March 6-8, 2018 Indian Pass to Dead Lakes Recreation area , Florida

Rainy and 73. We went to Apalachicola for the day. It is the oyster capital of the state, the home of the inventor of the refrigerator and refrigerator museum.

Beautiful historic downtown Apalachicola and a cute fountain downtown. We stopped at the Oyster City brewery. John with his apalachIPA , me with some kind of chocolate stout and popcorn. 

They harvest huge amounts of oysters in Apalachicola bay, so we went to world famous boss oyster overlooking the bay.  I asked the waitress if I could take a photo of the back of her shirt which says Shut up and Shuck and she said she only lets people take photos of her best side.  John with his  Capt Jack oysters with bacon, jalapeno peppers, colby cheese and hot sauce. On the beach near camp  I saw Mr Crabby, the guardian of Indian Pass, he says take a bag for your treasures and pick up the trash too.  In town I saw the Cabana Boy wanted, no experience needed. We met a fun couple this morning who recognized our bus from when we were in Arizona, Peg and Roy, Peg made this beautiful bag from coiling clothes line covered with fabric. We discussed baskets among other things. We are going to keep an eye out for each other on the road.

This big splash is from a dolphin jumping right in front of me, you can see in the right corner the edge of the surf where I was standing. A bunch of them were doing it going for fish right near shore. This splash is a close as I got to a photo. It was amazing. Sunset was only this narrow pink line tonight. 

63 degrees today. We walked 4 miles on the beach with miles of snow white  sand with coats on. I watched sunset from the lagoon side of Indian Pass tonight.  

Something you don't see everyday, a turkey vulture on the beach. There is an great horned owl in the lower part, he joined me for sunset. The start of this sunset looks like a cartoon sunset or sunrise. 

The colors were lovely.

Palms in sunset. We are now camped at the Dead Lakes Campground along the famous Dead Lakes. The bus in our campsite. It is all very tall long leaf pine with a small lake in the middle. It almost feels like being camped in Colorado in the summer.  It is a first come first serve park with 20 sites with 50 amp power. We just showed up and they had a couple sites left. Only $18 a night and very nice. We are now in the central time zone, we gained an hour. Sunday is daylight savings time so we will loose that hour. Monday we will go back into eastern time zone and loose another hour. I think, I can't keep track. 

The campground from the other side of the lake in the campground. Dead Lakes are a huge lake full of cypress and white tupalo trees. The area was flood long ago when one river cut off another with sand bars. Some of the trees are dead, but most are alive and you can paddle around in them.  

Paddling around in the trees.  

Paddling around in the trees. A huge one in front of me. 

John taking a short cut. John took this of me in the trees.  

One of the dead trees.   As you drive into the campground there is this sign that says "taking straw from this park is prohibited". They call long leaf pine needles pine straw, so not sure if they mean the needles or the pines of actual straw that are here too. The lake in the campground is stocked with grass carp, please do not catch any. Wonder if that means there is no fishing of if it means just leave the carp alone? Verbena, the long leaf pine cones are 10 inches long. Hope none fall on the bus. White and pink flowering bushes. 

Two while ducks on the lake during sunset. Sunset over the lake in the campground.