Lovers Key State Park, Florida

After a few months of Minnesota weather, where it only got to be 80 degrees 3 times over our 3 months stay, arriving in SW Florida in August, was a real environment shocker. To say we are sweating our a**es off, is probably the understatement of the year, for us. For instance, it was cool last night and so we woke up to 84 degrees at 6 am this morning with 78% humidity. We are not complaining, just saying it may take a little bit to get acclimated. The beauty that is surrounding us, is something to behold and the animals we are seeing, are amazing!

Dave and Max were on their nightly walk last night and in addition to these animals, they saw a gopher tortoise, a black racer snake, a racoon, every size iguana you can imagine and too many swamp rabbits to count! I’m trying to get him to take his phone and get pictures, but we all know how that goes. We’ve seen several manatees in the water although, they are a little camera shy, and it’s tough to get a good picture of them.

Nature’s Beauty is everywhere!

Lovers key state park is one of the best beaches for shelling in Florida. The amount and number of shells you can find on a daily basis, keeps the beach hopping with walkers early in the A.M. I haven’t spent much time on the beach yet and can hardly wait to see what I can find considering all the options we have around us.

And the sounds! We hear more crashing of stuff in the growth around us and are trying to figure out what it all is, although we are learning more and more every day. Odd squeals and crashing branches are a daily occurrence all around us. (I did see an opossum early one morning and was very happy to be inside our puppy fence and not out there with him).

Did you know that Florida is the lightening capital of the US? We didn’t either and let me tell you, Rocky is not a fan because along with all that lightening, we also get thunder. Maybe it will become a non-factor for him in the near future, because it’s the rainy season here and we get storms almost every afternoon. Finally, I thought the mosquitos were bad in Minnesota but no-seeums are even worse down here. Yep, covered in bites again and the Picardan is not working so back to the Deet for the season. Oh well, I can take it and based on this new and amazing experience, it will be worth it.

Resident Volunteers

Dave and I are resident volunteers here at Lovers Key state park. We volunteer 20 hours per week and in return receive a full hook-up site within the park. Since there is no camping at Lovers Key for the public, we feel very special to be able to stay in this beautiful location for the next 4 months. We arrived on August 29th, so have been here a little less than 2 weeks. Over that time, we have mostly been doing training on opening and closing the park and driving the tram back and forth from the beach. So far, the job itself has been an adventure and I can’t wait to share this experience, good and bad, with all of you. I can tell you, watching the release of a baby logger head sea turtle, is an experience we would not have had without this lifestyle and the ability to move from state to state.

Baby Sea Turtle Release

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Probably the most important and best part of this new experience, is that we are 5 miles from Dave’s dad. Being able to spend time with Bob and Barbara will be wonderful and we know they have lots to show us around this area. After visiting with them in St. Augustine last fall, I can’t wait to see what the 4 of us will get up to here in SW Florida. Stay tuned and follow along to see what other sights we will see while in this area. We’re here through the end of the year and who knows what January will bring or where we’ll go…………

See ya on the road,

Dave and Theresa