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| Our favorite little blues place "Blues Alley" Had to make one last stop here before we left Sanford |
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| One last sunset over Lake Monroe |
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| Dinkin' and drinkin' with our buddies! |
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| Having dinner at the Food Truck gathering |
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| Ray's happy! Dear Abbie can keep up now! |
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| Saying goodbye to Marianne and friends |
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| Lake Monroe - so peaceful in the mornings! |
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| A view going down the river |
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| Marsh - very beautiful |
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| St Johns is very peaceful and serene |
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| Waiting on the RR bridge to open |
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| One of the stops along the river |
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| Can't get enough of the beauty |
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| River property |
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| This car has no motor - we think he actually drives the pontoon from the inside of the car! LOL! |
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| Bubba and friend - sawing timber! |
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| This dock is for sale. Any takers? |
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| More beauty along the river |
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| Signs of civilization - must be getting close! |
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| Car ferry |
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| River property at its finest! |
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| The Ortega River Bascule Bridge Granting us an opening This bridge is 1920s antique and still operational |
Anyway, we had a few showers off and on. Just enough to cool things off a bit. The southern part of the St Johns River is
really the prettiest. There are so many
trees with the Spanish moss hanging down.
We saw several alligators – we lost count at over two dozen. The ones earlier in the morning were
huge! Not so sure we would have wanted
to see those from the Whaler! They
crossed right in front of us and were in no hurry. We saw a few manatee playing around also.
By mid-afternoon we found ourselves at Lake George. This is the part that I had been
dreading. It’s where we were inundated
with those darn blind mosquitoes or “midges” as they are called around here on
our trip south. They were so bad that I
had worried about us leaving Sanford since we had got there! It turns out I had nothing to worry about
this time. We crossed the river which is
about 10 miles long bug free!
By 4:00 p.m. we reached our spot for the night – about 10
miles north of Lake George. We wanted to continue to be bug free. J I’d been happy to travel another 20 miles
away but this would have to do. We tied
up to a FREE dock at Welaka. We like
FREE! The dock doesn’t have power but it is a nice secure place to be. It has floating cement docks and the T-head
worked as a breakwater. When we first got here - there were two guys on the dock cutting up pilings with a chainsaw. Lucky for us they didn't have many to cut up. After that other than the
families coming down to bait fish (netting) – it was a pretty quiet place. We watched a few showers go by – missing us –
yea! We even had our crockpot dinner out
on the sundeck. Nice evening! Turns out it was a pretty early evening for
us as well – after all - we’d traveled 70 miles today. That’s a long trip for us!
Tuesday morning we were up and ready to go. Since we had made 70 miles yesterday – we only
had about the 65 to go. We had planned
to stop in Green Cove Springs but opted to go the distance to Jacksonville. After maneuvering our boat away from the dock
which was no easy thing – we were on our way about 8:00 a.m. The current was pushing us against the dock –
we had tucked ourselves in rather tight.
Captain Mike got her our out away from the dock by keeping a line on the
front and pivoting it around. Worked
like a charm.
The day was hot and long but pretty much uneventful. We like travel days like that – uneventful,
that is. As you get farther north the
river widens and isn’t near as pretty.
We didn’t see any more gators but the seagulls came by to greet us. As we approached Jacksonville we were greeted
by several military choppers in the air – probably doing sorties. We made it to the marina about 4:00. It was another long day but it was good to be
in a slip where we could be in our air conditioning.
Now we’re ready for another adventure. Oh and by the way – thanks to Ray and Linda,
who helped in the maneuvering of our car last week – it’s already here waiting
on us! We’ll be checking out the marina
and its surroundings for the next couple of months. There’s a pirate gathering here at the marina
this weekend. Potluck and pirate
costumes. Just up our alley! Sounds perfect!
Till next time!
Admiral “C”
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