Way down upon the Suwannee River..........

Ok, I goofed!  All this driving cuts into my researching, and we drove right past the Stephen Foster Cultural Center......and I was even singing as we crossed the river!!  Add it to the list!

Also to add to the list is the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which is a bit out of our travel route for today, closer to Jacksonville.    Love the name!  It covers an area of 300,000 football fields and offers wildlife viewing in addition to boat rides on the swamp, and the experience of living as a "swamper."

This area in northern Florida, just over the Georgia border, is so different in topography, with a bit of hilliness, and deciduous treed forests.  We have never actually been in this corner of the state, which is ripe with state parks and recreation areas, and folks with a southern drawl.  We will have to explore a bit more.

During yesterday's travel, we started seeing signs for peaches, peanuts and pecans......Georgia's bounty!  I pulled off at one place that had a HUGE sign that looked like a giant peach , exclaiming Peach World, or something to that effect.  (now, why didn't I take THAT photo?)  , and maneuvered my way into what turned out to be a strip mall of outlet stores!!  I never did find the place that the billboard announced  had peach cider, but did find one with tables full of pecans, and all the fun goodies that one can make from them, like pralines!  I do love pralines!

Another stop of the day for gasoline , resulted in a visit with the proprietor, Mr. Philip Beamer, since I am sure he was afraid I would take out his pumps, or at least the protective bars around them, when I pulled out.  It has happened, he told me!  He chatted away while I cleaned the windshield.  (that , and filling the tank, take a while!)  Seems he has just purchased an Airstream...you know, the silver bullets of the RV world?.......from a gentleman who, now 91, purchased it when he was 85!!  Says he has been waiting for his wife to get better so they could go again, but figured maybe he should sell it!  Nice man, Mr. Beamer, but he stood right there while I carefully swung my way out and around the building, making sure his property was intact.

At one point he mused he was keeping me from the windshield by talking, but I assured him part of the fun of this type of travel is getting to meet and chat with nice folks like him.  Sweet, southern, low key.....he owned the BP station, attached Arby's, and at least another station somewhere else, which I gathered from our conversation.

We stayed the night in Lake City Florida, at a park called Oaks 'N Pines, and indeed, we are in them!  The woman proprietor led us to our site driving a cart, and holding a tiny dog, named "Bear."  As she entered our site, she just stepped out of the cart, and it continued along its way, while she guided me in!   Then she stood and chatted with us about how Bear got his name (her husband was on a hunting trip, and she went and got the dog without telling him), and said just holler if we needed anything.

Morning coffee with our Halloween mugs! 

We are nearing our destination.....  off to another days adventure.