Wednesday 2-9-2022 Oscar Scherer State Park

 Last night the girls won the card game, but it was very close.  We only won by 500 points - a good game!  We watched a bit of Olympics, then called it a night.

We had intended to walk the beach this morning while Russ was running, but it was quite chilly and windy so we walked toward town and then came back to the condo.  After breakfast we drove to Osprey to the state park.  Our first part of the walk was through the pine scrub area.  Many of the trees were loaded with Spanish moss.  We didn't see much bird activity there: a cat bird, morning dove, tufted titmouse, mocking bird, cedar waxwings, and finally a wonderful red-bellied woodpecker.  We then hiked to the pond and had much better luck: a bald eagle flew over just as we arrived at water.  Then we saw some Avocets, a willet, an anhinga drying his wings, American egret, little blue heron, purple gallinule, a killdeer, some coots, and a very loud and tall limpkin on a small island across from us.  We bumped into some people from Columbus, OH who were looking for alligators.  We directed them to Myakka River.  Just as we got abreast of the end of the island, we looked across and spotted a BAA (big-assed alligator) with two snowy egrets nearby.  He was at least 6 feet long and very wide.  On our way back to the parking lot, we finally saw a red-shouldered hawk that we had been hearing throughout the park.  We were all starving and discovered it was just past 1:00 so we drove the 20 minutes back to the condo for lunch.  Dave is in for his nap.  Russ and Cathie just came back from reading near the pool.  I opted to sit on the balcony and read for a bit before starting the blog.  We are having leftovers for dinner tonight to clear out the fridge.  I had some trouble importing all of the photos for today so will put up the ones that came through and will get the others up later or tomorrow.

Tuesday 2/8/2022 Venice

 We drove to Walt's last night for take-out.  Russ and Dave had grouper and scallops,  Cathie had grouper and shrimp and I had flounder.  Good meal!  We came home and played cards - the boys won this time.  We watched a bit of the men's short program before heading off to bed.

When Russ went for his run this morning, the rest of us went for a long walk towards Turtle Bay.  After everyone had breakfast and showered, we decided to poke around Venice, a charming town to the south of us.  It was overcast today with a chance of rain so we decided not to go birding.  Venice was charming - lots of Italian style architecture in the downtown area.  We parked and walked along the main boulevard.  You know how Mystic had artistic whales a few years ago and Burlington, VT had cows, Venice apparently had mermaids and seahorses. I will put a few pics up.  We drove down to Caspersen Beach where people frequently find shark teeth.  We didn't spot any, but there were people wading in the water with shovels and nets having great luck.  One woman had a sandwich bag full.  They ranged in size from the end of your pinky finger to the length of your thumb.  We came back to Siesta Key and on the way stopped to get lunch at Chick-fil-A.  While we didn't go birding today we did see a brown pelican fly over as we crossed the intercoastal waterway and some sanderlings and ruddy turnstones of the beach.  The first pic is of a tee displayed in front of a bar.

We were lucky with the weather as it didn't start raining hard until we were in the car and leaving Venice.  It is rainy steady now - a good time for napping, blogging, or reading.  I am making quiche for dinner.

Monday 2/7/2022 Myakka River State Park

No cards last night.  After dinner we watched 60 Minutes and some Olympics skiing. 

After breakfast this morning we drove out to Myakka.  We saw wood storks on the way in to the Bird Walk.  Dave and Russ set up their scopes when we got to the observation platform.  We were lucky to see a bald eagle soaring overhead and a juvenile standing in the marsh area.  We also had our first sighting of an American white pelican.  Others spotted there were a great blue heron, a tricolored heron, a limpkin, the common moorhen, a palm warbler, a Savannah sparrow, and a first for me: several American avocets.  We drove over to the dam area and spotted a pair of sandhill cranes hanging out by the parking lot.  We also saw a juvenile alligator sunning himself on the boat launch.  Over by the dam itself, there were 30-40 full grown alligators hanging out in the sun.  There were also lots of black vultures and a half dozen roseate spoonbills, a cormorant, an anhinga, a little blue heron, glossy ibis, and some black necked stilts,  The sun was out this morning so it was a very pleasant birding day.  On our way back into town we stopped for a few provisions.  After lunch, Russ, Cathie and I went across the road to the beach.  We didn't stay very long as the sun went behind the clouds and the wind picked up.  We will have seafood tonight and probably play cards again.

2/6/2022 Siesta Key-Celery Fields

 We played hand and foot last night and the girls won!  Yay!

This morning Russ went for his long run - 10 miles.  The rest of us had a leisurely breakfast.  Dave noticed that there were underwater lights in the canal below our balcony that attracted the fish.  There were some sizable ones that swam into view.  When Russ returned, he had breakfast and showered.  We drove into town to browse the small craft fair (see the only non-bird pic) set up there and then headed out to Celery Fields to watch the birds.  We saw a least bittern, a Nanday parakeet, blue winged teals, both white and glossy ibis,  American, snowy and cattle egrets, great blue, little blue, green and tricolored herons, painted buntings (although I only saw the female as I was watching the staff check the purple martin houses for signs of nesting), grackles, boat tails, cardinals, brown-headed cow bird, red-winged black birds, common and purple gallinules and a pair of sand hill cranes.  We came back for lunch and Russ, Cathie and I walked the beach while Dave took a nap.  The weather was 67 and overcast again today, but there were a few people in beach chairs bundled in their sweatshirts.  We will wait for a sunnier day to go to the beach.  I am making dinner tonight - meatloaf, mac and cheese, and salad.  Tomorrow we will order out again.

2/5/2022. Emporia GA to Siesta Key, FL

 When I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to check the local news and weather, I realized that the reason for the lack of hotel rooms was not only because of all the high school wrestlers and their families, but the killers of Ahmaud Arbery will go on trial Monday in Brunswick.  I'm sure there are plenty of news and media reporters here to follow the trial. We had breakfast and loaded up the car and got on the road.  We stopped at the Florida welcome center for our free glass of orange juice, but we all remarked that it didn't taste fresh squeezed like it used to.  We got on Route 301 right after Jacksonville - not very exciting, but a change of pace from the highway.  We did pass by several lovely horse farms.  In Ocala we got on I-75 and headed south.  When we got near Tampa we waved to our friend Kelly.  We got to Siesta Key a bit early so went for a short drive and then loaded up at the grocery store.  We expected to see most people without masks, but I would say at least 2/3 of them were masked - probably all the Yankees and Canadians down here to get out of the cold weather.  We packed the groceries around our feet and on our laps and went back to see if we could get the key.  Check in was supposed to be at 4, but they finally had the room ready around 3:45.  We were happy to get into the unit.  We are on the seventh floor and have 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.  There is a lovely balcony, a pool, tennis courts, and a private beach across the street.  Russ and Cathie went into town to pick up grouper sandwiches and a large salad to share for dinner.  We are planning a card game while listening to the Olympics (as long as it is not curling!).  Most of our ride today was overcast, but it did get up to 70, but only saw sunshine near Jacksonville.  We hope to go on a bird walk tomorrow so will put some pics on. 

2/4/22 Emporia VA to Brunswick GA

 We had a much better day today.  We met in the lobby for a 6 AM continental breakfast - very good.  We got on the road and for most of the day the skies were cloudy with a few odd showers here and there, but there was not steady rain.  We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's - Cathie and I had baked potatoes.  The outside temperature kept rising as we drove south.  The highest I noticed was 82.  I am definitely wearing shorts tomorrow.  We stopped at Brunswick to get rooms for the night.  We went to five different motels in the area, but they were all full or charging outrageous prices.  We found out at one of them that there was a high school wrestling competition here this weekend and that is why every room was taken.  We traveled on down the road to the last exit in Brunswick and found a Comfort Inn.  There again was not a huge choice of restaurants so we ate at Denny's at a table very far away from everyone else.  No pics today.  We will hopefully watch a bit of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics and hit the sack.  I am so glad I was finally able to get on the blog, but will work on pic placement next time.  We will get to Siesta Key tomorrow and are all looking forward to it.

2/3/2022 Mystic CT to Emporia VA

 We rose early this morning - 3 AM, had a quick bite to eat, loaded the car and got on the road at 4.  Our idea was to get through New York City before the traffic got bad.  Unfortunately we got slowed down a bit with the thick fog all along I-95.  There was quite a bit of truck traffic too as we got closer to the George Washington bridge and it started to rain.  At one point, we saw a sign that said 12 minutes to the bridge.  After 20 minutes, we began to see signs for La Guardia and finally signs for the Long Island Expressway and I know something had gone wrong.  Somehow with the fog, the rain and the monster trucks all around us we got off of 95.  We managed to turn around and get back on the right path, but that error cost us about 45 minutes.  Oh well, we did eventually get over the bridge and onto the Jersey Turnpike.  Our trip through Delaware and Maryland were uneventful.  We also skirted around Washington DC with no problems.  We had three slow downs above Richmond however.  One was just a volume slow down, one was an accident off on the shoulder.  After that things were going smoothly for quite a while, but at one point I noticed that there was no traffic moving in the northbound lanes.  We did see one lone car, but then no others.  It was like something out of the Twilight Zone - very eerie.  We couldn't imagine what was going on until Russ mentioned that there must be an accident on the northbound lanes and the traffic was not allowed to pass.  The hold up in our lanes was due to rubberneckers.  We eventually passed the scene of the multi-car accident and the north-bound traffic was stopped for several miles.  We finally got below Richmond and were happy to stop for the afternoon in Emporia VA.  The whole day had been foggy, rainy or both so we were happy that the weather in Emporia was just overcast.  The rooms were not ready for us so we took a ride to explore the downtown area.  We got through our car tour of the town quickly as there wasn't much there so we turned around and had to stop the car so I could take a pic of the Senior Citizen Inn (first two pics) - quite the place, but so happy we were booked into the Hampton Inn!  We started to take a walk down by the river, but it started to rain and we left downtown Emporia with its two pawnshops and not much else to speak of (except for the Senior Citizen Inn).  The last picture is the "peanut love sign" (last pic) that welcomes you to the town.  We loaded up the baggage carrier and took the elevator to the second floor of the hotel and our bad luck was still holding:  the elevator malfunctioned and we were stuck inside!  We had to press the panic button several times before we were connected to the front desk and someone came to let us out.  The rooms were lovely and Dave took a short nap before we went out to dinner at the only viable option: Shoney's.  We would have done take out, but there was hardly anyone inside and there was no one on the glassed in porch which is where we sat.  We got back and had an early night.