m joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE  

and Cooking and Crafting with J&J HERE.

Being thankful for the little things!

It’s been wonderful to have a blog to share my life and I am surrounded by blog buddies that are kind and caring…..

and thankful! (don’t worry, that’s NOT snow, it’s SAND!)

I hiked at Halapata Tastanaki Preserve a few days ago (again) and tried to keep my hike at about 1 hour.

We had plans for a longer hike the next day so I didn’t want to over do it.

So when I drove by Ross Prairie State Park…

I couldn’t resist pulling in for a ‘short hike’ there too.

And look what I found!

A painted rock! Isn’t it pretty?

According to Ocala Style Magazine…

“If you find a rock, you can keep it or give it away—immediately or whenever the mood strikes.”

“Once you put your rocks out there, you don’t own them anymore,” says Cindy Lynn, who routinely keeps a painted rock in her pocket so she always has one to leave.

“We really just want to spread joy and inspire creativity. It’s a way of paying it forward, giving freely without the expectation of anything in return,” she adds. “You’re randomly leaving something for someone else to find and make their day.”

I took a photo of it and then walked down the trail and left it there.

So I was glad I made that extra stop, something unexpected to smile about!

But when I saw this tree in the forest…..

I thought it was time to make like a tree and leaf! hahahaha

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays.

Now this is what I call FUN!!!

The weather has been warm and rain free! YAY! So I’ve had lots of fun! Cousin Fun!

My sweet cousin, Cindy came to Florida this week so one day we went to Homosassa Wildlife Park.

I love this wildlife park because all of the animals here live in Florida (except for one! Lu the Hippo has lived here a long time but there aren’t any other hippos here…that I know of! lol)

She was hoping to see the Manatees but the water is so warm now that most of them have gone back out into the rivers and streams.

There are 4 that live in the park though so we got to see them.

Want to see a close up?

 

I love them! And the water is so clear!

Cindy has a really great camera so I’ll steal borrow some of her pics!

I fell in love with this little Green Heron!

A precious tiny Burrowing Owl too!

And she got the best photos of a River Otter that we watched. How fun…and FAST they are!

Lots more to share another day!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

Silver River Knap-In

This is an event like no other! Some of the ongoing demonstrations are Native American Basket Weaving, Seminole Canoe Carving, Prehistoric Shell Tool Making, with Tomahawk throwing, Indian Drumming and Scavenger Hunts!

In other words…FUN  for the entire family!

We spent the afternoon looking at the exhibits and neat things for sale. Enjoying the music of a flute and watching demonstrations.

Oh and did I mention shopping? Our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks and I think hubby has it covered! I got some vintage Navajo jewelry that I LOVE! (I’ll share pics of my treasures soon…thanks hubby)

So much to see! Old Florida!

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Silver Springs State Park and even saw one of the old glass bottomed boats on display.

There was a cute wooden painting that I made into a blog banner.

It was in the mid 80s with bright sunshine.

(a Vendor we bought from….look what the sunshine does to my hair! it turns it SILVER! hahahahaha)

A perfect day in Florida!

Did you have a good weekend?

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE

and Cooking and Crafting with J & J.