Our Dear Friends, Mary & Don are staying in Kissimmee FL and we’re in Labelle FL, so we met half way at Sebring Fl.  It’s fun to see wonderful old friends whom you’ve know well, “forever”  Mary & I have been friends since high school.

Walked around Sebring a bit, had ice cream at Sebring Soda for lunch, my kind of lunch! And left to go to Highland Hammock State Park.

In March 1931, the 1,280 acre park opened. … When Florida’s state park system was established in 1935, Highlands Hammock became one of the state’s first parks. It is one of eight original CCC parks in Florida.

The first trail we took was the Alexander Blair Big Oak Trail   it has one of the largest trees in the park.  It’s 1000 years old and measures 36ft around the trunk

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Next trail was the Cypress Swamp Trail also know as the “Catwalk”

The boardwalk here is a stretch of an old-time catwalk.  It was built the way the first trails in the state were built.  Sort of like  a balance beam of sorts, zigzags through the cypress along the creek’s edge. The park keeps it this way because it shows the simpler days of Florida tourism.

 

Last trail was the Ancient Hammock trail

 The Ancient Hammock Trail takes you to the oldest section of the Hammock. It has cabbage palms and live oaks up to a thousand years old and more. There is also a bridge built by CCC on the trail.

 

This prayer was on a sign at the end of the trail

The Prayer of the Woods

I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.

I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.

I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin.       I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty.     ‘Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.

At the end of our visit to the park we stopped at the CCC museum to check out how they lived, worked and the tools they used.

The Civilian Conservation Corps helped to build and shape this park and other national and state park systems we enjoy today. (CCC) was a voluntary public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men. the CCC planted more than three billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks nationwide during its nine years of existence. The CCC helped to shape the modern national and state park systems we enjoy today.       Three Cheers for the CCC!

The day finished with a dinner at The Sebring Diner.  Our dinners were real good, or like they say in the south. Real Good Grub!

The day was over already! Time sure does fly when your with old dear friends. Had a great time and a lot of laughs!     Good By For Now