Thursday, March 29, 2007

Another beautiful day. We kicked back most of the day. The couple camping next to us are from the Macon, GA, area. They have two kids—a 12-year old girl and a 19-month old boy. The little boy is a real character. Nice couple. The 19-month old took a liking to us. We took the bikes out for a short ride. The woman and kids from the next site wanted to see our fifth wheel. So they came over for a few minutes. Had steaks, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Had a fire this morning. A spectacular day—not a cloud in a beautiful deep blue sky. Just like in the Everglades. Biked the road coming into the park. After dinner we biked over to the store and bought some ice cream. Later, a couple of deer came right into our camp site. A beautiful evening.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Partly cloudy today, but spectacular. Butterflies are floating around everywhere. We biked over to the museum and then the office/store. Then biked down the road through the preserve a little bit. Biked back and relaxed, read, and enjoyed the peace and quiet. A couple of doe sauntered by with a couple of yearlings. I guess there’s bear in here, but we haven’t seen any. Had pasta and a vegetable for dinner.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Mike had a fire going this morning. I made fruit smoothies and we sat around the fire for a while. Walked over to the office/store and extended for a couple more days, then walked one of the trails. At 1:00 we went on a swamp tour with two other couples and a Korean/American man from Poquipsie, NY. The two couples were from Marietta, GA, my old stomping ground. They were pretty funny. The tour was great. We were at the headwaters of the Suwanee River. It was beautiful with lots of mature cypress trees, lots of Spanish moss and way too many gators. We saw one with a fresh otter kill. After the tour we walked back. Read for a while. Had left-overs for dinner.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

A beautiful day today. We both got up kinda late. Had bacon, eggs, biscuits, and orange juice for breakfast this morning. Mike drove around to see if there was any fire wood that people left behind. I went over to the shower house to put a load of wash in. There was a girl there who had just done the same. Got talking to her. She and her husband are full-timers. They have a 24-foot cab-over now, but they used to go out in a van. They do a lot of primitive camping. They’re from Rochester, NY. The girl I talked to is very young—definitely not retirement age. So I guess when her husband retired she quit working. Lucky girl. Sat around in the afternoon reading. Worked on my Spanish for a while. Left-overs for dinner.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

We left Juniper Springs at 10:30 this morning. We’re heading to Stephen C. Foster SP in the middle of the Okefenokee in southern Georgia. We arrived here at 1:30. Got off the highway and took Rt. 41 through some pretty remote parts of north Florida and south Georgia. We passed a wonderful, old gas station—closed for many years. Would have loved to take a picture, but we couldn’t stop with the fifth wheel on the back. This is the third Georgia state park we’ve been to, and so far they’re all great. This one has water, electric and cable TV. Since we had no hook-ups at Juniper, it was such a luxury to be able to use the microwave, watch TV, etc. After getting set up we sat outside and read for a while. Then went over to the office and bought some wood. Were going to drive up to the lake, but it’s accessible only by boat. We’re right on the Suwannee River, and it is so pretty.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Mike’s birthday, and another beautiful day. Mike started a fire and we sat around and enjoyed for a couple of hours. Went to the grocery store, the drug store, the hardware store and tried to find a place to buy diesel fuel—no luck. Drove over to Salt Springs and walked the trail to the St. John’s River. A beautiful trail that goes through about 4 ecosystems. Starts out just scrub, then more and more hardwoods, then a dense forest of hardwoods, pines and palms—lots of palms. At the end there’s a deck that overlooks the river. Very peaceful there—just the wind and the water. Back and freshened up and took Mike to dinner at the Blackwater Inn right on the St. John’s River. After dinner we went upstairs on the deck and had a couple of drinks. Back and watched a movie.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Up early this morning. Mike started a fire. We sat around and read most of the day. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Walked over to the spring and along Juniper Creek. Finished the book I was reading, “TheEverglades” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Here’s a picture of me sitting next to a sculpture of her at Fairchild Gardens in Miami.

I can see why she was so respected and revered. The book was an extremely interesting history of the Everglades and its people. She was also largely responsible for the creation of the Everglades National Park. She died in 1998 at the age of 108.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Left this morning with our laundry and headed toward Ocala. We’re meeting our friend, Ruth, for lunch at 1:00 and decided to get the laundry out of the way first. Finished that lovely chore and headed over to the Cracker Barrel. Ruth looks good and we sat and talked and talked until about 4:00. She did most of the talking. She’s had quite an interesting life and should probably write a book, but most of it would be censored. Came back and had sandwiches for dinner. Fired up the generator to see if we could get TV reception. Only one station, and that one was Hispanic. So we played rummy for a while. I won both games.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

We’re at the Juniper Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest. We’ve been coming down here for years. And we’ve never gone to Silver Springs. We pass by it every time we come here. This time we made it a point to stop there. It’s much more than we thought it would be. Figured we’d spend a couple of hours there, but we spent the whole day. They take you around in glass bottom boats. The Silver River is beautiful and the springs are so pretty. Of course the water is incredibly clear. There are some beautiful, old-growth cypress trees in the park—some of them 500 years old and more. The grounds are quite spectacular. They filmed 9 of the Tarzan movies here. And 62 episodes of Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges. He was deathly afraid of the water because of snakes and gators, so they hired a 16-year-old kid to do the underwater shots for him. Lloyd Bridges afraid of the water—who knew? There are also some wild reeses monkeys in the park. I guess they were brought to the area in the hopes of establishing a monkey island or something. They didn’t know the monkeys could swim. Some of the descendents of these monkeys have been found as far south as the Everglades.

While waiting in line for tickets we met this really nice woman who is affiliated with the Florida Tourism Board. She gets free passes for herself, but she can take up to three guests with her for half price. She offered to get us in as her guests for half price—and we readily agreed. Talked to her for quite a while. She works for the Salvador Dali art museum in St. Petersburg. We plan to stop there next year when and if we come back down this way.

Called a friend of ours, Ruth McIntyre, and made plans to get together for lunch. Mike used to work with her husband, Jim, who passed away a few years ago. We try and stay in touch and see her whenever we’re in the area.

After we left Silver Springs we went to Sonny’s BBQ for dinner. Then we checked out the Silver River State Park which we didn’t even know existed. Drove around and checked out the camp sites. We have no hook-ups where we are. The state park has electric and water. But Juniper Springs is prettier.

Monday, March 19

Left about 11:30 for Juniper Springs. My turn to drive. Site 60 turned out to be a pretty good site. Real shady tho. Our solar panels probably won’t get a lot of sun. I’m sure we’ll be firing up the generator. After we got set up we walked around. A lot of changes since we were here last (5 years at least). Instead of the little path along Jupiter Creek there’s a boardwalk. They’re replaced all the rest rooms/shower houses with new ones. We walked down to the main spring. It’s still pretty. There was even a girl in there swimming. Brrrr. Too cold for me. Walked back and hung out at our site for a while. There’s no one around us at all. Very peaceful and quiet. Had a camp fire later in the evening.