Perry, FL – That’s right, Perry! We’re not in Dunedin any more; we left this morning after a wonderful month of relaxing, family time and touring. It seems longer than a month, yet over in no time. I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun.
For our last day in Dunedin, we took John and Fawn to visit Caladesi Island, just off the coast and quite near the RV park. We drove over the causeway to Honeymoon Island State Park, where we had visited last year.
The neighbouring Caladesi Island was our destination this time, accessible only by ferry. The ride was breezy and short, and soon we were gliding through a channel lined with mangrove trees to a small dock. Armed with our picnic lunches, we followed the boardwalk (noting the warning signs about diamondback rattlesnakes common to the area) out to the beach and rented an umbrella and some beach chairs for the day.
Our assignment was to fill our grocery bags with nice shells for Fawn’s garden. She has a small hibiscus plant set in a ringed bed that she is gradually filling with bleached shells, and before our outing the bed was about one-third covered. On the beach, there were millions of tiny shells and fragments of shells deposited by the waves, and somewhat fewer more sizable shells that we were aiming for. It was lovely strolling along the sand in the breeze, listening to the lapping waves and screeching gulls, and pouncing on nice-looking shells when they came into view.
It was fun sitting under the umbrella to have our picnic, too, watching toddlers building sand castles with their mums and dads and seagulls gathering nearby to snatch up any crumbs we might toss their way. We didn’t offer them any, but one aggressive creature flew right over a little boy at the next umbrella when he waved his sandwich over his head. John recalled a previous beach picnic when a gull succeeded in grabbing his food right out of his hand! Needless to say, he wasn’t taking any chances this time.
Our outing and the supper we shared at John and Fawn’s trailer was a pleasant way to spend our last day in Dunedin, and this morning we battened down the hatches and pulled out at around 9:30, heading north. Although our route paralleled the gulf coast the whole way, we didn’t see the water at all. Aside from a few small towns, we were mostly traveling through bush on either side of the highway once we cleared the commercial areas north of Dunedin.
It took no time to get settled at our site in the KOA here in Perry, and that was a good thing, because almost as soon as we finished, dark thunderclouds gathered overhead, lightning flashed, and the rain began in earnest. But we are snug as bugs in rugs.
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