Lithia Springs -
we’ve camped here NUMEROUS times, so there shouldn’t be much to say about the
park – it’s an old county park just south and east of Brandon and has a spring
fed swimming area. The park used to
have a limit of 2 weeks camping – now, just the 4 sites that are next to the
Alafia River are limited to the 2-week stay.
The rest of the other 40 sites are with a 3-month limit of stay – and
some units look like they’ve been here even longer. On the Sunday morning when we arrived, we were first in line for
one of two sites that were going to open up.
The fella next in line wanted site 45.
We took the prized site 45 and he had to crowd into site 10!
Site 45 has been
called the Honeymoon Suite by some of the
campers because it is right on the river,
is down and around a curving driveway and is VERY secluded! This photo was taken from halfway down the
crushed shell/gravel drive! Someone (we
won’t mention who) has since removed the palmetto frond in the foreground! While the two trees that are opposite each
other and close to the edge of the drive
seem far enough apart, when you’re
backing a train down and around (already having smacked into that
aforementioned palmetto frond) – they are not! There is another hefty tree just
to the left of the truck that is blocked from view but was also a bit of
frustration when trying to bend a 35 ft billboard around it and also miss that
tall sturdy fence AND electrical post on the other side! The river is just below that fence! The site is HUGE and so is the ancient
(leaning) live oak tree that is securely anchored near the middle of the
site! Luckily, but with some
maneuvering, we managed to get the awning out and wedged between the two knarly
fat limbs! The greenery that is
growing
lushly on its limbs is called Resurrection Plant. When it rains – the tiny fern like plant is
healthy looking and green. Several
days later, if there is no more rain – the plants shrivel up and turn brown –
waiting for the next reviving shower!
In our two weeks stay – they have been green twice! And wildlife – from fish in the river, to
the chattering gray squirrels, the squawking hawks, the always noisy
woodpeckers and the echo of owls before sunup, the most unusual creature turned
out to be THE frog! One night after
coming back down the driveway from the bathhouse, I saw a frog climbing the
side of the trailer, up past the kitchen window. H came to look and it quickly tried to take refuge in the vent
cover! Several days later, thanks to a
Florida website, we learned that our little hitchhiker was a Cuban Tree Frog –
an invasive specie in America! It’ll
eat anything it can get in its
mouth – even other frogs! We have to make sure that when we leave, we
don’t take him with us!
We are always adding new friends to our list of favorite
friends! This year at Lithia Springs
we’ve gotten to know our campground hosts/volunteers - P&A. These ladies have done a wonderful job of
keeping everything in order and clean and making us all feel welcomed! We will miss them!
We have visited friends B&N and went to the Red Barn
Flea Market and finished up the day with our annual trip to Anna Marie’s Oyster
Bar in Ellenton. We met our Michigan
friends, G&D from Petosega, in Brandon for lunch another day! Yet another dear friend from Swanton and her
daughter met us in Tarpon Springs for lunch there! H and I strolled along the sponge
docks and watched the boat
traffic in the river before we fought all the auto traffic on our way back to
quiet Lithia Springs. We met J&A
(H’s drone buddy from Illinois) in Brandon for our forth lunch outing! If you must know - neither H nor I am
losing ANY weight this winter! To walk
off that lunch we drove east on Rt 60 and visited the “Metals & Nature”
Garden. The owners work with wrought
iron so the 2 acres are full of fancy gates, fences, benches and other
bric-a-brac including cement statues and such.
Wandering thru the flower filled gardens is a couple of beautiful, long
tailed, turquoise
peacocks! In various
cages and pens are various other colorful birds, an iguana and Boinky the
Potbellied Pig! And if that’s not
enough – we’ve also enjoyed our annual strawberry shortcake lunch at the
Brandon Farms Strawberry Barn!! NO
weight loss at all!
A trip to this area would not be complete without checking
out the Manatee Viewing area in Apollo Beach but the day was warm and sunny so
the giant sea creatures were all out in Tampa Bay. While we were that close we drove thru EG Simmons, one of the
other Hillsborough County Parks in Ruskin.
We parked and walked out to the beach area where I used to find
Horseshoe Crab shells and ended up watching several young men throwing and
dragging long ropes with chicken legs tied to the end, thru the calm water.
They were hoping to catch some blue crabs, we were told. This area
used to be a peninsula but thanks
to one of the previous storms, it is now an island!
Our little bikes are folded back up and put away. The awning has been swept clear of all the
tiny brown live oak tree leaves that have been accumulating on it for the last
2 weeks. It’s once again time to move –
we’re heading north – little by little.
But not with any amphibian hitchhikers!
