Stuck

After a long day in Point Washington State Forest we were tired and hungry so we headed home.

But we needed to stop by the grocery store to pick up something for dinner.

Not a problem. We'll swing in, grab some bacon (am I the only one who loves having breakfast for dinner?) and then home we'll go.

Except...

The Island King was still a little pumped from spending all day in 4WD mode and as we were pulling out of the parking lot he decided to make a quick detour.

Next to the grocery store is a huge sandbowl.



Up a dune, down into the bowl and you've reached 4WD heaven. There are trails leading out of the bowl, into pretty much the only wooded, natural area left in Destin.

It's a popular place. Lots of trucks run through there on a regular basis.

Whether this activity is legal or not I don't know. There are no No Trespassing signs anywhere to be seen. At one point some sandfencing was put up across several of the entrances but that's long gone. Torn down by 4wheelers wanting in? Don't know.

So as we're leaving the grocery store the Island King gets a big smile on his face, throws the truck into 4WD and aims straight for the hill.



The boys have never been up in there and when they realized what was happening they were over the moon excited.

We leave the pavement pull up the hill through the sand a few yards and the truck stops moving.

If you've ever been stuck in soft sand you know that just after your vehicle stops moving you can actually feel the vehicle sinking. Settling in.

And we definitely settled in.

The boys haven't realized what's happening and are yelling "Faster Dad!" "Why are we stopping? Keep going!"

But the Island King and I knew why we weren't moving. He looked at me and I looked at him and then both of us cracked up. We haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

The boys still haven't figured out what's going on so I turned around and said "We're stuck"

Neither of them have ever been stuck before and the looks on their faces made me laugh even harder.

The Oldest asked if he could get out and his Dad said "You might as well - I think we're going to be here a while."

And there we were. Stuck halfway up the entrance to the bowl but still pretty much right in the middle of Winn Dixie parking lot.

People were driving by staring, pointing and laughing at the idiots stuck on the side of the dune.

We've been in the middle of the woods all day, driven through a very questionable mud puddle and where do we get stuck? In the grocery store parking lot for all the world to see.



So we started figuring out how to get the truck unstuck.

We rocked it a little.

The boys all got in front of the truck and pushed while I tried to drive us out in reverse.

Which just dug us in deeper.

We did quite a bit of digging



But we had no shovel and soft sand just falls back into the hole unless you move it away from the hole.

The Island King's brother, who has everything needed to pull us out is out of town and my FIL who could pull us out isn't answering his phone.

We've been here long enough now and so many people have seen us that I realize that it's about time for the police to show up. And of course once they do we'll know for sure whether this is legal activity or not.

We decide that our only option is to start digging and dig a trench behind each tire - all the way out to the road.

Which I'm pretty sure is going to take a while.

The digging began and I was now positive we were going to be here most of the night.

We'd been digging for just a couple of minutes when a good Samaritan pulled up in a gold truck.

And to his credit he didn't say "Are y'all stuck?"

He told us he only had 2WD but that if we had a tow rope long enough he could pull us out from the pavement.



Luckily, a tow rope lives in the back of the truck and we were able to hook the two trucks together.

A little reverse from our truck combined with a little forward from the other truck and we were back on solid ground.



Once our good Samaritan left the Island King stood there looking at the hill.
We'd just been up there a few days ago but we didn't have the kids with us or a bunch of stuff in the back and he'd come in more from the side and a little faster.

He said "Ok, I know what I did wrong so I think if we come at it from the same direction we did the other day we'll get up there with no problem"

I hate to be a spoil sport but I let him and the boys know real fast that we were putting the truck back in 2WD and going straight home - on the road.

They were disappointed but hungry and there wasn't a lot of fussing from any of them.

We can try the hill again but that will have to wait for another day.

UPDATE: The next morning the Island King crawled under his truck, did some poking around and realized that the CV joint is busted and because of that 4WD won't engage. No wonder we sunk like a rock. We might as well have tried to drive my mini-van up that hill.

The good news is that it can be fixed.

The better news is that I wasn't driving when it broke because I would NEVER have heard the end of that one.

Point Washington State Forest

Point Washington State Forest is one of my favorite places but it's just not an inviting place during the heat of the summer.

It's hot, the mosquitoes are huge and mean and unless you enjoy that kind of thing it's not somewhere you want to go in August.

But it's cooled off now and I couldn't wait to get back into the woods.

And there are a couple of new geocaches out there that I wanted to look for as well.

So Saturday morning I got everyone ready (except the Island Girl who was off on an academic team meet) and off we went into the woods.

No matter how often I come here I'm still always amazed at how beautiful it is.





The trails we took crossed over the Longleaf Pine walking trail.



The trail winds all through the forest and the pines are absolutely spectacular.



We wandered around and found the geocaches we were looking for.



And spent a lot of time just enjoying the woods.



We brought Buddy the Beagle with us and the Oldest wanted to know why we couldn't let him off the leash.

See him smelling that track?



His Dad explained that the minute we let him go he'd take off into the woods and he may or may not come back.

Buddy hasn't had any real training and once a Beagle smells something he's off like a rocket. 15,000 acres is a big place for a dog with his nose to the ground.

And I have to say he was perfectly content hanging with us. He just loves being in the woods.

As much as I love sunsets on the beach, sunsets are just as beautiful in the woods.



We were driving down one trail just as the sun was setting and as we came around a corner we ran into a huge mud puddle. Well, huge mud puddle may be putting it mildly - the thing looked a lot more like a lake to me.

We could see the trail start back up around the bend and for once I was the one telling the Island King that I didn't think 4 wheeling through this one would be a good idea.

Normally he's pretty girlie when it comes to his truck.

Not this day.

He got out, grabbed a long stick and tried to judge the depth of the hole.

Can you see him in the picture?



The trail was so small I couldn't open my door to take a picture of him leaning way out, trying to see if there were any big holes under all of that water.

The whole time he was doing that I was thinking to myself that if he fell in it was possible that I would die laughing. Seriously, miles from nowhere and he falls into that muddy water?

I wouldn't even be able to help him because I'd be laughing too hard.

He poked all around, got back in the truck and told the boys to make sure their seat belts were on.

We were going in.

I wasn't sure that was a good idea but that old saying "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" popped into my head and I was ready to roll.

We took it a little slow and as we came out the other side everyone in the truck heaved a sigh of relief.

The trail ended shortly after and we had to turn around and go back through the "lake" to get back to the main trail.

Only this time we decided to have a little more fun.

We rolled up the windows and he floored it.

We absolutely flew through that puddle. Mud was flying all over the truck and all 4 of us were yelling Woo-Hoo at the top of our lungs. Even the dog was howling.

It was great!

When we hit the other side the boys wanted to do it again but by now it was really dark and we decided it was time to find the trail the leads out of the woods and head home.

I love 4 wheeling but not so much once it gets dark. Trees have a way of jumping out at you and slamming into a tree is not the best way to end a great day.

So we made it back to the highway and home we went.

But we're ready to go back and do it again - soon.

300 Caches!

It's a known fact that I love to geocache. I started back in 2007 and caching fever comes and goes with me. Sometimes it's all I think about and I manage to find time to hunt caches at every opportunity while other times the desire to cache takes a backseat to whatever is going on in my life.

Not long ago my Dad mentioned that he was getting close to his 300th find. I was still about 25 caches away from 300 but his talking about it gave me the fever again and I thought it would be really fun for us to find our 300th together.

So I began a mad dash to catch up to him so we could find #300 together.

Since neither of us has any inclination to shop on Black Friday we decided that would be a great day to spend in the woods caching instead.

But it rained on Friday so we left early Saturday morning instead, heading up to Eglin Reservation. I was still 4 caches away from 300 so we made a few quick stops in Blue Water Bay for me to get up to 299 and then into the woods we went.

Almost immediately upon entering the Reservation we were stopped at a checkpoint by two military officers.

Eglin is very generous to the public, letting us have plenty of access to the Reservation for hiking, hunting, fishing and camping but you MUST purchase a permit to be anywhere on the Reservation.

Permits are good for a year and only cost $12 (hunting passes cost a little more and come with a few more restrictions) so there's no excuse not to have one.

We had our passes and the guys at the check point were really nice and we talked a little about how ALL of the caches hidden on the Reservation have strong warnings on the website about not entering the Reservation without a pass.

Eglin Reservation is one of the best playgrounds in the South for geocachers and none of us want that privilege taken away.

They wished us well, told my boys that Granddad's truck was going to be filthy when we left and they would need to wash it for him and then sent us on our way.

The cache we picked for our 300th was up near the head of Rocky Creek which eventually winds its way down into Rocky Bayou in Niceville.

The creek is beautiful. Clear, swift and a great place to put a kayak in and then paddle down to Rocky Bayou.







Dad picked this cache and he chose a beautiful spot.

The cache was a multi stage cache which means you're given the coordinates for the first stage and then when you find that one it contains the coordinates for the second stage, which is where the log book and goodies are located.

We found the first stage in a tree not too far off a dirt road near the creek.





The second stage coordinates took us on a hike across the bridge and into the woods on the other side of the creek.

And there is was - stage 2 and our 300th find!









After we signed the log and traded some swag from the cache we walked down to the edge of the creek.





While they were standing there I heard the Youngest ask his brother what he thought would happen if he just jumped in.

The Oldest said "Well, first Mom will kill you and then she'll make you spend the rest of the day wet and cold".

Yep, that about sums it up.

We hiked back across the bridge





And then were off to find 5 more caches that were not too far away.

We did some serious bushwacking into several of the caches but we managed to find them all.

It was a day full of bushwacking, hiking and enjoying each other's company.

I can't think of a better way to spend a day.

Thanks Dad!

Sometimes I Just Can't Resist

This might sound like a horrible thing but there are times when I enjoy messing with my children.

Maybe it's because they enjoy messing with me or maybe I'm just weird like that but it's true.

I don't usually go out of my way to mess with them but every once in a while an opportunity presents itself and I just can't resist.

For example

The boys and I were on a photo shoot with the Island King not long ago and the Youngest Island Boy was immediately fascinated with the wine cellar.

He stepped inside, the devil in me took over and I closed the gate.



He didn't think it was very funny but seemed pretty sure I wouldn't leave him in there long.

He was wrong. I started snapping pictures and teasing him about being trapped in a cage.

He decided he would just wait me out.



What he hasn't learned yet is that I'm better at waiting then he is.



I finally let him out but warned him that we're going to build one of those in our house and that's where he'll have to spend his time outs.

He didn't believe me.

And don't worry, Mom, he wasn't in there that long!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my MIL's house this year (we rotate each year between her house and my parent's house) and had a really nice, relaxing day.

My MIL had the table set when we got there and it looked so pretty.



Everything was ready except for the gravy, which is always the Island King's job.
The man makes the best gravy you'll ever put in your mouth.



He always uses browned flour but we forgot to bring that with us so he had to brown some at her house.

She had never seen it done so was interested in watching how he did it.



The only thing about browning the flour is that it HAS to be done outside because it smokes like crazy and even after you get the smoke out of the house the smell lingers for days.

Once the gravy was ready we sat down to a wonderful feast.



Everything was SO good but I managed not to hurt myself like I usually do. It's amazing how much better you feel if you don't eat 2 tons of food in one sitting.

It was a beautiful afternoon so after dinner we spent the rest of the day outside.



See the ball the Youngest Island Boy is holding? His father started tossing the ball around and guess where it ended up?



My MIL walked outside and told the boys to be careful so the ball wouldn't end up on the roof again and both of them started laughing and told her that they weren't the ones who threw it up there - Dad did that LOL

I love this picture of the Island Girl. The look on her face is pretty much the standard look she has whenever she's watching the boys.



We had a really nice day but it always feels a little odd to me not to be surrounded by people on Thanksgiving.

My BIL and his family are in Disney World for the week so it was just us, my inlaws and my MIL's brother.

I come from a huge family with a lot of Aunts and Uncles and a ton of cousins.

The Island King's family is small with no cousins and only one Uncle.

It's more intimate but it feels odd not to have a house or yard full of relatives.

Of course, when he's at one of my family events he's always amazed at how many people are there - and that we're all related LOL

It was a wonderful day and I'm so thankful for all of the blessings that God has given me.

I'd love it if we had Thanksgiving every Thursday!

Happy Thanksgiving

Photo Courtesy of Joe Blake

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


Hug your family and thank God for all of the blessings in your life.

Be safe and have a wonderful day!

Plane Crashes in Joe's Bayou

My mother called last night to tell us she'd seen a blip on the evening news about a plane crashing in Joe's Bayou.

Joe's Bayou is basically in my back yard.

It took about 2 seconds for us to grab the camera and get over there.

We could be considered ghouls but I prefer not to use that term.

Curious sounds better to me.

The crash sight was just off the point on the east side of Joe's Bayou and that's all private property so we stood on the dock on our side of the bayou and watched the lights from the rescue boats as they circled around - most likely looking for passengers.

The photos are horrible because we were just too far away but...

The lights you see are the search vessels



We'd been standing there for a few minutes when suddenly a flair went off quite a ways from where the search vessels were.



I don't know what that was about but one of the rescue boats went flying over there but then all we could see was it's blue light flashing.

We obviously weren't the only people who'd heard the news because what is normally a quiet spot was packed with cars and people standing at the edge of the water.




The newspaper article says the plane went down in about five feet of water and split in half.

Three people were found deceased but it was unknown how many people were on board so rescue boats were searching the area.

According to the paper air traffic controllers at Eglin say the plan dropped off the radar about 7:30.

The plane was on target for the runway at the Destin airport but it was so foggy out this evening that you could barely see your hand in front of your face and visibility must have been almost none.

So sad and our prayers go out to the family of those killed.

Hogtown Bayou

Friday afternoon the Island King needed to drive out into South Walton County to deliver some photos to a client.

The boys and I were finished with school and the Island Girl was off an academic team trip so I decided it would be fun for us to do some exploring.

We ended up in a little area known as Hogtown Bayou.




In the very early 1900s a developer from Chicago named Charles E. Cessna discovered the natural beauty of the area. In case you're curious, Charles is not the Cessna airplane guy - that's Clyde Vernon Cessna.

The few locals who lived in the area had long since named it Hogtown Bayou, mainly because of the multitude of wild hogs roaming the woods.

Cessna bought the land and renamed the area Santa Rosa. He formed the Santa Rosa Plantation Company, advertised well and sold quite a bit of land.

It wasn't long before the community of Santa Rosa began to thrive. Homes, a church, a school and several businesses were built.

Timber was milled and turpentine farms ran plentiful.

As idyllic as it sounds, Santa Rosa living was hard. It's Florida which means it's hot and humid, mosquitoes are the size of cars, hogs and deer raided vegetable gardens and all of the old timers say rattlesnakes were everywhere.

And it was completely isolated. Destin was 20 miles to the west and the trip was made by horse or wagon along a sandy road. Our 20 minute drive took most of the day back then.

Mail and supplies were brought by boat from Freeport across the Bay to the north. Boats came from Pensacola and tourists enjoyed the Santa Rosa Hotel.

Despite all of this there were about 1,200 residents by 1910. They loved the area and seemed quite happy there.

But not long after 1910 much of the land had been logged and a few of the turpentine farms quite producing. In a community effort to continue to thrive an idea was formed to grow citrus trees.

Trees were imported and the logged land was turned into citrus groves.

Life went on until the winter of 1915 when disaster struck.

The citrus trees developed canker and were ordered to be burned by the Dept of Agriculture.

The timber was gone, the turpentine dry and there was no citrus. It was over for most of the Santa Rosa residents and within a short time they were gone.

But the land was fertile and a few stayed, grew their own food and survived.

It's interesting to ride down some of the roads now and see an old homestead off the road through the trees.

At some point the area resumed it's Hogtown Bayou name and thankfully hasn't seen much development.

It doesn't hurt that a lot of the area is surrounded by Point Washington State Forest and will always stay a little on the old Florida side.

The road running down into Hogtown Bayou ends, abruptly. The road just turns into a boat ramp - with very little warning. There is a sign about 5 feet from where the road ends and the ramp begins but if you were traveling at a high rate of speed you'd find yourself way out in Choctawhatchee Bay long before the words on the sign registered in your brain.



We got down to the water and then drove along a dirt trail next to the Bay. It is so beautiful out there.



There was a huge full moon out over the Bay



And I love the tall pines along the water's edge, mixed with the exposed roots and remnants from trees who have given way to the Bay.



The boys loved crawling across them.



It was a relaxing way to spend an early Friday evening and I have to say that I'd love to be able to travel back to old Santa Rosa for a day or so.

Hard as it was I'll bet they loved it.

Harry Potter

When the Harry Potter books started coming out the Island Girl was never that interested in them. She read one or two but just didn't seem to get into them like a lot of her friends.

But then she started watching the movies and it wasn't long before she was hooked.

And since Thursday night was the Midnight Premier of the newest movie all I heard was "Mom, can I PLEASE go?!"

She doesn't have school on Fridays so her Dad and I decided it would be ok to let our teenager go with her friends - at midnight - to see the movie.

When she started getting ready she told me she wished she could dress up but that she didn't have the right clothes.

Lucky for her - I did.


I wish you could have seen the look on the Island King's face when she walked into the room and asked him to tie her tie.

Not something he thought he'd ever hear from his daughter.

We asked Island Girl's friend why she wasn't wearing a tie and she said that Gloria Steinem said something years ago that made perfect sense to her...

"Why would you want to tie a noose around your neck?"

Ok - I can see that.

They cast a spell on us



And were off for their big adventure.

The next morning she told me how great the movie was and that everyone was dressed in costume.

She wants to go see it again and take the whole family.

That should be interesting.