The Yearling Trail.

Went on another road trip this time destination The Yearling Trail followed by the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. It was a wonderful step back in time!







The trail was exciting with a very diverse landscape and I had to turn back to soon. I will soon visit again and give it the attention it deserves!



The Rawlings home was great! A real slice of life from the 1930's.



It was deserted Monday afternoon and after paying the $3 parking fee we wandered around all by ourselves and enjoyed the grounds as if we were the only people on the planet. The home and buildings were not accessible but you could look through the screen doors and see the old time decor. We will return some day near the weekend for the tour.

The animals about the place we very docile and you never knew where a chicken would appear.



Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)

All around a very pleasant experience.

Sabina's Diner for Dinner!

"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. John 15:9

Upper Tampa Bay Park Check Up

Went out to my favorite local park to see how it was. There is a huge development on the approach to the park that has popped up since the last time I visited.

It was not always this way at the entrance but as the government begins to go more and more bankrupt and the taxes we have always paid to maintain public parks go to increasing the bureaucracy they just make you pay even more at the gate. Now that we have that over with lets go in to the park and try to forget about the impending economic collapse.

Here is the pavilion that our family has frequented for the last two decades! 

If you keep your eyes open there is plenty wildlife to see!

This is the place I have been for so many mud walks over the years!

Create vs. Produce

It is election time and you hear an awful lot of candidates talking about creating this or that. They are continually using the word to describe what they say their administration will do with the government as it relates to jobs.

No one creates especially government. To create you must start with nothing. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3. We do nothing more than make use of what God has provided and that is precisely what we continually foul up. When we understand where it all comes from and who it really belongs to we can then become the stewards we were “created” to be!

Mud Walking New Adventurers.

Took some little friends on their first mud walk and had a great time!

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psalm 133:1

Thanks so much for spending the afternoon with me!

Epcot Years Later

Things are always changing and that is what makes the familiar a landmark of sorts. Time, place and behavior together are what make combine to make history. History can only shape the future when it is revisited and revered. The genius of Disney is the connecting of generations across the canyons of time. It is why these parks thrive despite the exorbitant amount of capital the average family must pay for the experience.

The park was well attended on this visit and I amused myself by considering the religious fervor of attendees. I have always been a bit taken aback by the devotion of some of my fellow humans to these parks which for some I observe seems more like holy ground than glorified circus. It seems to me that many live to visit these parks as an escape from the painful realities of their lives. There is a timelessness to some of the ride that can take you from a painful present into a simpler past but to live in the past is to be dead in the present. If you never get past the tragedies there can be no true triumphs.

For a long time now America’s public schools have been instructing the youth of our country in the origin of the species. As I look around in my walk through the park I cannot help but marvel at how far the single celled organism has come in it’s never ending quest to entertain itself. I wander through the crowd of my fellow hairless apes and wonder at the futility of our existence. Having come from nothing on our way to oblivion with nothing more than an amusement park separating our beginning from our end. All the chemical induced emotions meant to perpetuate the great cosmic accident for no knowable reason one day decaying in the ground.

That is when I remember that I know a different story of Genesis. One that makes a claim not to be theory but the very words of God the creator. Elohim who gives of our family and a meaning future. The one who inspires us to do the greatest of things. The lovely scenes before me are hollow like a shadow of the creators glory they are a facade but are not pointless. In fact they point God in who’s image we are created and whose works we are designed to do. No matter how misguided in our efforts or how base our motives for laboring mankind will never be able to escape the fact that our reassembly of His creation will always bring glory in the end to Him.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
(Rom 1:19-25)

As I walked I was aware that each of us has a faith in something but not everything our faith rests upon is true. It is our task to seek the truth throughout our lives and those who have abandoned themselves to relativism have given up the search. What an amazing gift it is to live in a country full of outlandish amusement parks that just so happens for the present to be a place in which it’s citizens are free to worship the truth or a lie as their own conscience dictates.

Life is a vapor.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
(Jas 4:14-17)

Mud Walking Before Back To School

I went mud walking this morning with a couple of little men. Upper Tampa Bay Park was in rare form. Very lush with all the rain we have been having of  late!

There were quite a few delightful scenes for my Canon sd960 to record and record it did with my finger pushing the button time and again.

Cade spotted a Salt March Snake almost as soon as we hit the first mud flat.

We saw the same snake an hour later in the same place on our way back to the car.

Cade was a bit skittish on the way out but managed his fear and discomfort well enough to make it all the way.

Mikhail was hard to keep up with and became one with the mud.

Here are few images of the snake taken on the trip back.

A palmetto bug joined the boys for lunch and really liked Mikhail’s sandwich! Thanks for coming along fellows I really enjoyed it.

Anyone wants to go before school starts again email me or give me a ring. It can be arranged.

Juniper Springs

Met a family from church at a sanctuary of theirs in the Ocala National Forest. They camped over night at the Juniper Springs Park and I showed up in the morning to canoe the run.

It was four hours of absolute fun in about the best natural surroundings you can get in creation.

The water was a crystal clear delight and we canoed and swam for mile after mile.

Very happy to have been a part of this great time of fellowship. We all die so it is very important to live in the meantime. Not just all by our lonesome either but with our brothers and sisters.

You should check out the springs for yourself. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from Tampa and will cost you $5 per person entrance fee and about $30 to rent a canoe.

By the time your finished paddling you will be ready for a nap!