Last Days at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

April 20, 2017

We left Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park on March 29^th, ready to head back to Maryland for a visit with family. Before we left we celebrated “Prairie Days and Prairie Nights”, a Saturday event designed to introduce local residents to the park. There were nature hikes, astronomy talks and night sky viewing, a cracker cattle herding (descendants of the cattle brought to Florida by the Spanish centuries ago) by cowboys. The cows panicked and they took off into the 54,000 acres. There were free swamp buggy rides. Greg got to take 6 groups on tours during the day. I worked in the office answer the phones answered and checking in campers.

Local tenants on the cattle lease, or are you a runaway?!

We had one last chance to venture out before we left. Taking a pickup truck and retrieving boundary markers from the last prescribed burn, we finally saw our first Preserve bald eagle. Another fun junket. Then we packed up, said our goodbyes and took the long drive back up the East Coast on I-95. A week after arriving in Maryland we learned that the two campgrounds at Kissimmee Prairie had been hit by a tornado! A few volunteers were still working there, and Karen and Bob shared photos and video of the damage. The campground was almost empty. Thankfully the group of 80 tenting boy scouts had already left. Three RV's were destroyed, and one woman injured. The ranger's houses and the office were spared. Our campsite suffered damage. Our favorite tree that graced the view outside our dinette window has ¾ of its branches gone. Oh, and the Clivus composting toilet that never worked properly vanished. No loss there!

Wood Stork on final approach for landing

Northern Harrier with lunch

Thistles in bloom

Deer trying hard to ignore us

Gators crowded at shrinking water hole

Gator with snack

Crested Caracara at entrance

Gopher tortoise racing by

Camp neighbor enjoying our leaky hose

Our view to the north

Turkeys patrolling our camp every afternoon