Tues 28th and Wed 29

Tues 28th and Wed 29 Tuesday morning we discovered that 5 of 11 of us had problems overnight, the likely culprit being oysters. After a high of 70 on Monday, Tuesdays high was only 45 or so. Several of us made a day trip over to Apalachicola, but no one was brave enough to eat oysters! Apalachicola is a nice historical village, but it was cold enough to cut short the walking around town. The weather prediction for St Joseph’s Peninsula was for ice on Wednesday morning. Some of us made preparations to leave early Wed before the frozen rain. Siglers left around 8, Jordans and Freers around 9, Buckinghams and Henderson sometime later on. Claude and Elaine decided to head toward Birmingham, but ended up in a hotel and ice had closed the bridges around Panama City. We had a nice 4 hour drive on Highway 98 for most of the way to Manatee Springs. A good bit of 98 followed the coast—it would have really been pretty on a better weather day. Manatee Springs is an older state park near the Suwannee River. After setting up, Ron, Casey, and Billie, and I took a nice walk on the boardwalk out to the Suwannee River. We saw several deer, and what looked to be 100 or so buzzards in the trees, but no Manatees! Several interesting things happened tonight: --Danny found a lost woman with early Alzheimers and helped get her reunited with her husband—great job Danny! --a raccoon stole a can of peanuts from Casey --it is cold tonight, so after a great spaghetti dinner, we decided to jam in the back of the Freer’s horse trailer. The lights dimmed, the heater turned off, and then all power was gone. Ron drove to another campsite, and after throwing a switch in the camper, power was restored. Glad the Freers can stay warm tonight. --I left a storage bay door open on our camper, and a raccoon got in it. Billie managed to get the raccoon out with a broom, and of course I now know better than to leave that door open!! 55 is the predicted high tomorrow, and 75 on Friday, so we are looking forward to time outdoors at Manatee Springs. We are sorry to hear of the terrific weather problems experienced in Atlanta and elsewhere. Everyone be safe!!