Sunday February 19th 2017

It was a beautiful day today. The temperature returned to the mid 70s and the sun shined through scattered clouds all day. I went out to explore the area.

Based on the road signs the big attraction in the area is the Suwannee River. The river was made popular in the Steven Foster song “Old Folks at Home”. The song was written in 1851 and has been the state song of Florida since 1935. The song and the mythos surrounding it have been a big driver of tourism to Florida over the years.

Local Resident

I find it interesting that Steven Foster never visited Florida. All he knew about the river was its name. At one point while writing the lyrics the Pee Dee River in South Carolina was considered. Wouldn’t that have made a great song.

The areas of the river that I sampled were interesting but not remarkable. The river was fifty to one hundred feet wide and slow moving. Trees with Spanish moss overhung the banks. It resembled a lazy river and could under the right situation be very picturesque. A canoe or kayak paddle done the stream might be fun, but I didn’t see an outfitters so I may be way off base on that idea.

Odd mix of Flowers in planter at campground.

Back at the campground things really emptied out today. This runs against the idea that the holiday weekend was driving the lack of availability I’ve been encountering. Late in the day travelers have taken many of the open sites, but the campground still has many openings tonight. Several of the new arrivals are from the other end of the Interstate in Michigan. They probably left home Friday to get here tonight. I was thinking of Michigan because there is a billboard on the north bound side of the highway advertising a Christmas Wonderland in Michigan. They really want to get people thinking about it early. Around a thousand miles early.