Day 32 - Perry to St. Petersburg, Florida

Well, here we are, finally, in the land of dripping foreheads. Up until now, spring in the southeast has been very, very kind to us. Very little rain has fallen, and wonderfully cool temperatures have been the norm all the way from Texas to eastern Florida. But last night, as we set up camp in Perry, both the heat and the bugs gently settled into our lives, and we knew that the party was over. Last night I looked up the weather stats on the Web just to see what was what in St. Petersburg, our intended destination for today. The week's worth of charts informed me that come next week we could expect rain. In the meantime, we could just go ahead and expect 97% humidity. Damn! I had no idea you could even experience 97% humidity anywhere outside of the country of Panama.

No matter. We're just going to forge ahead and kick the air conditioner up a few notches to HIGH, take twice as many showers as before, and drink more adult beverages containing ice cubes -- lots of ice cubes. I may even switch from my Levis to a pair of shorts for the first time on this trip. Yes, I know what you're thinking, but something as insidious as 97% humidity calls for drastic measures.

Today was a day where nothing much happened. Hoping to arrive in Naples, Florida, by Sunday night, we didn't spend much time today trying to find things to distract us from driving. We stopped for gas. We stopped for supplies at Wally World. We stopped at Home Depot hoping to find a spray bottle of Krud Kutter, which is a staple in Nevada's Home Depot. Krud Kutter is the only product that I've found that takes squashed bugs off various RV surfaces with ease. Unfortunately, the folks at Home Depot here in Florida hadn't gotten the memo that I would be stopping, and had failed to stock up on my favorite bug juice.

Around lunch time we pulled off Highway 19 in response to a brown sign which said, Crystal River Archeological Site. We're always eager to tour a site where people are digging up pot sherds and arrowheads from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. This particular site contained a small museum as well as a series of trails that wandered around some Native American burial mounds next to the Crystal River. It was sort of weird to stand atop the Indian mound and watch fun-seekers speed by in their motorboats (photo lower right). By the way, my junior archaeologist wife says I have to say projectile points, not arrowheads. Sigh!

We did get to watch an interesting demonstration at the archaeological museum, that of the resident ranger throwing a reproduction spear using an Atlatl (pronouced, despite the ranger's protestations, "At Latle." Though I had read much on the subject over the years, I had never seen one thrown by a human. Though the ranger was sort of a Barney Fife type of guy (photo bottom left), he succeeded quite nicely in throwing the spear. In fact, he was so fast I couldn't get a photo of him. He was either holding the Atlatl, ready to thrown, or he'd already thrown it. Guy had obviously had lots and lots of practice over the years as he demonstrated his technique to tourist groups.

If you're thinking of traveling route 19 down from Tallahassee, I'd have to advise you that the first half, as far as Perry, was quite scenic. However, from Perry south the road turns into more of a urban corridor and you do a lot more stopping at lights. In addition, the closer you get to St. Petersburg the more rundown and seedy the scenery becomes along the highway. Next time I would probably choose a different route, at least from Perry south.

Right now we're holed up in the St. Petersburg KOA camp, which is SO popular with the tourists that nearly every camp spot is occupied. As we pulled up I just knew we were wasting our time since the place looked like Disneyland on a busy day. There were people everywhere. The check-in line was five people deep when I got inside. Still, the lady took pity on me when I finally stood before her. Since I said I'd be willing to park anywhere, even if it meant no utilities, she gave us a spot and a guide to find it with. Before we knew it, we were set up in a nice, tree shaded, level spot. Moments later all of our utilities were attached and functioning. Then we were frantically gathering up our laundry for a clandestine foray to the laundry room to see if we could slip in, wash our clothes, and get out again before all the folks got out of the swimming pool and found out that they had no dry clothes to put on. This we did in fine style, though that was scarcely believable as well.

Naturally, with such a clientele, attaching to the WiFi is an exercise in futility. The guy who led me to our spot even admitted that his son used the WiFi to stream videos and isn't that wonderful!!!! Yeah, I thought, just wonderful. But my trusty uplink device (or d'vass if you prefer) does just fine. The only problem is Concetta can't get her super modern IPad d'vass to even talk to the WiFi here, something which happens more often than not.

That's it, then. We're planning on hanging around a few days in Naples before we head north again, this time on the east coast of Florida. Got some folks to visit in Jacksonville, and we can't wait to visit St. Augustine. After that it's Savannah and Charleston. Sounds good to me. I can't wait.