Old Fossils

You can catch a glimpse of Old Florida when you stay along the Peace River in Wauchula Thousand Trails. Cattle, Oranges and big Live Oak trees just full of hanging Spanish moss, often enshrouded in the early morning fog and mist along the river abound in the area. It's a sleepy little place really. But perfect for one of our favorite activities - playing in the water. No, not kite boarding, surfing, jet skiing- not that kind of sport. Instead, we hooked up with Jane, seen below, queen of the river fossil hunters at the campground. A very knowledgeable and friendly young woman, Jane takes groups three times a week to sift through the river gravel in the hopes of finding fossilized remains of some pretty amazing animals that once inhabited the area, long before there was the land mass of Florida as we know it today. Sounds tricky huh? Not really. It would be much harder NOT to find some of these fossils than it is to find them. The trick is in knowing what you are looking for. And to take care of that mission, Jane totes a large tackle box full of specimens she has pulled from the river over the last three years. It's an amazing collection! My all time favorite- shark's teeth, are in abundance here. But there are much more exotic things to find as well- all fossilized: turtle shells, camel and three-toed horse teeth. mammoth and mastodon tusks and teeth, snake vertebrae, sting ray barbs, alligator scutes, antlers- and a whole lot more. We went on one dig with Jane and another on our own. Had plenty of fun and good success as you can see from the pictures. All of the fossils displayed we found entirely by ourselves, with one noteworthy exception. I had been trying hard to come up with a horse tooth on my own, but wasn't lucky enough to work the right hole. At the end of the day, Jane made us a gift of one of the three she found that day. Very neat!

As much fun later as they are to find....
Teeth, bones, scutes, scales, spines, barbs, shells, bones and other neat stuff from two days of digging in the river bed. Fossilized sand dollar parts upper right in photo below
Horse tooth, above lower center, and enlarged below. Click on any photo to enlarge. Back arrow to return to blog.
A handful of sting ray barbs....
a couple snake vertebrae...
Extinct species of Mako shark teeth...

After two weeks at the Peace River, time to "chill" in the Florida Keys. Fiesta Key plays host to our first stop. The coach is backed right up the water's edge- about 30 inches in from the seawall. It would not be a good place to fail to chock the wheels. Some sunning, some poking around a few shops, some kayaking, a sunset or two make this a nice place to catch your breath.
It's warm enough to run the air conditioners, but why would you want to. At night, especially, with all the windows open, the cooling breezes blow through the coach and give you a feel as close as you can get to being in the tropics without the headaches that come along with all of that. The salt in the air has a smell all its own. It's always a welcome memory. For us, the Keys are a place to recharge the batteries of the soul. We'll be down here for a month more or less before heading back to mainland Florida in January. There is always a temptation to stay here. But there is so much more to do that needs doing elsewhere.
December 10. That is very early in the tourist season for the Keys. It's nice to be here this far in advance of Christmas...we pretty much have the campground to ourselves. A few others gather at sunset for the evening ritual...and the great watch for the elusive "green flash" the second of sunset.
It's far enough south to see tropical fish in the water. At water's edge where we are we have seem Trunk fish, Parrot fish, barracudas, jacks, snappers, sergeant-majors and many more. The spiny lobster and shrimp seem to be everywhere after dark. Their friends, the jellyfish, are saving a few of them from being eaten (by me) by being present is large numbers right now. Tropical is the theme everywhere else as evidenced by the wind workers below.

Next stop: Key Largo, then Curry State Park on Marathon Key, then Sugarloaf Key, just 20 miles north of Key West. It's a TOUGH month of travel to be sure, but hey, someone's got to do it....