Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

We had a quiet day today, walking around the park, spending some time in the pool, and playing some pool. Tonight we watched a DVD from the park library, Slumdog Millionaire. We're just a little late watching this very popular and critically acclaimed movie. It came out in 2008 and won lots of awards in 2008 and 2009. We were engaged by the film from the beginning, but I had to look away a few times because of some pretty graphic violence. Not quite what I expected after seeing that one critic called it the "feel-good movie of the year."

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Visiting Geraldine and a Trip to Honeymoon Island

We drove over to Dunedin this morning to Mease Manor to see Ken's stepmother, Geraldine. Dunedin is a small town near the Gulf, just north of Clearwater. It's where Ken's dad and Geraldine retired to, and it's a great place to retire.

Geraldine moved to Mease Manor, a retirement community in Dunedin, ten years ago. She was in the independent living section until earlier this year, when she moved into the assisted living section. Basically that means she just moved from the sixth floor to the third floor, to a nearly identical apartment.

It's been almost nine years since we last visited--how did the years get away from us? We had invited Geraldine to go out to lunch with us, but she preferred to stay on campus and eat in the Mease Manor main dining room, so she ended up treating us to a lovely meal. We talked about her family and our kids and grandkids. Of course we talked about her health. She is 97 this year and has problems with hearing and eyesight and with her short term memory, but is otherwise doing quite well. She uses a walker to get around now. She likes to listen to the radio on her Sony Walkman, and she has a player and talking books from the Florida Blind Services.

After a nice visit, we said goodbye to Geraldine about 3:00 p.m. and headed to nearby Honeymoon Island State Park. Our first stop there was the Nature Center. We watched some short videos about the park and viewed the exhibits and picked up a map of the Osprey Trail at the north end of the island. We decided to go first to the beach and spend some time on the white sand and in the warm blue green water of the Gulf.

After a bit we decided to change and go for a hike on the Osprey Trail. We had been warned that the Skeeter level was "ugly" (think "the good, the bad, and the ugly"), so we put on plenty of bug spray. The trail was broad, level, and easy to follow, though for one section we did run into muddy conditions. Our Deet evidently kept the mosquitoes at bay, so we were able to enjoy the scenery, and the critters. We saw two raccoons. Both scurried into the underbrush when they heard us coming. We saw lots of osprey nests high in the pine snags and one osprey, though it was a bit far away to be sure. We saw an eagle's nest, but no bald eagles. Nesting season here is in the winter.

The one critter that did pose for the camera was this gopher tortoise, which was about ten inches in diameter. They dig extensive burrows underground, which then provide homes not only for the tortoises, but for lots of other species as well.

We saw lots of different kinds of butterflies and many great egrets. As we walked along, we heard thunder rumbling in the distance, but never felt any rain. We finished our hike of 2.3 miles at 6:20 p.m. and headed home.

As we drove home we were treated to a beautiful rainbow arching across the sky. It persisted for quite a while, and we thought we would probably catch up with the rain, but we never did, although we came to some very wet streets.

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Shopping

Guess you can tell we didn't do anything exciting today. We went out to find the Sunshine Natural Market that was supposed to be on US 41 near us, but no luck. They must have gone out of business, because we got no answer when we tried calling. So we stopped at Big Lots instead--just not the same.

After lunch we went grocery shopping. While we were at the checkout, a downpour started, so we waited a bit for it to slow down. I finally decided that it had let up a bit and I wouldn't melt, so I made a run for it and picked up Ken and the groceries at the door.

This evening we hung out at the pool for a bit and even did some lap swimming. The water felt like very warm bath water.

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Quiet Monday

Another hot day today, so we weren't terribly motivated to get out and do anything. We did do our laundry, but that's about it. Ken talked to customer service at Mor/Ryde about our TV lift, which has been wonky a couple of times lately. They transferred him to engineering, and the guy there decided that we need a new control module, which they are shipping out. We figured out that Postnet would accept the Fedex shipment for us at a very nominal fee--only $1--so we're having it shipped there.

Ken talked with his stepmom, Geraldine, today. He's been calling and leaving messages and not hearing back, so today he called Geraldine's daughter in New Hampshire, Sandra, and found out that Geraldine has moved to a new apartment in the assisted living area of Mease Manor and has a new phone number. We've made plans to visit her on Wednesday to take her out to lunch.

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Another Moving Day

We went for a final walk around Sumter Oaks this morning. We stopped to thank the manager, Al, for a nice stay and for the special delivery of our package. The resident sandhill cranes showed up to give Ken a photo op. They are a pair with their one year old juveniles. The mom and pop can be identified by the red coloring on their faces.

We had a short trip and got set up in our new site near Tampa. We're hoping to see Geraldine, Ken's stepmother, who turned 97 this year, soon.

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Withlacoochee State Trail, Part II

We got up early this morning again and headed out to bike more of the Withlacoochee State Trail. This time we started at the Ridge Manor Trailhead. After we parked and took our bikes off the rack, we biked towards the south terminus of the trail at Owensboro Junction Trailhead, about six miles south. We immediately came to this bridge which crosses over US 98/Cortez Boulevard. The approach to the bridge is uphill, actually the steepest grade on the whole trail. Good way to start the day.

We pedaled through shady forest on our way to the southern terminus.

Although we have read that there are 255 of these bluebird houses, this is the highest numbered one we saw. They were all constructed, placed, and maintained by one man, a dedicated retiree.

On our way back north, we veered off the trail a bit to see this tiny post office in Trilby, FL. Trilby got its name from the fact that three active railroads crossed here. It was a boom town during the phosphate mining era of the 19th century.

Now it isn't phosphate but retail that provides jobs in this area. Along the trail for nearly half a mile stretches this Wal-Mart distribution center.

We passed through the Ridge Manor trailhead area on our way north and kept going, biking past the Withlacoochee State Forest and passing through cypress swamp. We came to a sign marking the "River Trail," so of course we took it, through the forest to the banks of the Withlacoochee River (or at least a tributary). We looked for alligators, but no luck.

Since the trail is named for the Withlacoochee River, we actually expected to have more views of the river, but the forest and swamp are thick enough that even when we were close to the river, we couldn't see it.

By the time our legs were complaining, but we pressed on to Lake Townsen Regional Park, where we stopped for lunch. It was here that we finally saw some horses. An equestrian trail parallels the rail-trail, but we hadn't seen any riders.

On the way back Ken suddenly started seeing lots of gopher tortoises on the trail or next to it. One just casually kept chomping on the vegetation as we passed. It was getting later in the day, the sun was higher, we were hot and tired, so it was with real relief that we finally spotted our truck. We rode 31.9 miles at a moving average of 8.5 mph. We started riding around 8:30 a.m. and reached the truck around 1:40 p.m. Ahhh, air conditioning!

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Withlacoochee State Trail, Part 1

We've had our eye on the Withlacoochee State Trail for a while now, since we started researching what there is to do around Bushnell (where the Escapees park we are staying at is located). Here's the description from the Florida State Parks website:

At 46 miles in length, the Withlacoochee State Trail is presently the longest paved rail-trail in Florida. With a generally flat terrain and many access points, the trail is an ideal venue for all skill and fitness levels of cycling, running, walking and skating and an unpaved equestrian trail parallels portions of the paved trail. The trail corridor traverses three counties (Citrus, Hernando and Pasco), offering an enjoyable, varied journey as it runs through small towns, ranches and six distinct natural communities between Citrus Springs and Trilby. Officially designated as part of the Florida Greenways and Trail System, this State Trail is also a National Recreation Trail® which offers rich opportunities for viewing wildlife and access to many other outstanding recreational opportunities.

Sounds good, right? Especially since we are partial to the Rails to Trails program and have biked sections of many other rail-trails. We decided to start our ride at the Inverness trailhead, about 26 miles from the park, since it was recommended by some websites. We parked and offloaded our bikes and hit the trail going north at 9:10 a.m., a bit later than we had aimed for. We're trying to do most of our hiking and biking earlier in the day to avoid the afternoon heat. Of course we still have morning heat and humidity to contend with!

We couldn't help stopping very soon to take photos of the caboose that marks some of the railroad origins of the trail.

Then we saw these appealing "Cooters"--a type of  local turtle (Wikipedia: The Coastal plain cooter^[1] (Pseudemys concinna floridana) or Florida cooter is a species of large herbivorous freshwater turtle in the genus Pseudemys.) Why are these large cooters here? Because Inverness celebrates a local festival, the Cooter Fest in late October.

On with the bike ride. The nice thing about the northern section of the trail is that it is pretty well shaded, with trees on both sides of the trail. As usual, we were entertained by some trailside oddities, like this pink elephant drawing attention to a used car lot.

Here's a glass shop that evidently sells bottle trees!

 We had our eyes peeled for wildlife. We did see one trail kill squirrel, sadly, but we also spotted a red shouldered hawk that flew in and perched in a tree beside the trail, but unfortunately didn't stick around long enough for photos.

We passed this intriguing farmers market while we were outbound and stopped on the way back south to check out the produce.

Unfortunately, Florida fruits and veggies are played out, according to the vendor. They're bringing in peaches and some other things from Georgia and Tennessee. We did pick up a large cantaloupe and some tomatoes, and Ken couldn't resist some chocolate chip biscotti.

When we got back to Inverness, we were hot and thirsty and ready to eat, so we pedaled a few blocks into the city's historic downtown. We found a Subway where we shared a sandwich and coke along with our bananas and biscotti while soaking up the air conditioning.

This historic 1912 Courthouse is across the street from the modern courthouse.

After lunch we biked south a few miles to explore some more and get in twenty miles.

Tomorrow we'll ride more of the southern end of the trail.

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Mules or Donkeys? and Mail

Next door to Sumpter Oaks, where we are staying, is a small farm. These interesting animals live there, and when we walk by, they are curious and look hopeful that we are bringing treats. We don't know how to tell mules and donkeys apart, so we don't know which these are, though they're probably donkeys. They are very quiet and have not brayed or whinnied that we've heard.

Our outing today was just to Bushnell to pick up our mail at General Delivery. It's a very small town, but we did find a thrift store for me to explore (though I didn't find much).

UPS finally delivered our Maxxfan part late this afternoon. It came without any instructions, but Ken did find a parts diagram. I guess we'll tackle replacing the part when it's dry and not too hot. Recently it's been very hot and rainy.
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Sumter Oaks and Happy Birthday to Anara!

Today is Anara's fifteenth birthday. I talked with her again today to find out about her surprise birthday present from Chris and Shawn. When I asked what she had found behind the closed door of her room, she said "a large rat cage and rat accessories" but no rats yet. They will go next week to pick out a pair of rats. Anara has been wanting a rodent pet (she's allergic to cats, and they already have a dog), so she's excited. Rats are quite intelligent and friendly, so they make good pets.

We had a very short trip today, only about 35 miles, from Ocala Sun to Sumter Oaks. Sumter Oaks is an Escapees park in Bushnell, FL. We try to visit Escapees parks when we're in the area. This one has lovely large live oak trees and some resident Sandhill Cranes.

Not all sites have 50 amp. We chose site #67, but ended up using the 50 amp electricity from site #68 (best to check before unhitching).

At the back of the campground is this lovely cypress swamp. People are advised to keep their dogs away from this area because of alligators.

It's a good thing we had a short trip today. Like all Escapees parks we've visited, this one has no reservations. We arrived a little before noon, only to find that the office is closed from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the summer. We walked around the campground scoping out which sites might work for us. Then we cranked up the generator to run the living area a/c while we ate lunch. (We needed to exercise the generator anyhow.)

Fortunately the park hosts arrived about 1:30 p.m. and took pity on us, so we were able to find a site and check in before 3:00 p.m. (thanks, Susan!). We had some difficulty getting in the site. It's supposed to be a pull through, but our long rig couldn't make the turn, so we had to back out and try another approach. We ended up backing into the site. We unhitched and started to set up. Then we realized that the 50 amp electricity didn't work on our site, so we ended up plugging into the site #68 power. By the time we got set up it was much later than we expected, and we were a bit frazzled.
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Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway

We hiked another part of the Florida Trail today on  the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. The Greenway occupies land acquired for a cross Florida canal which was never built because of environmental concerns. Now the Greenway is dedicated to environmental and recreational use, with trails for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking.

We started at the 49th Avenue Trailhead. The hiking trail is part of the Florida Scenic Trail, with its familiar orange blazes. We felt right at home.

Along the way we saw lots of spider webs. Many of them were quite large and elaborate. The spiders were large too, with striped legs. We think they are probably banana spiders.

We didn't see much other wildlife, except for plenty of butterflies and a few birds, like this Pileated Woodpecker we heard drumming high overhead.

The destination of our hike was the Land Bridge, which offers safe passage to hikers and others, including wildlife, across I-75.

Our total hike was 5.5 miles, and we were home before noon, which is important, because you wouldn't want to be hiking during the hotter parts of the day. We wore plenty of insect repellent but still got bitten, darn those mosquitoes! All in all it was a successful hike.
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Silver River

Our adventure today was a visit to Silver River State Park in Silver Springs, just east of Ocala.  We parked near the museum (closed today) and decided first to explore the campground. We had been hesitant to make a reservation there, but found that our concerns were unfounded. It's a beautiful campground with large, well spaced sites. Pretty much all of them are very easy to access. The campground is pretty much empty right now--probably because it's Monday and August--which means extremely hot, humid, and rainy!

Next we found the trailhead for the River Hikes. Two trails share this trailhead, the River Trail and the Swamp Trail. The ranger at the gate recommended the Swamp Trail, so that's the one we took.

It's an easy hike, well traveled and well marked. Various interpretive signs along the way describe the plants and the habitats, from pine forests, to oak hammocks, to cypress swamp. We were beginning to wonder where the swamp was when we came to the boardwalk. There was swamp on both sides of the boardwalk, which was constructed by volunteers from two local businesses. Part of the trail itself was designed as an Eagle Scout project and constructed by members of the Boy Scout troop. Yay for volunteers!

At the end of the boardwalk is an overlook on the Silver River. We saw small boats, canoes, kayaks, and even a pontoon boat passing  by. This one struck us as rather original, so we called out and asked if the umbrella was a custom design. The occupants said yes, and so was the boat!

Signs alert hikers to the presence of black bears and alligators, but all we saw were turtles. Folks passing by in the boats were excitedly reporting their sighting of monkeys just around the bend. We later learned that this band of feral macaques is descended from a troop brought in by a jungle cruise ride operator in 1938.

The river water is extremely clear. The river, which is only seven miles long, is fed by several crystal clear springs.

Silver Springs is famous for its glass bottom  boats, and after our hike we were looking forward to a cruise in one. We drove to the adjacent Silver Springs Theme Park, which is being turned over to the State of Florida in September. We knew that the rides had all been closed except for the glass bottom boats and that admission was free. What we didn't know is that there's an $8 charge to park, and if there's any lightning in the area, the boats do not operate. Fortunately we chatted with the parking attendant, who mentioned that the boats were not operating because lightning had been spotted. Given the weather forecast of a 50% chance of showers and thunder storms, we decided to leave.
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On to Ocala

Today was another travel day, pretty much straight down I-75. It would have been pretty straightforward, except for the storms. We started out in the warm sunshine. In Gainesville we stopped for lunch, and while we ate we watched the lightning and then the slashing rain driving across the parking lot pavement.

Fortunately, by the time we had finished eating, the rain had let up, and we continued on our way. Then we started to see red lights ahead as drivers applied brakes more and more. The interstate slowed to under 30 mph as we drove through the driving rain again. We wondered if the campground we were headed to would be flooded and hoped we wouldn't have to set up camp in the storm.

As we reached Ocala we could see the sky lightening in front of us, and by the time we reached Ocala Sun Resort, the sun was shining. Our space is grassy, but we have a patio, so we won't track too much mud inside.

I had a Facetime call with Ed and Cate and Jesse tonight. Sam is spending the night at the Butlers. Cate is excited about the first day of school, which is Thursday. Ed has to leave the house before 4:30 in the morning for his flight to La Guardia. He'll be working with some dealerships in Queens this week. Jesse was zooming around but stopped long enough to show me the dart gun his dad bought for him at Leon's where they went for ice cream. Cate had Moose Tracks and Rocky Road--two of my most favorite flavors.

One Yelp reviewer describes Leon's this way: "Only in Cumming can you see a sign that lists eggs, milk, lotto, boiled peanuts, bullets, bait and sandwiches! By the way it is also a US Post Office! Gas station meets grocery store meets bait shop meets Post Office meets 'rebel flag license plate selling store'."
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Bike Ride and Coffee House

We got up early to beat the heat and headed out on our bikes for an exercise ride. Mainly we just rode around Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. We noticed this interesting little garden in front of the blacksmith's shop in the Craft Square. Most of the plants labelled are culinary herbs or medicinal. The garden doesn't appear to have gotten much attention lately, but a sprinkler was running. Given how much rain we've had recently, we wonder why the garden needs to be watered.

The blacksmith's shop displayed a "Forge Closed" sign.

We visited the River Gazebo and walked down the steps to the river. The water is dark with tannins from all the decaying vegetation, starting in the Okefenokee Swamp.

This evening we went to a Coffee House in the auditorium at the park. The featured artist was Del Suggs, who coined the term "saltwater music" to describe his style, which has also been characterized as "Trop Rock" (Tropical Rock). He's a wonderful entertainer. This evening he played both guitar and ukelele while singing some of the songs he has written. One of our favorites was "Magic Chair." (You Tube click for video)

After his intro and three songs, the mikes were open, and other musicians took the stage. None was as good as Del, and I was falling asleep. At the intermission we decided to leave. It would have been nice to stick around to hear his closing set, but we would have had to take our chances with the open mic.
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Good News and a Quiet Day

Jeff called last night. He had posted something on Facebook on Wednesday:

So it looks like I totally kicked it's ass. I appreciate all the support I received. For those of you who don't really know what I'm talking about, just be happy.

Sounds like he's whipped the cancer. He called Ken last tonight to tell him about it. He says that the two top experts in the rare form of cancer he had have recommended against chemo. That's really good news. He is staying with his Uncle Kevin still and doesn't know what assignment he'll get next.

We stayed home today and didn't do anything too ambitious. We did a little cleaning: I cleaned out the fridge and Ken went over the woodwork with Old English. He checked the tire pressures. The rest of the day we just messed around. I looked at recipes on the web. We renewed our Coach-Net membership for another three years. (They provide us with emergency assistance on the road.)

As usual, it rained a bit today. It was sunny, and the sky was blue, and we suddenly started hearing raindrops on the roof. The rain didn't really amount to much. It's rained nearly every day since we've been in Georgia and Florida. I said something to someone yesterday, and she replied, "Well you are in Florida in the rainy season."

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The Florida Trail

The Florida Trail is a 1,400 mile foot path traversing Florida from the Everglades to the Panhandle. We decided to hike just a small portion of the Suwannee River section of the trail, the part that runs through the Stephen Foster Culture Center State Park. We got an early start this morning and drove to the Nature and Heritage Tourism Center to park and begin our adventure.

The trail runs past the Tourism Center and enters the park. It runs mainly along the Suwannee River.

The trail runs through several different ecosystems, some wet and marshy and low growing and others opening up into groves of trees. We were often surrounded by saw palmettos and large oak trees draped in Spanish moss.

The trail is marked by orange blazes at regular intervals. At only a few points did we have to cast about to see the next blaze.

We really enjoyed the views of the river as we walked along, but being next to a river has its potential difficulties and dangers too. The water level in the river was at 62.89'. A sign indicates that when the level is 60' or below, the trail can be expected to be dry. You can see the problem. We came across areas where the Florida Trail was underwater, and we had to detour around the flooded areas. One detour just kept leading us farther and farther from the river, but we were somewhat reassured at signs that other people had been here before us (e.g. beer cans). We were also very glad to have our trusty GPS and a trail map from the park.

We found some picnic tables at a remote river overlook and stopped to eat an early lunch (hiking makes us hungry!). We decided to abandon the Florida Trail and return to the Tourism Center via one of the other trails that led more directly back. We didn't want to try to find our way around the large flooded area again. Unfortunately the first way we tried (the Camp Road) was blocked by extensive flooding. We turned back and took a shortcut across to the River Road Trail. We ran into some flooding along it also, but not too difficult to outflank.

When we got back to our truck, we were most grateful for the air conditioning! We had a great hike, but we were ready to rest up a bit and cool down.

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