Today we leave Florida, for a long slow trek northward where it appears spring has arrived early. Rochelle's plans have changed so we are cutting our trip short by a couple of weeks. But, that's okay. Believe it or not, I'm getting tired of palms and pines and longing for some deciduous trees....even if they don't have leaves yet! It's also unseasonably warm here and getting too hot to hike in the woods. It's supposed to be 86 today! Yesterday's hike and bike produced a few pictures. We are in yet another state park near Gainesville that was built by the CCC.

Biggest pine cone I've ever seen. It is from a long leaf pine!

This park has a river that goes underground and rises in another state park 3 miles away. It's due to limestone formations on the property. We crossed it,  on a suspension bridge built by the CCC.

Three of the many small ponds covered with a small leafed floating plant, duck weed. It's not algae and I thought it was pretty and wanted some for our pond until someone told us that it is caused by too much nitrogen run-off.

The turtles sure seemed to like it, though!








So, looking back, although there are supposedly bears, panthers, jaguarundi, etc. in Florida but besides alligators and a million small gray squirrels all we saw was one small wild boar :(   But, we did see a lot of manatees :) The roseate spoonbill remained elusive. We saw many less wading birds due to the high water levels from all of the rain.

Stay tuned for the Carolinas and Virginias before we make the final turn for home.