Glad we headed to warm weather in FL

Our decision to keep heading south was good, some days it's been near 80^o even though we are in Northern FL. It did drop down to 40^o one night.

We stayed for 4 nights at Ocean Pond campground and took bike rides everyday on the lightly traveled paved roads and the sandy park roads. After the first nights rain they were well packed so we had no trouble sinking into the sand with our bikes. Weather had cooled off to 60^oF high, 45^o low.

After a short shopping trip in Lake City, FL we arrived at our next destination 

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, FL. Situated on the banks of the legendary Suwannee River, this center honors the memory of American composer Stephen Foster, who wrote "Old Folks at Home," the song that made the river famous.

We went for a ride on the grassy trails in the park which were 8 ft wide and and not single tracks. Below is a map of the trails, the yellow line was our route.

Right after biking we got a hard 3/4" rain, but it was warm about 80oF. But the next few days are again expected to be between 50-60oF.  

On Saturday we biked over to Big Shoals State Park about 2 miles away that has a paved trail through the park and single track trails to Big Shoals, the only honest Class III rapid in FL & Little Shoals rapid on the Suwannee River.

It was a cool cloudy day and when we got to the park it started with a misty drizzle and by the time we got back in a light drizzle we were pretty wet.

We will be here for 3 nights before heading south to Ocala on Mon. 

On our way we expect to finally canoe & kayak on the Ichetucknee Springs river near High Springs.

Weather causes big schedule change

I decided to stay home until Thanksgiving so I could visit with my son Jeff & Marcie's big family. He has 8 kids and 3 grandkids. All but his son Jett were at the party, here are some pictures I took.

My travel plans were to do some biking in SC and GA on the way down to FL.

The weather forecast called for cold and rain in the south for the next 4 days. So I decided to leave on Saturday morning and head directly to FL.

I am travelling with Steve Ingles and Anne Kmieck. Steve and I switch off driving while Anne follows in their truck camper.

We stopped overnight in Wytheville, VA at a Walmart and awoke to a warning of an ice storm. While I was carefully driving south on I-77 we saw a huge accident northbound where one person was killed and northboud traffic was backed up for 20 miles.

When Steve was driving I was not paying attention, so we passed where we had planned to camp, so we kept going almost to FL.

Early Monday morning we got to our destination, Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola NF.  Temperature 75^oF.

It took me 3 hours to check in. They now take reservations for some sites but now everyone must use a phone app, pay a extra fee and go through a complicated process and prove you are actually at the campground by using a QR code at any non-reservable site. They don't take cash or check, now you must pay with a credit card.

After we got setup we took a bike ride to Olustee Civil War Battlefield, the trails were very dry and sandy and made the 12 mile ride very difficult.

Today I spent the day making reservations at Stephen Foster park, Silver Springs and Juniper Springs, This is our new schedule: Revised Plan

While I was doing that and writing this Blog update Anne & Steve took another bike ride and found out that the rain had packed the sand on the roads so it was much easier.

Another FL trip planned for 2025-26

I am getting a little old and my kids wanted me to sell my RV and not make the long lonely drive to FL. They recommended that I consider staying in VRBOs. But of course that wouldn't be any less lonely.

So I gave selling my RV a try. I ran this ad in several places. https://bcpoa.org/JKRV/ I had many people contact me and even drive over to look at it. But I did not get any offers to buy or even try to negotiate a lower price. So as summer was ending since I hadn't made any VRBO reservations but I did reserve a few of my favorite campgrounds in FL, I decided maybe I could find someone to travel with me like I did after my wife Peggy passed away with Cancer 4 years ago.

I have lots of friends who like to paddle & bike so I put out the word that I was looking for someone to make the drive with me to FL. I figured once I was down there all the drives to new locations were very short and maybe I could find someone to buy my RV once I was near the end of my winter trip in FL. So my RV is really still for sale.

Anne Kmieck and her husband Steve Ingalls said that they may be interested in giving it a try and Steve offered to drive my RV and Anne would follow in their truck camper. 

So here is my Revised Tentative 2025-26 Trip Schedule .

I will revise the information in the schedule link from time to time but the URL will remain the same.

Another Winter RV Trip has ended and I'm now back home

 I have been very busy since I got home but now finally got some time to finish my 2024-25 Blog.

My last post was my last week at Cypress Glen and I was heading to Hillsborough River State Park outside of Tampa. The campsite I was supposed to stay in for two nights was not available so I got another which was available for only 1 night. I came early in the morning and they let me sign-in but not go to my campsite until 3 PM. But the did let me launch my kayak. So I paddled upstream until it was too rocky and then went down river and planned to eat lunch at Dead River Park. Well they had a boom across the river about 1/2 mile before the park. I had to turn around and ate my lunch on a sand bar. The river looked clear of fallen trees but maybe they haven't cleaned up that park yet.

The next week I met up with my three daughters in Tortola, BVI. I flew out of Tampa, Pam who is in Cape Coral for the winter drove to Miami airport to fly from there. She met up with Joan and Meg who flew in from Cleveland. I got to Tortola and rented a car and met them when they got there an hour later. I rented the same beautiful beach house on Cane Garden Bay that Peggy and I had rented with 3 other couples in 1998 & 1999. It is the only house on this popular beach filled with restaurants and one hotel.

Cane Garden Bay - British Virgin Islands

This is a link to some pictures and a slide show of our BVI trip. If you click on the first picture you will get a slide show, or you can just scroll through the pictures.

Our BVI Trip Slideshow

After I flew back to Tampa, I did one more bike ride near Ocala on the Cross FL Trail, then I stopped at Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest to check on the driving conditions when heading back north to Ohio. I usually stay a little longer but found out that if I left on Friday I could make it home by Saturday with sunny skies and no rain. When I got back home it was 70oF and sunny. I drove 550 miles in 10 hours to Wytheville, Va on Friday and 400 miles to home by 1pm on Saturday. Traffic was light except for Charlotte, NC.

I left home on 11/10/24 and just got back home on 3/15/25, 125 nites on the road. Things went smoothly and I did a lot on biking, over 700 miles but only 70 miles of kayaking including my week in the BVI. Everything went as planned but other than visiting Pam in Cape Coral. I never had any other friends come down and visit me this year. So I'm rethinking what I may plan for next year. Maybe I should sell my RV and just rent some houses near where I usually camp and invite friends to visit me there.

Another Week at Cypress Glen Campground on Silver Lake

Just before I left Lithia Springs last Monday, 2/24 for 6 days at Silver Lake I found out that I needed to stay an extra day since my Hillsborough River two day reservations starting on 3/2 was cancelled but I could still stay for one night. I was heading back south again to Tampa to fly to the British Virgin Islands on Wednesday. That’s why I picked that campground.

Of course site 47 that I was going to would not be available for that extra night. I lucked out since site 48 would be available for one night, so today I moved over one site. I choose this site since it is the closest site to the boat launch and also has a great view. I was here for 15 days in December on site 46. So all 3 of those sites are good but #47 is the best.

I’m always thinking about Peggy and today I swear I was seeing double.

But I never did paddle this week; I decided to do a couple of long bike rides on the beautiful trails instead.

The 46 mile Withlacoochee State Trail runs from near Dade City to near Dunnellon, FL, and there is a newer 10 mi trail that starts in Brooksville and intersects the Withlacoochee Trail near our campground. 

This makes it easy to get in 3 different 25 mile round trip bike rides shown on map. I needed to get a haircut so I wouldn’t look too shaggy on the upcoming BVI trip and luckily a few years ago I found a good barber shop 1-1/2 mi after the end of the trail near Trilby toward Dade City.

Even though my rides were mid-week I was surprised how many cyclists were on all three sections. When they first opened the Good Neighbor trail I hardly saw anyone, this time I’ll bet I saw 25 riders on that trail on Friday.

So tomorrow I head a little south on US-301 and maybe I can paddle on the Hillsborough River. Then a few more miles and I'll leave my RV at the Tampa airport large vehicle parking lot. They charge the same as I pay for camping and they don't have any hookups. My solar panels will keep my refrigerator running and my bateries charged for the week I'll be gone.