Adding A New Jeep to the Mix

Dad is the one that planted the love of the outdoors in my brother and myself so many years ago. Both of us have fond memories of riding in the back of his original CJ5 in the same woods Merritt rides in now with his kids. I remember cutting firewood and Merritt learning not to shoot armadillos with BB guns and looking for our Christmas tree each year. Merritt takes his son out and lets him play in the mud with his truck toys enjoying a moment that occurred very similar about 30 years ago. One of the best toys that I remember was a green and white Hess truck that they bought for us at the Hess station in Perry. We played with it for hours in the woods just as Tripp, Hannah and Sarah do today. Life is one big circle. Today was completion of mine, Merritt's , Mom and Dad's circle. Daddy bought a jeep yesterday and we had an awesome ride, just getting outside, being together and enjoying each other. This morning Merritt and the kids rode as well.




There is always so much to see if you just take the time to look. Hope this one eats as many mosquitoes as he can, cause there are alot of mosquitoes on those backroads right now due to the heavy rains a few weeks ago.


Mom and Dad trying out their "New" wheels. It's a nice jeep but Daddy's already dreaming of what he will do to it. I bet new tires will be first, then a winch.



Sarah and her new blue hat. All Smiles!




Daddy just relaxing and listening to all the nonsense that goes on at these pit stops.

Sarah gets alittle help from Mark, this is her last day wearing these boots. She has worn them almost daily for at least 2 years and has been reluctant to let them go but they FINALLY do not fit anymore.

Scratch-Off loves to play with Sarah but Ruby is standing protectively by, just in case.

End of the day's ride, time to enjoy a cold one with the locals.

Duck, Ed and Dale.

Flooding on O'neal Tram and Powell Hammock

View from inside my truck on O'Neal Tram


This is where you turn off O'Neal Tram onto Powell Hammock to go to Goose Pasture.



My truck was pushing up a pretty good sized wave.




Powell Hammock, in places the water was at least 4 feet deep.

Duck was having a good time.

Swirl over the culvert in Cow Creek.

The road has washed pretty hard on this side as you cross Cow Creek.

We had to make a rescue trip into Goose for Duck's airboat, I think he could have just driven it out.

It was over my exhaust at this point.

We always manage to have fun no matter what we are doing.

We parked, had alittle discussion about where we were heading today and 1 minute later somebody was already stuck.






Ruby bailed on this one, it got alittle too tipsy for her.



Sarah loves it when we pull someone out.

Damn, now Mark's in it.

Still hard to find the roads.

We sent Mark in to see how deep it was.

Forward didn't work, so let's try it in reverse.

We made it thru but Sarah and I sat on the ice chest. I didn't want to end up with a snake in my lap.

I can't really tell you where we were at cause I'm not sure we are really supposed to be there. I can tell you there was alot of water on our normally dry road. All of this water is from the Wacissa not the Aucilla.


View from our Polaris.

This is what my floorboard looked like most of the day.

Duck's in it deep again.

We all made it thru this deep hole.

So, which way is the ROAD?

Dale was attempting to throw a mudfish on the bank with my "scratcher". It just doesn't take much to amuse some people.


These are all places that we walked through just 2 weeks ago. It's normally completely dry.

This "rainbow" just showed up on this photo at home. Kinda odd.

This was a fairly large gator that decided he would like to get some sun. Not such a good place for him. It's the bank in the campground.

Road leading out of campground.

Leaving the campground, Deb got the job of closing the gates. She had on the right shoes.

I'm not sure she enjoyed her job.

Duck chose the wrong side of this fireline. Hey Duck!, think you should have went the other way.

Nope, not that way.

I'm not sure that's the right way either.

Backing up for 1 more try.

Uh-Oh somebody's getting dirty.

Ruby and Duck square up.



Ruby, you might want to take a step back,

Dale is getting out of the way just in case.

Watch out! Ruby's getting a limb and Duck is finally backing up.

Welcome to Sinks Road, it follows the Aucilla and the road is literally surrounded by sink holes. The Aucilla was out of it's banks and still rising. You could not see the road in places, thank goodness we knew where the road used to be. Otherwise, you would drive straight into a sink.


Mark and Deb Duck and Ruby

The Aucilla was actually flowing in some areas, not just sitting in the woods and roads.

Nice Catch!

There is a boat ramp under there somewhere. Aucilla at half mile rise.

Meet Dude, he's full of energy and eager to show Sarah how to skip rocks.

Just watching and learning.

She lets one fly

Oops, she needs alittle more coaching.