Sun. Jan. 26-Wed. Jan. 29: We ate a quick breakfast at the Super 8
and then found the do-it-yourself carwash the desk clerk had told us about.
Because I was a “Lucky Time” winner when I put in our quarters we had more time
than we could use to wash the filthy, salty, grimy truck and camper. As we
drove along the temperatures rose slowly into the 60s by the time we got to
Lithia Springs County Park, which we had found two years ago on our winter
trip. It was nearly deserted and, even though many campsites are closed because
they are redoing them, we had plenty from which to choose. We picked the very
large pull-through on the point of the back loop from which we can’t see any
other people and set-up. There was a lot to do since the trailer was winterized
but since we arrived about 4:00 and had electricity and water at the site we
worked at it throughout the evening and managed quite nicely. Partway through
our set-up it began to drizzle very lightly but we were far enough along that
it didn’t really matter. Marv even managed to grill steaks for dinner while I
made mushroom rice mixture and salads so we had a really good “first” dinner. We
let a few people at home know we had arrived, watched some of the Pro Bowl, and
read for a quiet evening.
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| Site 22 |
It rained off and on all night
long but stayed in the fifties so we slept really well. As we got up and made
coffee and breakfast, the rain stopped, and the sun peaked out occasionally
while the temperature rose into the low seventies. It actually got a little
warm as we took our morning constitutional around the park, over to the deserted
spring, and back. The Host couple (Beverly and Joe) on our loop comes from
Shelby Township in Michigan and her sister-in-law, Sue Warren, lives next door
to JoAnn and Bob Hubbard. Small world! After lunch we hiked up the river trail
as far as it went. It is a very jungle-like area with patches of cypress swamp
full of knees that look like miniature graveyards. Along the way there was a
female Great Blue Heron settled in a tree contentedly grunting and watching the
river flow by with no concern for our presence. When we returned to the camper
a slight drizzle came on again. It was to continue the rest of the afternoon,
off and on. We began to make plans to see Larzeleres on Wednesday and Marv
continued to fuss with the camper. As we read outside under our awning the
Netlife Blimp flew over the campsite!
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| Lithia Springs |
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| Along the river |
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| Cypress knees |
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| "Our" Great Blue Heron |
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| See Snoopy? |
Tuesday was the day for which we
drove from Michigan through dreadful weather. A slight cloud cover blew off
while we ate fried eggs for breakfast and then it was sunny and warm enough to
sit out and enjoy our coffee and read the LSJ on our tablets in the sunshine.
When we got too warm we hopped on our bikes and rode over to see the spring,
where the County Sheriff’s Dive Team was doing some training in the 72° water—just
about the same as the air temperature by then. We took the trail along the
spring outlet past other, undeveloped springs and circled around to the park
gate, where there was a new parking area and an opening in the fence that led
to a paved pathway skirting a very large dry holding pond and stretching into
the distance. We rode a little ways and then decided to return to the campsite
to have lunch and apply sunblock. After eating we spent the next two hours
riding 8 miles of paved trail past oak hammocks and wetland areas. The first
part opened into a huge area that will be filled with houses but is just being
developed so there was nothing there for now. The model homes are being built at
the front of the area. That opened onto the main road, which we crossed, and
then continued riding through green areas for Fish Hawk Ranch that has mile
after mile of small subdivisions that back up to the boulevard and trails. It
was delightful to ride and, other than around the elementary school that was
just being released, we saw hardly any other people. Back at the campsite we
rested awhile and both showered before we made a rice and bean mixture to
finish off our vegetarian day for the week. The perfect weather was in complete
contrast to what we were hearing from home, where they had yet another day of
sub-zero temperatures and more snow and blowing. Not only that, but the cold
front extended all the way down to northern Florida. There was a little bit of
rain during the night as the temperatures slowly fell into the fifties. We
listened to the Spartans pull-out a win in a very close, exciting game in
overtime at Iowa and went to bed happy.
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| Peggy enjoying coffee, sunshine and the newspaper |
Wednesday we felt the brunt
of the cold front. It was cloudy all day and the temperatures slowly fell until
evening when it settled in the high forties. But we were prepared for the day. After
I made oatmeal for breakfast I browned onion and ground beef. I used half of it
to make chili in the little CrockPot and kept the other half to make spaghetti
sauce another day. Mary Anne and John Larzelere arrived right about 11:00 and
we visited for a bit before taking them over to see the spring. Then we all
went to Tim’s Café for what one of the Rangers had assured us was the best
southern cooking in the area. John had the spaghetti special, Mary Anne had
grilled grouper (3 large fillets), I had a grilled chicken chef salad and Marv
had the rib special and we were all mighty happy with our meals. Both couples
shared strawberry shortcake for dessert. Then Larzeleres headed on to St.
Augustine for a few days and we got some groceries before we returned to the
campground. Because the expected rain hadn’t started yet we chose to hike along
the river once again but this time there was no sign of our Heron friend. Soon
after we got back the rain did start and it rained pretty steadily for the rest
of the day and night. We read and Marv made corn bread which we enjoyed with
the chili. The evening news had extensive coverage of the ice and snow that had
shut-down Atlanta and Montgomery, where they had to keep thousands of school
children overnight in their classrooms because the roads were totally
impassable. We read on Facebook about friends who were stranded in cities
across the south and were trying to make their way to Florida but couldn’t
travel. And Rachel sent an email that said it took Michael 7 hours to get home
from work! We had really dodged a bullet in our travels! We watched some TV and
an episode of “News Hour” and went to bed, cozy in our little camper despite
the rain and cool temperatures. We had had a nice stay at Lithia Springs again
but will be ready to pack up the camper tomorrow and move 70 miles to another
favorite campground at Highlands Hammock State Park.
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| Marv, John and Mary Anne |
