Our New Year Plans

We had a nice Christmas with our kids and their families.

But now I’ve started to think about getting back to our FL trip.

We hope to fly back to Orlando early on January 4th.

Our RV was been on  storage lot at a KOA campground only 5 miles from the airport. It’s only a  short $13 Uber ride to get to the airport. They now pickup at the airport with an extra service charge. We will have to see how that works.

See the map # for our  Jan. plans.

Date   #   Campground
1/5  3 Hillsborough Rv
1/8    4  Fort DeSoto
1/11   5  Lithia Springs
1/15  6  WP Franklin <
1/29 7  Collier Seminole
2/5  7a Koreshan
2/8   8  Lithia Springs

Last Tuesday night we had a 93rd birthday party for our long time NASA friend Harry Bloomer. His two children Jeff & Buffy along with our other NASA friends all celebrated at Pier W.

Peggy, Dessey, Fran, Shirley, Harry, Jeff, Art, and Al waiting for our cocktails

Jeff, Buffy, Dessey, Shirley, Al, Peggy, Fran, Art and Harry getting ready to serve the birthday cake after dinner.

We will be celebrating New Year’s Eve this year with my son Jeff and his family.

Home for the Holidays

 We flew back home from Orlando on 12/15. It was 75^oF when we left and only 15^oF when we landed in Cleveland, what a shock. Luckily there was not much snow.

If you haven’t read our FL 2016 blog yet, you can read it and see all the pictures here: Chronological Trip Blog

A big thanks to our son-law Brian and his two boys, Jake & John who shoveled the drive to make sure we could get into the garage and to Pam. Sam & Mandy for raking the leaves before they got buried in the snow.

Jeff, Pam, me, Joan and Meg

On Saturday our daughter Joan had a big surprise birthday party for me with the help of her siblings, along with our annual holiday party. My 80th birthday is not for a month but we will be back in FL by then, so they wanted to make sure I had a good celebration.

It was great, all my Grandkids also made it.  Jeffrey lives in Washington DC, Devan in Barberton, OH and Erika lives in Columbus, OH, so it was really nice that they took the time to help me celebrate my birthday.

Mandy, John, Jake, Leah, Macy, Sierra, Jeffrey, Elena, Devan, Erika, Jett, Eve

They are the best grandkids you could ever wish for.

I got a big book of pictures with letters from all my friends & relatives, relating different stories about me. It sure brought lots of smiles and also brought a tear to my eye.

Now for all my Kayaking friends, get ready for the “80 pirate paddle” on the Upper Yough river in MD. I will supply eye patches for everyone so we are are on equal footing.

Of course I need to wait until the river flow is less than 1000 CFS, which I hope occurs on Memorial Day weekend.

Don’t forget if you haven’t followed our FL blog you can catch up here:

Chronological Trip Blog

Rock Creek Run

After our short drive from Silver Lake to Wekiva State Park we decided that Tuesday would be a nice day to spend on Rock Creek Run. It is a 8-1/2 mile paddle down a beautiful river with lots of wildlife. We  saw 6 small gators, many big turtles, an otter that kept swimming in front of the canoe and lots of birds. It was a mostly sunny day in the low 80’s.

We stopped for lunch at Otter Camp the third campsite we saw along the river.

We needed to kill some time since the shuttle pickup is at 4 pm, which was 5 hours from when we put in.  We still got to the take-out by 3 PM and had a nice rest under their covered picnic area. King’s Island personnel were great and helped me unload and load the canoe onto our motorhome.

They said in the summer they put over 100 boats a day on this section. Today they had two other private kayakers besides us. There were a couple of other boats paddling this section but we were really by ourselves the entire day.

Peggy saw this very tame Egret or Heron standing there watching us load up.

We leave here tomorrow afternoon to put our RV in storage for a few weeks at a KOA near the Orlando Airport. We will fly back from the beautiful 80^oF sunny FL weather to the freezing snow covered Cleveland, OH area. But, we will spend Christmas with our 4 married children, their spouses and our 16 grandchildren. By this time in our trip we always miss the family, so we love going home, but we will continue our FL  trip right after the new year.

Last Leg of Trip Before Christmas Holiday

On Saturday we did another canoe paddle downstream, this time just to Hog Island making it only a 2-1/2 hr trip which was more to Peggy’s liking.

This weekend the campground got pretty full but by 11 am Sunday everyone was gone again. We also started to get ready to leave here on Monday morning to eventually get to the Orlando Airport to fly home for the Holidays but first we will stop at Wekiva Springs State Park for three nights.

If we drove directly to the Orlando Airport from here it’s only a 2-1/2 hour drive. Last year we spent a few days at Wekiva Springs and paddled the 8-1/2 mi Rock Springs Run into the Wekiva River. It is an amazing wilderness area just north of Orlando and for those without a canoe or kayak there is a outfitter, King’s Landing, that rents boats and does the shuttle. A warning, it is very popular  on weekends in warmer weather due to the fact it is in the middle of millions of people and visitors.

We will take our time getting to the campground. We need to do laundry, grocery shop and fill our propane tank along the way.

Another Nice Paddle & Another Bike Ride

We have been here at Cyprus Glen Campground for more than a week and the place is still fairly empty. There are lots of campers in FL but I don’t know what kind of campgrounds they are looking for.

The bridge you see in the distance is I-75.

We have large sites, electric & water and the cost for seniors is only $15/night.

Another couple arrived with a canoe, paddled one day and left.

The top picture show the new canoe dolly I bought to take the load off my back, which I hurt last year. It is aluminum, folds flat and weighs only 5 pounds. One person can pull the canoe with ease even on soft ground.

On Wednesday we paddled upstream for about 3 1/2 miles. There were not as many birds but we finally saw one big alligator that we frightened. We paddled for 2-1/2 hrs.

On Thursday we biked south on the Withlacoochee State trail. It is a nice wide paved trail with lots of riders but first we have a 1-1/2 mi ride out of our campsite on a hard packed road to get to the trail. We biked the steep overpass over US98 and turned around about 2 miles before the trail ended.

On our way back, Peggy rested at the Ridge Manor Trailhead while I peddled down the highway for 3/4 mi to shop at the big Winn-Dixie. I have nice shopping bag pannier that can hold a lot of groceries.

There is a nice laundromat here so when we leave on Monday we will stop back here for some clothes washing.

For the first time since we got to FL, we had some overnight rain and a big cool down. It got down to 50^o and tomorrow morning it may hit 40^o, but at least it’s better than the big snowstorm that is hitting the Great Lakes.

Withlacoochee River Paddling & Bike Ride

We are here at Silver Lake for 12 days. The weekend crowd was non-existent. They must be all staying home this weekend since the place was packed on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  

Silver Lake is really just a wide spot in the Withlacoochee River. On Saturday we decided to take our canoe down river for a long paddle. We paddled downstream and went around Hog Island and then paddled back upstream to our camp.

We passed 2 kayaks and then a group of 7 who were camping overnight on Hog Island. It was a long but beautiful day. It took us 3-1/2 hours to paddle the 10 miles.

 

We saw lots of birds, like Ibis, Egrets and Herons. Mostly near the island, so it was worth paddling that far downstream. If you only wanted to paddle downstream past the island to Nobleton. There is a canoe livery there where you could rent a canoe for this section or have them shuttle you and your boat back. If you have a car you could spot the car and bike back to camp. We have done this, also when our kids were little, I took the youngest and hitched a ride back to camp. Everyone stops for a little kid.

We rested Sunday and watched some football. On Monday we decided to bike on the paved Withlacoochee Trail that parallels the river but you can’t see the river from the trail. We biked all the way downstream to Townsend Park and back in two hours. It was a 16 mile round trip. Peggy didn’t want to go that far but she did fine.

Besides passing a lot of bicyclists on the trail we saw several large turtles. One was digging a deep hole, I not sure if that one was a Gopher Turtle but he could dig really fast and sand was flying everywhere.

The weather has still been great. Temperatures in the low 80’s but tonight they are forecasting a little rain. But we will see, it hasn’t rained here for almost two months.

Settled Down at Silver Lake

After two nights at Manatee Springs State Park we chose to head south to the  Withlacoochee State Forest campgrounds.

US19 is a fast 4 lane divided highway, a much more pleasant drive than I-75. It is a little slow from Crystal River to Homosassa Springs.

We stopped at a Wal-Mart there and finally caught up with my e-mail and internet.

There are 3 different campgrounds here on Silver Lake. Two have electric & water hookups for only $15 per night if you are over 65 years old.

Florida State Parks only give senior discounts to Florida residents, so it is nice getting a discount at a State Forest.

Here is a view of Silver Lake from our campsite at Cypress Glen campground.

The Silver Lake camp has 23 electric sites and Cypress Glen camp has 34 sites and is a little further from the noisy I-75.

We planned to get here mid-week so we could get a good site. We were startled at the entrance station which had signs posted that all their sites were full, or I mis-read the signs, since very few sites were occupied at either campground. We got the site I was hoping for since it is only 100 yards to the canoe launch spot, the picture above.

After we setup, a cloud came by and dropped a few drops of rain, more light showers may come on Thursday, it sure has been dry and a little warmer than normal so far on the trip.

Besides paddling, the big attraction for us is the 46 mile long Withlacoochee State Trail. It is a beautiful paved trail that is far from any busy roads with lots of wildlife. We are at MP9 right outside the campground and can ride the trail to a shopping center only 5 miles away.

Manatee Springs State Park

The weather has really been pleasant and there has not been any rain for a month. Manatee Springs is a major spring but only produces a river of about 1/2 mi where it flows right into the Suwanee.

People swim and dive in the deep spring and there is a canoe launch and a nice boardwalk to the mouth of the river. An easy walk from the campsite. We didn’t see any Manatees.

On Tuesday morning, while it was still cool, we did the North End Trail, a 2-1/2 mi self-guided nature trail. They allow bikes but it has deep sand and would not have been any fun. It’s about a 1/2 mi walk from campground to get to the trail. Our plan is to leave here Wednesday morning and head to our favorite campground at Silver Lake.

Ocean Pond to Ichetucknee River

After spending 11 days at Ocean Pond National Forest Campground we moved on  Sunday morning .

We remembered a nice paved bike trail at Big Shoals State Park called the Woodpecker Trail. It was only a short drive from Lake City where we did some grocery shopping. So we biked for a few hours and then drove to our overnight at O’Leno State Park. It is a nice campground right off I-75 and usually has room after weekenders leave.

We had no phone or Internet here and decided to do the first canoe paddle on our trip the next morning at Ichetucknee Springs.

This is a big spring with a lot of flow and even though we have paddled it many times it is a great 2-1/2 hr. paddle trip.

We saw 4 deer, hundreds of turtles, lots of Heron and Ibis.

We had no problem getting the canoe off and on the RV. I bought a small cart that made it easy to get from the parking area to the boat launch.

We like to park at the take-out and paddle upstream to the spring and then have an easier float back to take-out.

After the paddle, instead of going back to O’Leno we drove to another Florida State Park, Manatee Springs. We got there at 1 PM and on a Monday they had lots of available camp sites.

Still at Ocean Pond

We stayed here for a full week and decided that we would skip driving back north to the Okefenokee Wildlife area as we had originally planned. So we decided to spend Thanksgiving here and stay until Sunday morning. The campground sites with electric power fill up as soon as someone leaves each morning.

Peggy and I did 3 bike rides as shown on map. One to the Olustee Battlefield that I blogged about. The next was our 14 mile ride around the lake with a stop at the Olustee Visitor Center, an old train station. The volunteers were surprised to see us ride up on our bikes, having no idea where we came from.. It turns out they live in Inverness, FL but travel North for a few months and volunteer as museum hosts. It was hard to get away as they wanted to keep talking since they get so few visitors.

Peggy enjoyed most of the rides except some of the forest roads got too sandy for her to keep going on her bike. But her walks were only a few hundred yards. The main paved roads near the campground had virtually no traffic, so that didn’t bother her at all.

I did a couple of rides North of I-10 on the forest roads but when I realized it was deer & bear season, I felt a little uneasy biking down these sandy roads without an orange hunting vest on. I figured I made a nice moving target.

Peggy saved some leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner last month with the family.

So like the past 9 years, I lift my glass to celebrate another Thanksgiving dinner away from home.

Our next planned overnight on Sunday, is O’Leno State Park, only an hour away. We plan to do some grocery shopping in Lake City and maybe take a bike ride on the Woodpecker Trail in the Big Shoals Park nearby.

Settled down for a week at Ocean Pond

We left Jekyll Island at 7 AM on Wednesday and after a quick grocery shopping trip we arrived at Osceola National Forest’s Ocean Pond campground at 10 AM. Since this is the weekend before Thanksgiving we knew finding a campsite with electricity would be difficult, but they have sites with water only and that is where we first pulled into. I got on my bike and found that two campers just left the electric sites, so we quickly moved to the site with power for a week. They take no reservations here, so it is first come gets campsite. With our Golden Eagle pass it is only $12/night.

The campsites are large and there is a very strong ATT 4G signal here but no Wi-Fi.

I had a nice rest in my hammock as the temperature finally warmed to near 80^oF.

On Thursday we decided to take a little 9 mile round trip bike ride to the site of the biggest civil war battle in Florida at Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. Peggy tried out the cannon to see if she would have been a good soldier.

Last Day at Jekyll Island

The weather was cool but dry so we biked all three days that we were here. Each day we biked a little further around the island’s paved bike trails. After the first 5 mi warmup on Sunday, we biked 9 miles over to the historical area on Monday.

There are some really cool old buildings in that area and most are still used for the high end lodging.

The hotel chains are all along the ocean on the north side of the island which is where we biked 12 miles on Tuesday. There were a few other bikers but in general this is a very quiet time of year.

The trail goes along the sand dunes with lots of public access to the beach.

There are many picnic pavilions and parking lots, but they are probably crowded in the summertime.

The island had lots of damage from Hurricane Matthew that came up the coast in early October. The workers were everywhere, including in the campground, removing fallen trees, branches and debris. But it didn’t look like there was any home damage.

On Wednesday morning we hope to get an early start and drive to Osceola National Forest’s Ocean Pond Campground in Northern FL. Our earlier plans were to stay in Ga and head to the Stephen Foster State Park  in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. We may head there around Thanksgiving. See new map.

Jekyll Island–Camp spot #1

We got an early start from Beckley, WV on Saturday morning and after a couple of gas stops we made it to Savannah, GA by 3 PM. We overnighted at the same Wal-Mart we had stopped at last year after touring Charleston, SC.

The place was packed with campers but we found a tiny spot next to a lagoon behind the store that was very quiet. We again got an early start and got to the Jekyll Island campground at 9 AM. Since it was a Sunday there were plenty of available sites.

This is really the only crowded private campground we plan to stay at this winter but it has strong Wi-Fi, good 4G phone signal, Cable TV and is right on the islands 25 miles of bike trails.

Sunday was cloudy and cool, 65o. After setting up we caught up on some rest while I watched football on TV.

Before supper we took a short 5 mile bike ride on the trails near camp.

Monday it is supposed to be sunny and warmer so we plan to take a longer bike ride to the historical area.

First Day on the Road South

Peggy & I raked leaves and mowed the lawn for the last time on Thursday.  We decided to have another supper with Pam & Joan  and their kids at Fiesta Jalapenos. A fun night to say goodbye to half the family. But I forgot my phone, so no pictures.

We left about 8:15 AM on Friday morning and took a little detour to Ohio Amish Country. Peg has not been down here for a while so we took our time stopped at the famous Lehman’s Hardware. Then went over to Ashery Bulk Food store to stock up on candy, nuts and some Swiss cheese. A little craft shopping and by noon we were on our way heading south on I-77.

Of course we saw lots of Amish buggies and all the kids at schools along the way.

It was cool but sunny and windy.

Peggy, checking out the rockers. I was off mine.

Our drive to Beckley, WV was uneventful and we did some food shopping at Sam’s Club and had dinner before spending the night in the Super Walmart parking lot. We will gas up in Wytheville and try to get into SC near Charleston on Saturday.