St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

S is for St. Marks Nation Wildlife Refuge.  

On our way home from Orlando after a recent visit to Disney World we were traveling on I-75 between Ocala and Gainesville when we encountered a slow down. It took us an hour to travel a few miles. At the first exit we could get off, we decided to find an alternate route. The back roads that we took were very pretty with many beautiful horse farms.  

As I was looking at the map, I saw that we would be passing by St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It was just a few miles off of the highway that we were on, so we decided to go check it out.

At the visitors center there was a large pond with a trail around it. The pond was located where there had been a sand pit that provided the sand that CCC workers used to build a road out to the lighthouse in the 1930's.  There were flowers in the pond, and an alligator mother with many babies on the bank.

One of the interesting things about St. Marks is that there are four distinct types of landscape in the seven mile drive from the visitors center to the lighthouse on the coast, forest, swamp, inter-coastal waterway and the coast.  

The lighthouse was completed in 1831 and survived destructive hurricanes of the 1840's and 1850's, including the disastrous hurricane of September 1843.  During the Civil War, Confederate troops were stationed near the lighthouse to defend the area against a Union attack. In March 1865, a Union fleet of 16 ships appeared off the coast and began to shell the vicinity of the lighthouse in preparation for landing a force. The Confederates attempted to blow up the lighthouse during their retreat in order to deny it as a lookout for the Union forces. Although they were unsuccessful in destroying the tower,  the damage inflicted was substantial, necessitating a complete rebuild of the tower immediately following the war.  The lighthouse was automated in 1960 and remains today an active aid to navigation for vessels on the Apalachee Bay.

St. Marks was established in 1931 to provide wintering habitat for migratory birds. It is one of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System.  We saw lots of wildlife during our visit including Alligators, Purple Gallinule, and Anhinga.  

St. Marks was a really quiet peaceful beautiful place.  It was such a sharp contrast to the week we had just spent at Disney World. It was a blessing to have gotten off of the interstate and accidentally ended up in such a beautiful place.  We only had time to spend a couple of hours at St. Marks but I really hope to be able to return when I can spend more time.

   

The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs.

Robbers Cave State Park

Robbers Cave State Park is located in the scenic, hilly woodlands of the San Bois Mountains of southeast Oklahoma near Wilburton. Although it is only a two hour drive for us, we had never visited before.

Recently we were listening to a podcast of Stuff You Missed in History Class on the life of Belle Starr.

Belle had a reputation as an outlaw. She was known to steal horses and cattle, and was suspected of robbing stage-coaches. Her home in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) was a hideout for members of the Cole Younger gang and other criminals.

Myra Belle Shirley was born near Carthage, Missouri, the daughter of a farmer and tavern keeper. She married Sam Starr, a Cherokee Indian, in 1880 and lived in Indian Territory until she was murdered by an unknown person in 1889.

The podcast mentioned Robbers Cave State Park and when I looked it up found that it was not too far from home and would make a great day trip.

Robbers Cave is a 8,246-acre park with 2 lakes.  There are equestrian trails with campsites that have horse corrals, excellent fishing and boating, swimming, paddle boats, cabins and a lodge, a nature center, a heritage museum, and lots of hiking.  

Even though the temperature was in the 90's we made the hike up to Robbers Cave.  The hike is steep and strenuous.  The cave was a legendary hideout for Old West outlaws. Among the names commonly associated with the cave in local legend are those of Jesse James and Belle Starr.

Belle was constantly involved in nefarious dealings, she was married into a family of Indian Territory outlaws. It is known that for a time she lived in a cabin about twenty miles north of Robbers Cave and is generally accepted that she associated with and often welcomed some of the area's most notorious outlaws into her home. These outlaws were constantly battled and pursued by deputy marshals from the U.S. District Court in Fort Smith. They used hideouts similar to Robbers Cave on numerous occasions and it is reasonable that local tradition associating the cave with "robbers" is probably true.

The other name commonly associated with Robbers Cave is that of Jesse James. The acknowledged leader of the James-Younger Gang, James and his associates operated  at times in the general area. Whether they actually ever used Robbers Cave is impossible to determine, but considered likely according to local legend.

As you hike to Robbers Cave, it is easy to see why it made a good hideout.  The terrain is really rugged, and you can see a long ways.  It is a dangerous hike with steps cut into the steep rocks.  While we were there we visited with a man who had visited the site 30 years ago and was returning with his teenage daughter.  While we were at the cave we heard sirens.  The sirens got closer and we realized they were coming to this area.  As we made our way down we learned that someone had fallen and rescue was on it's way.  We found out that it was the man we had been talking to earlier.  I hope he will be okay.  

Other than our concern for the man that fell we had an absolutely great day.  On our way home we stopped at the Southern Belle Diner in Heavener, Oklahoma to eat.  We have been driving by this diner for years but had never stopped.  It is a beautiful old railroad dining car.  

I can't believe that I have lived two hours away from Robbers Cave State Park for thirty years and this was the first time I have visited it.  It will definitely not be the last.

Disney Princesses

Earlier this year, my daughter and son-in-law invited us to vacation with them at Disney World.  It didn't take us long to say yes to the idea of spending a week at Disney World with our grand daughters. We had a wonderful time even though it wore us "old people" out.  

We stayed at the Swan Hotel which is on the lagoon just outside of Epcot Center.  It was just a short boat ride to Epcot Center and Hollywood Studios.  The hotel was lovely, and with the Disney transportation made getting to the parks very easy.

My daughter had purchased princess dresses for my granddaughters, so they went to the parks as princesses.   

While these little princesses were at Disney, one of their favorite things to do was to meet the characters and get their autographs.  

The little princesses had a great time and I sure had a lot of fun being there with them.  

Oh reality, it's not for me

And it makes me laugh

Oh, fantasy world and Disney girls

I'm coming back

2013 Relay For Life of Polk County

Last Friday was the Relay For Life of Polk County annual event.  My wife and I have been involved in Relay For Life since it's inception here in Mena in 2007.

Friday's event turned out great, with the weather cooperating and a large turnout from the community.  Rain and thunderstorms had been forecast for Friday all week, but by the time the decision had to be made about moving the event indoors, the rain forecast was for the rain to be over at 4:00 Friday.  Sure enough their was a shower at 4:00 but the weather was beautiful after that.

This year the survivor lap had new meaning for me.  Each Relay For Life event starts with cancer survivors circling the track in the Survivor Lap.  This past year I had a skin cancer removed from my nose and my Mom was diagnosed with Leukemia and had a cancerous kidney tumor removed by cryoablation.  I was in the Survivor Lap with my Mom and my brother-in-law.

At a Relay event, each team sets up a campsite where members can hang out when thay are not walking laps, and where they can fundraise for Relay.  Our team, Nidec, chose as a theme, Cure Commanders based on the TV show Duck Dynasty.  There was plenty of camo and duck calls could be heard throughout the night.

Our menu included Critter Burgers, Yuppie Burgers, Roasted Duck Bait, Fried Squirrel Brains and Si's Sweet Tea. 

We wore our Cure Commander camo t-shirts as we walked around the track during the Team Lap.

There were lots of fun and exciting things at Relay including firemen, (thanks Ink Fire Department); Elvis, (thanks Cruizzers); Sheriffs arresting people and putting them in jail and a frozen t-shirt contest, (thanks Nidec).

After celebrating the survivors and the party atmosphere of Relay, when it gets dark the focus shifts to the luminaria. Relay For Life participants and donors remember loved ones lost to cancer and honor those battling the disease by dedicating luminaria bags. At our Relay we had over 300 people who have been affected by cancer represented by luminaria bags lit by candles and lining the track.

  

As part of the luminaria ceremony sky lanterns were lit by people who had purchased them in honor of someone with cancer.  My grand daughter helped light one of the sky lanterns.

Because cancer never sleeps, the Relay event goes all night with people walking around the track.  There were lots of activities to keep people entertained such as karaoke, a talent show, 3 on 3 basketball, theme laps, zumba, line dancing and Hope Has No Curfew.

This was the first year that the Relay For Life of Polk County has participated in Hope Has No Curfew. It is a pledge to stay at the event all night. At midnight team members that were still at the event signed the banner pledging to stay all night. Several times during the night the banner made a lap around the track with those who were still there. All team members who stayed all night will be receiving Hope Has No Curfew t-shirts. In all 104 team members kept the pledge to stay all night.

The event was very successful with over 5,000 dollars raised that night.  The teams have raised over 57,000 dollars total so far this year to benefit the American Cancer Society in it's fight against cancer.  Relay For Life is more important that ever as we are seeing cuts in the amount the U.S. government is spending on cancer research.  Privately funded research is going to have to take up the slack.  The American Cancer Society is the largest private funder of cancer research, and Relay For Life is their largest fundraiser.

The 2013 Relay For Life of Polk County was awesome, and I can't wait to see what this community has in store for 2014!