Back to Maryland and South to Florida!- October into December 2018

Before we headed south, we took the short drive over to our old workplace, Geneva Point Center on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. We saw old friends and got to spend some time with our dear friend, Brenda, while she was finishing up her summer working there. We met Brenda our first summer workcamping there, worked for three summers with her at GPC, and two winters at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park in Florida. Since we've made the decision not to return to both places, we wanted to connect with her while we had the chance.

Summer is over!

Stopping at the Laundry shed to greet Dianne and Brenda.

We had no firm plans for the next week until we were due back in Maryland at our daughter's home. So we left Geneva Point Center on Tuesday, October 3^rd and after checking the weather and camping availability farther north, we started south. The weather was changing, campgrounds were closed or full due to the long holiday weekend, and we weren't sure where to go. After an overnight in another Flying J in Scranton, Pennsylvania we lucked into a first-come first-served campground at an Army Corps of Engineers site at Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania.


We had a well built, lovely secluded site in the woods, so we were able to leave the curtains open and enjoy the still green trees. We had more rain than we would like. Greg got a few bike rides in between the showers and it was nice to slow down for a few days without an agenda. On Monday, October 8^th we hitched up and returned to Maryland. It was a busy time with family and soon after, on October 22^nd, we were on the road again heading south as the colder weather slowly filtered into the Mid-Atlantic.

The Corps of Engineers knows how to do campsites!

Enjoying the last of the warm weather

The campers with Everything!

The three previous Falls we worked on the Amazon Camperforce in Indiana and Kentucky. This year we decided to take a break and relax after our busy summer in the West. The problem we then faced was, where to go? Originally we planned to slowly work our way down the East Coast as the weather cooled, through the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and into South Carolina, and Georgia, before spending some time in Florida. The two disastrous hurricanes this year changed all that. The parks were a mess on the Atlantic coast, and after the second hurricane struck the Florida Panhandle the week we were planning to make reservations there in the Florida state parks, we decided to just drive to Florida and figure it out from there. Since I am a Florida resident over 65 years-old, we can camp in the lovely Florida State Parks for half price. Get warm, slow down, and save money? What's not to like?


Our first night driving down I-95 brought us to Kenly, North Carolina to a repeat Flying J. The second night, we did our repeat stop at the Brunswick, Georgia Flying J. Greg had secured a five night reservation at Gilchrist Blue Spring State Park near Gainesville, Florida, so October 24^th found us checking into the small park.

Blue Spring really is blue!

Since the weekend was approaching and Florida parks fill up, we needed to split our reservation between two sites. We took advantage of hooking up to move sites, to also drive the 15 miles to O'Leno State Park to dump tanks. At check-in we discovered that Blue Spring had no dump station. The small park had been a state park for only a year, but a private park for decades. It was being brought up to state park standards, but the dump station was still missing. After dumping and relocating to a new site, we spent the afternoon driving the 30 miles to Lake City to the Camping World to buy a new electric surge protector. Ours blew out after 6 years on the road. It protects our electrical system from stray surges coming from our outside electrical hook-ups at campgrounds. Don't want to fry our system!


After the rainy, gloomy weather moved out we explored the natural pool and the trails. It was too cool for us to consider swimming, even though the spring was 72 degrees. It was fun to be in a completely different ecosystem after our summer in the Pacific Northwest. Palms trees, Spanish moss, huge spiders, colorful lichen, sand, vines and year-round greenery surrounded us.

Another pool with several springs

Friendly local resident

During our time at Blue Spring we needed to make reservations for the rest of our time in Florida. State Park campgrounds were full, probably because the Panhandle parks popular this time of year were closed due to hurricane damage. Everyone was being forced into the parks in the rest of the state. It was still hot in Florida, so we wanted to stay as far north in the state as we could. Slowly we pieced together a few days here and there. The longer stays necessitated moving around campsites in the parks.


We needed to come back to Maryland from November 23^th through December 2^nd for family obligations. Then we would return and stay in Florida until December 19^th and go back north for the holidays. We hate having to make reservations anywhere, especially during a time we wanted to spontaneously wander, but, Florida left us no choice but to reserve sites.


After Gilchrist Blue Spring, on October 29^th we moved over to O'Leno State Park close by. It is one of the oldest state parks in Florida. The Santa Fe River runs into the park and goes underground for over three miles before it reemerges in the southern end of the park at the River Rise. The buildings are old CCC work and there are the remains of a dam and a mill. Otherwise, it is a ghost town. We had a quiet campsite in the woods. Greg had some long bike rides, his fat tire bike was great for the sand, and he rode to the end of the trail to find the re-emerging Santa Fe River.

O'Leno camp site

Looking at the Santa Fe Sink, where the river goes underground

The Santa Fe is a substantial river

Hiker bridge at O'Leno State Park

Our next stop, November 3^rd, was the Rodman Campground along the Cross Florida Greenway which contains the Cross Florida Barge Canal. The canal and locks were built in the 1960's but never completed the rest of the way across the state. We spent four nights and spotted two pairs of manatees swimming swiftly up the canal, a herd of deer, gopher tortoises, more orb weaver spiders, and lots of insects! Greg explored the Marjorie Harris Carr Greenway on his bike.

Rodman Campsite

The Cross Florida Barge Canal

The Corps constantly battles the hyacinth on the canal

November 5^th we checked into Tomoka State Park across the Halifax River from Ormond Beach on the Atlantic Coast. We split nine nights between two campsites. This was the first park we have camped in before, so we were looking forward to revisiting a park we enjoy. By relocating farther south and along the coast, we moved into a moister environment. This is the park of lizards and tree frogs, and we saw our first ever venomous coral snake.

Don't pet the Coral Snake!

The location also gave us the opportunity for day trips. November 10^th we ventured north into St. Augustine. We explored the old town and had lunch at a Cuban restaurant and gelato for dessert at Le Macaron. We left the crowds behind and explored the back streets and the waterfront. We hiked across the Bridge of Lions drawbridge and ended the day at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, where we rejoined the crowds to tour the old fort.

Scenes from St. Augustine

Gelato

Coquina walls

 

Historic St. Augustine

Many homes were being raised up after recent flooding

From atop the Bridge of Lions. Greg and his new yacht!

The Bridge of Lions

The old Fort

November 14th we made the drive south along the coast to the Kennedy Space Center and toured the complex. There was so much to see and we especially enjoyed the tour of the Apollo program with the original control room and the Saturn 5 rocket. The Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit was another highlight, and we toured the Mars exhibit. There was way too much to see in one day!

The Main Assembly Building

The Apollo Control Room

A Real Space Shuttle, Atlantis!

All 1,000 simulator switches were worn out by little fingers

Even NASA bought Airstreams!

 

Back at Tomoka Greg did his bike rides and we walked through the park and checked out the convergence of the Halifax and Tomoka Rivers.

Rental Kayaks at Tomoka

 

The only manatee we saw at Tomoka

The beach parks were all booked, but we found one site for one night, November 16, at Sebastian Inlet State Park near Melbourne on the Atlantic Coast. That put us close to Greg's brother, Rob, and we were able to celebrate his wife Joanne's birthday with them. We had a great dinner at Skewers and returned to a quiet night in the campground. The next morning we took a short walk to check out the inlet and enjoyed the waves, boats, shorebirds, and view before moving inland to Lake Kissimmee State Park for three nights on two sites.

Sebastian Inlet

 

Sea Grape

We had never been there before, but were curious to check it out. During my three winters volunteering at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park just north of Lake Okeechobee, I fielded a lot of phone calls from people confused about the similar names of the two parks. Occasionally a camper would roll into our park insisting they had a reservation with us. When we couldn't find it in our system, we would discover that they had come a long distance to the wrong park.

Lake Kissimmee campsite

The campground at Lake Kissimmee was one of the nicest we've camped in. The old growth Live Oak trees in the sites were huge, beautiful, and draped in Spanish Moss. Greg took off on his bike to explore. The rest of the park was nice, but we discovered that there was no access to the lake without a boat to traverse the narrow canal to the lake. The picnic area had a three-story tower to climb that gave a high view over the grass and marshes to the lake quite a ways off. We had a closer view of the lake from the highway some miles away while driving there.

Florida Prairie stretching out to Lake Kissimmee

The highlight of Lake Kissimmee were the easy to see gopher tortoises and the armadillos. It was fun to watch the armadillos snuffling with their long snouts under the leaf litter by the campsite, looking for insects, while the armored body protected its back. Our campsite came with a beautiful live oak tree covered in resurrection ferns. It had been dry in the interior of the state and the ferns on the limbs were shriveled and brown. A good rain causes them to be resurrected overnight and turn lush and green. Greg was missing his garden and the scientist in him couldn't resist watering them to see what would happen. So, on one side on two branches of the tree the ferns were oddly lush and green!

The south end of a northbound armadillo

Gopher Tortoises trot along pretty fast!

Resurrection Ferns before watering

After Watering

By November 20^th we were down to our last two parks before heading to Maryland. We traversed north to Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park for two nights. Again we got the only campsite left. It was Thanksgiving week and Floridians love their holiday camping, so it was a struggle to find room. We had camped a couple times at Gold Head before, but this time wound up in the only campsite we have ever been in which was also a power line right of way! After two nights we left Thanksgiving morning for the only campground in the state with an empty site, back at Gilchrist Blue Spring State Park.

Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park camp site

We were going to clean out the fridge and cook whatever was left in it for Thanksgiving dinner. There wasn't much, and we didn't want leftovers since we were leaving the next morning. We got a last minute reservation for the Thanksgiving buffet at the Great Outdoors Restaurant in High Springs, Florida, a few miles from the park. The only table left was outside on the terrace, so we were hoping for good weather. It was overcast and in the 60's, but no rain and no hot sun. The only threat were the vultures circling high overhead. We have had our windshield “bombed” by a high flying vulture. Didn't want to be “plopped” on for Thanksgiving!

Outdoor Thanksgiving

 

After too much food, we went back to our campsite to pack and get ready to get up early, hitch up, and drive the trailer an hour and a half to a storage lot. We were leaving the trailer in Florida for the trek north. By 9 am the next day, the trailer was secured and we started the long trek back up I-95 to Maryland. We arrived there twelve hours later and settled in for a week of family time!