Spontaneity

The beginning of a new year and the beginning of my 5^th month of life on the road (9,600 miles later) seem like a good time for reflections. With my current lifestyle, spontaneity is a good thing to embrace.  You never know what the day will bring. Ten days ago I left in the morning, planning to drive to a campground in a specific area, but I have yet to get there. It looks like I might not get there at all. But that’s OK. There are so many  things to see and do!

In route to my intended destination that day, I decided to head in a different direction, for a shorter drive. Where I wound up that night was not that exciting, though I did get a good bike ride in after I parked.  

In my wandering the next day I found a great place to stay at Ochlokenee River State Park. There were nice places to hike; with scenic views along a river and through the woods, and plentiful wildlife, including pretty snakes,  white squirrels, plentiful 'normal' deer, and a white (piebald) deer. 

This little guy was stomping his foot, initially unhappy with my presence, but then he went back to foraging.

The ranger told me there's a genetic mutation and a deer like this is taken during during hunts every now and then. This is the only one they are aware of at the moment. I took this photo with one of those tiny lenses that you clip onto your smart phone. Don't believe the claim ads make, that professional photographers are using them instead of 'real' cameras (and they show you the super sharp images the lens supposedly takes). It's hard to get a well-focused photo. But you can get a closer view of what you're trying to photograph that's far away, and it is a sharper image than zooming in with your smart phone. 

My campsite was along the river which made it easy to launch my kayak from my “backyard” to paddle a canoe trail the next day.

You can see my van in the woods to the right of the bench. Great campsite!

Sunset from behind my campsite.

A gorgeous view along my morning stroll, with my coffee in hand.

That night a friend messaged me to suggest I meet up with a friend of his that was a manager of a Wildlife Refuge. It was 2.5 hours south of me rather than in the westward direction I was heading. Meanwhile I received a request to meet up with another woman in a westward direction who was also living full time in a van like mine and exploring – she’s been at it 16 months.

The southward suggestion was 7.5 hours drive from where I needed to be 5 days later to see a hand specialist. In mid-November I woke up with a finger bent at an unnatural angle; apparently a tendon injury. I’d been rock scrambling the day before (in the land of the fat ponies) but I didn’t remember hurting myself… I Googled it and learned it was Mallet Finger, that needed to be splinted for 4-6 weeks. I bought an over the counter splint but it didn’t do the trick.  Time to seek professional help.

Confused over the dilemma of whether to head south before I continued westward, I went to bed without a plan. I woke up in the morning with the affirmation that I could do it all. I contacted the other full-timer to tell her I’d meet her at a campground 2.5 hours drive from my hand appointment the night before that appointment. Then I contacted the wildlife refuge manager to see about visiting him. So much for all that internet search about his refuge. He was going to be gone until the day before my appointment. So I launched plan B.

I drove north thinking I’d need to drive 45 minutes to a place to get propane but I found it just 20 minutes away, near a place I’d wanted to explore. I stopped to do a major grocery shopping and kept running into the same white-haired woman in almost every row I ventured down. We were apparently shopping for similar items. On our fourth encounter, she (Marsha) said “I haven’t seen you in here before. Are you associated with the RV out there?” At my encouragement, she happily made suggestions of places I should see and things I should do. Then she asked “Where are you staying tonight?” I told her I didn’t know yet. She invited me to dinner and to park at their place. Her husband, Karl, caught up to us about then and she told him I’d be joining them that evening.

Marsha sent me off to explore the wildlife refuge she volunteered at – a place where you could hike or ride a bike on an extensive series of dikes along multiple canals, filled with migrating birds. I had a great time exploring St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge that afternoon.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

 I showed up at Marsha and Karl's place just before dark, as instructed. And a gorgeous place it was.

My campsite at Marsha and Karl's.

Marsha is 84 and Karl is 88. Retired school teachers; she taught elementary students and he was a music professor at Florida State University. They are mentally sharp and physically spry. We had a wonderful evening. Who knew, in Trump country, that I’d find people that shared my political views? They were a bit concerned about me too, since they were aware of Alaska’s political tendencies. They cut to the chase right away when they said they hoped I didn’t mind, but they watch PBS News Hour every night at that time. Our conversations around the news made it clear we were like minded.

It was a delightful evening and the next morning after breakfast I headed off on another of Marsha’s suggested activities.  I launched my kayak and paddled up river for nearly 4 miles on a quest to see manatees. There were none to be found. Oh well… I saw lots of turtles and birds. It was a scenic paddle and the paddle down river was much faster. I headed from there to a nearby state park that also claimed to have manatees but I failed again in my quest. Oh well…

The next day I headed back to St Marks in a “Florida state of mind”. It was unusually cold at 38 degrees, with 20 mph winds, gusting to 30. It was heavy overcast with humidity of 92%.  Brrrr!!!! I was resigning myself to indoor activities; I hadn’t entered the Visitor’s Center when I’d been there before. There was also a kid’s aquarium in the area, I could go there too. But the mantra “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes” popped into my head. Of course (!!) I had multiple layers of cold weather gear and a wind-protection layer! Phew! I snapped out of that Florida mindset and enjoyed a 16-mile hike that day and the clouds went away and winds died down. My hike was long enough, I didn’t have time for the visitor’s center or aquarium, but that’s OK. I can’t possibly do it all.

I’m still in Florida, exploring some of the barrier islands along the Gulf of Mexico. After settling into my campsite on St. George Island, I headed out on my bike to ride from one end of the island to the other and back. About 11 miles of my 31-mile ride was into a wicked head wind and the last 10 miles was a dirt road, some of it was deep sand. It was very tempting to not do that last 10 miles (half into the wind), since I passed my camp ground before I started down that dirt road. But you know how it goes; set out to DO something and pure stubbornness keeps me going. Happily, the last 5 miles back to camp was a tail wind.

The far end of St. George Island at the end of a gravel road, and (presumably) a casualty of Hurricane Mathew.

I took a long hike before I left the campground the next morning to make my rendezvous with the full-timer. She’s a white-haired 70-year-old, and oh the fun tales she (Chrys) had to tell about how many times she’s been adopted during her solo travels. Memories of her tales were fueled by showing me beautiful water-color paintings she’d made in small sketch books during her travels. I guess when you have white hair and more wrinkles than I have, you get adopted even more. We both agreed that we love our vans and love life on the road.

The next morning I went for a speedy walk and jog, hopped in the shower, said goodbye to Chrys and headed off to see the hand doctor. Sure enough, my web-search diagnosis of Mallet Finger was correct. And yes, it needed to be splinted (which I did faithfully for 2 months to no avail). So now I’m going to get a custom-fitted splint, specific for mallet finger. I’m to wear it full-time me for a month, and then for another month at night and when I do strenuous things. I’m dubious about the success, but it is true that my modified over-the-counter splint didn’t quite keep my finger straight. So maybe it will work. I doubt I’ll be back to this hand doctor in 8 weeks for a recheck. I’ll find another one wherever I’m at then.

This has gotten quite long so I’ll call it good for now.   I’m in the northwestern corner of Florida camped on yet another long, skinny barrier island at Gulf Islands National Seashore Park. I explored the fort and went for a bike ride today. Tomorrow, once I get my splint from the physical therapist, I’ll be leaving Florida and continuing westward. I may get brave and visit New Orleans if I can manage the traffic and figure out how to keep my van safe. Time will tell...