Old Town to Ocala

Suwannee River Hideaway is a Passport America campground. It was H’s 2nd choice of places to stay at first but it turned out to be a great place to call home for a few days! Originally it was going to be an overnight stop but ended up being a 5-day stay! It is located just 3 miles outside the small town of Old Town. When you first turn onto the long entrance drive it feels as tho it had been a state park in a previous life, but according to the great camp hosts Bettye and Jay, it was built from scratch about 6 years ago. Basic facilities but very clean and a wonderful clubhouse with wifi were added perks. The best perks were the owners and the hosts – including Patsy and Billy! We were invited to their potluck Christmas Party and were made to feel right at home. Off exploring we went - one day to find Fanning Springs State Park and from there we found 2 more small Florida Springs – Otter Springs and Hart Springs. Another day we followed yet another back road and ended up out on Cedar Key for lunch. (Ready? SPFB!) Some of the previously occupied stores were now empty and one restaurant had burned down but the gang of local pelicans and cormorants still called the storm damaged old docks home. H has been having trouble with pain in his heel so we’ve had to limit our walking. One highlight of the campground was a ¼ mile long boardwalk, which lead across the cypress filled swamp to the wide dark Suwannee River. All the posted signs clearly stated NO BIKES! It was not to be experienced IF we had to walk it. H dug out our fold up bikes and we were given permission to ride. I did ride it but only one way! It was a really nice boardwalk – long and as wide as any normal sidewalk, but only had retaining WIRES strung thru the tall pylons pounded down into the muck. Speeding along the long narrow pine needle strewn planks on that skinny little bike was torturous. My shoulder blades ached and my knuckles were clenched tightly around the handlebars. Hence – I walked my bike back across the “skyway bridge” to the safety of solid, albeit sandy ground.

Ross Prairie State Forest Campground, just south west of Ocala is always one of my favorite spots and not just because it’s within 3 miles of my sister Sharon’s home. The park is also set up for equestrian camping but this time there have been only 2 horses and they only stayed 2 days. H likes the park because it is close to a lot of things – our friends R&J in Dunnellon, several great flea markets, shopping (OK – that’s mine!) and the always-beautiful Rainbow River! The weather most of the time has been in the 50’s at night and up to the mid 60’s, low 70’s during the day – those are the days we’ve gone exploring or to the various flea markets with our list of “needed” items. Sharon and I went girl shopping one day and managed to find a few things on sale that we didn’t really need! Such great deals tho! Of course, spending time out with D&S is always fun – especially when it’s Dick’s birthday! The warmest and sunniest day (79 degrees) we headed for the Rainbow with our little orange bubbles! The bright sun felt so wonderfully warm on our bare shoulders as we paddled upstream in the amazingly clear deep blue water. H normally wants to call it quits within a half hour of uphill paddling but this time he didn’t complain and so we kept on going. After 2 hours, that warm sun still felt good but our upper arms and shoulders were in agony even after a brief time out at the state park dock. Going back downstream was a breeze! We still managed to see lots of different fish, turtles and birds but no otters and no gators this time!



As most of you have heard, seen on TV or experienced for yourselves, there has been a named winter storm that has just charged across the country. We haven’t had snow here but early Saturday morning and Sunday morning were both cold enough for snow. 29 and then 26 degrees! Our poor little heaters have been working overtime. A warm up is on the way! So is Christmas!

Florida Panhandle

 

Twin Lakes Resort is a quiet, woodsy little campground in the panhandle of Florida, just 10 miles NW of DeFuniak, Florida. Lots of oak and pine trees that are dropping lots of leaves and needles! The park host had to use his heavy duty leaf blower strapped on his back to clear off the debris from our campsite so we could at least see the green deck and the edge of the parking pad! After 2 days it was covered again! See our amaryllis pot sitting on the edge of the pad? The park is wedged between 2 pretty little lakes – both full of tree stumps and fish (according to the many pictures in the office!) Flocks of bluebirds bounce from the leafy floor to the multitude of branches above. Robins, woodpeckers, very vocal egrets and the resident trio of domestic gray geese also call this spot home! Not far from this spot is Ponce DeLeon Springs but we were the only ones on that gray overcast day who were there to admire this pretty little fresh water spring. The water was clear and you could see the roots as they dug down into the sand. So we set out to explore. DeFuniak because it is full of small quaint shops and historic old buildings that surround an almost perfectly round serene lake. Their Christmas parade did not come anywhere near the small town of Ida Michigan’s parade, but it had its share of fire trucks and police vehicles! Oh, yes - - and candy thrown all over! H and I kept the good chocolate and gave all the stale bubblegum and tormented tootsie rolls to the youngsters who sat next to us with their mom! One day we even found the beaches of the Gulf coast! Straight down Rt 331 was Blue Mountain - - never saw any blue mountains but the beaches were snow white and the crystal sand crunched under our feet! The only “mountain” part of the area was the high banks of reinforcements to protect the houses that sat up on their “cliffs”. On we went, pausing at several public beaches to see if they needed closer viewing. Thanks to H’s good eyes we stopped at one to watch a fella strap what looked like a huge fan or a small airboat prop to his back and like a 2 legged burro – carry it to the beach. Once he was hooked up to the awaiting parasail laying out straight on the beach, he walked into the wind and then flew up into the breezy bay air! Quite fascinating! On west we went then, to drive thru Topsail State Park/RESORT, and revisit Henderson Beach St Prk. Destin was our objective for the day to revisit the harbor and then watch the fondly remembered boat parade of our last trip thru this area! OK - - - here it is - - SPFB!! When I first retired from State Farm, we came to the panhandle then followed the Gulf road to Texas and got to see the boat parade while we were parked at beautiful Henderson Beach St Prk. The harbor has been built up and the lowly boardwalk is now a fancy walkway surrounded by shops and boutiques. We were there way to early in the day to wait till after dark and then drive 50/60 miles back to the campground. And if the area was now that commercial - - - could the parade be any better than the one in our memory??? I think not! We headed back “home” via yet another back road. H was napping in his recliner by the time the parade did start!

From DeFuniak it was back to the Gulf coast and points east. A stopover in Panama City Beach at a brightly colored tropical looking mall was in order to stretch or legs before we settled in at the Rustic Sands Campground in Mexico Beach, east of Panama City and Tyndal Air Force Base. Once we were settled in for the day, we headed back out to investigate the small town and to find the beach and fishing pier but the already gray sky got even darker. You could easily see the rain streaking down from the low hanging clouds out over the gulf. We found the pier and the downpour found us! 15 minutes later it had passed over and we gathered our sweatshirts around us and stepped over the puddles to go out on the long wet pier!



Had the weather been better we might have stayed another day but it was not to be, so back on Rt 98 to follow the coastline road thru Apalachicola. We were done with the Gulf for a while and the landscape had changed from beaches to deep forests. Over several rivers on thru many tall pinewoods we were heading for Old Town and a place to park for a day or so.

South Again

 

It’s December! It’s time for us to be back on the road! Imagine - H drove across 3 states in one day - - - From Michigan, across Ohio and on to Lexington Kentucky. Once we reach Florida – it’ll be 3 months of driving in ONE state!!

Our favorite Kentucky Horse Park Campground was hosting a “drive thru” Christmas light display that started in the campground area and then wound around and thru the enormous Horse Park area. H decided we should WALK the part of the bright colored animated display that ran around the perimeter of the campground. As we carefully stepped on and off the campsites and roadways, admiring the bright lights and trying to guess what each design was to represent, H saw the road leading from the campground area out and thru to the paddocks and arenas. It was lined with even bigger and brighter displays - 12 of them! Each big bold bank of flashing LED brilliance represented the 12 Days of Christmas. And, Yes, we had to sing the silly song to remember the rhyme of each verse! Then H realized how far we would have to walk to get to the rest of the displays and knew his feet would not make it that far and still have to walk all the way back. Sadly we turned around and found our way back to the “condo”.



Clinton Tennessee is ALWAYS our Saturday night stopover on our way to Florida so I can visit with my oldest son Steve and his family. Steve had to work and even tho he was tired, he did stop over and visited with us before heading home. Sunday He also had to work but the rest of us still met at Golden Girls Restaurant. Kayla’s little guy, Ethan is still a sweet chunk of toddler. Still Charlie Brown! But H was getting restless so we headed down I75 to Chattanooga where we turned right instead of turning left at Knoxville. Off of hectic I75 and all of truck traffic and across the NE corner of Georgia to Alabama we went. The traffic was better but the roadway was pits - pardon the pun! Pits and bumps and cracks!



Once to Alabama, we left Rt59 behind and picked up our favorite kind of road – two lane and country. The road led by farms with already harvested empty fields. The fields looked like soybean fields but there was a dusting of white everywhere. There were huge round hay like bales lining the sides of the fields, but these behemoths were white! And the roadway was dusted with white as tho it had just snowed and the passing cars had blown the dry powder to the side. Yep, it was cotton! We were soon climbing the narrow winding roads of the Talladega National Forest. This mountain range is the highest area in Alabama and is their Smokey Mountains. Once at the top of the ridge, the road traversed from one peak to the next, from north to south and the views from the overlooks were spectacular! The Cheaha State Park is located just NE of the historic town of Talladega and the park buildings were built by the CCC men back in the 30’s. Near the campground were a small lodge and a handicap accessible boardwalk that stretched out and over a rocky outcropping of large boulders.



In Montgomery, we spent 2 nights in a Passport America campground – Woods RV Park. A huge big field with 3 small trees and a bunch of resident FEMA trailers on site. Full hookups and good facilities but no picnic tables. It was a good place to park because we could easily drive downtown and to the zoo from its handy location right off the expressway.



Montgomery is the capitol of Alabama and they were just decorating it and the other downtown historic buildings. We parked at the Visitors Center, which was also the beautifully restored old red brick train station and explored on foot some of that area. Another spin around downtown to admire more stately old homes, we saw the signs for Dexter Street where Rev Martin Luther King preached and led the Civil Rights March. The Montgomery Zoo is also a pretty good zoo with all the needed animals – lions, tigers, elephants, and a herd of giraffes! A North American pen had bison, deer and a bull elk with romance on his mind! We even splurged and rode on the cute little red train that ran around the whole zoo.



Three days in Alabama? It’s time we get to Florida!

Ride in a 1929 Ford

Ride in a 1929 Ford

As a little girl back in the 1950’s, I can remember my father Charlie and my Uncle Ned, flying from the Ohio mainland to a small island in the western basin of Lake Erie in a small rumbling 3 prop plane. The two men would load their service cycles and gear into the plane and spend days on end out on the island, fishing and riding their motorbikes. The small town they flew from was Port Clinton, just 40 miles east of Toledo and nestled among a multitude of canals, ponds and creeks that all fed into the lake which was lined with summer cottages. The island was Middle Bass Island, home to the famous Perry Monument, which commemorates Commodore Perry’s victory in the war of 1812. The city on the island was known as Put in Bay, home to the world’s longest wooden Tavern bar and the world famous singer - Pat Daley. The Ford Tri-Motor airplane was built in 1929 in Dearborn Michigan and was affectionately known by us all as “the Tin Goose”.




In last weekend’s Toledo Blade Newspaper was an article on another one of the Ford Tri-Motor Airplanes that had been restored. The Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation was offering flights out of Port Clinton at the Erie-Ottawa County Airport. H felt he/we HAD to go ride the “Tin Goose”! Tuesday, July 3rd was the chosen date and we gathered up B&C to share in this latest adventure. Bud was concerned about Carol tho, as she has a tendency to get motion sickness, but she bravely joined in. The weather was unsettled as we left home and was still hazy and overcast with a slight threat of a storm when we reached the airport parking lot and learned that all flights had been delayed till conditions improved. No problem - Jolly Roger Restaurant for fresh Lake Erie Perch dinners and a bit of exploring around the area filled up our vacant time! As we moseyed back to the airport – the Tri-Motor roared overhead! H hurried now in earnest- he wanted to fly! In the back of the hanger where the Tri-Motor was flying out of, was yet another skeleton of a plane. The proceeds from the all the local flights were to be used to restore that plane which will be parked in a designated hanger at the brand new Liberty Aviation Museum! As we waited for the plane to land and taxi to the hanger, we were given a brief history of the aircraft. We found out that there were only 199 planes made and the one we would be flying in was # 58. The plane that I flew in as a child was #38 and was sold for parts for the other 6 remaining Tri-Motors in existence! The narrow 9-passenger cabin area had one seat on either side of an even narrower aisle. The pilot area was open to the passengers who could see him work the 2 big foot petals that controlled the rudders and brakes and 3 knobby handles, which controlled the speed of the plane. On the ceiling was a pretty good-sized crank handle that was for the plane’s horizontal trim. It was interesting to learn that the original plane had NO brakes because they were landed on grass, as there was no cement landing strip back then. Due to passenger liability laws today – these restored planes must have brakes! Thank you VERY much! One by one the large engines that hung right outside the cabin windows, was coughed to life and began their roar as each prop spun faster and faster. As the knobby handles were slowly pushed forward, the plane also moved forward and rumbled out onto the runway. Holding our breath and hoping we didn’t run out of runway before the laboring plane lifted off, we all sighed with relief as she slowly reached for the sky - just in time! We never did “reach the sky” – we rose just high enough to view the scenes below as though we were looking down at a miniature train setup! You could see the tiny cars on Rt 2 and the miniature boats coming and going out of the never ending ribbons of water that lead from a million boat docks out to the calm waters of Lake Erie. The water tower looked like a dainty pearl balanced on a tiny matchstick! All four of us were snapping pictures as fast as we could press our camera buttons. H took time out to check the airplane’s speed on his hand held GPS - 65 mph at takeoff, up to 100 mph in flight and landing at 73 mph! Safely back at the hanger we continued to bombard the pilot and co-pilot with questions before sadly exiting the plane, ducking as we went because the doorway was a small oval opening just barely 4 feet tall.

Of course, the day was topped off with a stop for ice cream on our way home!



On July 5th, the Ford Tri-Motor was to fly to Kalamazoo, Michigan and then return to its home base in Oshkosh, Wisconsin the following week. If you want to learn more, go to:

trimotorheritagefoundation.org or libertyaviationmuseum.org

Central Ohio

Central Ohio

It all started with Grandpa H taking our 2 grandsons tent camping and kayaking down in the Mohican area. The reports from each said they had a great time on the river and at the state park, swimming and cooking hotdogs along with Mac and cheese! Three of the four basic food groups, eh? Grandpa H came home with a 1-800 phone number to call for “FREE” camping at Wally World RV Resort! The hitch was that we had to take a 2-hour tour and listen to a sales pitch on buying into the resort. Since H has a firm grip on the word “NO” we decided to go down for our “Free” weekend. What could it hurt? Free camping, free lunch and free passes to camp at their other resorts!




Wally World Is an old campground/resort that has been taken over by Travel Resorts of America and is now selling memberships for admittance to all 6 of their resorts. For a much younger family, this deal may have been a good thing. However, it came with too many zeros to work for us! Our young tour guide was very friendly and the sales pitch was very soft sell. The park is still more rundown campground with crowded sites and less than adequate public facilities. The pool was great and we made good use of the putt-putt course. At the far end of the resort is the pick up point for one of the local canoe liveries and was a great source of entertainment since there was NO TV, NO radio and NO cell reception! Our awning-to-awning neighbors were a very nice younger couple with 3 well-behaved children and their children’s 3 well-behaved friends! The neighbor on our backside who came in on Friday, was a monster fifth wheel toy-hawler that just barely fit end to end on the pull thru lot. His slides were within 2 feet of our slide! Yes, our blinds stayed closed on that side of the condo. Their 3 big dogs let everyone know when anyone went past their territory!



Anyway, we arrived at the park on Thursday afternoon and proceeded to spend the rest of the day out exploring the beautiful rolling Amish farm country that surrounds Loudonville, Millersburg and Berlin Our evening was topped off with a refreshing swim and a round of putt putt. Friday morning, our little orange bubbles were slid into the water of the Mohican River at the River Run Canoe Livery and we headed down river to repeat the ride that Calvin and Levi took the week before! Like them, we also encountered really shallow areas with lots of rocks, hidden under churning water in the several rapids that broke up the boredom of the otherwise slow moving brown river. We knew to avoid the reversed white caps that meant a BIG rock was underneath and must be skirted around quickly! Friday afternoon was taken up with our “tour” and the day was topped off with us falling asleep while listening to one of H’s recorded books! Saturday was a crowded day on the river and we were glad to be sitting on the shore, watching all the drunks making fools of themselves, young folks dumping their canoes for the fun of it or dragging their tubes because it was faster than floating or novices getting really REALLY stuck on the biggest rock in the river! The canoe livery guys earned every bit of their pay that day! Those teenage boys were just as much fun to watch! So intent on goofing off between take out groups, they ignored the warnings that they had left the headlights turned on. When it was time to turn down the blaring radio and take the full load of canoes and rafts back to the livery, it was no surprise that the truck would not start! And when a young couple got stuck on that rock – all 10 teens huddled behind the truck and tried to smother their laughter. Not one of them offered to venture out and help the distraught couple!



Sunday was a beautiful day to take the winding (yes, sometimes gravel!) back roads down to Cumberland Ohio to visit “The Wilds”, one of the largest and most innovative wildlife conservation centers in the world. Located on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed strip mine land, it is home to more than 28 rare and endangered species from around the world in an open-range habitat. The “Safari Transport Pass” is an air-conditioned bus ride throughout the park with frequent stops to view and take pictures of all the extremely interesting animals. It was also the least expensive tour – especially when our Toledo Zoo Membership took off half of the cost! We could have taken an open-air vehicle or even a Zipline Safari that included 10 ziplines built into a series of observation platforms. Each guided zipline took you farther down the broad grassy slopes over the free grazing animals below. The temperatures got into the low 90’s so we were very thankful for the cool air on our bus. Our guide did a wonderful job and the neat thing was that there were only 4 of us on this tour! We saw Eland, and Oryx and Sable Antelope! Persian Onagers (wild donkeys!) and huge shaggy brown Bactrian Camels! Very stubborn Przewalski Wild Horses and several weird kinds of deer and strange looking cattle from Asia! Along with seeing the White Rhinos, the One Horned Asian Rhinos paraded right by our dusty tour bus. I kept snapping pictures, as they got closer! Besides all the hooved creatures and various birds, the animal list also included the African Wild Dogs, the Cheetahs and a pair of Dholes, which is a beautiful red fox like creature with a full thick black tail. Our young guide dropped us off back at the visitor center and it was a quick shuttle ride back to our dusty hot Big Blue truck. We cranked up the air conditioner and took the scenic, very winding Rt 83 back north and then to the campground, which was by then way less crowded from all the weekenders! We were just in time for another bunch of laps in the pool, followed by TWO rounds of putt-putt! I let H beat me the second round. We headed home on Monday to rest from our long weekend of travel! Now it’s time to get the bigger boat out and into the water. It’s time to go catch some fish. Just wait - - there’ll be another adventure next month!