Colt Creek State Park

Thursday, 8 March 2018

Colt Creek State Park, FL

This morning I discovered I have a tick attached to my hip.  Great.  I probably got it when I was wearing shorts on one of my walks with the dogs down the nature trails at Rocky Bayou.  It means I need to go over every inch of my critters, and both dogs are almost entirely black.  And without wi-fi, I have no idea of how to get rid of the one tick I found.

The only other time I’ve encountered this problem, I was about 15 and my dad had decreed our family was going camping.  For the first time.  In Arkansas, with a rented canvas tent that was probably Army surplus.  That trip was memorable for so many reasons, not the least of which is that several of us came back with ticks.   After leaving Arkansas, we went to Tulsa to visit family.  My Aunt Edna helped my Momma deal with the tick on my head by holding a lighted match to the tick’s rear end to make it pull its head out.  If I haven’t figured out the tick solution in the next couple of days, never fear.  I’m going to be spending the weekend with Aunt Edna’s daughter, my cousin Karen.  Karen’s now lived in Florida for about ¾ of her life and raised 2 boys so almost certainly knows how to deal with ticks.  Not that that makes the greatest way to start a visit – Hi, how are you, I have a tick to get rid of.

The sky was completely clear last night and I was glad to see so many stars this morning.  It’s reassuring, somehow, to know the stars I looked at as a kid are still up there.  There was almost no light pollution to block them out, except for the moon which was incredibly bright, even though it was only at half phase.

I located a ranger who knew about tick removal.  Lighted match not needed, fortunately.  Tick now removed.  Thank goodness.  I was feeling unclean with a parasite attached.  Of course, a major tick search is still to come on all 5 of us.

The ranger also told me what I thought was a crane I’d seen was probably a crane.  She said Sandhill cranes seem to be moving into the area because, instead of the none they used to see, now it’s common for them to see pairs here and there.  Pretty neat. 

Colt Creek State Park campground

This campground looked odd after all the wooded areas I've been staying in.  Here there are tall pines and low scrubby palms.  I asked the helpful ranger who said they're Saw Palmettos, that they're like ground cover and one plant can cover hundreds of feet and be 100 years old.

Blue Springs State Park next.