We drove for quite a while yesterday and made it to Columbia, MS. We checked out DeSoto National Forest on the way without much luck. The area we looked at appeared to be often used for military training exercises.
Our sleep schedule has gradually gotten earlier, so we were up and on the road by about 6:15 this morning. We got to a very nice campground in Homochitto National Forest. The internet isn't very good, but no one else is here, so we decided we would stay the night.
There were some strong gusts of wind last night where we were, but that's it. We haven't even had to deal with much rain.
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-Miranda
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We left right after we woke up. We decided to try having breakfast at a little diner in the next town. It was a pretty busy place and the food was decent. Their "french fries" were hashbrowns.
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We stopped at St. George Island State Park. You have to drive across a crazy long bridge to get there. We drove the four miles to the end of the park, then biked the 5 miles to the end of the island, mostly staying on the beach. There was a relatively large fish stuck on the beach that was still alive, so I helped get that back in the water. We found a couple very neat shells and there were quite a few jellyfish on the shore. At least on the bay side. Not as many on the gulf side.
We then headed for Panama City and are now sitting in a Walmart parking lot for the night. We probably could have gone to the next forest and found a spot, but it's getting late and we figured we could get more work done here.
-Miranda
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Lucy got into the cupboard.
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Pickles sleeping with the vacuum.
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Jellyfish
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A ton of pelicans and gulls on the bay side, just hanging out.
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What the heck! It's been cold in the morning. The temperature swings down here are crazy! It's in the 70's or 80's during the day and down in the 30's at night. We just don't want to take the chance of the pipes freezing. Blah.
Anyway, we ended up staying in Osceola National Forest for a total of 3 nights. It got pretty chilly at night there too, but it was very nice during the day. The spiders down here are huge!
We have been getting up early (for us) now, so we ran a number of errands while we were in Tallahassee, including going to a small YMCA. We then headed towards a national forest. It was trashy! There were random places we could have stayed probably, but there was garbage and shotgun shells everywhere. We did end up finding one place that wasn't awful, but we just stayed there the night and left right when we woke up in the morning. We then drove to Tate's Hell State Forest and have had little luck here. The roads are dug out on either side and there is water there, so it basically makes it hard to pull off anywhere. We finally found a large, unused intersection with awesome internet and decided we would just stay here for the night. Hopefully it doesn't freeze...
-Miranda
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We did end up biking a little more the next day at Jekyll Island. We went to the driftwood beach, which was similar to what we saw on Hunter Island, but they were fallen weird directions. Some towards the water, some away, which made for some interesting passageways. We then biked down the beach a bit and ended up doing some body surfing in the ocean. Then, as we were leaving to go back on the bike path, Joe had a flat tire... Yeah.. he doesn't have the best of luck. Fortunately, there were some people outside of their homes and we were debating what to do, a guy mentioned he could bring Joe and the bike to the campground. So, I biked back and he got a ride.
We left the next day and headed for Little Talbot State Park. It's another island on the coast. The campground was tiny. Only 40 spots total and they were really well separated. Forest between them, etc. Very nice. We got a spot next to the marsh. We went for a 3.5 mile walk which went down a trail, then came back on the beach.
We only stayed one night and left this morning. We drove through Jacksonville, stopped to get a new tire on Joe's bike, stopped for lunch and I got my hair cut. I've been getting really sick of dealing with long hair, so I wanted it short. It is now short.
We're currently in Osceola National Forest at a very nice spot where we have not even heard any cars go by on the road that is a bit of a walk away. So, we'll probably stay here at least one night, maybe more depending on how power goes.
-Miranda
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A fun path out to a lookout over a marsh.
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The driftwood beach on Jekyll Island.
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The end of the trail and onto the beach!
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Our view from our campsite on Little Talbot State Park.
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My new hair.
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We left Hunter Island and headed farther south to Jekyll Island in Georgia. This island is definitely more touristy. You even have to pay a $5 entry fee (they call it a parking fee...) There are bike trails all around the island, so after getting a site we hopped on the bikes. We went around the whole island. After we got back, Joe calculated it and figured we biked about 20 miles. We're staying here another night to do laundry and get some work done. We may bike a bit more... We'll see.
-Miranda
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