Update: Mar 6, 2019

My pace has been picking up, and I’ve actually been in two different states this past week, so change is in the air. I left Huntington Beach State Park after my month’s stay, but not before one last picture of this lovely Live Oak I saw almost every day on my way to and from the beach.

Then it was southward to Georgia, and the Savannah area. I’ve been to Skidaway Island State Park three times now, and each visit, I find something new to enjoy.

On my previous visits, I had missed tree pollen season, the one thing that causes an allergic reaction in me: watering, swollen eyes and sinuses that make my face feel like it’s melting. Fun stuff. But still it was worth it to stand under these trees and shoot images for 45 minutes (and then I went to Walmart and walked around in their air-conditioned building for an hour, till I felt human again. Walmart is good for more than just shopping!)

Tuesday I was up and on my way, driving back roads through a dozen small downs till I crossed I-75 and the small city of Cordele. I stopped at a McDonalds for lunch and asked how to pronounce the city’s name. The woman seemed surprised at the question, and then COR-DEEEL-E with the accent on the middle syllable. So know we all know, in case you ever find yourself here.

On the west side of Cordele is Lake Blackshear and the very laid-back Georgia Veterans State Park. It’s about half full of people, and about 110% full of trees but only about half of them are live oaks so I’m feeling better today. Until I saw this, that is…

You might have seen that picture last week of a HUGE gator caught in Georgia. Yep, it was caught in Lake Blackshear. Sure, go ahead and swim, campers. I’ll be inside my trailer, watching. Just because they caught one 13-foot, 700-pound gator doesn’t mean it’s the only one out there, that’s what I say.

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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust