We Decided to take another trip, this time for double the distance we’ve been going. So we went to a state park just 15 min. south of Gainesville. Lynda wanted to see the butterflies at UF in Gainesville anyway and there were  lots of trails to walk. Payne’s is a prairie, defined as just grass and shrubs. Sometimes it is a lake, but for now it is just a prairie, 22,000 acres of wilderness, lakes, trails, swamps,etc. One big trail runs about 16 miles from Gainesville to Hawthorn. There are Bison, (bet you didn’t know that buffalo roamed in Florida), wild horses and cattle. Note you can click on an image to see a larger version, use the back arrow (upper left of your screen) to come back.

We didn’t see the buffalo but we did see the horses way off in the distance.

In general it’s a nice spot. It reminded us a lot of Hillsborough River State Park.

We brought the Tigger along as he does have to get used to travel. He was fine both in the car and in the trailer. He settled right down in Minnie and made himself at home. Monday we went to the college to see the butterflies and the rest of the Museum of Natural History.

Here’s Lynda at the entrance and we had to take this picture of the two us. This is a full blown museum of Natural History mostly revolving around Florida, but very interesting.

The butterfly house was packed with butterflies. More than we had seen at the butterfly garden in Homasassa. It was amazing.

They have thousands and thousands of mounted butterflies on display as well. It’s a huge butterfly research center.

There are more photos on my website.

http://www.fishbourne.shutterfly.com

All in all a great visit.