As we were leaving Mississippi and going east to Florida we stopped at the National Refuge for the Mississippi Sand Hill Crane just outside of the town on Gautier. Easy to get to and hardly anyone there when we arrived at 9:30. We visited the Nature Center and watched a short film describing these endangered birds then took a walk on the nearby trails, but no cranes in sight. The ranger also gave us driving directions for some nearby areas where the cranes are sometimes seen, near houses and farms. We tried that but no luck.
Our hiking trail along the bayous of the reserve.
One of the displays in the Visitor Center gave us a close up view of the cranes.
A lovely walk with Foster before getting back in the car and driving on.
From Gautier our next stop was for lunch in the ship building city of Pascagoula, MS. The ship building industry was all along the waterfront as we passed over bridges.
Paul's cousin, Judy-John, had recommended a stop for lunch at The Catalina Restaurant, which serves up a very tasty typical southern fried meal of shrimp and poboys. Fun to stop in John's former hometown.
After a couple of hours driving over bridge after bridge we turned off in Apalachicola, Florida for our stay at St. George Island State Park.
The views as we drove into this barrier island were gorgeous.
Once we got set up we headed right to the beach and sunset on our bikes.
The neat thing about this park is its location. Once you check in at the ranger station its about a 2 miles drive out to the campground but that's it! No city or traffic other than those staying at the park. This made it perfect for bike riding...SO FEW CARS!
We spent 3 nights here but wished we could have stayed a week of more. So peaceful and wonderful weather. The houses on the island are built high off the ground for protection. Makes for interesting architecture.
Even the park shelters and boardwalks are all raised. We were riding along one afternoon and came upon a wedding on the beach and shelter. What a beautiful setting, with a simple driftwood arch on the beach covered with ribbons and flowers.
Each morning I was so excited to get up, jump on my bike and get down to the shore to watch sunrise over the Atlantic.
We spent some time in the afternoons just relaxing on the empty beach, sun was pretty strong so our little canopy chairs worked great. Empty beaches...loved it!
Nightly sunsets
We did one ride out of the park and into the little town for a look around, it's quite a vacation location, we saw vacation rental signs everywhere. Definitely a perfect winter holiday get away!
As we drove out our last morning I took a quick photo of the island light house from inside the MH. From here we now turned south for our last night before getting to my sister, Emily's near Tampa.
We found another wonderful stay at Rainbow Springs State Park near Crystal River, FL.
The drive was now inland and I was so surprised to see cattle farms and pine trees, Not expecting that in Florida!
Our camping neighbors told us about a great open air restaurant down the road so we decided to check it our for dinner.
Wonderful views of the river with a sunset glow.
The next morning we were up early and on the road to finally arrive at our long term stay at Bay Bayou RV Park in Oldsmar, FL. only about 120 miles to our destination. We were looking forward to staying put for a while.
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