We had a fun drive down to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. B and I hung out in the back and colored, read books and just chilled out.
It was a terribly bumpy trip into the park. The rain had ruined the road and the potholes and standing water were just ridiculous.
Upon arrival, we found our campsite to be mostly flooded with standing water. We parked as best as we could before the sun went down. In the morning we still had some standing water.
We went out to explore and found all the run-off areas full of water.
Mom and I saw a flock of wild turkey.
We took some long hikes and saw an alligator, lots of birds and even a water moccasin!
We hiked down to the horse camp and found that their roads in and out were flooded worse than our campground area.
We made the best of it and pretended to fish in the area our fire ring used to be. We moved the fire-ring to dryer ground. Mom and Dad worked on some motorhome issues and then relaxed.
The campground is designated a Dark Sky Park. There is a resident astronomer and we stopped by and saw sun spots through the telescope.
On Saturday we took a swamp buggy tour. Usually there isn’t much swamp to go through but after the long rain we had lots of water to explore. The buggy ride was about 3 hours long. We went on the morning and afternoon rides.
We saw deer, alligator, lots of birds, a black racer and a few other critters.
We loved splashing through the waters! It was really deep in spots.
We saw the carcass of a wild boar. The vultures were picking it apart.
There were some rather large alligators.
We also saw a bald eagle and a crested caracara! On the second tour we stopped to nibble on some saw palmetto plants. If you pluck them out just right you can get liquid from the plants. SO if you were ever stuck out in the wilderness we would be able to hydrate. It tasted bland but it was weird. Mom and Dad were shocked I tried it!