Pogo's homeland
When I saw I'd be driving near Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on my way back to Florida, some old neurons lit up in my brain and I thought, "You mean I can visit Pogo's homeland?" (For readers who might not get the reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(comic_strip) )
I was a bit young to catch all the levels of meaning in Pogo in his heyday, but something appealed to me about the swamp critters, and now that I'm an adult I can more fully appreciate sentiments like, "We have met the enemy and he is us." When I was a kid I never thought of Okefenokee as anything other than a fictional place, so perhaps that's why I lit up when I saw it on the map. I lit up again when my navigator told me to turn right on Okefenokee Parkway and pronounced it the way I would. There's lots of stuff that winds up sounding awkwardly off when my navigator says it, but Okefenokee came out just right.
I drove out to the end of the boardwalk that extends over the swamp and then took a walk. The boardwalk lets visitors get close to the plants and animals, but gators can't get up on it. I took this photo of cypress knees from the boardwalk:
Cypress knees? Indeed. There is no conclusive evidence that anyone really knows the function of these structures to the tree, but it seems likely that they help anchor the tree in the soggy environment. They never grow into trees themselves, and their distinctive shape lends them to wood carving such as this: (photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bignoah/3031260264/)
The inky color of the water in the photo I took of the cypress knees is pervasive in the swamp and is caused by decaying vegetation. It led to a new song running through my head. I'm betting most can guess what it is without looking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km4-eKvv3EM
And... I saw my first alligator in the wild! It was roughly 6 feet long, nose-to-tail. I took this photo of it by the boardwalk over the swamp:
I saw an even bigger one on the lawn by the visitor center:
The river that flows through Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the Suwannee, and a nearby state park is named after Stephen Foster. That didn't seem like a coincidence, so I did a little research. Yes it is the same Stephen Foster that wrote a song that starts out, "Way down up on the Swanee River," but he ever saw the river, picking the name because it sounded good to him and misspelling it to fit the cadence of the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Folks_at_Home. Surprisingly, given all the Southern themes in his songs, his bio on Wikipedia states that he never lived in the South and only visited once, on his honeymoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster. He did, however, live in Cincinnati, which is just across the river from Kentucky. So perhaps he visited Kentucky often enough to get the material for "My Old Kentucky Home."
Driving on toward Florida, I saw a sign advertising Soggy Bottom Mud Park. As a public service, I offer this link in case you're into mudding (which I most definitely am not) https://www.soggybottommp.com
I was a bit young to catch all the levels of meaning in Pogo in his heyday, but something appealed to me about the swamp critters, and now that I'm an adult I can more fully appreciate sentiments like, "We have met the enemy and he is us." When I was a kid I never thought of Okefenokee as anything other than a fictional place, so perhaps that's why I lit up when I saw it on the map. I lit up again when my navigator told me to turn right on Okefenokee Parkway and pronounced it the way I would. There's lots of stuff that winds up sounding awkwardly off when my navigator says it, but Okefenokee came out just right.
I drove out to the end of the boardwalk that extends over the swamp and then took a walk. The boardwalk lets visitors get close to the plants and animals, but gators can't get up on it. I took this photo of cypress knees from the boardwalk:
Cypress knees? Indeed. There is no conclusive evidence that anyone really knows the function of these structures to the tree, but it seems likely that they help anchor the tree in the soggy environment. They never grow into trees themselves, and their distinctive shape lends them to wood carving such as this: (photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bignoah/3031260264/)
The inky color of the water in the photo I took of the cypress knees is pervasive in the swamp and is caused by decaying vegetation. It led to a new song running through my head. I'm betting most can guess what it is without looking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km4-eKvv3EM
And... I saw my first alligator in the wild! It was roughly 6 feet long, nose-to-tail. I took this photo of it by the boardwalk over the swamp:
I saw an even bigger one on the lawn by the visitor center:
The river that flows through Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the Suwannee, and a nearby state park is named after Stephen Foster. That didn't seem like a coincidence, so I did a little research. Yes it is the same Stephen Foster that wrote a song that starts out, "Way down up on the Swanee River," but he ever saw the river, picking the name because it sounded good to him and misspelling it to fit the cadence of the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Folks_at_Home. Surprisingly, given all the Southern themes in his songs, his bio on Wikipedia states that he never lived in the South and only visited once, on his honeymoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster. He did, however, live in Cincinnati, which is just across the river from Kentucky. So perhaps he visited Kentucky often enough to get the material for "My Old Kentucky Home."
Driving on toward Florida, I saw a sign advertising Soggy Bottom Mud Park. As a public service, I offer this link in case you're into mudding (which I most definitely am not) https://www.soggybottommp.com
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