Connections, An Easy, but Cold, Day at Fort Desoto, Florida

We have a friend who writes a good blog, http://chasingthe70s20.blogspot.com/.   See he and his wife, Marsha are set on one goal, to find a place where its currently in the seventies.However it seems like that were ever they go it suddenly turns cold and so I am wondering if they are headed to south Florida.
A cold front passed through on Monday and last night the low here in St Petersburg was about 40, brrrr.It had been so pleasant here that I hadn't brought any cold weather clothes, but luckily I had my gore tex and was able to layer enough clothes to head out for a day of exploring at Fort Desoto.
We plan on coming back here next year, for November and December, so we are checking out areas to camp. The campground at Fort Desoto got good reviews and it really is a beautiful place with large sites on the water, and it even had a dog area so we thought it would be a great spot. Anyway we thought that way until we discovered it costs 41 dollars a night for a county campground!
Our daughter took us next to the actual fort and as we walked through it I discovered that the troops destined for Cuba, during the Spanish American War, had all left from here. I stared at a photo of Theodore Roosevelt and it was so amazing to feel the connection as we had visited his National Park last summer. Its such a long way from North Dakota to south Florida and here we were. It reminded me of other connections, including standing at Lewis and Carks graves and earlier visiting their winter camp on the coast in Washington.

The guns here never fired in anger but the Civil War history for the lighthouse on Edgemont Key stood proud as a testimony to the Union soldiers who used it to warn the blockade ships of a contraband runner. Another place told of the three hurricanes that came ashore here in the twenties and thirties, destroying the light house and most of the forts buildings.

After leaving the fort Jenny wanted to show us North and East Beach. Both places had huge parking lots that were almost deserted as a cold wind blew from the north. We carried our easy chairs out to the waters edge but it was mainly an exercise in futility as it was too cold to do much else than watch the brave wind surfers.

Fort Desoto park is really a nice place and a place that we will enjoy when we come back next fall. It has lots of possibilities for fishing and has a beautiful bike path. Its too bad it is so expensive and so we have to cross it off the list of places to stay during next years return. Clear skies