Ocala and Silver River State Park

Loved this area and didn't really expect to before we came. Spent the weekend at a commercial park near the cross Florida Greenway. Took a great hike through the woods. Years ago there was a plan to build a canal like the Panama Canal across Florida. The plan was scrapped and a great trail was built instead. Spent some time catching up on Internet and laundry.

Silver River SP is fantastic. Campsites are huge, private, pull throughs with lots of birds and chipmunks. Several lovely trails to the river, the sinkhole, and through the woods. Great bike trail about 8 miles on trails the first afternoon here. Met a nurse on the trail that told us John Travolta's family lives here and his wife just had her baby at his hospital. Fun.

Toured the museum and the 'cracker town' at the park. I thought cracker was a pejorative term but in some places it means the original Florida pioneers. The museum was great. displays covering the prehistoric fossils found in the local sinkholes, through the Seminole Indian period, the Civil war and especially the 30's when this area was the first Florida theme park with glass bottom boats and alligators tours, monkeys, etc.

From Silver River we took day trips to Rainbow Springs SP, another old Florida theme park back in the 30-40 & 50s. This one was lovely because the azaleas, camellias, and magnolias were all blooming. Nice 3 mile walk to the river where we saw a river otter playing. Then headed to Dunnellon to see the old town and on to Crystal River SP. Crystal River is on the gulf and we saw more manatees in the wild. Super!

Our last day in the area we went to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House State Park. She wrote the Yearling and was a com temporary of several authors. Lovely old homestead. Then on to Gainesville and the Devils Mill hopper State Park. This is a huge funnel shaped sinkhole with a boardwalk to the bottom and a half mile nature trail around the sinkhole. Pretty place on a pretty sunny day. The park got its name because the sinkhole is roughly shaped like the hopper on a mill and was thought to be a scary place, hence the Devil part. The stream flowing into the bottom is called the River Styx. Felt like I was on an upside down tropical island in the TV show Lost. Pictures coming soon.

We are in St Petersburg now and it is fantastic. Beautiful water everywhere you look with amazing beaches. Fort De Soto is an great country park. More blogging and pictures soon.

St Augustine to Ocala - Feb 18th

Friday.... Another pretty day and we are leaving Anastasia SP. It was a great place. The state parks fill up on weekends so we found a commercial campground close to Silver River SP which is our next planned stop. We decided to take the scenic route along the St Johns River and through the Ocala National Forest. It was a bit longer but the trip was lovely and the day even better. We plan to go back and explore the campgrounds and trails in the national forest. Arrived at Ocala Sun RV Resort around 3 pm. Nice place especially since we haven't had internet or TV for a week or so and both are good here. Anastasia was very secluded in heavy trees and vegetation. This campground is wide open with almost no trees. A good place to catch up on laundry and some chores around the coach, when we aren't hiking. Speaking of which, time to get going and check out the Cross Florida Greenway Trail nearby.

More St Augustine, plus pictures

Still loving St Augustine. Walking through the old town is a trip from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. lots of great photo opportunities and will get pictures posted soon!
Our last day was blue skies and warm temps, although we are still getting used to the humidity on the east coast. So different from the NW or Tucson. We took a walk around the park including the nature trail and boardwalk to the beach. Then into town to tour Flagler College which used to be the Ponce de Leon hotel. It was one of the most exclusive hotels at the turn of the century and the first to have electricity in St Augustine. The college student who did the tour was entertaining and informative. The students have created a business out of the tours and gift shop and raise money for restoration. Really enjoyed the tour and the guide!

Pictures from Wakulla Springs State Park

Descriptions are in Feb 15th blog:

Pictures from Florida Panhandle along the gulf

Bayou at campground near Baton Rouge, view from the coach at St Andrews SP Big Lagoon, Old Florida - Apalachicola along the gulf coast scenic drive

St Augustine Feb 13-18

Love love love St Augustine and Anastasia State Park. Great site #136 tucked into huge live oak and palmetto forest. walk to the beach is about 5 minutes and a nice nature trail with bike paths also close. City tour on monday. climbed the lighthouse and toured the old Castillo de San Marco today. All wonderful. The city was established in 1565 and has great historic buildings, especially Henry Flagler's hotels from the 1800s. Can't wait to do the walking tour and Lightner Museum.

Pictures coming soon.

Tucson to St Augustine - 2200 miles, 6 days

First stop Las Cruces. Been there before so just an overnight. John was dying to eat at LaPosta again for red chili. Yum. Coachlight RV wasn’t much but convenient and decent wifi.
Next stop Fort Stockton to see Ed & Bunny. So much fun to see them after 9 month. We laughed & caught up and had a great dinner at the café at the RV park. Hope to see them when we go through Wisconsin in the fall. West Texas is flat with not much going for it. Long days driving but not missing much.
Hill country and Austin are wonderful and we want to come back here. Our only sighseeing other than from the window of the coach was a quick stop at the LBJ Ranch. They have an audio cd driving route that was quite interesting. Everything was free. Would like to come back for a couple more hours. The towns in the Hill country are very cute and would be fun to poke around. Also Enchanted Rock would be worth a stop. Austin was fun because we met Alix, David, and Keileigh for dinner. Lots of catching up and great BBQ and the Green Mesquite. Another place to come back to, along with McKinney Falls State Park (site 26). Hiking and biking at the park and nice roomy spots. Next time!
Surprising drive through pine forest just outside of Austin. Very pretty. On to Louisianna. Another surprisingly pretty drive along I-10. Stayed just outside of Baton Rouge at Frenchmans Wilderness CG right in the middle of the swamp. Walked down to the boatramp in the evening for a pretty sunset.
We crossed the Mississippi River on Feb 12th and went through 4 states in 3 hours. TX, MS, AL and Florida. Very pretty along the gulf and FL panhandle. Loved St Andrews State Park just outside of Panama City. We faced the big lagoon and had a wonderful view from the big windows. Wish we could have stayed longer. The other side of the park was on the gulf with miles of beautiful clean white beach. Lots of lovely trees and paths to walk. Beach was rated Best Beach in 1995 and I agree. Could have stayed a couple of days here or at St Joseph SP or St George Island SP. Definitely want to go to St George Island. Looks picturesque. Gorgeous drive along the gulf coast from Panama City to Wakulla Springs SP. Doug at Desert Trails gave us wonderful advise on where to go in Florida.
Wakulla Spring is the highlight of the trip so far. Lovely peaceful setting along the springs pool and Wakulla River. Cool old lodge built by Edward Ball (Dupont family) in 1937 and made a state park in 1986. The wildlife here is incredible and all natural. The park is very careful not to feed or disturb the natural environment so that everything is as it is in the wild. They have been doing boat tours along the river for 100 years so the wildlife is used to the boat and go on about their normal behavior. This was my first time to see a manatee. It was so exciting! They are sweet creatures and very curious. They are hard to see in the picture but worth it. When we sat down in the boat one was just beside us. I looked down and there it was feeding on the grasses beside the boat. It even raised its bristly snout up to take a breath. Our hour long boat ride was so wonderful. A beautiful 60 degree sunny day through a jungle that looks like Tarzan might have lived here. And he did, at least in the movies. The springs are one of the largest in the world and is 180 feet deep, with 225 gallons per minute flow at 69 degrees. 100 years ago Mastadon Bones were found in the pool.
We sat behind a friendly woman on the boat trip. She said she has been a local for 9 years and done this trip many times. It was the best ever in her experience. We saw lots of manatees and gators, deer, swanee coot turtles and soft shell turles, gar (funny looking fish with a long snout), great blue and green heron, snowy egrets, vultures, ibis, inhingas, merganzers, kingfisher, candy corn beaked moorheads, cormerants, and even saw an osprey catch a fish and take it back to the nest. Every way you turned there was wildlife galore. Being from the NW we are used to nature and wildlife but this was an exceptional place and I will remember this place always. Thanks Doug!
The rest of the drive to St Augustine was just plan long. After 2200 miles in 6 days we were sooooo ready to park the coach and stay awhile. Arrived at Anastasia State Park about 6 pm. Just enough time to get set up before dark. We have a wonderful site (136) deep in the live oak and palmetto forest just a short walk from the Atlantic Ocean. Very private and spacious. We love our little cove in the wood. Dead tired after long days driving so we made dinner that was a gift from our friend Kirsten. Super fast and easy black beans, rice and tomatoes. YUM! It was perfect, tasty and filling and came together quicly. Thank you Kirsten!
So we have had an auspicious start to our year on the east coast. If every place is as nice as the Florida panhandle, we have a fun time ahead. Even if it isn’t as nice, it will be a terrific experience.

Las Cruces in the wind

Yesterday was bitter sweet. Great news at the Dr so we are all clear to travel. Fun to be on the road again but hard to say goodbye to friends at Desert Trails.

The weather was beautiful.... from inside the coach. Outside the wind BLEW! 40 mph forecasted. Fortunately, it was a tail wind all the way from Tucson to Las Cruces. We had planned to stop in Deming but made such good time that we went on to Las Cruces. Wind is supposed to be worse today and cold in Fort Stockton. But we have some warmth waiting for us.... our friends Ed & Bunny are there. It will be great to see them again. We met them at the four corners area and again near Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. Can't wait to catch up with them on the last 9 months. Lucky us.

On the road again, this time to Florida

We were delayed in Tucson, fortunately with wonderful friends, and now we are heading on our long anticipated East Coast trip. We decided to drive like crazy and blast to Florida as quickly as possible. We plan to see Texas and the Gulf Coast in another trip in the future. Since it is such a long distance we will concentrate on the far southeast and northeast on this trip. We plan to leave on February 8th and be in St Augustine, FL by February 13th.... whew! We will be tired of driving by the time we get there.

I'll be posting more regularly now that we are on the road and seeing new places.