Day 6 - Travel from Tallahassee FL to South of Gainesville FL

We decided to travel a little closer to Orlando today so that Thursday we won't have to travel as long.  Bob had made reservations at the Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park that is south of Gainesville FL.  It was just a couple of hours drive from Tallahassee.

Wow, this state park is like a tropical rain forest....moss hanging from trees, palmettos, palm trees, swampy areas, cattails!!  A really neat environment; will be fun checking this area out.

We no more than got in the park and saw two small deer.  Bob told us deer are small in Florida.

We checked in and got directions to our site.  The sites have water and 30 or 50 amp electric but no sewer. Bob got us backed in to our site and it wasn't long we were set up and eating some lunch before we were out the door to explore.  I sprayed us all down with mosquito repellent because it looked like the perfect area for mosquitoes and they seem to love biting on Kolton.

We were off to the Visitor Center and the boardwalk.  Terryn found a snake skin by the Visitor Center...you would have thought she had found gold, she was so happy!  We walked down a path to an observation tower.  We could feel the tower move with the wind; just a little creepy feeling!

The volunteer at the Visitor Center gave Bob directions to the La Chua Trail which leads to Alachua Sink and the center of the prairie marsh.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the boardwalk there was closed due to reconstruction so we walked along the grassy area parallel to it.  We saw several alligators and sandhill cranes. There were some very large alligators!  Kolton was very excited because he thinks alligators are really cool.

The trees here are absolutely huge.  I'd hate to guess how many years old some of the trees are.  There are a lot of hanging vines also; Terryn & Kolton used the vines to swing and climb.

It was hot and humid but we all really enjoyed this afternoon.  I've heard that there are a lot of state parks in Florida; we have passed many already while traveling.  We were glad we got to stay in this state park since there is so much to see.  A person could spend several days exploring this park as they have at least 8 trails.

As we were headed back to where we were camped, Pops treated us to Dairy Queen since it was so hot. We enjoyed that, as well.

Tomorrow is the big day!!  We can check in to Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World at 1:00 pm....we are soooo excited!!