Highlands Hammock State Park... and stuff

Hey look, a July update!... From like.... back in April. Oh well.

 better than nothing I guess.

Highlands Hammock State Park!

(For real this time)

Back on Easter I took a 100 mile or so trip down 27 cutting down the middle of Florida and visited Highlands Hammock State Park, here's some photos and stuff.

 

Real Florida credit!!

The Ranger Lady at the entrance tells you the difference between a King Snake (good) and a Coral Snake.......(very bad)

How about we just avoid both?

oh, crap.... wait... Not a snake

It was so sort of lizard...thing

EPIC Swamp boardwalk thing.... <3

Little baby gator!!! As seen from the little boardwalk thing

But don't worry....

Mama wasn't far away!

So... after seeing that, parts of the trail looking like this were unsettling

Yup.... stepping stones.... in the water

I guess having wanted an adventure... I got one? :D

My car blended in nicely here. Accidental-Camouflage? 

While there was the boardwalk and steeping stones, most of the trails were just dirt paths in the woods.

Pretty.

Prettier.

 But hey look, ORANGES!... Just kinda... growing in the wild.

Hmm... and with all this water... Something was missing

((and NO, not because the gator's ate them JEFF))

DID NOT SEE

But I did see this wild piggy! And she had some piglets... but I didn't stick around because.. well... territorial

So yeah, Highlands Hammock State Park was pretty cool. It just happens to be in the middle of nowhere Florida but was worth the drive (and there was a fantastic Mexican restaurant near it!)

If I don't get lazy (ha) I'll post a few Great Wolf Lodge, Dells, photos tonight.

Also, the orginal post featuring Highlands Hammock State Park can be found here

Counting Counties // Wasting Gas

I blame Jamminj

Random post time... Ok, so, I've started "County Counting" just another pointless thing to keep track of and keep count of. As if Coasters, States, and Countries weren't enough... Anyways  Mr.JamminJ found this site that lets you tick-off your visited counties and makes a map for you.. After a few hours over a week or so.... My map looks something like this....

Some 27 years of traveling and countless miles driven, with more on the horizon. I feel pretty accomplished. Oh, and here's a link to Jay's map....

Ok, so here we go....

After a rained out weekend here in the Sunshine State... I set off on a quest to add one (3) more Floridan counties (and complete my southern FL ones while at it!) but to make it worth while I also visited a beautiful state park that I'll post about laters... yeah

So the blue counties I've been to.. Yellow have now been added... and well... the grey ones are on the to-do list I guess. Damn

Ok, lets start county counting!

So we start at Orange County, where I live in Orlando. Woo!

Armadillo live here too!!!

Osceola County is up next...

Lets keep driving....

Into Polk County we go!

Where I rolled 18781 miles in my car!

To get to Highlands County! (+1)

And spend the morning exploring Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL.

(real Florida - CHECK)

Here's where things got... interesting, kinda.

Highlands was really all I had planned but after looking at my GPS and a map.. I decided to make a run for just one more county to the south.

Glades County! (+1)

Where the police don't seem to care I'm taking a photo...

And where they have BEARS for the next 12 miles, at least.

and then by pure accident... to get gas (after my GPS sent us to a now-closed gas station in Lake Placid, FL....)

Hendry County (+1)

See, gas! yaayyy... in LaBelle, FL.

And its about this point where I realize I'm some 150 miles from home. oops.

BONUS PHOTOS VIA TWITTER! :O

Highlands County treeeees

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/318388734208901120/photo/1

Swamp walk at Hammock State Park

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/318389534943485952/photo/1

The closed "open" tower in Lake Placid, FL

https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/318446996430127104/photo/1

So yeah, County Counting....  Right now I have 574 known counties on my map, I've found a few here and there that somehow I miss clicked and didn't add (or as I've checked maps from past trips and found some) but I'm hoping to hit 600 by years end and well, with at least one new state in this summers plans... I hope to reach my pointless self-set goal! Yaayyy!