My mother passed away in 1994, ever since then I have had a hard time celebrating Mother's Day. When my kids were younger I made the effort for them but now my children are grown and celebrating with their own families. This year we went on a camping trip and had a great time.
We camped at Ochlocknee River State Park, located a few miles south of Sopchoppy Florida. It is only about a 25 minute drive from there to our house, but it still feels like you are getting away from it all.
As I am not necessarily all about roughing it when I camp, we set up camp Friday afternoon and then drove into Sopchoppy to eat. There is a quaint little cafe called "Backwood's Bistro". It has been written up in lots of magazines and the owner is a culinary trained, award winning chef. Great food and lots of small town atmosphere.
We had a great time.
The next day, we went biking through the pine flats and saw a deer. Lots of hiking by the river, and spotted a couple of red headed woodpeckers, and white squirrels. There is a legend that goes along with the white squirrels and it goes something like this.
The Legend of the White Squirrels"
Years ago I saw a book about the history of Sopchoppy. This books described the legend of a Chinese Princess being on a ship that traveled up the Ochlockonee River to the old railroad trestle to unload. She was carrying her pair of pet white squirrels. As the legend goes (if I remember correctly), the squirrels got out of their cage and survived. According to legend, this is how the Franklin County side of the river from Highway 319 to St. Theresa has white squirrels-today. They are not albinos. They breed with gray squirrels but the white is dominant. They can now be found up and down the rivers in this area, and we have even seen them in our neighborhood.
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| My husband playing "King of the Jungle" on our hike by the river |
We went canoeing on the river and spent a lot of time relaxing at the campsite, and as always I was sweetly serenaded by my bluegrass man.
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