Welcome to Mid-Bay Shores

Mid-Bay Shores, Maxwell-Gunter Rec Area — Niceville, Florida
Temps: Lo 65F / Hi 78F (18C / 25.5C)

We’ve been musing about our rather sedentary life since retiring six months ago. It’s a surprise to us.

By sedentary, I mean that we aren’t going out and exploring the areas we’ve been staying in.

Everywhere we’ve been to so far this year has been new to us, and I would have thought we’d be digging into every nook and cranny, leaving no stone unturned … everyday. Sure, we fit in plenty of walking and triking into our days, but exploring … not so much.

That we’ve had some great campsites is, of course, part of it. A nice site with plenty of outdoor living space invites us to stay “at home” … no doubt about that. But I think the main reason we’ve been taking it slow and easy is that this is our year of getting used to retirement.

Not that you’ll see us hopping all over the US when we do get going. We’ve always been “quality, not quantity” travelers. We expect that to continue in this gypsy lifestyle we have chosen for ourselves. But I think we’ll pick up the pace of exploring as the newness of being retired wears off. Looking forward to those days. For now, though … enjoying staying put more than we used to.

Enough musing … on with the blog post by stepping back a bit to the beginning of the week.

Monday, 6 May …

As the weather at Gulf State Park started to turn nice, we found ourselves packing to move onto our next campground. At least we enjoyed two nice — if windy — days before we left. And we arrived to great weather here in Niceville, Florida — just 91 miles (146 km) away. Where is Niceville? It’s just a few short miles north of Destin.

91 miles (146 km) from Gulf Shores, Alabama to our campground overlooking
the Choctawhatchee Bay north of Destin.

We are at Mid-Bay Shores at the Maxwell-Gunter Rec Area. Those who are familiar with military installations are probably going “huh” just about now since Maxwell-Gunter AFB is in Montgomery, Alabama, not in Niceville, Florida. If I understood Eggy, the woman who works in the office, correctly … this rec area was converted from a campground built to accommodate military personnel who came here to train at a facility operated by Maxwell-Gunter on land leased for 100 years from Eglin AFB. So, we’re on Eglin land, but not really on Eglin … not until the lease runs out in 47 years. Of course, what happens between now and then is anyone’s guess, especially with the current sequester. But that’s a whole different story.

Mid-Bay Shores is at the base of the Mid-Bay Connector Bridge;
we’re in site 21, overlooking the Choctawhatchee Bay.
[scanned from brochure]

There are no manicured grounds here. Nor are there any concrete pads; or any amenities other than a bathhouse and laundry. The campground is rustic — and rundown a bit. Most of the 26 RV sites are FHU; a few are W/E. Some of the sites are closely spaced together; others have a good amount of outdoor space. Site 21 is one of the latter. Lots of trees; so not all sites are big-rig suitable. There’s no wi-fi here, but we’re doing fine with our 4G Mi-Fi, which uses Verizon service. The trees on our site-give us welcome shade, but block satellite signals. No problem — working together, we set up the tripod satellite in a jiffy. There is free cable — plenty for the bedroom TV, which Mui uses at night to put himself to sleep. For $125/week not a bad deal I say.

Site 21 … and part of our view of the Bay.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the landscape is marred a bit by our proximity to the Mid-Bay Connector Bridge, but we just look the other way. We can hear the traffic going by most of the day. But we’re not bothered by that either — as urban-dwellers for so many years, we’re accustomed to the sound of traffic and have become proficient at tuning it out. I can honestly say that we are really enjoying ourselves here.

Even after we set up our 14 x 14-foot (4 x 4 m) shelter, we have plenty of outdoor living space.

No matter how short the drive is, moving day is always tiring. Once we were set up, we didn’t do much of anything else for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, May 7 …

We woke up to an eerie silence. It took us a minute to figure out that our toppers weren’t flapping anymore. No wind … not even a breeze. Such a morning called for a walk on the beach. The narrow strip of sand here runs from Lake Pippin, on the far side of the cabins on the other side of the bridge; along the campground to and around White Point; and a fair bit along the other side of the bay. Not a long walk, but a nice way to start the day. For sunrise, we’ll need to walk over to the cabin area; for sunset, over to White Point.

After taking care of chores, we headed over to Destin. There are two ways to get there: cross over via the Mid-Bay Connector Bridge — save 30 minutes, but pay $3/ for a two-axle car, plus $3 for each additional axle (we paid $9 yesterday crossing over with the Phaeton and the CR-V hooked up). Or drive around the bay. We opted for the bridge.

First stop, a late lunch at Dewey Destin — a shack of a seafood place at the bottom of the Destin Bridge (Crab Island location on the website). We had found this place, which sits on the water, when we came to Florida for our residency last September. That time, we enjoyed some of their fresh shrimp. This time, I ordered the grilled grouper sandwich; Mui got the grilled snapper sandwich. We were both pleased with our choices. Our only regret this time was that we could not sit at one of the tables on the pier outside. It was simply too windy and too cool out there. But we did manage to get a table right by the door, so we could at least pretend we were out there.

Not fancy; but good fresh seafood — in my case, fresh grilled grouper.

After lunch we ran errands and then headed over to Henderson Beach State Park. Our reason for visiting was two-fold — to check out the park for a future stay, but more importantly, to meet Sherry and David (of In the Direction of Our Dreams fame). Our paths almost crossed last December. But we ended up missing each other by just a day or two. I didn’t want that to happen this time. Although they would be getting on the road the next day, they graciously agreed to us stopping by for a quick visit. And despite the wind, they even walked us over to the wonderful boardwalk that connects the campground to the white, sugar-sand beach that they’ve not been able to enjoy much because of the winds these past days. We had such a great time conversing with them that I forgot to take a picture of the four of us. Next time.

Oh and yes … we’d stay at Henderson Beach SP should we find our way back to Destin. We loved the totally secluded sites. And the proximity to the beautiful gulf waters and white sand beach would make it a no-brainer. In fact, we would have stayed there this time, but we couldn’t get in for two weeks and didn’t feel like park-hopping.

We wrapped up our day with dinner at Panera, where we finally used the gift card Mui had been carrying in his wallet for nearly a year. We each tried one of their new pasta bowls. Tasty to be sure, but at

A marine layer veiled Destin and part of the bridge from view for a while (top left);
but soon the air was crystal clear.

Right: There’s not much of a beach here, but the strip of sand does run the
length of Mid-Bay Shores, and around White Point.

Wine and snacks for dinner wrapped up the day.

Back to today …

We were both lazy this morning and it was just past 6:00a when we finally got up. Too late to enjoy the sunrise from the other side of the Mid-Bay Connector, but not too late to wander over to that side of the beach and keep company with a great blue heron fishing in the mirror-smooth bay waters.

No photoshopping here … the rising sun bathed the water in a golden hue;
zooming in from a distance simply enhanced the color.

Convincing Mui to put his morning coffee in a to-go container, we went for a short walk on the beach. It would have been longer, but I found the packed sand very hard — and I mean rock-hard — on my bare feet. Next time, I’ll take a page out of Mui’s book and wear shoes.

The walk was not for nought, though. In addition to a second great blue heron at the far end of the beach (B&W shot at the beginning of the post), there were whelks and hermit crabs in the shallows that provided entertainment for us. Oh, and an osprey that was fishing — unsuccessfully — gave us a couple of pauses along the way as well.

Hermit crab clinging to an oyster shell at the edge of the water.
(note the legs sticking out of the shell.)

Left: Whelk with an occupant, so we put the shell back in the water.
Right: hermit crabs; the one on the left was pushed off by the one on the right (top),
but as soon as it could, the one that was toppled got right back on its perch.
(Water wasn’t very clear in this spot; sorry.)

24 seconds of hermit crabs in action.

Returning home after our walk, we had breakfast and went about business as usual — Mui doing a few more projects; me enjoying the screen shelter. Hey, it’s not like I’m hogging the shelter, I invite Mui to share it with me, but once he gets projects on his mind, there’s no stopping him.

My second favorite part of today was watching the brown anoles that live amongst the rocks that make up the sea wall. I was quite surprised when they tolerated my presence so well and stayed out to give me plenty of photo ops instead of scampering into the crevices between the rocks. One male, in particular, was so busy displaying to the gals that I was able to track him for quite a while

Displaying his brilliant red dewlap, this male was hoping to get lucky …

… while this male did attract a mate for a bit of “love in the morning.”

I took way too many photos of this brown anole (male); what can I say … I’m easily entertained.

Mui drove into Niceville yesterday to go to Cool Fish, a fresh seafood monger recommended by Eggy (at the campground office). He came back with some great salmon fillets, which he grilled for lunch today. Yumm! Afterwards, he tore himself away from his self-imposed chores list to join me in the screen shelter before going out to reconnoiter the neighborhood by trike. He invited me to go along, but I had blogging on my mind. I love it when I have a strong enough wi-fi signal to do my blog writing out in the screen shelter.

Dinner was a simple affair. Afterwards, we walked along the beach to White Point to wrap up the day with a sunset. It was a rather pale affair, but I did what I usually do — zoomed into focus on the colors.

My reward … well you judge if it was worth the walk.

The weather is forecasted to take a turn for the worse starting tomorrow. Not sure what we will be doing, since we might not be able to enjoy the patio. Maybe I can get another post or two done for my trip to Turkey last October … yes, still trying to wrap that one up ;-)

A Day in the Life

Here's Darcie this morning doing a little encyclopedia research all decked out in her nightgown, unbrushed hair, and my plaid wellies.  Actually this isn't typical of her. She's usually dressed by now.
But since her room has been confiscated by her oldest brother, Garrett, just home from Army training, she has to wait until he's up and about before using her room. 
School must go on though!  I'm glad homeschool gives us the freedom and flexibility to let a weary soldier sleep in when needed.  Actually, he was probably playing video games too late last night and was making up for lost time this morning. Or perhaps he was dreaming of his ladylove, Mallory? 
He's gone to spend some time with her this weekend.  I hope they set the date, and the sooner the better!

At the Beach!

Today, Dad took me to Limantour Beach, which I love to visit, but the waves kinda scared me. We were going to check out anything we could find for Pedro, but see what we found instead. Unfortunately, it was high tide, so there wasn't much. We'll go searching again soon. It was an amazingly gorgeolicious day. I'm watching the surf here and above, I'm exhausted after chasing the tennis balls. Then, I saw the crab and was kinda startled - cause it moved! Dad really tired me out by throwing me the ball so many times and I just had to lie down and take it all in. I had a great, great day, only it ended up with a spa treatment, cause I've gotten so dirty from the sand and mud from the last week and have to go to a fun match tomorrow - obedience, you know - yuck! Have a great Sunday everypup!xo Sammie

Put upon

This poor little Trillium decumbens (Trailing Trillium) made the mistake of growing in an area with an overabundance of grasshoppers. It looks a bit frazzled. I feel the same, when thinking about everything I need to get caught up on in the coming week.
Stormy weather washed out the traditional best-sales-day of our last spring craft show Saturday. But like one neighbor observed, it could have been worse -- the tents could have been upside down. One bright spot was meeting an artist whose work I'd previously admired on her Etsy shop. I spent some more of my George money on one of her pieces similar to this one.
I'm thinking of trying Etsy myself, for one-of-a-kind soapy things, or the "bargain bars" that I normally sell only at shows. (We call them "cosmetically challenged" soaps because we hate to call them ugly.) Just one more item to add to the list of "things I should probably be doing instead of blogging"...
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If you like the creepy crawlers, check out the Circus of the Spineless!

Vietnam Veteran's Day

"Welcome Home" brothers and sisters.

Activity on The Trace

Lots of activity on the Wabash Tace yesterday. Was a windy day, mostly sunny, and high about 70. With the wind from the South, it would be a good day to ride there.
Headed out of Silver City. There were all sorts of creatures on the trail today. Some just in time for Halloween.
On the way I encountered a pick-up truck. Two guys checking out surveying marks. As I rode past Malvern, there was another pick-up parked on the trail. He was checking bridges (something about possibility of chaning some of the bridges from wood to concrete.
Same place, I encountered 2 of the other SWINT board members. They were clearing dead falls.
Turned around at White Cloud. Cross wind for the first couple miles. Most of the rest of the way I had a tail wind. legs were tired by the time I got back to the car. Pedaling into the wind took itout of me. Still logged 25 miles.

Blackwater NWR

Friday after work we headed off to Cambridge, Maryland, stopping en route for dinner at the Fisherman’s Inn, located in Kent Narrows on the Eastern Shore.  What the restaurant lacks in ambiance, it makes up for in tasty Maryland crab cakes.

The 226-mile (364 km) roundtrip drive was too long for an overnighter in the Phaeton, so we left the coach at home and opted to stay at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Cambridge instead.  At $160/night (incl. taxes) it was a bit pricey, but ‘tis still the high season in this area, so we bit the bullet.  For that rate, we got a clean, spacious room with a separate sitting area, and hi-speed wi-fi and breakfast, though we checked out too early this morning to take advantage of the latter. 

The drive to Cambridge is an easy shot on Route 50.  Though we traveled during rush
hour on a Friday, traffic was light and we didn’t hit any snags along the way.

Our destination was the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  We could have just driven down for the day, of course, and saved ourselves some big bucks on the hotel room, but we wanted to be at the refuge bright and early, so staying overnight in Cambridge worked out better for us.

Arriving shortly after 6:30a, we certainly made it to Blackwater NWR early, but it wasn’t bright by any stretch of the imagination.  I have no idea what happened to the sunshine that was forecasted when we made our plans, but we didn’t see one single ray the entire time we were there.  In fact, our morning was overcast with low, grey clouds and occasional sprinkles here and there.

Since the light was so dull, I didn’t take any landscape pictures of this very scenic refuge this time.  In hindsight, I probably should have taken at least a photo of the brand new observation deck that just opened on August 12.  The 200-foot (60 m) long deck overlooks the Blackwater River marshlands and is a great place from which to observe the birds and waterfowl … when they are there to be seen.  We were skunked here, but it made a nice breakfast spot for us.  And we did see a bald eagle perched in a tree far, far away.

(Scenery shots (and wildlife, of course) from our April trip are in this gallery.)

My goal on this trip was to practice with my Wimberley gimbal head and also test a 400mm prime lens I rented against my 70-200mm lens (not that I have any plans to get rid of my 70-200mm; that one’s a definite keeper).  The prime lens was nice, but no comparison to my shorter zoom lens, which is far superior and gives me the same reach with the 2x extender with no noticeable degradation of quality.

Following is a selection of photos from the Wildlife Drive.  We made two runs on this road, which we had to ourselves until around 8:00a.  Then, all of two cars drove by without stopping except to ask us if we’d seen anything interesting.  I wanted to say, “Yes, and so would you if you got out of the car and spent some time here.”  But I was nice, and just told them what we’d seen.

In addition to the usual suspects of ospreys, great blue herons, and egrets, there were some small birds, such as semipalmated plovers, yellowlegs, gulls, and terns.  But neither lens had sufficient reach for the small birds, so we focused on the big birds instead.  Mui played with whichever lens I wasn’t using, reliving memories of his days taking still photographs before he got into videography.  Hence, there’s a combination of photos from both of us.

First, some shots of ospreys …

… and some great blue herons …

... Mui playing with the 400 mm lens ...

… here’s the lone greater yellowlegs I saw; a juvenile from the plumage …

… some great egrets …

… for a change of pace, a beaver …

… one of a pair of eagles that took off just as we arrived at the stand of trees where we had our best eagle sighting in (check out the gallery linked above) …

On our second time through, we decided to use the Key Wallace Drive to exit the refuge.  We were hoping to get a closer glimpse of the blue-winged teals that are making a migratory stop here.  Unfortunately, they were too far away for any decent pictures.  The drive wasn’t without its rewards, however, as we had our closest great egret sightings before and after the end of this drive.

This egret took off from the tree it was perched on just as we came upon it.  I took the photos from inside the car; luckily Mui’s window was down …

… and this great egret was strutting about a roadside farm …

And that’s the story of our morning at Blackwater NWR.  By 10:30a, we were on the road back home.  Despite the dreary day, we stopped at the Queen Anne County Visitor Center in Kent Narrows to eat our packed lunch.  Then it was back on the road again.  There was more traffic on the trip home, but we’ve seen worse on this road, so no complaints.  And we never came to a complete stop; which is unusual for a weekend even if we were going away from the beaches!  That’s a good thing.

For those who want to see more; there’s more from this trip in my online gallery for Blackwater.

Sandy Paws is Comin' To Town!

Sammie here: I was a bit wary of visitin' Sandy Paws last year... I wasn't sure what to make of him, but he was furry nice to me and when I actually had a woofie chat with him, tellin' him what I really wanted, it got better... especially when he gave me a couple of treats! And speakin' of "comin' to town," here is a furry weird version of that which I've had on my Facebook page for eons. Hope you enjoy to get you in the mood for the season!
Hope you are starting to have Happy Howlidays! We are loving your cards! They smell yumzers!

Mourning Cloak

A mourning cloak butterfly basks in the sun.

Trail Condition

This week I have been riding the road bike. Weather has been great. Couple days with some wind - but learning to ride the "roadie" in the wind.
With the rides (and side rides to the river boat landing) it was cleat that the Missouri River is dropping. It has dropped about 2 feet or more in the last couple weeks. Still its gonna be some time before the trail dries off. What I have heard, much of the dirt trail is accessible and rideable - just can't ride through. Hope weather cooperates so our trail crew can get the trail open before the snow.
Re-paving reported in the previous post has started. As you can see from the photo here, the old asphalt paving is being removed. Thursday the machine was seen on the Western Historic Trail. The section of the Veterans Memorial Trail has been stripped. Hope they get right on to pouring concrete.
Hit the 1600 mile mark for the year with second ride around town in the week. Will make another 100+ miles week.

Where My Lines Are Laid

I've been listening to The Wind in the Willows on podcast and am thoroughly entranced! I've never read it before. Pom Pom, don't be ashamed of me. I have a copy of the book with illustrations by Michael Hague and am leafing through looking at the beautiful paintings. This was my favorite section from the entire book; and one very appropriate since I was listening to it on our way back from Oklahoma.
"As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough , in their way, to last for a lifetime."
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mole. I'm a creature of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to pasture and lane of evening lingerings. My lines are laid in pleasant country places with adventures enough for my lifetime.

More Scoping Out My Property

A nice morning yesterday, except for the wind - very windy. Not a riding day. I decided to hike down to the bottom of my property to scope out possibility for my singletrack.

I took my GPS to see what the altitude change down the hill. The GPS could not seem to make its mind, but it looks like about 50-60 ft from the bottom to the top. There's a area in the bottom with possibilities - through some trees, dead fall, and gully.
For information, the property is about 350 ft deep and about 750 ft long, with the yard cut out from that.

So, just have to think about flagging a trail...