Final Week of Steve & Anne's Trip

We left Stephen Foster Park Monday morning after the temperature warmed to around 60o. It is a short drive to the Ichetucknee spring fed river. Of course our GPS took us down a sandy NF road instead of a nice paved road. There is a fee to park, pay at gate, but if you have your own boat keep going to the boat drop off on a narrow path, you then park in the big lot. There is a long wooden walkway to the put-in.

The river was beautiful with a strong current. It was a cool morning and not many turtles were out. I much preffered starting at the, now closed take-out, going upstream when you are fresh and then drifting back, than the opposite. 

Here is Peggy ready to launch at the old Take-out.

Steve and I were in my lightweight canoe and Anne paddled my old 14' kayak. 

We saw no other paddlers until we were back near the put-in where a large group had just launched on a downstream paddle trip.

We then split up since Anne needed to pick up a prescription in Lake City and I needed to buy 2 new 6 volt deep cyle batteries for the RV power system in Gainesville. 

We met up again at, Silver Springs State Park, our next overnight campsite #21. We headed to Silver Springs launch site on Tuesday morning. There were lots of private and rental boaters launching. New fees, $2 per person to launch but no parking fee if you camped at the park.

We paddled down the SS River a couple of miles and saw lots of turtles, a few alligators and one Manatee. We then paddled back since we hadn't set up a shuttle.

After we got back from paddling we drove to Juniper Springs campsite #16, next to our sneek trail. This once beautiful park in the Ocala NF gets more rundown each year. There are no boardwalks left, campers can't even see the river and the trails are overgrown

Erin Bethea in 2023 ducking under a tree

   The river has a fast  current but is partially blocked by fallen trees.

On Wednesday we decided to do a shuttle and leave Steve's truck at the Juniper Run take-out. We launched about 11:30AM for our 3 hour 7 mi trip. 

We saw no one on the river but met up with a paddling group from Upstate New York who we saw at Silver Springs yesterday. They had launched an hour earlier and had just gotten to the take-out before we landed.

Steve and Ann are heading back to the land of Ice & Snow on Thursday morning, so I'm on my own for the remainder of the trip. So anyone that knows me is welcome to camp with me for free, see my schedule. 

We had a nice last supper at a really nice restaurant, Drifters Riverfront Bar & Grill in Astor, FL on the St John's River off SR40.

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.

Ending my two weeks at Lithia Springs

Lihia Springs - Spring & Swim Area

The weather was a little above normal for my first week but normal or slightly below for the second week. 

When it cooled off I finally got a chance to wash all the winter dirt from the RV and wax it. It looks great now.

Since the river was so low I didn't attempt to paddle again. I did get in 3 long bike rides throughout the Fish Hawk Trails.

Peggy on Hillsborough River (2015)

I got an e-mail from Hillsborough River State Park that the campsite I reserved for 2 days on 3/2-3 is still closed from Hurricane damage but I could stay one night on another loop.

I leave tomorrow, (2/24) to head an hour north back to Cypress Glen Campground on the Withlacoochee River for one week.

I don't take near as many pictures like I used to do when Peggy and I travelled to Mexico and Florida. I was reading some of my old trip blogs and came across this slide show of a trip with Peggy 10 years ago. Click this link: Florida Slide Show then click on the first picture to start the slide show of our trip, it wasn't that much different from my solo trip this year, but I sure miss Peggy's continuous quest for adventure and her great meals and companionship.

Great Campsite at Lithia Springs

Sat 2/6 was my last night at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. I had two weeks of great weather and no sand fleas. I’ve been here a dozen times in January & early February and only ran into them one time. I think that’s why this campground is not full all the time and much easier to get into, even in peak season. They do not take reservations, so early birds usually can get a site.

My next campground is Lithia Springs which is another Hillsborough County Park. It is very popular and almost always full, so you need to get on the waiting list by 8 AM if you hope to get a site.

So since I needed to do my bi-weekly grocery shopping I couldn’t get there early unless I overnighted nearby on Super Bowl Sunday. I stayed at the same Valrico Lowes store when I was here in November. It’s quiet and they have good wireless internet.

I left Monday at sunrise but found myself second in line when I got to the park. However that worked to my advantage. He chose the only available site at 8am and I waited until some other sites would empty after the weekend. I got site #45, which is the best large secluded campsite in the parks as you can see from the pictures. It overlooks the Alafia River but is a little steep getting to the water to launch my kayak.

I like this campground for a couple of reasons. A great friendly campground host Chris from IL, a scenic river with lots of wildlife to paddle with no crowds and access to over 30 miles of winding bike trails through an upscale housing development.

Click Picture for big map

Chris has always helped me out with a shuttle, to do any downriver trips since I don’t bring a car and it would be hard to use my motorhome. The water level early in the season is usually good but since the hurricanes they have had a drought and the river is only 100 CFS.

So on Wednesday I decided to just put-in at my campsite and paddle down and back up the river to see if the shallow areas are passable.

I paddled downstream to near Bell Shoals bridge without hitting any shallow shoals, but if I had set up a shuttle it would have been much easier to keep on going to the take-out at the Brandon Boat Dock. That would have been about a mile longer than doing an up & back. 

To get back upstream I had to paddle back up about 5 shallow rapids and found that one was too shallow to paddle up so I had to get out and line the kayak back to the top of the rapid. So next time I'm just going downstream.

But I'm glad I did not paddle downstream from Aldermans Ford. 

When I got back I met a paddler from Sandusky, OH that had just come down from there and it took him 4-1/2 hours. He had to carry his kayak around 4-5 trees that blocked the river.

Signing off from MoonPieTown

These are my plans for the next month

Finished my 1st week at EG Simmons County Park on Tampa Bay

The forecast is finally calling for warm weather and my reservation at WPF ended on Saturday 1/25/25. The plan is to drive 100 miles north to Tampa Bay and see if I can get a campsite at EG Simmons County Park. They do not take reservations and I heard that since the hurricanes all of their sites may not be available because of power problems or trees that need to have branches removed. 

I needed to get propane and grocery shop before I got to the campground, which delayed my arrival until noon, but that is the checkout time anyway.

There were a few sites available and I got site #70 which is just down the line from the picture I posted in my last blog.

You can paddle here on their canoe trail within the park or you can paddle out into Tampa Bay going north to Apollo Beach or south to Bahia Beach as long as there are no storms or windy days. I’ll probably try all options on sunny days to get some exercise.

You can take a 6 mile bike around the large park on the paved roads.

There are lots of residential streets nearby to ride your bike but there are no designated bike trails. I like to ride over to Bahia Beach or Apollo Beach and bike through the upscale neighborhoods or shop at the nearby grocery stores.

One place I like to ride is to the Manatee viewing area about 8 miles away in Apollo Beach. There is a large power plant that discharges warm water back into the bay. The Manatees love the warm water. If the bay temperature goes below 70^o they head here by the hundreds. The bay, after the cold spell, is only in the 50’s.

When I was getting ready to leave a big truck from the Manatee Hospital rolled up to return a small Manatee back into the water. I swear I saw Peggy trying to help walk the Manatee down to the bay, since the 14 volunteers were having a hard time carrying it.

Peggy at Julies Fish House

Peggy used to love going out for a Grouper dinner at this popular outdoor restaurant only an easy 3 mile bike ride from our campground.

I found out that it has been closed since the hurricanes. I happened to be riding by yesterday and they were having a grand reopening and the place was packed.

I got a menu and since I had been there 2 years ago the menu hasn’t changed and the dinners all went up by only $1.

I thought I would add the map below to see where all the places are that I wrote about, at the south end of Tampa Bay east of St. Petersburg.

The weather turns to shit

 

I am nearing the end of my two week stay at the beautiful campground at Franklin Lock on the Caloosahatchee River east of Fort Myers, FL. I got to paddle two more times on sunny days; Once, down the big river a couple of miles but I headed back when it started getting windy. 

And once upriver to Hickey's Creek another small river that goes through a small park with a hiking trail that crosses over the river twice. It eventually narrows and is blocked by deadfall. This year I paddled up the creek about 2-1/2 miles making it about a 8 mile round trip from the campground.

As I mentioned the only easy accessible biking is down the streets of the nearby housing developments, I got in a 8 mile bike ride before the weather started to cool off. 

Snow in the FL Panhandle

This week the big polar vortex storm that brought below zero temperatures back home and record heavy snow to the Florida panhandle, pushed all the way down to SW Florida bringing rainy days and temperatures that never got to 60o. Cold and rainy is not conducive to outdoor activities. 

        

I felt cooped up looking out my windows watching it rain and listening to the howling wind. Tomorrow they are predicting frost warnings north of here.

My plans are to leave here Saturday and drive to Tampa Bay and hope to get a nice campsite at EG Simmons County Park, they don’t take reservations so maybe the bad weather will cause some campers to go home early. 

EG Simmons East Campground Site #79

The forecast is finally calling for an end to the cold spell and promising temperatures back into the high 70's later next week.