No...not White Squirrel BBQ.
We left Silver Lake early this morning on our way to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Ochlockonee River State Park, another unpronounceable park. While the "fast" routing took us up I-75, we took the more direct route going via secondary roads to Homosassa (with a stop at the Publix market for groceries), then up US 19 to Perry (with a stop at Goodman's BBQ...more on this next), then US 98 to St, Marks NWR. Since Speedy doesn't like to go 70, the "fast"route isn't. The more direct route is usually faster, since we go closer to the speed limit (Speedy doesn't like to go over 60).
It was lunchtime when we passed through Perry, FL. Somehow I knew there was a BBQ joint in this town and asked Ellen to look for Bubba's as we drove through. Soon, she said "Stop! That's the one we went to before". It wasn't Bubba's, but Goodman's Real Pit BBQ and, yes, we had been there before. Neither of us remembered going through Perry, but Ellen remembered the place...lots of pickup tricks and the local sheriff's vehicles, the good sign for good BBQ. I remembered it after we went inside.
We first found it on a gray January day in 2010. We were on our first trip in Speedy and were going the other way from St. George Island to Manatee Springs. We were passing through town at lunchtime and there was this BBQ joint with pickup trucks and the local sheriff. It was a good stop then and a good stop today. Ellen had the pork sandwich with potato salad and cole slaw. I had the Smokestack sandwich, a layer of beef and a layer of pork separated by a slice of toasted garlic bread. I had seasoned fries with mine. It wasn't the best BBQ we've ever had, but it was good. After lunch we continued on to St. Marks NWR.
Last night, I made a reservation for tonight at Ochlockonee River SP, about 30 miles past the refuge. I'd seen a county park in the Allstays app that was closer to the refuge, but it was small and there was no way to contact it at night (we've also had mixed experiences at county parks). It turned out that Newport Park Campground is just across the road from the entrance to the refuge, practically empty, and pretty pleasant looking...but we had reservations at Ochlockonee. Since it would cost more to cancel or transfer the reservation than the cost of fuel to go back and forth, we decided to continue to the state park—maybe next time we will stay at Newport Park.
We stopped in at the refuge visitor center to pick up maps and bird lists. We didn't stay long at the refuge today, as it had been a long ride from Silver Lake, but we will spend the whole day there tomorrow. St. Marks is a refuge noted for its birds and noted for being the other refuge that has Whooping Cranes. Unlike the wild Aransas flock, this is an introduced flock which migrates from Wisconsin. The first year birds are imprinted on an ultralight aircraft and follow it from Wisconsin to Florida over several weeks in the fall. There are 14 cranes wintering at St. Marks. The volunteer in the visitor center was effusive about the cranes telling us all about them, even though we told her we spent the last winter at Aransas with the big flock. The only thing she wouldn't tell us is where they are.
When we got to Ochlockonee, we asked if we could extend our stay for a second night. Since tomorrow is Friday, everything was reserved when I went online last night, but we know there are "walk-in" sites at all the parks. She said we couldn't reserve a walk-in for tomorrow until tomorrow. That would not be a likely success for us, since we would be heading off before checkout time and returning late. The thing with the walk-in sites is that if the current occupant is scheduled to check out, but wants to stay, they are allowed to, providing they re-register and haven't exceeded the maximum stay limit, so the park cannot know what will be available the next day until after checkout time.
But we lucked out. I asked if there was a walk-in available today that could be extended through Friday night—there was one site! It is the smallest site in the campground and right on the road, but we will be away all day anyway, so we took it. While I can't cancel a reservation or move it to another night, I can transfer to another site without charge after I've registered.
Ochlockonee is quite a nice park, right on the river and mostly open pine woods (good home for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers), which is surrounded by a section of St. Marks NWR. It would be a park worth returning to and staying a while, but not site 11. We took a short walk along the river and the park roads near the campground. While we saw no Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, we did see Downy Woodpeckers and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (also Bluebirds, Garckles, Towhees and White Squirrels). There is supposed to be fairly good birding in the park, but it was a quiet time of the day and, unfortunately, we don't have time to stay for more than two nights.
The White Squirrels are interesting. They are not albinos, but mutant Gray Squirrels (four feet tall, eat small dogs...not really). They are all white except for a gray stripe on their forehead and back, as if one took a normal gray squirrel and dipped it in bleach while holding it by the neck and base of its tail.
Tomorrow it is off to St. Marks. They have recent sightings of a few birds we've not seen, like Wilson's Plover and Virginia Rail. There is also a visible Barred Owl nest with a pair of recently hatched owlets. It should be a nice day, albeit a bit cold. It is forecast to go below freezing tonight and be no higher than the high 50s for the rest of the weekend. I know it is nothing compared to what is happening at home with another blizzard predicted for the weekend (we are very glad to be here in the 50s...but if it were the 70s, we'd be even more glad).
No photos today, not even a White Squirrel (we forgot to take a camera on our short walk).
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