This morning I left the Walmart of Coolidge, Arizona and went for a run in San Tan Mountains Regional Park.  It was odd going for a run in the 60s in January:

Howdy neighbors:

After my run, I picked up M at the Phoenix airport and we drove to Scottsdale where we will spend Shabbos with our friends the T family, last visited in 2016.

Good Shabbos from Scottsdale!  See the trip map for today’s drive.

I woke up well before dawn at the Johnson City Library and headed west.  As I continued into West Texas, the vistas opened up and the terrain transitioned to the semi-arid grasslands of the West.  It felt so good to be back!

A quick photo from the rest stop where I stopped for Shacharis and breakfast:

I continued west to overnight at the Walmart of Demming, New Mexico.  See the trip map for today’s drive.

Shabbos was quiet here in Tate’s Hell.  Sunday morning was chilly but beautiful:

We went for a paddle on the river:

All the toys:

We spent most of the day motorcycling Tate’s Hell:

Towards sunset we drove north to overnight at a hotel (!) in Tallahassee, Florida.  See the trip map for today’s drive.

This morning I ran the six miles to the northern tip of St. George Island.  Since no-one gets out this far, there were some great beachcombing finds:

Sea Urchin:

Net float:

Check out this monster!

Tip of the island, with Dog Island in the distance:

Some of this morning’s haul.  I fashioned a bag out of my windbreaker for the run back to hold everything:

We drove into town to visit the reconstructed Cape St. George Light, now in the center of town:

We drove on to visit the Apalachicola Estuarine Research Reserve, one of 29 National Estuarine Research Reserves:

Whale spine:

The visitor center was fantastic, but we didn’t have much time to visit.  We will have to come back again:

We drove on to our Shabbos location, dispersed camping in Tate’s Hell State Forest:

The forest is named after Cebe Tate.  The legend is as follows:

In the spring of 1875, Cebe got married to a mail order bride from New York City. She was a fiery German Immigrant. But there was a problem, Cebe only had pigs, and she was of the Jewish Faith. She ate corn, potatoes, and pancakes with molasses, but she wanted beef. Cebe took off into the woods to find a cow, any cow, to quiet his bride.

Armed with a shotgun and accompanied by his hunting dogs, he journeyed into the swamp in search of a cow. His dogs took off chasing a panther, and he lost his gun in the mud. Tate was lost in the swamp for seven days and nights. He went into the Dwarf Cypress stand to escape the relentless bugs, and fell asleep against a tree. He awoke when bitten by a snake and ran blindly thru the swamp, delirious from the bite and from drinking the murky waters. Finally he came to a clearing near Carrabelle, living only long enough to murmur the words, “My name is Cebe Tate, and I just came through Hell!”

Our private view of the Ochlockonee River:

I broke out our new inflatable kayak:

We went for a quick paddle:

Good Shabbos from Tate’s Hell!  See the trip map for today’s drive.