Winter 2014--Lakeland

Tue. Feb. 25 & Wed. Feb. 26: By rising a bit early and working quickly we actually managed to leave the state park before Ann & Shelby! We wanted to get to Lakeland, buy tickets if possible for the Detroit Tigers’ first game, set-up in our new campground, and be back to the ballpark by 11:00. It turned out that the game, which appeared sold-out online, was a sort of Exhibition Exhibition—an annual first game VS the local Southern Florida College. So there were LOTS of tickets available and free parking for the game. We bought tickets and went to find Saddle Creek County Park. It was a few miles away on the other side of Lake Parker. There are only about 25 sites there, 2/3 of which are for trailers and the rest for tents only. But we had plenty to pick from and got set up on the bank of one of the many little bays or inlets of the apparently man made, square, lake maze-like, and island filled “lake”. As we popped the camper a small alligator swam down the inlet. We made it back in time to meet Ross & Pat Mack, John Sternberg and Ann & Shelby at Joker Marchant Stadium for the game. We were very early so we bought lunch to eat in our seats and then walked around the stadium for a while. Since there so many empty seats we moved into the grandstands under the roof for some shade and then enjoyed watching the Tigers basically cream the plucky college kids who must enjoy their chance to play against the “Big Boys”. They actually got three hits but no runs and were beaten 12-0, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The others left before the game was over but Marv and I moved down right behind home plate and stayed to the end. On the way back to the campground we got some groceries and got on the internet at McDonald’s before returning to make dinner and read until bedtime. We fell asleep with the windows open, listening to a chorus of frogs.

Joker Marchant stadium from the "cheap seats"

Old Friends: Ross, Marv & John

Cabrera was out on a fly ball

There was a threat of showers in the afternoon Wednesday but the morning was clear and mild so we enjoyed our coffee and read the newspaper on our tablets outdoors for the first time in a while. Then we drove the short distance to a public access site, inflated the kayak, and went for a paddle in the maze of islands and waterways. Luckily, we took the old GPS with us to make a track so we could find our way back! The area is teaming with water fowl that seemed to stake out favorite roosting areas by species, so that one area was mostly pelicans, one full of anhingas, another cormorants, etc. One can tell the favorite roosts by the leaves underneath “painted” white. There was one slow and quiet fishing boat, a couple fishing as we left the access site, and four people in full beekeeper’s gear working in an apiary on the ridge beside the lakeshore, but otherwise we paddled in blissful peace broken only by the noisy ibises, nearly hidden in the long reeds and grasses. After nearly two hours we had circled back and the winds had picked up so we headed to shore and put away the kayak. 

Pelicans a'Plenty!

It wasn't really this dark on the water, just cloudy

Tricolor heron--notice how blue the beak is!

We came in from the upper left and then made that crazy path

Our campsite at Saddle Creek County Park

After a quick lunch we drove to the nearby campus of Southern Florida College. In 1938 the president of the small private Methodist college on the banks of Lake Hollingsworth appealed to Frank Lloyd Wright to design a truly American campus promising to find the money to build it if he would agree. They both envisioned functional buildings made of local materials and not the ivy covered brick buildings that mimicked old English institutions. Wright accepted the challenge and designed 18 buildings, 12 of which were built under his direction. They employed the use of what he called “Textile Blocks”, which were concrete bricks formed in wood molds, and thousands of small pieces of colored glass. In 2013 one more building was built, a so called “usonian” that was intended to be faculty housing. It is now the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center and from it we began our self-guided walking tour of the 12 original buildings. After touring the site, Wright remarked that he envisioned buildings rising “out of the ground and into the light, a child of the sun”. The campus remains a very unique and remarkable collection of Wright’s work (the largest collection in the world of his buildings in one place) and they are mounting an ambitious campaign now to renovate and refurbish the buildings to continue to share them with the world.

Usonian House

Water Dome--unique in its time and before there were hydraulics to make it work as he intended

Classroom building beside the water dome

Chapel

Under the esplanade

Esplanade

From there it was a short drive to the Lakeland Library where I needed to work on completing a photo book using a good internet signal. We sat next to a large window overlooking Lake Bonny and as we worked the skies opened up once again and it absolutely poured, making us glad we were not still outside walking, or kayaking on the lake, or even just stuck in the camper at the campground. By the time we finished the rain had let up and we returned to the campground to make our dinner and begin packing for another move.

Winter 2014--Hillsborough State Park

Fri. Feb. 21-Mon. Feb. 24: It rained hard for part of our two and a half hour drive to Hillsborough River State Park but let up eventually as we got closer to the park after sharing a Subway sub for lunch. Ann and Shelby were partially set-up as we arrived and they had taken the shorter, outside site we reserved and left the inner loop, pull-through site for us. It was a nice site because there was only one other site for quite a way and it was open behind us for about 50 yards over to the bathhouse. Marv had picked the park because it sounded interesting to him and during our travels this time we had heard very good things about it from people who said it was one of their favorite Florida State parks. It was very full and no reservations or extensions were available. Hillsborough River is another CCC built park and, like Highlands Hammock, has a 2 mile one-way circular drive off of which are the campgrounds, several hiking trails, access to the river, and a large swimming pool (closed for the winter) with a café and concessions for snacks and bike, surrey, and canoe rentals. It was obviously going to be easy to fill our time in the park. We got set-up quickly and ate a snack so that we could flag down Ranger Jessica as she drove slowly through the campground to pick-up riders on a small tram car for a tour of the park. We all sat on benches in the open with no covering as she made stops at each of the trails and other points of interest to give an overview of the park. As we rode it began to sprinkle and then to rain a bit harder so she finished up the tour a bit more quickly than usual perhaps but it was still a good introduction. We ate dinner back at the campsite and played more games into the evening.

Our "chariot" was pulled by a pick-up truck

Saturday morning Ann and Shelby beat us in riding bikes to the café and getting tickets for the 2:00 tour of Fort Foster (more about that later). We all got on their weak but free WiFi and downloaded what we could. While we worked the skies opened up and it really poured down for a while, leaving us with very wet bike seats. Marv nicely rode back to the trailer and returned with plastic bags for all of us to cover the seats. We took all our electronic devices to the campers and rode around the other loops of the campgrounds before having lunch and relaxing a little. We left about an hour early to ride counter clockwise (the “right” way) around the loop and walked the 1.1 mile Baynard nature trail through the woods and along the river, reading the interpretive signs and enjoying being outdoors as the skies cleared and the temperature warmed. We timed it so we returned just in time to climb aboard the tram with Jessica as our guide once more and set off to explore the Fort. But just as we reached the gate on the park side of the road the skies opened up once again so she pulled over at the CCC building that is now a small museum and we all crowded under a shelter to wait out the short lived rain shower. When it let up we sat on the now very wet seats and continued across the busy highway and through two more gates to a parking lot a short way from the rebuilt fort. Fort Foster was built as one of a line of forts a days’ distance from one another during the Second Seminole War. This one was to guard the one bridge that crossed the Hillsborough River in that area. Going any other way added three days to ones journey so it was very logistically important. The fort was built by 300 soldiers but then was manned by only about 100. It was used for three years and abandoned every summer when the mosquitoes were too vicious. Using the children and teenagers who were along for the tour Jessica demonstrated items in the Officers’ Quarters, the Quartermaster’s Stores and the Infirmary, and how to fire the cannon. She didn’t really fire it but they do when they have twice yearly re-enactments at the Fort. We also walked to the sturdy bridge and looked over the edge where a sharp-eyed kid spotted a large water moccasin sunning itself on the bank. We got back in time to have a quick dinner and then rode our bikes to a campfire circle where a volunteer from Canada did an entertaining presentation of “Night Noises” demonstrating the calls of many birds, mammals, and amphibians with our old friend, Jessica, showing slides of the animals with a projector. By the time we returned to the campers one last time we had ridden 5.5 miles over the course of the day.

Ann & Peggy on the Suspension Bridge

Do you know what this is? Tea!! 

Sunday Shelby made pancakes for all of us before we rode our bikes around the circle again and took the trail to the Class 2 rapids along the river. The fog lifted late to reveal a beautiful day with not quite as many people as Saturday. Marv spotted the only alligator thus far, a big one swimming slowly along the opposite river bank. We rode back, bringing out in-park biking to 8.2 miles, and made lunch to eat while we watched the MSU/um basketball game. Marv got our TV set-up outside and we all watched as MSU was defeated for the second time this season by their cross state rivals. L By then we were more than ready to drive the vehicles the short way over to a launch site within the campground and put our kayaks into the river. The 1 to 1½ mph river currant makes it an easy paddle either direction. We went downstream for about 40 minutes, turned around and went upstream as far as we could to a small rapids just below the first wooden bridge in the park, then floated back to where we had put in. We saw a lot of water fowl, including an anhinga, egrets, ibis, and a tricolor heron, turtles, a few alligators including about 3 or 4 babies, and many fish in the murky waters below. It was a lovely way to get over the pain of defeat. Marv and I enjoyed red beans and rice with leftover grilled sausages cut-up in it for dinner and the four of us had our final dominoes match while we watched the Closing Ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in our camper.

Marv's alligator

Tricolor Heron

There wasn’t really a plan for Monday but we turned it into a wonderful day. After a long stop at a McDonald’s to catch up on email, newspapers, and blogging, we drove to Jill and Dan Bakers’ house on a creek/canal near Tampa. They are trying to sell the house and with its careful, tasteful staging and huge covered screen porch with a bar, a pool table, eating area, easy chairs, and swimming pool it seems like a resort property. We spent a lot of time enjoying the antics of 3 or 4 manatees in the canal directly in front of the house and they remained there the entire time we were with Jill & Dan. Jill made us a nice lunch of chicken salad and croissants with red velvet cupcakes for dessert and we spent several hours chatting and visiting these “old friends who are more like family” to quote Jill.

Manatees in the creek/canal

Dan, Ann, Jill & Shelby talk on the screened porch

We mentioned we thought we might go to Tarpon Springs before returning to the campground and Jill had good recommendations for our time there. Upon arriving we got tickets for the last available boat ride of the day at 6:00 from Spongeorama. We learned that Tarpon Springs calls itself the “Sponge Capital of the World” and the one main street on the water, Dodecanese Blvd., is reminiscent of a Greek coastal village. The restaurants and shops are all owned by Greeks and the sponge, shrimp, and fishing industries keep them in their Old World culture. On Jill’s recommendation we walked the length of the street to the waterfront and had dinner at Rusty Bellies. This seafood place is the culmination of three generations of a family and they offer fresh seafood they have caught themselves with a small fleet of crab, shrimp and fishing boats.  A mature, male Grouper can weigh up to 60 pounds and has a red colored underside so they are called “Rusty Bellies”; hence the restaurant name. I had a half pound of peel-your-own Gulf Shrimp and a half Greek Salad, Marv had a blackened Mahi-mahi sandwich and Ann & Shelby shared a seafood bucket with steamed shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, and a crab leg cluster, along with corn on the cob, a salad, and red skin potatoes. It was all delicious. After splitting a piece of Grandma’s key lime pie (them) and peanut butter pie (us) we all hurried back to catch the tour boat. Cap’n Dan was a little overly enthusiastic but we learned a lot about the history of Tarpon Springs and the area along the coast where the Greeks had settled. He took the boat beside a low osprey nest that had two parents apparently tending the eggs of their newest brood, through the passage of the Anclote River into the Gulf of Mexico, and out to Anclote Key. The Key is 3 miles long and a quarter of a mile wide and is a State Wildlife Preserve. There is a lighthouse whose automated, electric light can be seen for 19 miles and one ranger who lives alone on the island. We didn’t stop at the island but we got some wonderful pictures of the sunset behind the lighthouse before we returned to the dock at Tarpon Springs. As we re-entered the river a bottle nose dolphin swam beside the boat for a while. It seemed later than the 8:30 it was when we got back to the campground. We began preparations for leaving tomorrow and read in our camper until bedtime.

Dinner at Rusty Bellies

Osprey pair on their nest

Sunset at Anclote Island

Bottle Nose Dolphin

Winter 2014-Manatee Springs

Mon. Feb. 17-Thu. Feb. 21: Manatee Springs was only about 30 miles from Cedar Key. We bought breakfast at the Sunset Island Café while doing the laundry, broke camp, bought groceries and got to our campsite in time to have lunch there after setting up. We went the short distance to the spring and walked the boardwalk up to the Suwannee River but saw only birds, fish and turtles, no manatees. Ann and Shelby arrived before 6:00 as promised and after we ate dinner they went to the spring. We all finished setting up our camps and then played dominoes. Playing dominoes or card games was to be our every evening activity for our time together.

Way down upon the Suwanee River...

Turtles along the spring run

Our large campsite at Manatee Springs

Tuesday morning we all walked to the spring with our devices to use the WiFi available at the concession stand there, which became our everyday activity after breakfast. While we were there we saw a small manatee in the spring run that slowly made its way to the river. We spent the rest of the day at the park riding our bikes 2.75 miles on some of the trails and Marv, Ann & I went snorkeling in the spring. The air temperature was about 76° and the spring is always at 72° so Floridians wouldn’t even consider going in but it was fine with us.

Snorkeling in Manatee Springs

Sunset over the Suwanee River

After we got our internet fix on Wednesday Shelby drove all of us to Cedar Key. We visited the bald eagles and the ospreys and had lunch at Tony’s again. The whole time we were searching for a good place to put in our kayaks without much luck. We drove to the back of the old cemetery, thinking there might be access there, but only found a short cut to the nature boardwalk that we had walked with Oiens. We ran into a woman at the park there that had lived in Cedar Key for thirty years. She couldn’t think of anyplace we could put in and was very apologetic. But then she said, “Oh I know where you could go! Take state route 347 north about 5 miles to the Shell Mound Park.” It turned out to be there perfect spot! There is a small campground with a public access into a tidal waterway that opens to the Gulf of Mexico and is a National Wildlife Refuge. We paddled all the way up one shore to a large fishing pier, across the channel, and then back along the opposite shore before crossing back over to the access site. We saw lots of water fowl and wading birds and enjoyed the quiet area for nearly two hours with no other boats or watercraft to bother us. On the way back we drove the 7 mile nature loop through the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Key Nature Preserve but we saw only one alligator and one armadillo. By the time we got back to the campsite the spaghetti sauce I left simmering in the CrockPot tasted great to all four of us.

Paddling through the grasses in our inflatable kayaj

Great Blue heron

Our first armadillo of the trip

Each day at Manatee Springs the weather got warmer and sunnier. So on Thursday we drove north to Fanning Springs about 10 miles away. We had packed lunches and our swim gear and spent several hours swimming in the blue spring that is just a short run from the Suwannee River. We saw a couple of manatees in the run but nothing like the pictures on the bulletin board that showed as many as 11 right near the shore of the spring. There was a short nature/boardwalk to the bank of the Suwannee, which we walked and then stayed at the overlook to watch some kayakers come down the river and take out at the park. On our way home we stopped for ice cream before heading back to our campsites. That gave us the energy to ride our bikes 6.3 miles on more of their trails before dinner and games. Along the road and right at our campsites we enjoyed watching the practically tame deer that browse and wander without seeming to care about the human visitors to their home.

Ann & Peggy snorkeling in Fanning Springs

Marv & Ann snorkeling in Fanning Springs

Fanning Springs swimming area

Happy turtles on a log

Looking downstream on the Suwanee River

Ann & Shelby biking

Deer beside our camper

Thursday the weather was threatening as we picked up our camps. Ann was out early to take a picture of the biggest deer eating grass right next to our camper. As she sat and read a few raindrops fell and so we all finished quickly and headed over to the spring for a last visit. To our joy we found a very large manatee hanging out in the middle of the spring, floating and browsing and coming up to breathe as people took pictures from all around. Since Ann and Shelby had finished with the internet they said they were going to be on their way and we’d meet again at Hillsborough River State Park. Thunder was rumbling in the distance as we finished up and packed up our devices, when to our surprise Shelby returned saying that Ann was getting on her suit so she could swim with the manatee. And she proceeded to do just that. With her snorkel gear and flippers she entered the water. The manatee slowly circled around and swam right to her. She gave it a small three fingered pat and it swam away and down the spring run. We got lots of pictures and a short video to record her feat and then hurried back to the vehicles as the skies really opened up and the rain poured down.

(pictures of Ann snorkeling to follow) 

Winter 2014--Cedar Key

Fri. Feb. 14-Sun. Feb. 16: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! The camper was 32.5° and everything was covered with frost on Friday morning. Luckily, it warmed up pretty quickly with the bright sunshine, eventually topping out at about 60°. I took some video of Marv & Lou driving P.E.T.s in the parking lot and a couple pictures of Larry, who had come to say good-bye again, in front of the workshop with a P.E.T. Then we closed up our campers and hit the road to drive across the state to Cedar Key, on the Gulf shore, with a quick stop at the Gainesville Trader Joe’s.

Marv, Larry & Lou in front of the P.E.T. workshop

Sunset Island RV Park is the kind of place we would never, ever have discovered if we were on our own. But Lou & Janice had heard about it from someone in a campground on their last trip to Florida and definitely wanted to share the experience with us. It turned out to be a unique gathering of colorful souls all attracted to the “live and let live” attitude of everyone here. The park has 50+ campsites crammed together on the shore and a small stagnant inlet of one of the many small islands or “keys/cays” along the Gulf Coast. There are also a few motel rooms and a homey restaurant and convenience store. The tiny clubhouse has four unisex bathrooms with showers, a laundry room along the back, a large deck on the front, and a cavernous fireplace in which every night and each morning there is a fire going. Each evening when we were there people gathered by the fireplace to enjoy a very informal bluegrass jam session of whatever musicians show up. Some are quite accomplished and some are purely amateur but everyone seemed to have a good time. Friday night there was also a Potluck Dinner in which we took part. There are many volunteers who camp free in exchange for keeping up the park and it is hard but necessary to get a reservation to stay there because people tend to spend the entire winter. A traveling artist is in residence right now and she has painted murals and signs inside and out of the whole place with bright colors that add to the psychedelic feel. It was a great place to spend the weekend.

Sunset into the islands at the shore of the Gulf of Mexico

Jam session on Saturday night at the Club House

Saturday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM H. & CHUCK!!) we rode our bikes about a mile across two small bridges into Cedar Key. This tiny resort town was a booming metropolis of 3000 people back in the late 1800s drawing people first for the cedar, which was exported (and eventually depleted) to Germany by the Eberhard family to make pencils, and then for expensive, fine whisk brooms made from the fibers of Sabal Palms. Devastating hurricanes in 1896 and 1950 wiped away the industries and fisheries and now the population is about 500. Clam farming is a growing industry with small claims staked out and fiercely defended in the shallow waters around the keys. A few of the historical buildings still make up the old part of town a block or two off the water and there is a strip of new buildings, mostly restaurants, along the water’s edge. We intended to have lunch at Tony’s (more about that later) on the main corner of the old district but there was a half hour wait so instead we rode to the water’s edge and had lunch at Steamer’s where they are known for their local steamed clams. None of us elected to try them however, instead opting for blackened fish tacos (Janice & me), oyster po’ boy (Lou) & Pork Bar-B-Que sandwich (Marv). We were happy with our choices and Marv enjoyed the Florida IPA and I the Fish Head Midnight Oil (oatmeal coffee stout) to wash then down. Afterwards we walked through the small historical museum on the main street and then peddled north to the cemetery to walk the nature trail and boardwalk along the marsh where we watched skimmers and osprey over the water. By the time we got back we had ridden 5.88 miles. We were so full from lunch we were happy to make do with snack items and Happy Hour before going back to the club house to enjoy more music.

Marv, Peggy, Janice and Lou at Steamer's

Adult Bald Eagle by the nest

One juvenile in the nest and the adult nearby

St. Claire Witman home

Osprey on its nest

A smaller Bald Eagle perched on a tree right next to the road on our bike back to the campground

Sunday morning Marv made French Toast for all of us and then we hopped on our bikes and rode back to Cedar Key. We had better directions this time to find the Bald Eagle nest that is in the back yard of a small house at the edge of town. A woman there had a scope trained on the giant nest and we could plainly see a pair of juveniles with a huge adult standing guard on a branch nearby. From there it was a short peddle to the tiny Cedar Key State Park, which has a small museum mostly about the Natives and early European visitors to the area, the restored St. Clair Whitman cabin with Whitman’s collection of seashells and other natural specimens, and a few short nature trails. We walked to the water’s edge on one, saw a large osprey nest, and returned to watch the Bald Eagles some more before we went back to town to wait 25 minutes for lunch at Tony’s. They are famous for their Clam Chowder, made with local clams, which they have been making since 2005. They won the Newport, Rhode Island International Clam Chowder Competition for three years running before they were forced to retire from the competition and put into the Hall of Fame. Lou and I both had the rich, delicious Clam Chowder and it was well worth the wait. On our peddle back to the campground we saw a smaller Bald Eagle in a tree on the main road. Today’s ride had been 6.3 miles making it just over 12 miles of pleasant, easy Cedar Key biking. Janice and Lou loaded their bikes back on the van to return to Penney Farms for another week of volunteering. Marv and I stayed one more night at Cedar Key and went back for another evening of music at the club house. Each day had been sunnier and warmer with less wind than the day before so it had been an extremely pleasant stay!