Sunday, February 02, 2003
I suggested we celebrate Sunday with a Sunday brunch and Monika agreed enthusiastically so we went in search of a Denny’s. Bob the mighty hunter (it’s a warrior thing, you wouldn’t understand) finally spotted one and homed across three lanes of traffic for the kill. Fortunately Sunday morning traffic was light so I could get away with this. I had the Slim Slam, a collection of ham, eggs, and pancakes with strawberries all over that came in under 15 grams of fat, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. I didn’t think about it that much, but did enjoy eating it. Monika also enjoyed her “senior” breakfast, so we were both ready to return to the park for a walk along a nature trail and a tour of Fort Foster.

Fort Foster is a reconstruction of a fort in this location built and used during the second Seminole War in the late 1830s. The guided tour began with a tram ride over to the reconstructed fort over a section of the King’s Highway that went from Fort Brooke (in present day Tampa) to Fort King (near present day Ocala). The fort was constructed to guard the bridge in this highway over the Hillsborough River from Seminole attacks, and it did that successfully during its brief period of active service, about 18 months. One quite large canon was positioned to fire directly into the area of the bridge and apparently it was used only twice when the Seminoles attempted to burn the bridge.

The quality of the reconstruction of the Fort and the adjacent bridge is really good—I was especially impressed by the wide variety of stores and equipment in the Quartermaster’s Building in the middle of the fort. Two blockhouses guard the corners of the fort, one equipped as Officer’s quarters and one for the medical facility. The enlisted men camped outside around the fort and thereby guarded the perimeter. The tour guide described all aspects of their life including the systematic military way to load and fire a flintlock musket. He also described the different approach of the Seminole who kept a bunch of lead balls in their mouth and used a powder horn to load their flintlocks but not a ramrod. The Seminole apparently achieved a more rapid rate of fire in that way but also had more inconsistency in the amount of powder charge used each time and the position of the bullet in the barrel, so sometimes their bullets had very little penetrating power. Some soldiers reported that the Seminole bullets would sometimes just bounce off their uniforms. But he also described the Dade massacre where the Seminoles ambushed the regular Army relief column so effectively that only 2 survived.

After the tour we had lunch at the campground and a short nap before walking some of the trails in the park. We had fun remembering a previous visit in 1995 where we had camped here and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We couldn’t recall our exact campsite, but I did recall the trails with alligator warnings and some of the CCC construction along the river as well as the reconstructed Fort Foster. It was kind of like “old home week” in a way, nostalgic and fun. We had another nice campfire in the evening and did some crocheting-writing in the evening before turning in.