At the Springs

Belated Merry Christmas one and all!  If you look back to our blog from December 2018, you see our pretty little Christmas tree that graces our dining room table and lights up the entire big window.  The same brightly lit tree is on the blog for Christmas 2017!  In 2016 it was the two tiny melting snowmen on the sparkling white sand on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico!  2015 saw the beautiful white nativity set at Sharon’s home!  Mr and Mrs Santa Claus at Salt Springs was our official Christmas photo for 2014!  This year, our great neighbors from up home have given us this sparkling Cardinal snow globe lamp and it brightens up our dark kitchen corner!

 As usual, the bright blue truck has been out exploring the forest back roads, always on the hunt for bear or deer.  Lots of other trucks were out in the woods this time but their drivers were all dressed in bright orange hunting garb!   Once we saw a dark spot in the road way ahead of us and  . .  wait . . .  was it a bear?  Nope – just 2 hunting dogs sauntering up the road! 

Out wandering the main route of FL RT40 we stopped just before the high bridge that crosses up and over the St John’s River.  Strolling along the short boardwalk, we

passed a gentleman on a dark brown airboat. The engine roared to life and swung out into the middle of the vegetation clogged waterway.  High up on the bridge, the bridge master told us that this massive island of green just congregated in, under and around the main channel and bridgework guides in less than 24 hours!  This floating mass of plants and their river clogging roots started gathering the evening before and now all passing boats had to squeeze thru the narrow, rocky side passage.  Another boater came down river and joining with the airboat, fought together with anchors and ropes to dissuade the river-jamming clump.  The boater would drive into the clump as far as he was able and then throw his anchor as hard and as far as he could.  The airboat would make sure the anchor was deep enough into the jungle of roots and then park his craft on top of the metal hook.  The boat would pull back and the airboat would slowly work his craft forward guiding the buried anchor. By the time we returned to the truck an hour later, half the channel was open and they continued to push and pull the clog out of the way, letting it continue to float freely on down the river.

The Ocala National Forest is the oldest forest west of the

Alexander Spring

Mississippi River.  The 3 best campgrounds that include beautiful springs within the forest boundaries include our favorite Salt Springs, Alexander Springs and Juniper Springs.  Alexander

Alexander Spring

Springs is wooded with non-electric camping and the spring area itself is deep and dark blue.  The canoe/kayak launching area is just past the buoyed swimming area.  Juniper Springs is also a wooded, non-electric camp ground and the beautiful springs are smaller but has a rustic CCC mill with a working water wheel that is run by the excess water that rises from the deep blue spring.  The area where all the kids used to dive off of is now protected by a black wrought iron railing, but you can still stand up over the deep

Juniper Spring

spring and look down into the blue depth.  Check the blog for last year to see H’s drone picts of Salt Springs and also Silver Glen

Springs - which is beautiful swimming area with no campground.

It has been so good to get to visit with my sister in Ocala!  Of course we HAD to go see her as soon as we arrived so H could get his new drone. Then there was Christmas Day!  Wednesday, the day before we were to head out once more we met her for lunch at Logan’s Steakhouse!  We were stuffed!!!

H got to shoot skeet up in Palatka and it is always followed by lunch at Corky Bells on the high bank of the St John’s River, just north of the “forest”.  The truck has even gotten a fresh oil change.  Our friends from previous years have been visited with.  New friends from Wellsboro, Pa have become “Happy Hour Friends”.  Too bad Dick’s bike of choice is a PURPLE Harley!  He did like taking my little white electric bike out for spin tho!!  He and Connie have been camping at Salt Springs for years – so why haven’t we met before now??  We’ll make up for that in the future, for sure!!

Our Salt Springs stay has come to an end and we must move on - down Fl Rt 19 with our usual stopover in Eustis to check out the lakeside boardwalk.  After all the rain we’ve had in the last 3 weeks, it was so very nice to enjoy the sunshine!  We saw a sign for an “Estate Sale” being held in a sprawling white tent in a mall parking lot and it drew us in!  A nearby empty Beall’s Outlet store had been turned into yet another antique mall and beckoned us to visit them also!  On down the road and thru a massive amount of new road construction, we finally reached Sanford on the shores of Lake Monroe – also part of the St John’s River.  Unable to maneuver the “train” around the snug traffic circle at the edge of downtown, we took a longer route to get to the city’s marina and the collection of boats - from the authentic paddle wheeler tour

boat, to tall masted sailboats, to the massive houseboats all moored and resting at their docks.   Whew!  This day’s journey was getting long – 90 plus miles!  Time to end it and park this “train” in Manatee Hammock for awhile!  There’s going to be a space launch on Monday and we are hoping to see it!