Glamping With the Minion

I thought the rustling in the back of the truck was Grant, but when I turned my flashlight towards it, there was a big raccoon helping itself to our marshmallows and graham crackers left from making s’mores. 

Spring Break for Clara. I was able to reserve a few days at Anastasia State Park at the beginning and a few days at Fort Desoto County Park at the end. Nothing in the middle of the week because I started looking too late. We decided these trips would be a good chance to try different solutions to our Ford Escape being too small to carry three people and all our gear. Spaulding says we should bring less stuff. I respond that I’m too old to just have a backpack and a pup tent. 

To that end, I rented a Toyota Tacoma through Turo.com, a company that brokers car rentals between owners and users. Let’s just say that this truck is a warhorse with 200,000+ mikes on it and plenty of dings and dents. I don’t have to worry about a little beach sand. It does have a turtle cover on the back, so we can experience climbing in to retrieve the item deepest in the back. Or, luckily, we can send our minion, with flexible knees and back, to do that. Unfortunately, it does not have a Reese trailer hitch so we couldn’t put on our bike rack, which would have been nice. When we get home, I’ll try putting it in the garage which we couldn’t do with Patten’s Ford 150, either forward or backing in. Just too much truck for our little garage.

On the way here, we visited Ravine State Park, where we could drive or walk along a 1.8 mile loop around the top of a ravine (duh) with pergolas, walls, and a stone obelisk dedicated to President Franklin Delano Rosevelt, built by workers in 1933-34 under the Federal Relief Program. We could have opted to go down stairs to the bottom to see the blooming azaleas, but we opted to drive and stop at the overlooks and enjoy them from above. Clara and I walked down to and crossed one of the suspension bridges. An unexpected place in flat Florida.

Days in the 70s and nights in the high 50s. We walked on the beach at night and during the day. Clara picked up shells, I confined my beach combing to the little trash I saw, mostly small pieces of plastic, certainly not like all the junk the kids and I used to find and make into “art”. I saw 500+ semipalmated proves which eBird flagged, so I took a picture with my iPhone and will upload later as support. The little birds were all resting in the sand, maybe getting ready for their migration to Alaska. 

At the Alligator Farm, Clara did the zip line while we looked at gators and crocs. The great egrets had started nesting, as had some snowys, one of whom stood up to stretch so I was able to see the blueish eggs it was brooding. The wood storks and roseate spoonbills were still flying in with sticks and twigs for their nests. 

Yesterday, my parking karma remained in force, and we got the last parking space in a lot 2 blocks from the Columbia Restaurant where we had lunch reservations. Paella, their 1905 salad, and sangria, with too much Cuban bread. I think Clara was disappointed that her child’s steak turned out to be flattened hamburger. We walked St George Street, which was pretty full of tourists. I considered but didn’t buy, a life-sized metal fish skeleton hanging from a fishing lure; I especially liked the 18” barracuda. It might be fun for the lanai. Also a wooden manatee bias relief for over William’s pen. I ponder both. We can come back. Grant resisted at first but I talked him into one of the expensive ($550) Panama hats he loves. This is the third he has bought at the Saint Augustine hat shop in the years we’ve been together. He really enjoys wearing them. Our contribution to the local economy.

We replaced the raccoon-eaten hot dog buns, and, more importantly, bought a small blueberry pie for National Pi Day, at the grocery store. I cooked over a fire Clara made from the last of our wood and some she’d scrounged from empty campsites. She was a trooper splitting the chunks with our dull, dull hatched. Definitely must be sharpened before our next trip.