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.
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| Summer is over! |
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| 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.
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| The Corps of Engineers knows how to do campsites! |
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| Enjoying the last of the warm weather |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Another pool with several springs |
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| 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.
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| O'Leno camp site |
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| Looking at the Santa Fe Sink, where the river goes underground |
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| The Santa Fe is a substantial river |
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| 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.
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| Rodman Campsite |
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| The Cross Florida Barge Canal |
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| 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.
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| 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 |
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| Coquina walls |
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| Historic St. Augustine |
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| Many homes were being raised up after recent flooding |
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| From atop the Bridge of Lions. Greg and his new yacht! |
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| The Bridge of Lions |
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| 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!
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| The Main Assembly Building |
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| The Apollo Control Room |
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| A Real Space Shuttle, Atlantis! |
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| All 1,000 simulator switches were worn out by little fingers |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| The south end of a northbound armadillo |
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| Gopher Tortoises trot along pretty fast! |
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| Resurrection Ferns before watering |
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| 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!
