Team Leip Travels

Sunday, June 7, 2026

28 May 2026 Anastasia State Park: Anastasia State Park

We drove over to Ormond beach and got lunch at a funky diner, the Pirana Grille. Then we headed over to the coast and stopped a few times along the drive north, a few stops along the beach and also a intercoastal nature walk. We got to Anastasia State park, set up the tents and took the canoe out to the salt lake. Ken brought his fly rod and was merrily casting his line out. He got a hit on his lure and over compensated on the hooking of the fish and dumped the canoe over. We laughed and felt a bit embarrassed as we struggled to flip the boat over and re-board. There were some casualties, a lost speaker, leaking dry bag, broken sunglasses and so forth. We headed back to the camp and settled in for the night.

Ormond beach

Lunch at the Pirana Grille, sorry to hear about Lorenzo, RIP buddy

This sign was small and not very effective, what is a club color? Are gangs now just clubs?

Sticker happy

Taco Thursday!

Sitting nest to a cigar smoking stinker

Deco designs

We have reached the coast and here is the brown pelican

One willet

Two willets

A rain burst

Stopped off in a seaside park

Crabbies

https://youtube.com/shorts/W8Hqts2DMME

Gopher Tortoise

https://youtube.com/shorts/tFwt7OQayTc

The intercoastal

Open the gates

Pirates on top

One very busy beach

Thunder is rumbling

We got into the canoe

Saw a black skimmer lifebird #2

You can see the line in the water where the skimmer had flown along with his beak in the water

More rain on the way

Call it a night

It has been 3 years and 354 days since we began our Migration

28 May 2026 Anastasia State Park: Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge

Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge is a huge area of land. Unfortunately it does not open until 8:00 AM. With our time spent at Alexander Springs, we did not get there till closer to 9 AM. We were trying to find the entrance when another car quietly pulled up behind us. Ken did not notice it and began to back up but the Subaru refused to be a part of a collision so it auto-braked and stopped the car. We were talking to the guy in the car later when we parked and he said that he was not worried because he knew it was a Subaru and that it had the anti-collision system. We parked next to him and he headed off on his own. We ventured deep into the refuge and saw some songbirds at the very beginning of the path and then larger birds further into the refuge. There was a tower that we climbed up and we were able to see one of the long time volunteers explaining the water system to a brand new volunteer. We climbed back down and spoke with them. Ken even got the older gent to sing the De Leon grade school song. The song was something about waking up with a smile in the land where orange blossoms bloom. We completed the loop and got back to the car just as the heat was building to an uncomfortable level.

Driving up to the reserve we passed through a smoke cloud

The Great Florida Bird Trail

We are on track

The road is just a dirt track

Our near collision buddy

Lots of options for trekking

A tufted titmouse

At first I thought it to be an odd dragonfly, but it turned out to be two different flies hanging on to each other, one little one on top of the bigger one