A Hike At Seminole State Park Georgia. The Gopher Tortoise Trail….

In Oct. 2016 we had to evacuate Daytona Beach Florida thanks to Hurricane Matthew. Where to go:: Lake Seminole located in the southwest corner of Georgia along its border with Florida. Thanks to VRBO we found a cottage on the lake and had the opportunity to spend a couple days with excellent weather.
Gopher Tortoise Nature Trail is a 2.2 mile lightly trafficked loop trail located near Donalsonville, GA that features a lake and is good for all skill levels. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round.

Most times you can walk this trail and not see another person.

“Seminole State Park:: The southwest Georgia park is on beautiful Lake Seminole, a 37,500-acre reservoir with excellent boating, fishing and birding. Cottages, many campsites and even picnic shelters sit near the water’s edge.” (Several people were camped here having evacuated the east coast of Florida because of  Hurricane Matthew.

 

“Wildlife is abundant throughout Seminole, and a nature trail leads past gopher tortoise burrows and one of the largest longleaf pine forests in a Georgia state park. Observant visitors may also see alligators, osprey, bald eagles and other wildlife. Nearby wildlife management areas provide great duck and deer hunting.”





“Gopher tortoises are dry-land turtles that usually live in relatively well-drained, sandy soils generally associated with longleaf pine and dry oak sandhills. They also live in scrub, dry hammock, pine flatwoods, dry prairie, coastal grasslands and dunes, mixed hardwood-pine communities, and a variety of habitats that have been disturbed or altered by man, such as power line rights-of-way, and along roadsides.” READ MORE




Back at the lake cottage after a “Quality time” hike on The Gopher Tortoise Trail at Seminole Lake State Park Georgia.

Technorati Tags: Gopher Tortoise Trail,Seminole Lake State Park,Georgia,Hiking

A Farwell To Fidel Castro and Hopefully a New Day For Cuba

Remember, before Fidel Castro we had Fulgencio Batista.  Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Batista's increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US-based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts. ( What a guy… No wonder we (U.S.A.) supported him..READ MORE

 Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences………………….

Oct. 14, 2016:::  Tourists bought rum and cigars in Havana as President Obama lifted a $100 limit on bringing the Cuban goods into the United States.

The sugar mill and mill town at Central Hershey was the flagship of Milton Hershey's Cuban holdings. Read More 

Linda often brings me coffee in the morning and I know she is a saint……

Our Lady of Charity also known as Our Lady of El Cobre or Nuestra Senora de la Virgen de la Caridad is a popular Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary known in many Catholic countries. Read More

Time marches on and Fidel Castro is no more..(time and history will be his judge as it is for all of us). I hope we continue to have better and better relations with Cuba and I hope for the very best for all their people. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to visit Cuba but it does look like a beautiful country. 

     When I think of Cuba the first thing that comes to my mind is the Cuban Missile Crisis (Thanks Fidel) “The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (Spanish: Crisis de octubre), the Caribbean Crisis (Russian: Карибский кризис, Karibskij krizis), or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.” ( I was only in high school at the time and I remember being really really scared.) Remember the Fall Out Shelters?

It is my fervent wish/prayer the country is not on a return path to “times” like that.

Have a “Quality Time” day….

Technorati Tags: Cuba.Fidel Castro,Fulgencio Batista,Daytona BEACH Museum of Art. Museum,Art,My Quality Time