Anyway, after bouncing around on a washboard dirt road leading into the State Forest, we finally arrived at around 9am and parked at the Holloway Road Trailhead for the Florida Trail. Lo and behold, there was a Trail Register there! Of course we had to sign it and take some photos and some coords (cha ching). Then off we headed with our hiking sticks in hand for our main goal this morning... the Iron Bridge Shelter, a Remote Backcountry Shelter that the Biologist estimated was only about a mile from the trailhead. Off we went all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all but singing "Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to waymark we go" when splat, the Biologist ended up with a spider web wrapped around her face. "Oh! Poor spider," she said. "All that work to be re-done!" The Marine just gave her one of those looks. You know the look I'm talking about. He's not too fond of spiders.About a half mile in, the Biologist said, "Oh shoot! We forgot to put on bug spray. I hope we don't
get eaten up by chiggers." The Marine confidently replied, "This is a really nice trail and we can avoid the bushes. We won't get any chigger bites." The Biologist, who was taking point (remember, he is a bit squeamish about spiders... and snakes), just rolled her eyes and wondered what turnip truck he'd rolled off of. So, about 2 miles after leaving the trailhead and starting to wonder if we'd gone in the wrong direction, we spotted the Shelter's roof through the trees. Cha ching, another icon bites the dust! A very nice Shelter with another Trail Register inside! Woo hoo! After spending a little time checking out the Shelter, we got back on the trail and headed back to our vehicle. We are sadly out of shape and after a nearly 4-mile round-trip hike, we were ready to hop back in the geomobile. After all, we still had to make our way to Gainesville for yet another new icon.After a quick bite for lunch, we drove into the domain of the Florida Gators and went directly to a Solar System Model we knew of there. It's located along about a mile-stretch of road so the Marine dropped the Biologist off at one end and she took coords and photos. We decided to take photos of every station so we could visit them once others posted them. Because we had a limited amount of time (the Marine needed to get home and start doing some school work), the Marine would drop the Biologist off at a station and she'd grab the coords and photos before he circled back to pick her up and take her to the next station. We were rushing around so quickly that we lost track of which stations we'd already been to and the Biologist ended up circling around Uranus twice. She must have looked very odd to all the motorists passing by. After visiting and photographing all the Solar System Model stations, it was time to make tracks and head home. We only made one more brief stop along the way. We absolutely had to stop to photograph some Old Agricultural Equipment on display outside Waldo's Antique Village. Yep, you got it, cha ching!
Oh, we almost forgot. You may be wondering why we titled today's blog as we did. Well, once we got home, the Marine couldn't wait to take a shower. So he went first as the Biologist was looking forward to a nice, long soak in the tub with some Epsom salts to ease some sore leg muscles. While taking her soak, she noticed a little black spot on the middle finger of her left hand. She went to wash it off when it moved! Yuck, a seed tick. Well shoot. So she calls to the Marine. I found a tick! We need to do a tick check. We found about 5 more on him, none on the Biologist. She's sure he left that tick in the tub during his shower. You know, there are some things a husband really doesn't need to share with his wife! Oh, and we did get bitten by chiggers too. Many, many chiggers. All over. Everywhere. We're not exaggerating. Itch, itch, scratch scratch.
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