Rain is predicted all day with the lightest period in the morning. We had breakfast and dressed for a rainy day and headed to Bulow State Park Ruins. We walked for 59 minutes (1.89 mile). There are ruins here from a sugar plantation built in 1821. It was built by Charles Bulow and taken over by his son. The plantation had 6,675 acres and was planted with sugar cane. The ruins of the sugar mill are still there, but the plantation house is gone. It was burned by the Seminole Indians. With today’s current events, it’s very sad to see how the white settlers displaced the Seminoles, and also exploited the black people using them as slaves. I couldn’t help but think how hot and miserable the conditions would have been boiling the sugar cane here in Florida’s hot weather. The plantation house would have been beautiful during its time, but again I imagined the owners sitting on the front porch and watching the slaves working in the rice fields directly over the waterway - not a view we'd want to see today. We saw 2 other people during our walk around the plantation. So even though there are thousands of bikers here for Bike Week, they apparently do not visit the beach or historical ruins. We drove to the seafood market to buy Wahoo fish and scallops. As we ate a light lunch, the sun began to peek out from the clouds. It drizzled on and off after lunch. Scotty sat outside and played computer games. I sat inside and painted with the watercolors that I brought along for exactly this kind of day. When the rain stopped, we decided to walk down to the Tomoka Outpost, which is located right along the inlet. We had Blonde Ales and some roasted peanuts sitting outside, overlooking the water. Retirement sure is good! We continued walking to the end of the peninsula, home to an Native American settlement years ago. These tribes apparently died from disease.
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| Tomoka Park Walk - 3.25 miles, 1:14 moving time, 2:06 elapsed time |
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