On Wed. the 19th I headed to Tallahassee for the 30th Florida Native Plant Conference. Could not travel that far and not make a short visit to the Jackson County property. Drove and walked around the property picked a few flowers, fern, and grass seed heads to have as decoration to the hotel room and headed back east to Tallahassee. Met up with my roommate Sid Taylor and it was the start to seeing many friends.
Thursday was my field trip to St. Joseph Buffer Preserve; pine forest with rare wildflowers and then off to the beach track with a fire tower, concrete dock, and an Indian mound of conch shells. The plants were fascinating and the coral beans were spectacular. The ride back included at stop on 65 and 20 for astounding pitcher plants and other common eye jewels. The reception was on the 22nd floor (all windows great views) of the State Capital. It was a pleasure to catch up with members and meet new ones too!
Friday was class day with the key note speaker talking about plant blindness. I purchased 2 new books and 2 calendars. The evening was a trip to Tall Timbers for dinner and fun.
Saturday was more classes and lots of treasures from the silent auction. I skipped out on the last social event for dinner with 3 society friends at Cool Beans Restaurant. I was nice to have dinner with people not seen very often and the food was very tasty. (smart move from previous years paying too much for banquet food).
Sunday was getting up early to take a shower, finish last minute packing loading, get a bit of breakfast, check out of hotel, and get to the civic center for last field trip and final good-byes to people not on your trip. It was then off to Thomasville GA to see ancient long leaf pines. The trip ended on time at 1:30pm and I headed back to Marianna. Spent 2 hours walking the property, sitting in the tree stand watching butterflies and birds wondering how anyone can sit still to hunt, cleared some tree debris out of fire lanes and marked some trees to save hopefully from a mulching process to clear out some sand pines and turkey oaks to replant with long leaf pines. I then spent the evening with my good friends / neighbors Cindi and David Steward.
Monday I enjoyed breakfast with Cindi and David, took a much too short tour of the yard and was on the road at 8am. It was back to Davenport at 1:20 and out the driveway with the maintenance trailer at 2:30!
Looking forward to next year when it will be in Orlando at the Maitland Sheraton.
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