The Savage Traveler: Winter 2014: Highlands Hammock

Thu. Jan. 30-Sat. Feb. 1: The rain that had been forecast moved in during the night and was to continue most of the next two days. We managed to pick-up camp without too many problems though and in a leisurely manner so we were on the road by soon after 11:00. Since it was raining, we weren’t in any hurry, and the GPS was taking us right past it, we decided to stop again at Tim’s Café and this time we both got the baked chicken special. We drove back roads with little traffic all the way to US27 and then it was only about 20 miles to Highlands Hammock. The rain was coming down in earnest as we pulled in so we did a minimal set-up in our rain jackets and hats and spent the rest of the afternoon doing more in between showers and reading, thankful for the room we have in our camper. We even took a little stroll during a lull in the rain. We are a couple of sites away from where Ross & Pat were last time we stayed here and have no one behind us, a single man living in a minivan on one side, and an empty site on the other. The rain let up for a few hours at dinner time and we walked down to the Recreation Center for their Spaghetti Dinner for $4 each. It was a good dinner for a good cause and we sat with a couple who had lived in Detroit and now lived in Florida. It was their first visit to the park and they were as pleased as we have been. They were interesting people who now camp in a 23 foot Ford Motor Home but used to pull a larger fifth wheel, which they took on a 7 month trip to Alaska! It was a nice evening and the rain help off until we got back to our camper for the night.

Although the rain was supposed to blow away and give us a beautiful weekend the forecast changed constantly and we heard showers all night long and into the morning. Marv made a big batch of apple cinnamon pancakes using a Jiffy muffin mix and we ate a late breakfast with the intent of an early dinner for a two meal day. We took another walk around the campground and found the camper of our friends from the night before (we never got each others’ names) and talked to him about the large limb that had just fallen on their roof. There didn’t seem to be any damage but I’m sure it sounded awful as it fell! A loud squawking in the wooded area behind them drew my attention and I spied two pileated woodpeckers drumming away on dead trees there.

Take my word for it--there are two pileated woodpeckers in this picture

Since the rain was now supposed to continue all day we drove to a nearby Cineplex and saw the movie “American Hustle”. Afterwards we found the South Florida State College Museum of Florida Art and Culture and perused their temporary exhibit “Crackers, Houses and Horses: Ron Haase, Mindy Colton, and Jon Krai”, and learned more about the prehistoric and Seminole history of the area in their permanent exhibit. Janice and Lou had told us about an historic hotel in nearby Avon Park called the Jacaranda where culinary students at SFSC prepare and serve a buffet lunch and dinner for the public. That seemed like a good place for an early supper so we joined loads of other seniors in the restored dining room. It was seafood night (unfortunately for Marv) and I had fried shrimp, crab cakes, a stuffed clam, and clam chowder. Marv had to make do with the fried chicken and so he allowed himself two dessertsJ. It wasn’t elegant but it was tasty and filling and we were happy to have helped out the local college. The rain had finally quit when we left there so we walked around the “Historic Downtown District” (tongue in cheek—we weren’t impressed) before returning to the campsite. The temperature was still near 70° so we sat under our awning and read for an hour or so before the smell of a nearby campfire that had had something unfortunate thrown on it sent us into the camper for the rest of the evening.

The Jacarada Hotel

It was cloudy but still in the sixties in the morning. The rest of the day was mostly cloudy with some peaks at the sun but the temperature went back up to 80° by the afternoon. The single man next door pulled out and we had a few minutes with no neighbors. Soon however a couple moved from another site into the empty one on our right. And eventually a big fifth wheel pulled into where the man had been, sandwiching us for the first time on this trip. We enjoyed coffee, corn bread and fresh strawberries from Lake City outdoors while we read the newspaper. I made a lunch to take in the bike pack, and a marinated salad for dinner. Then we headed out on our bikes. Over the next four-five hours we biked 5.5 miles on the paved road that circles the Hammock and walked 2.4 miles of trails. The water was much higher than the other times we’ve stayed here. We saw a frog, an alligator, two snakes, three ibis, and several pileated woodpeckers and little gray squirrels. Partway through we stopped and ate our wraps and veggies for lunch. When we got back to the campground we took a load of laundry over to wash and then listened to the Spartans lose to Georgetown at Madison Gardens in NYC. After I got a shower Marv grilled chicken and I made a rice mixture and added avocado and feta to the marinated vegetable salad and we enjoyed a great dinner. We need to make a quick get-away in the morning so we put away as much as we could and were happy we had when a light rain started up after we had finished. We got to bed early, having had a good, but very humid stay at Highlands Hammock.