Sunday, January 10, 2010
Chasshowitzka
Today is Sunday, January 10th. It’s COLD in Lithia Springs Florida. 28 degrees when I awoke this morning. Both heaters have been called into duty. We moved down from Chassahowitzka Wildlife Refuge Campground just south of Homosassa Springs yesterday and it’s a good thing we have because the temperatures there are in the teens this morning!
While camped in Chassawowitzka we revisited Homosassa Wildlife Park, found the ruins of the 1850 Yulee Sugar Mill, visited with friends whom I went to high school with, got the canoe off the roof of the Jeep and canoed/motored almost out to the Gulf on the warmest day of the week and on Friday, the coldest day of the week, finally got to go see the famous mermaids and see their shows at Weeki Wachee State Park. In Homosassa we ate at Riverview Seafood Café which was right ON the water and overlooked Monkey Island which was the home to 6 monkeys.
While camped in Chassawowitzka we revisited Homosassa Wildlife Park, found the ruins of the 1850 Yulee Sugar Mill, visited with friends whom I went to high school with, got the canoe off the roof of the Jeep and canoed/motored almost out to the Gulf on the warmest day of the week and on Friday, the coldest day of the week, finally got to go see the famous mermaids and see their shows at Weeki Wachee State Park. In Homosassa we ate at Riverview Seafood Café which was right ON the water and overlooked Monkey Island which was the home to 6 monkeys.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Homosassa Springs Fla.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! May this New Year be better for you than the last one! Our 2009 ended when the 11 o’clock news was over and H turned out the lights. The new year of 2010 looked just like how the last year ended – cold and wet! I thought we were in Florida to get warm and stay out of the cold damp weather! Silly me! The week between Christmas and New Years passed quickly – and other than a royal hassle with State Farm Bank over my “compromised” credit card – our week was pleasant, with me shopping with Sharon, dinners out with them and over to their home while H got to watch Ohio State win the Rose Bowl. We visited several times with Ruth and Jerry, which is always great!
We’ve moved west and south from Ocala to just south of Homosassa Springs Florida. We are in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Reserve at a county park, which is woodsy and kinda like a fishing camp on the river. It’s still COLD! For the last several nights we’ve unplugged the water hose so it wouldn’t freeze. It never made it up past 45 degrees Sunday and just barely 50 on Monday! Next to us is a couple in a tent who, until Sunday, didn’t even have a heater! They spent most of that night in their truck with the engine running. They finally went to Walmart for an electric heater. They have no air mattress - just 2 sleeping bags and we instructed them to zip them together to better keep the warmth in. H has also helped cover the tent with a tarp.
As we always do when we move to a new neighborhood where we’ve not been in a while, we go exploring. Saturday when we moved here, we found the grocery store and the closest wifi location. Sunday, after I baked some cookies (to help warm up the trailer?) we found Beale’s Outlet and Walmart and in spite of the cold – we returned to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park.
Winter coats, sweatshirts and hats helped but after a slow ride on an open pontoon boat we were chilled to the bone. Walking fast and ducking into different buildings helped! The zoo has been updated and remodeled since our last visit and the raised boardwalks guided our paths past the enclosures for the owls, bald eagles, the tiny Key Deer, the 3 red wolves, the BIG black bear and the slinky pacing cougar! The path went out and around the waterfowl displays, complete with beautiful wood ducks, whooping cranes, swans and the ever-squawking sand hill cranes! The Homosassa River actually starts there at the springs which is home to 6 VERY large 3000 lb female manatees and a kazillion swarming shiny fish, swimming round and round the under water observation area. Back at the campground the native birds were also putting on a late afternoon concert and we were treated to a great view of an enormous owl in the tree above us!
Monday’s journey led us south to Weeki Wachee State Park in hopes of seeing if the Mermaids had frozen. When we arrived we found out they have Mondays off. Rather than waste the trip we found Big Lots so H could replace the laptops mouse, lunch and a visit to Joann’s!! I needed my fabric fix! Back at the park, we invited our tenting neighbors, Ricky and Robin over for dinner and a respite from the cold, even if it was just for a few hours
We’ve moved west and south from Ocala to just south of Homosassa Springs Florida. We are in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Reserve at a county park, which is woodsy and kinda like a fishing camp on the river. It’s still COLD! For the last several nights we’ve unplugged the water hose so it wouldn’t freeze. It never made it up past 45 degrees Sunday and just barely 50 on Monday! Next to us is a couple in a tent who, until Sunday, didn’t even have a heater! They spent most of that night in their truck with the engine running. They finally went to Walmart for an electric heater. They have no air mattress - just 2 sleeping bags and we instructed them to zip them together to better keep the warmth in. H has also helped cover the tent with a tarp.
As we always do when we move to a new neighborhood where we’ve not been in a while, we go exploring. Saturday when we moved here, we found the grocery store and the closest wifi location. Sunday, after I baked some cookies (to help warm up the trailer?) we found Beale’s Outlet and Walmart and in spite of the cold – we returned to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park.
Winter coats, sweatshirts and hats helped but after a slow ride on an open pontoon boat we were chilled to the bone. Walking fast and ducking into different buildings helped! The zoo has been updated and remodeled since our last visit and the raised boardwalks guided our paths past the enclosures for the owls, bald eagles, the tiny Key Deer, the 3 red wolves, the BIG black bear and the slinky pacing cougar! The path went out and around the waterfowl displays, complete with beautiful wood ducks, whooping cranes, swans and the ever-squawking sand hill cranes! The Homosassa River actually starts there at the springs which is home to 6 VERY large 3000 lb female manatees and a kazillion swarming shiny fish, swimming round and round the under water observation area. Back at the campground the native birds were also putting on a late afternoon concert and we were treated to a great view of an enormous owl in the tree above us!
Monday’s journey led us south to Weeki Wachee State Park in hopes of seeing if the Mermaids had frozen. When we arrived we found out they have Mondays off. Rather than waste the trip we found Big Lots so H could replace the laptops mouse, lunch and a visit to Joann’s!! I needed my fabric fix! Back at the park, we invited our tenting neighbors, Ricky and Robin over for dinner and a respite from the cold, even if it was just for a few hours
Monday, December 28, 2009
Central Florida
MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL! We hope that your day was half as much fun as ours was! We’ve been here in Ross Prairie Campground for a week now and H says I need to blog.
The weather has been cool (50’s and 60’s during the day) and the heater has run all night on most nights. Wednesday, the 23rd, was projected to be the warmest and sunniest day of the week so we joined Jim and Nancy – you know - the folks from NC – and went canoeing up the Silver River which is one of our favorite rivers to venture up and back on. We strapped the two sturdy vessels together and had the little 2 horsepower motor in between. Picture a tiny but mighty tug boat pushing two passenger barges up the Ohio River! Since Nancy and I didn’t have to paddle, our cameras were busy – trying to capture for memory sake all the neat things and animals that we saw. Jim and H were busy navigating and spotting all the creatures for us - otters, pileated woodpeckers, kingfishers, herons (white, great blue, green, little blue and the one with the tuff on top!), egrets, coots, wood storks, lots of turtles, bunches of really big fish, MONKEYS and, of course, alligators!! Check out the baby one sitting proudly on top of Momma’s head!! There are otters actually under the roots of the tree in the one picture that H has posted! We tried to follow the glass bottom boat and listen to the tour driver tell about each spring that they went over but we were too far and it was harder to do with 2 canoes involved. But the springs are still deep blue and still amazing! On our way back down river, we each drifted and paddled on our own with a stop at the State Park canoe entrance. That’s when it happened. J & N’s canoe flipped over as they tried to re-enter it. Poor Nancy was drenched from top to bottom. Instead of finishing up the ride, she wisely chose to walk the half-mile back up the canoe path and return to their campsite in the Silver River State Park while Jim finished paddling back to the launch site with us. Yes, we have heard from them since and she is fine. We’ll canoe again someday!
Christmas Eve we went to worship with D&S at the church they attend and then joined a group of their friends to enjoy snacks and fun conversation afterwards. One of the couples is from Long Island NY so they were fun to chat with since we were just there in May! Wish I could have written with her accent when I wrote about eating hotdogs at Nathan’s last spring!
Christmas Day we were graciously invited to join Dick’s family at his daughter’s home again. And again we were treated as family! I didn’t get the coal this year - Dick did! Yee hah! H got his “Beer of the World” and the 4 guys all shared the Blueberry one and one of the Orange and Honeybee ones. That is - after we all had toasted each other with the Champaign and orange juice mixed drinks that Terry served in the large “Reindeer Juice” styrofoam cups! Before we all sat down to a wonderful dinner the poppers were passed out and all “popped”! Inside each was a paper crown and a small horn/whistle/kazoo kinda thing. H took the prestigious place of the conductor and between all the guffaws and giggles we each attempted to toot our whistle when our distinguished mystro pointed his baton our way. H plays a better dulcimer than we played our whistles but we had way more fun!
We’ll be staying here in Ross Prairie till the end of the year (?!) and then we will move over towards the Gulf. We have only visited with Jerry and Ruth twice and I hope to see them yet again before we leave. Monday is laundry day and hopefully Sharon and I will get some “Girl’s Only” shopping in.
The weather has been cool (50’s and 60’s during the day) and the heater has run all night on most nights. Wednesday, the 23rd, was projected to be the warmest and sunniest day of the week so we joined Jim and Nancy – you know - the folks from NC – and went canoeing up the Silver River which is one of our favorite rivers to venture up and back on. We strapped the two sturdy vessels together and had the little 2 horsepower motor in between. Picture a tiny but mighty tug boat pushing two passenger barges up the Ohio River! Since Nancy and I didn’t have to paddle, our cameras were busy – trying to capture for memory sake all the neat things and animals that we saw. Jim and H were busy navigating and spotting all the creatures for us - otters, pileated woodpeckers, kingfishers, herons (white, great blue, green, little blue and the one with the tuff on top!), egrets, coots, wood storks, lots of turtles, bunches of really big fish, MONKEYS and, of course, alligators!! Check out the baby one sitting proudly on top of Momma’s head!! There are otters actually under the roots of the tree in the one picture that H has posted! We tried to follow the glass bottom boat and listen to the tour driver tell about each spring that they went over but we were too far and it was harder to do with 2 canoes involved. But the springs are still deep blue and still amazing! On our way back down river, we each drifted and paddled on our own with a stop at the State Park canoe entrance. That’s when it happened. J & N’s canoe flipped over as they tried to re-enter it. Poor Nancy was drenched from top to bottom. Instead of finishing up the ride, she wisely chose to walk the half-mile back up the canoe path and return to their campsite in the Silver River State Park while Jim finished paddling back to the launch site with us. Yes, we have heard from them since and she is fine. We’ll canoe again someday!
Christmas Eve we went to worship with D&S at the church they attend and then joined a group of their friends to enjoy snacks and fun conversation afterwards. One of the couples is from Long Island NY so they were fun to chat with since we were just there in May! Wish I could have written with her accent when I wrote about eating hotdogs at Nathan’s last spring!
Christmas Day we were graciously invited to join Dick’s family at his daughter’s home again. And again we were treated as family! I didn’t get the coal this year - Dick did! Yee hah! H got his “Beer of the World” and the 4 guys all shared the Blueberry one and one of the Orange and Honeybee ones. That is - after we all had toasted each other with the Champaign and orange juice mixed drinks that Terry served in the large “Reindeer Juice” styrofoam cups! Before we all sat down to a wonderful dinner the poppers were passed out and all “popped”! Inside each was a paper crown and a small horn/whistle/kazoo kinda thing. H took the prestigious place of the conductor and between all the guffaws and giggles we each attempted to toot our whistle when our distinguished mystro pointed his baton our way. H plays a better dulcimer than we played our whistles but we had way more fun!
We’ll be staying here in Ross Prairie till the end of the year (?!) and then we will move over towards the Gulf. We have only visited with Jerry and Ruth twice and I hope to see them yet again before we leave. Monday is laundry day and hopefully Sharon and I will get some “Girl’s Only” shopping in.
Friday, December 18, 2009
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