1/14 Gamble Rogers State Park, Flagler Beach, FL

I've been very lazy about posting for several reasons.  First, around the holidays, I spent time with an elderly aunt and uncle in memory care in Florida and then flew to Ohio and to California to visit my sons and their families, including my grandchildren.  I don't post things about family, so that was ten days I was off-line, so to speak.

For the last ten days, I have been at this state park, north of Daytona Beach and south of Flagler Beach, Florida.  The weather has been perfect, and I have been busy catching up on organizing, getting my financials in shape, and overall, just doing minor maintenance and cleaning of my motorhome.  The new semester has also started, so that has kept me busy.

On a positive note, I have a terrific campsite with an excellent view of the Atlantic Ocean, so I can sit and do work while watching the ocean.  I've taken a couple of beach walks and ridden my bike into and around Flagler Beach, which has also been nice.

I'm going to break the photos I have taken over the past week or so into two postings:  the first is the campground and the second is on Flagler Beach.  Gamble Rogers State Park is one of only two oceanfront state parks in Florida, so it is very difficult to get a site here.  It is also a small campground and only half of the sites are large enough for an RV 30' long or longer. I tried for several days when reservations opened up on a rolling basis before I got a site, but the effort was worth it. 

The campground is older and somewhat cramped.  It also has a major highway running right next to it, plus sites and the roadway are just sand.  However, as they say, it is location, location, location.  

 

This is my oceanfront camping site:  Most of the sites have so much greenery between them and the beach that you cannot see much.  Four of them, like this one, have good views. 

The beach is accessed by a boardwalk and ramps so as to protect the narrow dune area. 

Ocean was relatively calm this day, so lots of people on the beach. 

I think this is a willet. 

Something on my lens. Need to clean it more often, but you can see here how steep this beach is. 

Part of a large flock of brown pelicans flying by.  I love the way they glide.

This is a sanderling.

The perfect hole in this and many other shells is made by a shark eye, a predatory sea snail that eats bivalves.  It kills them by drilling a hole into the part of the shell where the muscle holds the two parts together.  Then it sticks its mouth part into the shell and eats it. 

Fishing boat in the distance.  Nets are lowered and raised by the large arms on either side of the boat. 

This is a piping plover, identified by the dark "necklace" it seems to be wearing.

And this creature is a surfer, except it was not very successful because the waves were small on this day.

 

I did not see any of these this day.