The sunset over Western Lake in Greyton Beach State Park
Hi everyone, sorry if has been so long since I last posted, things have been a bit tough lately but we have still been having some fun.
Because our trip funding by my music and culinary work hasn’t panned out quite the way I had hoped we had to fly through South Carolina and Georgia, heading directly into Florida. I really am sorry we didn’t get the chance to meet with Ronda Churchwell and the folks at the North Georgia House Rabbit Society on our way south but we hope to be headed through the area in the spring.
Our trip south started with us heading through North Carolina, south towards Savannah, GA. We thought it would be fun to spend a couple of hours in Charleston so we took a small side trip off 95 and hit the port city. Well finding a parking space for a truck pulling a travel trailer in an old eastern city is not easy at all and instead of a quick walking tour of old town Charleston we had a long driving tour, making scarey turns on skinny streets and generally going around in circles for a couple of hours. Charleston is a very pretty city and I wish we could have actually gotten out of the truck and seen the sights closer up! We headed out and down with the goal of hitting Savannah, GA. It was Thanksgiving so we stopped at a Denny’s and we had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat – thank you Arlo Guthrie – (Debby substituted garden burgers for her turkey) and finished dinner with a nice piece of Denny’s pumpkin pie (nowhere near as good as Mom’s). It was kinda fun and pretty much exactly as I had predicted when asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving before we headed out on this trip. We reminisced about all the fantastic Thanksgiving gatherings we have hosted together at our place in Kanab. After dinner we hopped in the truck and continued south till we couldn’t go anymore, we spent the night in a Ramada in Pooler, GA just outside of Savannah.
The next morning we had the required free breakfast (if we are gonna pay for a room we WILL have a free breakfast!) packed the truck and got back on the road headed for Jacksonville, FL. We stayed at Kelly’s Countryside RV Park in Callahan, Fl. (about 30 miles west of Jacksonville) for two nights and hit Jacksonville Beach for an afternoon just to see the Atlantic, it was cool, jacket weather but we had a good time.
We are now just west of Panama City Beach on the pan-handle of Florida, at Greyton Beach State Park, and I’m shooting out applications for restaurant, deli and customer service or tech support jobs and will be playing on the street tomorrow. There is a real nice little shopping area near where we are staying at the State Park and I think I can make some bucks playing the storefronts there.
Debby on the nature trail at Greyton Beach State Park
Zoe at the dunes on the nature trail at Greyton Beach State Park
We have taken some walks along the beach and have gone on a nice long bike ride down 30A through the little beach villages on the way. CR 30A is a scenic highway and follows the beach on the gulf coast, it is very beautiful and there are some very unique features here. The most notable are coastal dune lakes. Only New Zealand’s Northland, Australia’s Queensland, Madagascar, and Florida’s Northwest Gulf Coast are home to these natural wonders. These lakes are generally permanent water bodies, although water levels may fluctuate substantially due to rain, groundwater seepage through the surrounding coastal sands, and storms. Sand dunes ranging in height from a few feet to more than 30 feet separate the lakes from the Gulf of Mexico. We are camped next to Western Lake. At 214 acres Western Lake is one of the larger dune lakes. Most are considerably smaller. These waterways have the highest occurrences of rare wildlife species in the state, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. It is beautiful here and the weather has been wonderful, highs in the upper 60s to lower 70’s.
Bogie at the beach on Western Lake Greyton Beach State Park
Bogie is wondering why the heck we stopped!
Bogie seemed a little bored this morning so I got out the stroller and took him for a walk around our camp ground. We walked around the campsite then found the path that runs along the bank of Western Lake. It was fun watching as Bogie reacted to the new smells and sights. He really seemed to have a good time and when we got back to the trailer he was ready for a nice breakfast and a snooze!
The bunnies are coping really well! Bogie is becoming a real attention hog, he is now chewing on his bars whenever he wants dinner, a cuddle, a banana chip or just wants some attention. Doc has been a bit needy lately but I think that since he has had more outside time (after a rainy couple of days) he will settle down. Joey is still his super sweet self and is almost always cuddling Angie, they are such a sweet couple! Zsolt and Halle are little monsters, the other day, while we were still in NC, Szolt decided to take a walk when I was transferring Halle to the x-pens, he got about 20 yards from the trailer before we rounded him up and chased him back to the pens, little bugger!
We have found the the hay is different down in the deep south. At the feed store near here they had no grass hay (timothy or orchard not even baled alfalfa) and only had “coastal” hay. Coastal hay is the most common type of hay in the south because it is easy to grow and is a hearty, abundant grass. Coastal hay’s nutrient content is similar to the early-bloom timothy and has a much lower protein content than alfalfa.
Type Crude Protein Calcium Phosphorus
(%) (%) (%)
Coastal 6-11 0.25-0.4 0.15-0.3
Timothy 7-11 0.38-0.51 0.15-0.29
Alfalfa 17-20 1.19-1.41 0.21-0.24
So far the buns have taken to this change very well and all are munching on the hay and snuggling into their litter boxes like nothing has changed.
Debby had company today! Sylvia,an old Folk Dancing friend of her’s caught up with Debby on Facebook and just happened to be headed by our area today on her way to Pensacola, FL to visit her folks and stay for the winter so she dropped by on the way through. It is funny what happens on the road and this sure was a pleasant surprise!
The way we now have it planned is if nothing happens job wise here before the 8th (our checkout day from Greyton Beach) we have reservations in Pensacola at a place with full hookups for a month at a real good rate. Hopefully I can get a gig there, it is a bigger city and the snow birds should be migrating in full force pretty soon, someone has to cook for them!
Well tomorrow a busking session, wish me luck!!
Talk again soon.
Victor
Roaming With Rabbits 