JimNastics arrives in Florida !

Hello gang. I just wanted to let all those that wondered, I arrived safely in Florida.

In the past, I drive straight through from NJ to Florida, or perhaps take two days at most . But, this time I decided to take a more leisurely pace and see some of the sights. Thus, I visited 2 swamp wildlife preserves in South Carolina and two in Georgia on the way to Florida.

In SC I ran into a Cottonmouth (Water Moccasin). I got some terrific photos of that fat venomous viper. Indeed, if I wasn't looking at my path at the time, I might have stepped right on him. There was a narrow dirt path and on either side was water. It was a crazy set-up for gator territory and perhaps helped explain why several buzzards chose to circle above me for quite a while. I also photographed some turtles and some butterflies there. I heard, but did not see, 2 alligators (different times) going into the water about 30 feet from me. That was more than a bit scary.

However, while I was in GA, I did get photographs of a female gator who was a mere 12 feet from me. She was in the water and I was on dry land. I had my route of retreat planned out, but thankfully, she did not charge. Now, how often do you know of a female not charging ? Visa ? Mastercard ? American Express?

I arrived here in Florida at about 11:30 pm on Saturday and am now attempting to download the drivers necessary for my compact flash card reader and my portable hard drive. My mom's old computer recognizes neither. This is a Windows 98 Dell laptop that I bought for her several years ago. She never could get the hang of it, despite hours of instructions and even writing things down step by step.

The weather here is gorgeous. It was 83 F. on Sunday and it's been partly sunny every day. I'm getting a ton of work done on my mom's home; repairs & maintenence. I am at the library now in an effort to post this blog to update those who care.

My sister and her family are supposed to meet us in about 20 minutes, so I'm going to sign off for now. I hope you all are doing well !! Big hugs & Merry XMas !! Jim