Thanksgiving plans are made....Florida again!!!

[bncinwv]

Just made our reservations for our family's annual Thanksgiving trip, and am happy that we will be once again venturing to Florida for the week. Our favorite campground......Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in the panhandle. Due to the oil spill last year we detoured back to Myrtle but it just wasn't the same for the girls. Something to do with that Black Friday shopping experience at the outlet mall in Destin that starts at midnight Friday morning?? The things we do for our kids, but I will confess I am looking forward to eating breakfast at the Donut Hole again and the alligator appetizers at Fudpuckers!!! Hopefully we can have another MOC mini-gathering while we are there, we missed that last year!!
Bingo

[indy roadrunner]

Let me know what site you have and I will make sure it s swept off and squeaky clean before I leave.

[bncinwv]

Site 123, Phil (we are partial to the outside of the loop). Make sure at least one armadillo is trained to stop by and that the pygmy rattlesnakes are trained to stay away. (Those are DW requests, not mine!!). She did happen upon one of the snakes a couple of years ago on one of the bike trails, and was actually brave (or silly??) enough to stop and take pictures!
Bingo

[bncinwv]

Oh, and for those who do not know about sweeping the sites, every time we have checked in, the front desk makes sure that if the site has not been swept, they send someone right then to make sure it is clean. This is by far the best kept, most immaculate campground that we have ever stayed in. If Phil is helping in any way with the upkeep here, he among others is doing a fantastic job!!
Phil,
on another note, they haven't changed the policy on fires have they, we always have a fire bowl that we have used there.
Bingo

[indy roadrunner]

No still has to be contained aboved ground. Now if you want to stay in the tent area, they have fire boxes at the sites. So you can leave that big ole montana at home and bring a couple of pup tents and you can have your campfire.

[indy roadrunner]

Bingo, tell your wife that I am not having a lot of luck with those snakes. We agreed that I go my way and they go theirs. None of them volunteered to be photogenic.
Still trying to get an armadillo to come forward for a presentation. They are all pretty shy.
I did train Frank and Harry a couple of Choclawhatchee Beach Mouses to jump out from the bushes and scare you but they promised not to get in your camper. That was over on site 143.
Tell your wife that on the tram trail at the bottom of the hill where the sharp curve is that there are about 4 or 5 snipes that are trained to whistle at her. But you got to go after dark.

[Waynem]

Snipes! Snipes!

They are so cute.

[Recumbent]

We had read about Topsail Hill, and about a month ago our kids and grandkids went there, so now they have picked out a particular group of lots that they say are "perfect". This CG is now on our list of must visit.

[CamillaMichael]

Have fun!

[washley1]

Phil and Gladys, I have lived in FLA almost my entire life, and one thing I have NEVER seen is a shy armadillo! Those boogers will walk right up and make them selves to home not two feet away from you if you let them. They seem totally unafraid of us, and bound and determined to tear up my yard and shrubbery. They are ugly. They are peculiar. They are persistent. They are hard to kill. But they are NOT shy!!

[indy roadrunner]

Walt I do honestly bow to your expertise on them critters it is just that in the 10 years or so that we have been going to TopSail, I have never seen one in the park. Maybe I have been lucky
I have seen snakes, rabbits, Dune mice, various birds but no armored critters.

[pineranch]

I feel the need to shed light on the armadillo disconnect between Walt and Phil. Walt appears to be in central Fl where the armadillo's are educated either at Gainesville or Tallahassee thus more friendly and confident. Phil is a yankee and in the panhandle where the armadillo's are from Oxford, Ms. or Tuscaloosa, Al., hence their social skills are lacking and they won't be seen with a yankee. Bless their little hearts!
Mike

[indy roadrunner]

Thanks Pineranch for that explaination. Now that makes a lot of sense to me.