Hottest February Ever

We spent two full weeks at Lithia Springs Park. We biked 4 more times on the FishHawk trails for over 45 miles and then we even biked out to eat at a nearby Mexican Restaurant for Valentines Day. The river keeps on dropping but it still had over 200 CFS so we talked our campground host into hauling our canoe up to the put-in again at Alderman’s Ford.

On Sunday morning we left for our next one week stay at Silver Lake. We had reserved a nice fairly level site right next to the lake at Cypress Glen Campground. Paul and Helen Tempesta our friends from Inverness had visited us here in early December but we didn’t get to paddle or bike with them. We had both come down with the flu and didn’t do much at that time. They drove over to visit us this Monday with their kayaks so we did a nice 6 mile paddle going upstream from our camp.

The weather has been setting records every day here in the Tampa area. The high temperatures are 15^o F above normal and it is the hottest February on record.

As I mentioned before the park is right next to the Withlacoochee State Park Bike Trail, our plan was to bike early on Tuesday to avoid the hot weather. We got about 1/2 mile and the bike tire went flat. I knew I had a new tube back at the RV, so we pushed it back. First problem, the Presta Valve went bad, so I could not inflate the tire. Second problem, the spare tube I bought was for another bike and would not fit. So we had to break camp and do a 20 mile RV ride to a bike shop in Brooksville. We bought two tubes and headed back to camp. By the time we got setup and put in the new tube it was too hot, so Peggy did her favorite thing reading her mystery books on her Kindle.

So on Wednesday we left at 8 AM and got our 20 mile bike trip in and we were back by 10 AM. It was a nice cool morning ride.

Today. we decided to take our canoe and paddle down the Lower Withlacoochee River to Hog Island and back, a little over 8 miles.

We stopped for a rest at a group camp. I guess they must have some tall people in FL. take a look at the picnic table.

We may have a surprise guest tomorrow if he shows up.