I totally missed your last video. Congrats!!! My wife is 22 weeks pregnant with twins (our second and third child, due August 17). You’re in for a whole new adventure, but definitely an amazing one worth pursuing!
So very glad you get to get back out! Your videography of all the birds and insects is exceptional, as always. Your love for the natural world is shining through!
You are so good with your filming and editing that even the fire looked fabulous. And I agree with the person that said a hard no to hiking with gators.
Dear Jessica, congratulations to you and your spouse! Your life has changed and will never be the same. What a blessing for you! Best wishes to you Jessica.
Congrats again! I have followed Kelly Hays for awhile now. I remember watching her video that you showed. Good to hear that others I follow have helped you with your trip ideas.
There's also a bird identification app called Merlin, by the Cornell Ornithology Lab. No recording necessary. It listens to the birdsong and tells you the bird.
1) Thank you for sharing normal interactions with wildlife and avoiding fear mongering with a balance of calm caution and demonstrating useful behaviors to avoid bad encounters. Thank goodness someone is modeling best practices in the situations hikers are most likely to find themselves in. 2) As always, this is a beautiful video and thank you for sharing. I can’t wait to hear about your growing family in the outdoors.
You sure capture magic with your camera! Amazing close ups of birds and insects. I’m so happy to see you out there on trail again. And last but certainly not least: congratulations to you and your husband!
They just want to sunbathe and be left alone. They're all over Florida. Hell, there are parts of the University of Florida campus with gators laying around on occasion. Many of our parks have gators laying across your trails. It's not a big deal.
So many gators! You handled it beautifully. Not sure I would have been so calm. Sorry about the morning sickness. I remember what that was like. No fun! I remember being so sick for 3 months, when any strong smell sent me running for the toilet, telling myself, as I lay on the bathroom floor, “that means the baby is healthy! That means the baby is healthy!” I was SO glad when that third month hit and it started going away. It WILL get better! Beautiful video! Thanks for sharing it! Hang in there, Jessica!
Hi Dixie. I am attempting to thru hike the AT in 2026 im hiking to show just because you have a disability you can still follow your dreams and long distance hiking is not out of the question watching you has given me alot of the resources and information to help me with my planning My disability is autism so is my daughters and i want her to know she can do anything she puts her mind to it might not be easy (which i definitely don't expect it to be) Thank you for all your videos and congratulations on the pregnancy
You got this! I knew an AT through hiker. His dog's name was Vision. And his name was Quest. Together they were Vision Quest. And yes, the hiker was blind and the dog was a seeing eye dog. If they can hike, then I know you can also! Godspeed, Eric
@@erichansen667 I appreciate that I really do as a mother of a child who is autistic and also late diagnosed autistic myself I want my child and everyone else who is disabled to know there is nothing we can't do. I don't expect this to be easy by any means but I definitely know if I don't do this I will regret it.... Can't wait to finally get my trail name
Such a blessing, Gattors, Herons, Flaggon Dries, No Drones, hip-Nottic Music, and a local Dialect, Thanks Dixie, Yep do it again, we will be with you, spirit dressing, in awl!
OMG!! Congratulations Jessica to you and your Husband. Children are the greatest blessing! Hardest thing I have ever done to get them to 23 and 21 but the most rewarding. I cry every time I think of something they accomplished as I am so proud. I can only hope that you have the same experience. I cannot wait for the videos of “Lil’ Dixie” on the trail. You inspire me! Congrats. Best of everything for you and your husband. Thank you!
I was told by a Doctor here in Florida that if you experience nausea to eat peppermint or chew juicyfruit gum.I used both of these and it REALLY WORKED. I wished I had known about this 50 yrs.ago but I am sure glad I know it now.God Bless You and hope you feel better.
Amazing Video again Dixie! Like someone else mentioned, your videos are basically National Geographic documentaries, I love them!!! Since you talked about birding in this one, I figured I'd name all the birds you saw in this video, if you decide to start keeping track! In the order they appeared in the video, with duplicates removed. Happy Trails and Happy Birding! Black Vulture Red Shouldered Hawk (pooping, couple, and nest/babies) Osprey Mourning Dove Northern Cardinal (song you recorded) Purple Gallinule Anhinga (swimming) Double Crested Cormorant (eating fish, and bathing) Great Egret Great Blue Heron Black-necked Stilt Wood Stork Brown Pelican Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
So funny you mentioned the John Anderson song, I had it in my head the whole video with all the beautiful scenery you were sharing. Thank you for filming it! 😊 I hope the morning sickness ends soon and you truly enjoy the experience of pregnancy. Growing people inside you is hard work but also a pretty amazing thing to go through!
Congrats on having a true blessing on his/her way! I love watching you on your hikes….looking forward to seeing many more as well as seeing you teach that little one the joys of hiking and nature!
I remember when you hiked the Florida trail with the big dude with the guitar and I thought how brave you are! This one did clinched my guts with all those 🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊. Beautiful slow motion sections
Wow! This was a great video! Even with your unwanted hiatus, your videography and storytelling is still top notch. Thanks for taking us with you. PS: all I could think about when you bit in to that s’more was; ‘Boy, I hope that stays down‼️’
I have followed your videos on hiking and now I am overwhelmed with the beauty of your newest videos incorporating nature and classical music. SOOOOO Beautiful. Congratulations for being expecting. I can only imagine the worlds you, your husband and children will see and document. You must be the gator whisperer or something. All those you came up on and just walked past ..... You have skills! Have a wonderful weekend.
Howdy Dixie! Very nice of all da gators to come up and out to see ya! They also heard about your comeback! Love the music! Be safe and keep on hiking! Saddle up!
I am very impressed! When I first started watching your channel, you seemed to concentrate on conquering distance and trails. Over the past year or two, you seem to have changed your perspective. You have really upped your photography. You are exploring not just the trails but all creatures and plants that live there. And you have really upped your music interests as well. It seems that you are exploring your connections to this great beautiful Earth and all the life and beauty within it. Thank you for your wonderful videos and their window into your adventures and explorations! And best wishes to you, your gentleman, and your growing family.
So glad to see you in your happy, healthy place again, Dixie! Of all the journeys you have taken us on, this pregnancy journey is proving to be the most moving for this 68-year-old mother of two. I hope your mom gets as much joy out of watching you explore your inner and outer worlds as I am. Blessings, dear one!
You are so sweet and kind and I love the way you respect and show appreciation for the nature and animals. Even the gators are like, yo buddies let this lady (and her baby) pass. Beautiful photographs! I wish you and your family all the best God bless you and keep you all safe and healthy 🤗
Congratulations to you & your budding family, and also for another stellar video! I can't wait to see you & your husband introducing your mini-me to the wonders of nature.
First of all CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! I hope you and your spouse have unending years of love and adventure with your new baby! Secondly, you are way braver than I am, I have always wanted to visit the everglades but gators terrify me even more so than the monitor lizards and big pythons I see when I visit my mom's family in SE Asia.
You walking by the gator made me tear up with joy at the symbiosis of that experience. Very precious. I’m thankful you had a peaceful encounter with them and all three of you came out safe and sound!
I’m aFloridian ,and i love that in Florida you can still see Gators lounging around like this video and taalkways crackedmmmmmme up how afraid freinds frmmm other places get so freaked out seeing one move I always tell them most Gators just want to get away from People as it’s very rare they think of humans as Food
@@ChrisSunHwa People are just pansies in general to anything they're ignorant of. Or maybe because I'm a redneck and grew up around both. 7th generation Floridian, so I've been around gators plenty. They just want to be left alone to sunbathe. But I've spent time in BFE Tennessee and my parents live on a mountain up there where bear walk right by their back door. Doesn't stop me from heading out and just walking across the mountains to explore. Biggest fear is getting shot if you trespass without knowing or stumble upon a still site.
7th generation Floridian here and our state is hot and boring as hell (the general flatness kills me) 😂. I do find the comments all freaking out over the gators to be annoying though. They just want to sunbathe and be left alone.
You really are so talented at taking videos and taking us along with you. And to Aaron, you're editing skills and ability to make the most extraordinary cinematic experience is top notch! I love that you both do this so very well. ❤
It would be so cool if you and Kelly hays hiked together sometime! I follow both of you & one girl from Arkansas, you from Alabama. 🎉 I would love watching yall. The slow mo with the music while the dragonflies danced around was so beautiful. Love it so much!
gators give me the heebie-jeebies, and i quake watching you pass so closely to them. please, please be vigilant. and yeah, morning sickness is such a brutal misnomer--i learned this the hard way too. i'm happy to hear you say it's beginning to settle down a bit. beautiful country you're hiking through (but those gators... 😬). thanks for bringing us along. stay safe 💗
A life long Floridian… Blow Blow Seminole Wind! I volunteer with the FT as well, Three Lakes Prarie Area, Forever Florida. Awesome Dixie! I cry, every time I am on trail , realizing how spectacular not only the FT is, but my home turf! Wish more people could really embrace it!
I think Florida is a beautiful place. I wish it were accessible to more people...many folks aren't welcome there and it's obvious. Nature, however, judges no one.
An absolutely beautiful video, but I sure did have a hard time watching you so close to those gators :-) You're much braver than I am. I seem to remember that you really enjoyed the Florida Trail, so it was probably not your first exposure to them. God bless you and the wee one as you hike along.
I was told morning sickness is your body telling you to eat; keep saltines handy and eat one at the first sign. Another thing that really helps me with nausea is ginger chews; spicier the better. Congrats!
Another great video....but you are aware that a month ago, a gator was found beside a creek with half of someone's mother in it's mouth? Yes? Have you seen puffins nesting? They are on several islands off the coast of Maine and there are puffin trips you can go on, boats leaving harbor with a bunch of puffin freaks on board! Fun! Puffins are the funniest birds ever.
Me & my ex boyfriend actually lived in a tent in northern Florida for about 9 months … just how LOUD the bugs & birds are is amazing. They have these beautiful gigantic rainbow chromatic looking spiders which I absolutely hate spiders but they’re pretty. The palms. The sea turtles! Get out on a beach during nesting season before 5am when rangers come by to mark off nest sites. You can see the mommas come on shore and lay eggs! Beautiful 🥲 the MOON! It’s just unreal the nature out there. I have come back to Appalachia VA and my life will never be the same. My soul is in the Florida woods
Many thanks for this beautiful view of the Everglades all the wildlife. The swamps look very clear, pristine? Best wishes for your pregnancy and the eclipse with Rodney. 👍
0:47 It's so cute how the gator settles down again to sun itself. 💚 Also, it was oddly satisfying to see you take a nice big ol' bite of that s'mores! I hope you're not feeling queasy now. 💜
I really admire you for being able to walk by all them gators and not freak out. I guess I didn’t grow up around them so I’m not used to them. I love seeing them all in their natural habitat.
