Scenic dump? What were they thinking?

Friday March 7 & Saturday March 8, 2014
Rainbow Springs State Park
Dunnellon, Florida

 

 

I have a couple of leftover items from yesterday.

We took our time yesterday morning since our drive was only 90 miles.  In yesterday’s post, I described our leisurely good bye to Blue Spring.  We did finally get packed up and on the road.  The final things after we leave the site are to dump the tanks, put the dolly on the RV and the car on the dolly.

They all went smoothly and we were on our way.  But I do have to show these pictures of the dump site at Blue Springs.  It has its own picnic table.  Doesn’t seem much like a great lunch spot to me.  How about you?    I’d love to hear your ideas of why in the world this table is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On we go to Rainbow Springs…….from Spring to SpringS!

 

 

Rain and heavy thunderstorms were predicted for all day long on Thursday and we do some packing up in a light drizzle but then it stops. We have a bit of rain on our drive but it gives us a break mostly. We arrive in the early afternoon and get set up in our site before the serious rain sets in. It’s been a lucky rainy move day for us.

 

 

 

 

The rains really come down over night and on Friday it never warms up all day long. 

 

 

Overcast skies, breezy and chilly today meant that we pretty much hang around inside. We have Irish oatmeal chocked full of fresh strawberries, bananas and almonds.  David does a great job of cleaning the house while I work on various scenarios for where in the world we are going a month from now when our Florida reservations are over.  The big problem in that is David’s need for a major check up at a Myeloma Center in mid July, the 2nd anniversary of his stem cell transplant.  Now that he is not in remission any longer, these have become even more important.

 

Planning from now through mid July so we can be near a Myeloma Center is as much trouble as trying to get reservations at Florida State Parks.  And I thought I’d get two weeks off.  No such luck.  Now I’m planning summer AND next winter.  This full timing life is not all playing.  It’s just real life with a lot more fun usually.

 

I also call about my cell phone.  The GPS is no longer reliable and since that’s what we use for mapping nearly all the time, I am reluctantly going to replace it.  I have an unlimited data plan with Verizon and of course if I buy a NEW phone then I lose that as they don’t offer them any more.  I purchased insurance on my phone for just this situation so I’m having a “replacement” phone sent to me for the $100 deductible.  Unfortunately for me they no longer offer the HTC Thunderbolt which is my current phone which I love and I have to take an HTC ReZound which isn’t nearly as good IMO.   If any of you have this phone and love it please let me know.  I arranged to have the mail sent so I can get the new registrations for Winnona and Ruby.   It was a business day for me for sure.

I guess it’s a good thing it was a miserable weather day since we did get at least some of those ordinary life tasks taken care of  

 

 

Pretty frosty temperatures over Friday night (for Florida), but a beautiful day on Saturday.

 

 

 

On Saturday we wake up to a low of 37 degrees and I am totally convinced now that I came north in Florida too soon.  But these plans were made last year of course when David was in remission and we thought we’d be going west and wanted to get out to Moab in the spring not in the heat of the summer.   Things change and so do plans.  Flexible R Us.

This is the third day in a row that the front windows are totally fogged  and covered with water.  I take a towel to dry them off.  Don’t want that water running down onto the dash board.  I’m trying to determine the circumstances in which this happens and google tells me that there is too much moisture in the air.  DUH!   Other suggestions are that the dwelling is too “tight”.  Don’t think that’s Winnona’s problem.   Get a dehumidifier is suggested.   Sorry no storage room for that and no place to have it sitting around.  So we’re going to try the leave a window cracked idea and see if that works.  Anyone else have this problem?  Or have solved it?  At least it’s going to be in the mid 40’s tonight. 

 

 

It’s time for a walk around the park to see what if anything has changed since we were here last.

 

It’s a very nice morning so we head down to the boat launch, where we find 3 young fishermen attempting to bring home dinner.  We’ll bring the kayaks out here on our carts perhaps tomorrow and then leave them tied up here for future paddles rather than take them down and back every time.

There is some private property across from the boat launch here and up the river but eventually the land on both sides is part of the park and just beautiful.  I’m really looking forward to an early morning paddle while I’m here.  In 2010, there were otters on the river in front of me.  Crossing my fingers for this time.

 

On the way back, we stop in the campground store to look around.  They have a very nice selection of books on biking, kayaking and hiking in Florida as well as individual bike trail books and numerous things about the Florida Indians.  A good book selection.  They also have all sorts of snorkeling equipment, every sort of camping thing and fishing things as well as the normal gift shop items.  A really well stocked little store.

 

 

Next we hike  the “nature trail”.  I suspect it’s maybe a mile in total through the natural habitat of this area.  There is no real trail head, just an arrow so if you don’t know it’s there you miss it.  Along the way there are some nice benches which would be great places to spend some time and just be here.  Most of the pictures in this post are from this hike. 

It’s a bit too windy for a paddle on the river today so after lunch we head over to the head springs section of the park.  Rainbow Springs park has three sections.  One is the campground, another is the Tubing entrance used during the summer for tubing down the Rainbow River.  The park has a tram to take tubers up and down so they can assumedly ride over and over.  Having never been here in the summer, I don’t know much about that.  The main park entrance is about 6 miles by car from the campground.  Certainly not what you’d call convenient.  It is a former Florida private attraction in the same way that Silver Springs and De Leon Springs are.   I think it really is wonderful that the state ended up with these areas and turned them into parks and to a very large extent is trying to take them back to their natural state.

 

 

The main section of the park and the headsprings are a 6 mile drive away.

 

I sure wish there was a trail connecting the campground to the main park area so you could hike rather than drive over.  The distance would be fine on a bike but there are too many cars on the roads.

You can also kayak up to the park and headspring They have a boat take out there so we may do that tomorrow.

 

We have driven over to the main park which surrounds the headspring and walked its trails on other stays at Rainbow Springs but we’ve never been here this early in the year.  The park has some gorgeous flowers and trees which we have seen in bloom during other visits.  I don’t know what they might have in the winter.  

But when we drive up the long beautiful drive and approach the parking lots we see that they are FULL.   Totally full.  I’m amazed and then I realize it is a Saturday.  Ah……..   And then I see they are having an Arts festival today and tomorrow.  Neither of us is up for a walk among the crowds so we just turn around and head back.  We’ll come back on Monday.  That’s a luxury we have now and it’s wonderful.  So no pictures of those hikes until then.

 

 

 

 

Spring IS coming, Equinox is only twelve days away.

 

I know many of you have had an exceptionally difficult winter this year.  But take heart, despite the rather cold over night temperatures here spring is in the air and it’s coming your way.  We have seen signs of it on the nature trail this morning. It is a really pretty day so when we return from our failed attempt at hiking in the head springs area, I put a load of laundry in the machines which are just around the corner from our site at the bath house.  Very convenient and inexpensive.  $1.25 to wash and $1.25 to dry.  While I wait, I sit out on the patio mat and read in the sunshine.  Another wonderful luxury.

 

 

 

I hate to end on a sour note, but am I the only one who actually gets mad about this every time it happens?

 

Tonight is that ridiculous changing of the clock so now the sunrise will not happen until nearly 8 in the morning.  I hate having no morning.  I thought a 7:00 sunrise was too late but thankfully it was getting earlier and earlier.  But now we’ve just been set back nearly 2 months.   Morning is my favorite time.  I find it irritating to have my body clock messed up twice each year when no one can give me a good reason why we do this.  Why DO we do this?  It’s just absurd.  Lemmings come to mind.  And why doesn’t anyone else care?