Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

Got on our bikes for the first time since we got on the road and took an 8 mile bike ride into town (Bushnell) to see what was there.

On our way we saw signs for Dade Battlefield, 1 mile off our planned route so we rode down to see it on our return trip.  The park was the historic location of where General Dade and his men numbering about 100, fell to the Seminole Indians during the "Indian Wars" in the 1830's.

There were markers scattered through the park indicating where some of the more prominent officers fell, although Dade, himself, was later moved and is buried in St. Augustine. We've been reading quite a bit about the Indian Wars while in this part of Florida and also in Tallahassee where we saw some exhibits depicting the conflicts in the Florida State Museum.  Below is an interesting photo. It indicates the distance as it would have been recorded back in the 1830's between Ocala and Tampa.  At the time, Tampa was called Fort Brooke and Ocala was known as Fort King.  Although you can't see it well in the photo, the sign posts read, Ft Brooke 65 Miles, Ft King 41 miles.

During the round trip bike ride (about 18 miles) we also took care of some other necessities, including a trip to the Sumter County Detention Center for me to get fingerprinted!  In order to volunteer for the National Park Service fingerprints are needed so that a background check can be completed. We had already done this back in Rhode Island but we heard earlier this week that my prints had come back "unclassifiable", which basically means that the prints weren't good enough to use. This is apparently not uncommon as some people wear down their "prints" as they age. I was also told that it is not uncommon for women to wear down their prints or not "print well" because their skin is so dry/worn as they do most of the household cleaning and use heavy cleaning agents, etc. 

Well that's obviously NOT the problem with me - so it must be the old age.  Either way, I had to be printed again (or opt for a life of crime, to which I would now be better suited) and this printing went better so I sent them off to Big Bend again to run them through. I should say that the folks at the Sumter County Detention Center were extremely nice and helpful and didn't charge me anything to take the prints. If this full-timing thing doesn't work out, I could always consider checking in there for a while....