A Day with Our Friends in Inverness

Paul & Helen invited us along with Rob & Shirley to their beautiful home for a nice outdoor get together.

    

We all met in Mexico at the Xpu-Ha Campground in about 2012-13, and have been friends ever since then.

   

It was a lot of fun getting together. We did meet here once before about 4 years ago.

It was a cool but sunny day and we kept our social distance so as not to take any risks with Covid-19.

Helen put on a great afternoon Lasagna Dinner with baked apple kuchen desert. She could have fed this crew for a week with her wonderful cooking.

Rob & Shirley are from Martha’s Vineyard and Paul and Helen are from Boston before relocating to FL. So those Nor'easters had to get used to our Ohio accents.

 

Rob & Shirley have been on the road with their Prism Camper since summertime. This is their first time back to FL since they were here 4 years ago.

Big dinner ready for the group, thanks to Helen who is an amazing cook.

Here s the gang in 2020

This picture is from a dinner at Oscar & Lalo's along the Mayan Riviera in 2013. We all look the same, no aging with this group, don’t you think?

Juniper Springs & Silver Springs

We got to Juniper Springs Campground around noon on Wednesday. We arranged a free shuttle for Thursday morning with one of the volunteers in the park. We explored and took some pictures which we posted on our last blog. We found that they again have their perfectly good boardwalk closed, claiming there are some rotted supports. We walked it and found it fine, it is the prettiest walk in the park. They also have the canoe launch boardwalk closed, maybe because they are not renting any boats, but it makes for a very long walk to get from the parking area to the launch spot.

Our campsite was only a few hundred yards from the water, an illegal launch of course. It was only about 40^oF when we launched at 9:30 AM. There were no other boats on the river and it quickly warmed to near 70 when we got to the take-out, 2-3/4 hours later. This river has more maneuvering than any river I have ever paddled, Peggy was exhausted at the end of the 8 mile paddle. She is great at draws and cross-draws, keeping us away from all the stumps and branches.

It was a warm evening and it was 60^oF on Friday morning when we left at 8 AM to paddle the Silver River. They open early but we were the first one to launch. Since Peggy was still tired we only paddled about 4 miles downstream and back. We didn’t see another boat until we were almost all the way back but we did see 10 Manatees. Big mothers and tiny babies. Hundreds of Anhingas, some Heron and Egrets and one alligator. It was a beautiful sunny day.

We got off the river early to do some grocery shopping, and decided to spend another night in a Walmart parking lot.

On Saturday morning we drove over to the 49st parking area for the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway paved bike trail. We have never tried this trail and it passes right through Ocala and over I-75. The trail is very hilly and in a deep woods with all sorts of mountain bike trails crossing .

We took a short ride over the bridge and just beyond where the Santos Trail starts then back for a nice 11 mile early morning bike ride. Temps in low 60’s.

Peggy looking through the viewing window to see I-75 below.

They put this bridge in for wildlife. Deer, Bear, Coyotes, and Panthers have been caught in the trail cams.

Then Saturday afternoon we plan to visit our friends in Inverness.

Three Nights at O’Leno State Park and now at Juniper Springs

When we drove over to O’Leno we made on-line reservations for site 12 in Magnolia Campground which is right near the hiking trails.

Sunday turned out to be a nice day so we took a short hike, the pictures were in the last blog. It was a stormy cold night and cool morning on Monday, so I stayed in and updated the blog. It was cool and sunny Tuesday so we rode our bike around the park, it was a little too cool for Peggy. Wednesday we woke up to a heavy frost and left at 9:30 AM for the short drive to Juniper Springs, arriving at 11:30 AM. We got our favorite site #15 and will stay for two nights. Here are the temperatures for past few days and next two. It looks like it will be warming up again.

We took a bike ride around the park and arranged for a shuttle on Thursday on the 7 mile Juniper Run. We took a bunch of pictures in the park and found out that they closed all the boardwalks again. We plan to just carry our canoe from our campsite trail to the river  and launch at end of the trail. Click to read  My blog last year which describes an almost identical trip, with some added history.

 

Big Change in Plans

After two days of biking we left Augusta, GA early on Saturday.  Our 250 drive to Mcclenny, FL, was through an off-on rain all day long.. We parked at another Super Walmart and would only be 30 miles away from our planned campsite at Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola NF. We got there at 8 AM and hoped to find a nice campsite.

When we got there we saw this big sign. "THE OCEAN POND CAMPGROUND IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE." I had checked a few days ago and it was not on their website. No reason was given. So we parked there and got on the internet to do some new trip planning since we had planned to be here for 10 days.

We quickly found a site for 3 nights at O'leno State Park north of High Springs. It was only a 45 minute drive away and finally we will have electricity and hot showers.

O'Leno is an old Florida State Park on the Santa Fe River where it disappears to go underground for a few miles before rising up again and confluences with the Ichetucknee River and then eventually empties into the Suwannee River

 

We found we could probably get into Juniper Springs, East of Ocala until the next weekend. We love to paddle the river and we have been coming here for 50 years.

We added 3 more days to our reservations at Silver Lake, Cypress Glen Campground. We contacted our friends Paul & Helen Tempesta who live near there in Inverness to see if they would be around on Saturday. Not only will they be there but they were having two friends, Rob and Shirley from Martha's Vineyard, MA over for a visit. We used to camp with all of them at Xpu-Ha in Mexico and it's been 4 years since we have seen them. So it will be a nice reunion.

 

 

Two Days Biking in Augusta

On Thanksgiving morning we made it to Augusta, GA Savannah Rapids Park at 12 noon. This park has large parking lots and trails to view the river locks and canal.

The gravel/dirt Towpath Trail starts here. Because of last nights rain there were some puddles and soft surface but it was fine.

It’s a scenic trail with walkers and bikers with the river on one side and the canal on the other side. They rent bikes and kayaks here for those who want to paddle canal.

We picked up the paved River Levee Trail and made a 12 mile round trip. It turned out to be a partially cloudy a 75^oF day.

    

So we were two turkeys on a tandem

When we finished we went to a Super Walmart about 7 miles away. Everything in the area was closed for the holiday, the parking lot was totally empty but we still parked on the side away from all traffic noise.

We had some leftover Eggplant Parmigiana for dinner and Peggy read her Kindle while I planned our next day bike trip and route south on Saturday.

On Friday, we started at the same place but added the Lake Olmstead and Mill Village Trail.

It was clear and sunny and it got close to 80^o, we haven’t been this warm for a while.

We peddled about 15 1/2 miles, there were a lot more walkers, bikers and kayakers today.

We stopped at Sam’s club on the way back to our quiet campsite and bought a Rotisserie chicken so we could have our Thanksgiving dinner a day late.

They are forecasting a big cool down coming and we expect it will rain overnight and early tomorrow morning.

Our plan is to drive 250 miles to near I-10 in Florida and again overnight at a Walmart. We will leave there on Sunday morning and try to get a campsite at Ocean Pond National Forest Campground which has a limited number of campsites with power, so when a weekend camper leaves we will snag their campsite.

Great Drive to South Carolina

We left Home at 7:30 AM on Monday 11/23 and had clear dry weather all the way to Weaverville, NC, about a 550 mile drive. We got to a Walmart  by 4:30 PM and had some leftover Mac & Cheese. After a good nights sleep we left at &:30 AM and got to our fiends Greg & Sandy Lewis by 10AM. The weather was still clear and dry but a cool morning.

Greg loves to cook in their beautiful kitchen and we stayed two nights. We really enjoyed the two dinners he cooked for us.

We had lots of fun remembering old kayaking, hiking, biking and camping trips.

The weather was cool but dry so we took a short hike near his house on a steep trail called the Granite Dome Trail. It was just the right length for Peggy and their two dogs, Asia and Lilly.

 

Peggy enjoyed resting by their fireplace when we returned. Greg & Sandy were great hosts.

We had a heavy rain on Wednesday night but by the time we left on Thanksgiving morning the weather had cleared and temperatures warmed to above 70^oF later in the day.

We got to Augusta, GA by noon and drove right to the Savannah River Locks and canal trails.

 

Still Packing For Our Winter Trip

We  picked up our Motor Home from the storage lot on November 1st. It was good thing we brought our RV home early. I found out that the both battery tray slides had rusted and needed to be replaced. Luckily I had two almost new slides left from my old 2006 Phoenix Cruiser. I had removed the single battery slide-out tray when I went to two batteries. Of course I saved it.  It took a while but I got it done, this time I will lubricate the drawer slides occasionally.

Then last Sunday we had a big storm which took some big trees down on our street, we just lost lots of branches. But we lost power for 48 hours. So for lights, refrigerator and TV we ran an extension cord to our house from the RV. We ran the generator for about 30 hours. We turned it off at night while we were sleeping.

On Saturday we had our annual family party at my daughter Joan's house. We had about 15 people counting all the kids that could make it this year.  Joan & Brian cooked a big Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings to celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are not flying home for Christmas like we usually do.

 

We hope to leave early Monday morning and hope to make it to near Asheville, NC for the evening. As usual, when we travel. we will park at a big Super Walmart for the evening. On Tuesday we will drive straight through to our friend’s, Greg & Sandy Lewis in SC, home on beautiful Lake Keowee.

Planning for our 2020-21 Winter Trip

Despite all the problems with Covid in Florida we know we wouldn’t like staying home in another Northeast Ohio winter.

In the past we have taken a flight back for Christmas time to spend time with our large family but we decided that maybe we should stay out of the holiday airport crowds.

So we decided to leave a little later and celebrate with an early Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday with a dinner party with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren.

On the left is a trip map where we expect to be from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here are the preliminary dates and places we have already made reservation for our entire 2020-21 trip. https://www.keelhauler.org/JK/Proposed_Schedule_FL_2020-21.pdf 

We have chosen all public campgrounds that we are familiar with and are near opportunities to bike or canoe. We like to stay active but I also love to relax in my hammock until I fall asleep reading my Kindle.

Like other years, I will post pictures and tales of what is going on with our trip. I hope if any of our friends end up nearby they will drop into to see us. Please let us know your plans. And if you want to camp, bike or paddle with us remember other than another RV anyone can set up a tent or park a vehicle in our campsites since we don’t drag a car with us, and they allow it.