Day 12 - Up and Down I-75 Again

Hmmmfh - I'm a bit miffed to think that Juanita thinks I am a princess. (though I did have a small problem the other night under my mattress topper. It was a seed husk from Bubba's cage. O0oh, did that hurt) I have been running myself ragged ensuring that Juanita has the best accomodations, the primo sleeping quarters (right next to the bathroom), and gallons and gallons of water with ice. But I really think that she is joshing our loyal readers. Actually, we can't BELIEVE how well we are getting along.

But I digress - we had a lot to do and see on our agenda, so we were up early. Juanita remarked at breakfast that when we get up early, the day has both a morning and afternoon. So we decided to try it again tomorrow.

First on the list of to do items was to find Pine Island, where the owner of Julia's (Juanita's daughter ) former horse, Awesome, was being taken care of and to visit with him. He was still so good looking and was happily living with a companion named Farrah. They can usually be found hanging out together in the same stall, even though each has his own. We stayed long enough to pet and feed them oodles of carrots and take a few pics. Then we were off to Sanibel Island.

By the time we left Pine Island it was afternoon and quite warm. Sanibel Island is a place Fifi has wanted to see for years, but never had the opportunity . Today was the day. After arriving on the island, we went directly to the "Ding" Darling National wildlife refuge. Even though it was mid-afernoon, we still took the 4 mile drive through the refuge. We weren't disappointed. We were able to go "at a snail's pace" and see many different birds, some of which appear in the blog. By the time we drove through Ding Darling, it was time to head to our next State Park experience. We were fighting for daylight all the way up I-75 to Osprey, FL. Would we make it to the campgrounds in time? Mile by mile we watched the beautious sun slowly sinking to the west. 5 miles to go, then the park exit. No more signs to the park. What happened? Finally, there was the sign up ahead, "Oscar Scherer State Park to the right 1000 feet". We made it! Well - not yet. The big iron gates are closed and it's dark! We don't have the combination to the gate. The park had closed at 6 and it was now 6:30. Fifi jumped out of the rv's cab and from out of nowhere, up drove a truck and stopped behind S CARGO. It was a Park Service guy from another area of the state park system. He got us in the gate, led us to the entrance and roused a park ranger who was banking the dineros from the day's take. Within minutes we were backing into the campsite with only the light of the backup lights on S CARGO- cheese it's dark here.

Having nothing to eat since breakfast, we quickly made sandwiches and drinks and settled into our site in another back of beyond .