Monday, January 4, 2009 – talk about time flying – it sure has. We’ve had LOTS of problems with finding any wifi and then with our Juno email not working with it.
While staying at Trimble Park in Mount Dora, H decided we should drive over to Kelly Park, another Orange County campground. We were told they were full but he wanted to show me the pretty springs that were there. The head of the springs actually comes out of a cave and meanders down a clear river that looked great for snorkeling. My hopes went up, but first we needed to find the Central Florida Zoo, which is a bit closer to Sanford than the springs were. We had visited the zoo before and loved watching how the keepers work with their resident elephants, Maude and Mary. Our timing was off – the two huge lady pachyderms were done with their morning routines and were just rocking back and forth as tho to a slow dance record. Even the Howler monkeys were not howling. Since we were so close to Sanford, we decided to go find the library and “borrow” some wifi. We found the library but could not get Juno or the wifi to work. Oh well.
New Years Eve was quiet at the campground and in the morning, H called his favorite Hillsborough County campground- EG Simmons on Tampa Bay and found out they would have openings on Sunday. Off we went and made it as far as Lithia Springs County Park, southwest of Plant City, which also had a spring. This spring was bigger than the others we’ve seen but not nearly as picturesque. The campground was neat and woodsy. Good “facilities” but WAY too many speed bumps to drive over just to get to and from our camp spot! Our neighbors, Ray and Tawny were from Lake Worth area and were camping in a new huge trailer that had a pop-up loft on the top of it! Unique to say the least! While parked there we also went exploring and checked out yet another Hillsborough County campground that had a decent-sized lake/reservoir. The lake sprawled all over and around a bunch of coves and runs. It was complete with a fishing bridge with a tower on an island at the end of it. No one was catching anything and maybe it was because there were 2 alligators slinking in the shadows by the edge.
Sunday morning and here we are – site #20 for the next week. EG Simmons is a HUGE county park and is a half dozen mangrove surrounded peninsulas with lots of fishing piers, boat launches and a nice beach. We found several horseshoe crab shells and H even allowed me to bring back the smallest, which is sitting outside, sprayed down with bleach. We spent the afternoon riding our bikes around the park and then riding the Jeep down the road- Yep – to look for a library and wifi. We finally were able to download, albeit slowly because a friend had sent a lengthy video forward and it had really tied things up in a knot.
