Deep Down in Florida
It was really challenging to find a decent song about the state of Florida. And that’s not for lack of trying on either my part or that of major recording artists. I slogged through less than stellar efforts by Eric Clapton, Modest Mouse, Less than Jake, and a handful of lesser known country and folk singers. Does Jimmy Buffet have a mediocre song about Florida? Reader, you know in your heart that there’s AT LEAST one. Luckily, Muddy Waters finally came through, singing the blues about “Goin’ down in Florida, where the sun shines damn near every day.”
Ol’ Muddy ain’t wrong about that sunshine. The Florida weather was great in December, especially compared to what we’re used to back in the middle of the country. We were able to spend plenty of time outdoors, staying in only due to rain, a couple of days that got too hot, or lack of motivation.
So just like Muddy, after our stay in Orlando we went deeper down in Florida, heading south and west to Peace River RV & Camping Resort, located between the towns of Wauchula and Zolfo Springs (those are real names!). Peace River is not as big as the park we left, but still has plenty of sites and amenities, and is part of the Thousand Trails network so our three-week stay was free with our membership. As it happens, our schedules lined up with that of our friends from North Carolina (and Orlando), and they moved down to Peace River the same day we did, so Izzy already had a friend to play with.
As the name implies, the park is bordered by the small, slow moving, very brown, Peace River, which is apparently full of fossils. One afternoon, we met up with our friends on the banks of the river, braving the mosquitoes and rumored resident alligator, to sift through some sand. I’m no fossil-ologist, but I did take Geology 100 (aka “Rocks for Jocks”) at the University of Nebraska, and I think some of the small oddly shaped items we found could have at one point been part of a shark’s mouth.
The park had some nice trails you could hike down by the river. It was nice and close to the park, but separated enough to feel like you were getting out into nature. We were told there was at least one alligator living in the area, but despite going out many different times, we never managed to spot it.
Deep down in Florida is orange country. Citrus groves are everywhere, and trucks hauling oranges are common to see on the highway. They don’t cover or tarp their loads, so a big bump will send a few oranges up and out of the truck to bounce along the highway. We drove past some kind of citrus processing plant once and the orange smell was intense even with our windows rolled up and the AC on.
I love a good orange and was excited to try out some fresh local citrus, so Izzy and I went out and visited an orange grove that had a big grove stand. They had some very fresh tasting citrus soft serve ice cream, but Izzy thought it was too tart. The fruits we bought there were really disappointing as well. Somehow, the best citrus we had while in Florida was a bag of Cuties we picked up at Target and I think those were grown in California. I dunno if Florida has a similar situation to Nebraska, where you can see field upon field of corn, but it’s not actually good to eat since it is all feed corn for cows. Maybe all those groves are for juicing oranges which are somehow not good to eat? Who is drinking all that orange juice? And whatever happened to those weird little frozen canisters of orange juice concentrate? They used to take a huge part of the freezer section at the grocery store. I mean they weren’t really that good, but that mixing those up was one of the first things I learned to do in the kitchen. The orange gloop would never want to come out of the canister so you would try to thaw the sides with the warmth from your hands, but it was too cold to hold for more than a second… What was I talking about?
Izzy made some new friends while we were at Peace River, including this kitty that liked to wander our neighborhood. We bought some treats that Izzy enjoyed feeding her, but Izzy was very concerned that the cat might get inside.
Izzy made some human friends too!
We even went on a little adventure with our friends to check out Siesta Key Beach, which claims to be the #1 beach in the US. It was a very nice beach, with amazing white “sugar” sand. It was too cool to go for a swim, but we all enjoyed the sun and sand.
Later, we met our friends at a different beach on Anna Maria island. It was very nice, but not quite up to Siesta Key’s #1 Beach in the US standards.
It’s kind of rare, but we occasionally do camping stuff, like having a campfire!
Of course, it was December which means Christmas. We were sad that we wouldn’t be able to see our family and friends back in Nebraska in person, due to the pandemic, but we made the best of it on our own, and got in some family time via Zoom.
Phew! That about does it for this one. Tune in next time for our continued Florida adventures. See you down the road!