Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

 

 

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

 

 

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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. 

 

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

 

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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.

 

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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? 

29 comments:

  1. Well, Arizona stays on MST year round. We just have to remember to relate to others in a different timeframe. The picnic table may be at the dump station to provide a place to do chores of some kind at a convenient height.

    Virtual hugs,

    Judie

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  2. we were really wondering about that table by the RV dump station at blue springs, Sherry. No better answer than yours! Glad you didn't get a lot of bad rain on your move day. Hang in there and enjoy as much as you can before your month of reservations ends.

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  3. Hate to put a damper on your thoughts but...we are thrilled with the time change. We aren't early morning movers. As a matter of fact, the only sunrises that we see are if we have to an early airport run. I love having the extra hour in the evening. Now we can actually make a sunset without having to interrupt or take dinner along. But we have found most RVers are more of the early morning variety. Sorry you will have a late start to your morning.

    I hope you see some otters. Take lots of photos! They are my favorite!!

    Good luck with your planning for the summer. Hope all works out. David is the number one priority now.

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  4. I love Rainbow Springs, enjoy your stay there. I take it Moab is no longer in your plans :-(. I just made reservations there for a week in May and had a difficult time getting one, had to juggle my time around. It would have been cool to meet you there after constantly missing you in Florida!

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  5. RE: your phone. We had the same problem and after four attempts with four service / phone techs helping me, our Verizon Navigator works again. Keep calling them and maybe you will be able to get yours working again.

    Do you have a fan that can blow on the windows? That helped us in December.

    That nature trail looks mighty inviting!

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  6. We'd be happy with DST all year. Rather have it stay light later and be dark in the morning, but then we don't get moving too early like you do!

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  7. Well, we care sherry, we just don't know how to make a change. No one asks our opinion or lets us vote on it... it is just arbitrarily set. Isn't it so that people who work.... outside, outdoors, have more daylight hours to do their jobs?? effectively??

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  8. A table at a dump station?..Hmm..Maybe it's for the people stuck behind someone who takes 30 min to do what takes me 5 minutes at the most. That way they can get a deck of cards out and play solitare or a few hands of Hearts....
    David

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  9. I agree with Luci and Loree. We do care but don't know how to make a change! I thought Daylight Savings Time was to have it be light later in the day for when kids get off school

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  10. I was under the impression that DST was set up to give farmers more daylight during the planting, growing, and harvesting seasons. It used to be that rural counties of a state would go on DST while some others would not. But that was a long time ago, and a totally different reason applied.

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  11. If you live in Seattle, you love DST. We spend all winter going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Having the extra daylight in the evening is just heaven. It's probably not so advantageous in Florida, but in the north it's wonderful.

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  12. Sherry, if you all come to the beaches in North Florida in your soon to be travels, let me know and I would love to drive down to see you all! Even though I hate the time changes when they roll around, I do appreciate having more daylight time when I get home from work to enjoy being outside.

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  13. Enjoy your stay at Rainbow- I don't like DST either but I like it better now that I retired.

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  14. That table is random! At least it isn't a campsite-yuck! Ordinary day stuff -ugh. At least you got to enjoy rain on the coach roof- that is nice. I love the picture with the flower and the brown oak leaf. I see sunrise at 7:25 on my drive to the train now. Cloudy today, but some orange coming through - I wish they'd leave the time alone, but more light after work is ok, I suppose.

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  15. Here is a Web Site that explains the reasoning behind DST http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html

    I do not like DST, but that's because I am a morning person and DST was designed to make more daylight available later in the day. So of course, it is darker later in the mornng;o(( Does not work with my daily rythm!!

    As for the table at the dump.... can't figure that one!!!!

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  16. I guess the DST is something we all have to get used to whether we're thrilled with it or not. I guess it's all relative. Rainbow Springs I hear is just beautiful. Haven't gotten there yet!

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  17. I would check with Verizon on your unlimited data plan. I have AT&T with the unlimited data and when I upgrade phones the unlimited data stays. It is your phone plan that offers(no longer of course) the unlimited data and not the particular phone that you are using, at least that is the way it is with AT&T. I have been researching this as I am having thoughts of giving up the unlimited data plan to go to a mobile sharing plan with shared data across all devices. We have four devices all with individual data plans and I could save $ by going to the share plan. My air card is one of the devices and I go over my 5GB almost every month so shared data might prevent that as the other devices never get close to their limits.

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  18. Not sure where the Myeloma centers are (does that mean back to Tampa?) and I know you've explored this area significantly, but would love to see you spend some time in East TN i.e. the Smokies! And I totally hear you on the DST. As an obnoxious morning person myself, I hate that it's after 8 before much daylight happens.

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  19. The ONLY explanation is it must have been a picnic area first, and later they added the dump site, and even that doesn't seem possible. They must not have been thinking at all is probably the best answer.

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  20. Oh Sherry I'm grandfathered in too and dread the day my ole' Droid HTC wears out. Never thought of insurance....I might have to look into that and how that works. Sure don't want to pay full price for a new phone... Route planning...I wish it was easier, in fact that we could just get in the rig and know there is a spot wherever our little heart desired...I always struggle with that part. In fact so much today, I said forget we are going to the beach ALL DAY!! Of course I think Florida should give you a free pass anywhere for the entire year the way you love it and have shown the beauty of it! In fact they outta pay ya! :O)

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  21. Let me clarify on DST. I don't care which one we have, let's just keep it and stop the switching back and forth. Thanks for the link Nancy. I've heard about the controversy over energy savings but the if DST is so great then why do we have to switch back?

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  22. And here I thought you weren't going to mention how you hate DST... until I got to the last paragraph. ;) Personally, I like it. It shortens the long dark evenings for me.

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  23. I just seen on the news that Florida has a bill in now that will
    put Florida on DLS all year...that works for me...but I don't mind
    the change...if it passes it will go in effect in July of this year...I was
    suppose to be at Rainbow Springs with the WomenRV friends..but didn't
    make it...sure would have been nice to meet you and David...have a great day!

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  24. I'm with you, one way or the other on DST.

    I think that picnic table by the dump station is so you have a place to hang out when the guy dumping in front of you flushes and dumps his tanks for the tenth time. Yep, I've run across a couple of people like that (and wished I had a picnic table to sit on while waiting and waiting and waiting... ).

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  25. Add me to your list of DST lovers. I love those extra hours of sunlight in the evening. I did think it rather odd to be switching to DST when there is still some snow on the ground (from the piles of snow), but whatever. Hope that you're having a grand and warm time at this new spot. Have fun!

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  26. I dislike the time changes too... said so many times and like you ... don't care which one 'they' decide on ... just decide on one....

    However ... as I've said many times tooooo ... I'm retired and I get up without a clock... go to bed without a clock. If I have to be somewhere is the only time i give a rat's ass about what time it is. just don't care what time it is.

    I get up when I get up and go to bed when I go to bed... if there's a TV show or a something I want to see ... doesn't make any difference to me if it's light or dark.

    I am delighted to be at that time of my life where I don't care what time it is. yay, me!

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  27. Ha! I always laugh when people say that we're on "vacation" -- I agree with you, this is real life, albeit with a lot of fun. Nine months into full-timing, and we've just extended our journey indefinitely. Like you, we're trying to figure out where to go next month -- big decisions, and we've made NO reservations yet. Uh-oh. Can't wait to hear what your plans are! And we would still love to meet up with you this month when you return to the Panhandle! :-)

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  28. When I went walking up High St. to do my lunch time hike, I saw some crocus ready to bloom. It was supposed to be 65 yesterday but it took all day to feel warm. Today is supposed to be 69- right now it's cloudy. I meant to ask, you have not complained about bugs lately. Are you having fun without having to fight with mosquitos and such? xxxooo

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  29. Another reason to come out to Arizona!

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