Gamble Rogers: Sunrises, Sunsets, Rain and Wind

December 4-December 18, 2023                              Most Recent Posts:
Gamble Rogers State Park              Saint Augustine is a Great Walking Town 
Flagler Beach, Florida                             Nights of Lights in Saint Augustine

This post covers my entire two weeks at Gamble Rogers.   It is long and heavy with pictures.  I hope you don’t mind and will plow on through it.   BUT the reward for me is that I am now caught up to the present.  YIPPEE!

And if you do make it all the way to the end could you let me know if you find the outdoor pictures too dark.  I am having trouble with my camera.

On to the blog post. . . .

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned that David and I came to Gamble Rogers for the first time in 2011, stayed on the ocean side with an amazing view out our movie screen front window.  Here it is, that blast from the past our front window view from Site 11 Ocean side.

We continued to come back nearly  every year.  We didn’t mean to spend all our winters in Florida but  once David began being treated at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa it became necessary.

After his death I discovered the damage the salt had done to the under carriage of Winnona and moved myself to the Riverside for her sake.   So now I walk over to see the ocean. 

I’ve really wanted to spend a winter in Texas and  in Arizona  now that I can but following the weather there has really discouraged me.   Still I want to spend at least a year in the west to see the things we never got back to do and possibly revisit some of the favorites from our travels.  Unfortunately most of those are National Parks which are now so over run that I fear I would not like them nearly as much.  Any advice would be welcome.

So here I am at Gamble Rogers again, in the pull through site I’ve had the last couple of years.  No privacy but I do meet more of my neighbors.

This picture of the awning out is from the first day I arrived.  I soon learned that would not be possible with the incessant wind during my stay.

I was up most mornings for the sunrise, walking over to the beach before to see the dawn color begin.

When the sun broke through and sent the clouds up, they look like cotton balls.
That’s the Flagler Beach water tower in the distance down the beach.

I saw this fellow nearly every morning.  Today he’d found a crab and had just dropped it when I took this picture.

I took the nature trail each morning in the dark, starting out with a flashlight to guide me through the forest to the walk over to the ocean side.  

Passing the entrance sign at O dark 30.

These pictures were taken on my trips back after sun rise and on many other walks on this trail which is my hands down favorite.  And I think it would be even if it weren’t the only hiking trail actually in the state park.

This is my favorite section with the wind blown trees making a tunnel to walk through.

Lots of fungi.  Each day I seemed to see different ones.

 

Orange was a popular color for different mushrooms

What fun to spot this geocache one morning.  Of course I signed my name.

With all the rain we had, the resurrection ferns on the right side of the low parallel branch were looking green and alive.  I think they are so interesting the way they pop back to life from appearing totally dead.

Here they are standing up bright and shiny.

This is what I find after my great hike in the afternoon.

On my birthday I was lucky enough to have Forest, Shawna and Mazie as my back door neighbors.   Sadly they were only here for one night on their way to Long Point Park near Sebastian Inlet further south.  Given the temperatures here, I think it’s a smart move but unfortunately for me, I’m locked in.   Pay no attention to the shorts,  He’s from Alaska and she’s from Michigan.  They think a high of 61 is balmy. 

To celebrate becoming even older, I ordeedr my favorite pizza from my favorite pizza guy.   This is Rocky’s Special with double anchovies and when I picked it up, for my birthday he put even more on it and gave me two brownies for dessert.

Now you see why he’s my favorite.

Sunset over the river

The next morning back over on the sunrise side of things, the winds were starting to pick up.

This Snowy Egret and a few friends were at the water’s edge.

I was very shocked when I walked by him after taking scores of pictures and he did not fly away.

In fact he just walked right toward me.  I suspect he’s fond of the fishermen who frequent this spot and no doubt share with him.  How could you not with those golden slippers.

Somehow they never seem to get bowled over by the waves like we do.  They just fly away.  Wish I could.

On Saturday the park sponsored a kayak tour so I signed up.  I think perhaps there were 8 kayaks and a paddleboard.

These two were guarding the No Wake signs where our inlet met the river.

They didn’t seem very successful at getting the boats to slow down so we could cross over to the mangroves.

But ultimately we all lined up in a parallel line and made a dash for it across the choppy water.

Calmer waters in the mangroves.   Mangroves are wonderful not only for kayaking in but they stabilize the coastline by reducing erosion caused by storm surges, and hurricanes.  Mangroves protect water quality by removing nutrients and pollutants. And of course like all plants they breathe out oxygen.

Mangroves provide nursery habitat for many fish and shellfish.    They provide shelter and serve as nesting areas for coastal birds such as little blue herons, great egrets and brown pelicans. Many birds depend on mangroves for part of their seasonal migrations. Even dead mangroves play an important role, providing roosting areas for bird species.

As you can tell, I am a huge Mangrove fan.

I caught this picture of the kayaking  dog for my friend Pam.  Apparently he’s been doing this for years and loves to go on the water.

Back on land the next day, I was trying to walk down the beach at high tide for sunrise one morning when I saw a great selfie effort further on down the beach.

These two were jumping up over and over to get the picture.  I had to use my zoom to get this.  I then walked as fast as I could to get toward them to volunteer to take their picture but they had either given up or got what they wanted and were out pacing me down the beach.  Still  I love it!

On Sunday, another neighbor Robin who rode the paddle board yesterday and I went out again.  She took her two little chihuahua mixes.  It was amazing that they stayed right on the front of the boat.  Robin says one likes to push the other one in but it didn’t happen today.

Even though I had locked my boat up at the dock so I could go any day with little trouble, this was my last paddle here as the rains began this evening.  This day was beautiful as you can see.

This is Robin’s dog water bottle that she brings for them.  I’d never seen anything like it.   This too is for you Pam.

One evening when I hadn’t gone out for sunset but  should have,  this class A pulled into my view.

Isn’t it GREAT!   The owner wasn’t outside when I was and the next thing I knew, the rig was gone.  Really would have loved to hear the story.  Have any of you ever seen this rig? 

Wish I’d known he was going to leave so soon, I might have knocked on his door.

Once the winds picked up, walking on the water front became a calculated trip.  The forest walk over was great and if I walked with the wind one way and through the ocean side campground coming back, it worked.

But by Tuesday I needed something to do besides fight the wind, work on the blog, the puzzles and read.    So, and this will totally shock all who know me, I went to the Daytona Outlet Mall.

The winds here are buffeted by the buildings.   My flannel pajamas of MANY years are becoming threadbare and replacements on line seem extremely expensive to me at $75 and up.

So I walked a few miles around going in and out of stores like Columbia and Old Navy Outlets and found not only warm flannel pajamas for $12 (I bought 2 pair)  but a great fleece jacket for $14 and a pair of quick dry UPF 50 hiking pants that actually fit me for $16.

Can’t really say it was a good time but it was definitely a successful trip.

What else did I do on extremely windy days?

I tackled a project I’d been putting off.  I have TPMS (tire pressure monitors) on all 10 of my tires and a handset inside so when I am driving I can see the pressures on the tires on Winnona and the car.  

Two of the monitors on Winnona stopped reading on the way down here.  Nothing wrong with the tire pressure, I checked.  So I read the manual, bought new batteries and set out to change them.

  Of course nothing went as planned.  I couldn’t get the screws out of one even with WD 40 and a couple of other lubricants.  The camp host couldn’t either but on the other one, changing the battery didn’t work.  So I called the company and they had a couple other hoops to suggest I jump through.  I was tired and opted to order two new sensors.   The whole set up, like everything else – Me, Winnona, the new to me car, is old so I’m not surprised at having to replace them.

A more inconvenient problem appeared when I went to check for tools for the TPMS job.   I found that the water pump had a drip leak. It must have just started since there was hardly any water but it was wet in the bin where it shouldn’t have been.  After attempting to figure out where it was coming from and with the aid of a mirror, of course it is in the back of the water pump and difficult to see even with the mirror .  I’ve put a pan under it to catch the water for now and when I get somewhere I can have someone look at it I will.

I’d really welcome any water pump advice that might save me the ever increasing cost of RV techs.

Not sure how old it is.  I imagine I could look through my records and track that down.  It is also possible that David has a spare since there are spare hydraulic solenoids and other parts in the bins.   I really do HAVE to make an inventory.   But I will tackle all this after the holiday.

Instead, I worked on the bird puzzle.

And read my book  Margaret Rekl’s The Comfort of Crows.  

I got it on my kindle from the library but after finishing it, I want to start all over and read it seasonally.  I want my own copy, in hardback.   Isn’t the art work exquisite?  Her brother does all the art for all her books.

It’s $28 for the hardback too high for me but I know that it will drop when the paperback comes out early next year.  I’m not really buying books any more.  In fact I’m trying to read up the library I already own and pass them on. BUT there are some books I just have to own and keep and her books are among them.  I already have Late Migrations, also wonderful.

As the winds continued, the waves picked up and the shore became littered with debris.

Including this man o’ war.  He’s beautiful but I understand you DO NOT want to get stung by him.

Another thing I did was to update the living room rugs and pillows which are now 13 years old.  The pillow covers were tearing and the rugs wouldn’t go with the lighter ones I replaced them with.  I did keep an even darker entry rug so the dirt won’t show.

BEFORE

AFTER

I began another  puzzle but as it was almost time to move on, I haven’t made much progress.  As you can see the pieces are TINY.  I have never done one with such small pieces so we’ll see whether I have the patience or not.

The pieces are only slightly larger than my thumbnail and I have small hands.  I know folks do 1000 and 2000 piece puzzles whose pieces are probably smaller than this but even this one may be beyond me.  We’ll see.  
I need  Sue and Mo?

The heavy rains continued with heavier winds rocking the RV at 25 mph.  I brought my slides in over night.  The skies continued to darken and the winds to increase.  The waves were rolling.  Nobody was surfing.  Red flags were up

It didn’t seem to bother the pelicans unless they were getting out of dodge.

Another thing you can do in the wind is laundry.  So I did and when I came back from switching the load from the washer to the dryer, I found I had yard birds

A group of Ibis had moved in.  I guess they like the wet ground and all the puddles from the rain.

Twice on my walks over to the ocean side I had run into Patti first and then Patti and Dan.  In talking, we discovered that we have an amazing amount in common and I was SO sorry to be leaving the next day.  I hope we can keep in touch and meet up again.  They are from the Linville area of the North Carolina Mountains.  How I wish I had known them the summer I spent a month at Bear Den which is very near them.

Finally after 5 days of this wind rain business, it rained furiously and the coach rocked all night long.  The slides were in.  It was so loud it woke me several times over night.   And then it was over

Next morning I had water front property and it was time to leave.

I’ve moved on to Alafia River State Park.  I’m posting from there and will be leaving tomorrow to fly to see my family – Carrie, Celia, Colin and Matthew.

I wish you all a wonderful WINTER SOLSTICE.  The light is returning.

And a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!