Flying out of Miami

Lots has transpired since the last post on Monday afternoon. We received the terrible news Monday evening about Betty Goodfallow. Mom, Grandma, and great Gramma is gone to be with her soulmate of fifty years. We are still in a daze, but trying to move forward. We made arrangements to get back to Michigan when we return from Costa Rica and after having Laura, Sean and Kara and Nolan with us for a few days near Orlando.

The weather here has been warming up since the cold blast on Sunday. Today we were in the mid seventies and sunny. We continued exploring the park and walking and biking the trails and boardwalks. We've been to this park numerous times and are familiar with most of the area. Yesterday we rode the hammock loop with the bikes and stopped to walk the boardwalk through the Cypress swamp. The boardwalk is about a quarter of a mile long and is mostly over the water. The cypress trees are beautiful and lots of birds and other wildlife inhabit the area. Later during an after dinner walk we saw two deer in the campground.

Today we packed up the camp and pulled the fifth wheel to where we are leaving it for the week. (Jackson Creek Mobile Home rentals just outside of Sebring). We drove to Miami and are now in our hotel for the night. In the morning we will be shuttled to the airport and fly to Costa Rica for the week. We return on January 19th. I don't anticipate writing any blogs while we are gone since we are not taking the laptop with us. I will have a load of pictures to post when we return.

The boardwalk at Highland Hammock

A red shouldered hawk in the cypress trees 

Great Blue Heron prowling for fish

Another Great Egret

There we go, off to Costa Rica! I'll be back on the blog on the 19th since I don't anticipate 

having internet access until then.

Monday at Sebring

We've been enjoying the space in the camper since we had such a cold day at camp. The temperature on Sunday morning was 37 degrees and the high only went to about 48. Last night was a bit better, in the high forties and today we reached seventy.
Our neighbor's cousin Charley came by yesterday and brought us a stack of firewood and he and I took a ride to see where we will be storing the camper later in the week. We had a nice visit with him , and did little else other than take a bike ride and a walk.
Today we took a ride to "Lake June in Winter Scrub State Park" not far from Highland Hammock with the intent of picnicking and kayaking on the lake there. The picnicking went well, but the lake was rough and breezy with a chilly wind stirring things up. We opted for a hike and later took a ride to the Lake Placid area to see the village.
Enjoying the bright sunshine today and getting ready for Costa Rica.

Lagoon at Highland Hammock S.P.

Great Egret taking a break from fishing

An Anhinga or "Snake Bird" sunning itself 

The scrub forest at Lake June in Winter S.P.

Cactus was found growing in the scrub forest

A tortoise grazing on the grass

Another day, Another camp

We only had one night at Lake Louisa S.P. and we are now at Highland Hammock S.P. near Sebring, Florida. We only had a 90 mile drive and had camp set up by 1 o'clock. We've been at this campground several times and always enjoy the biking trails they have set up. We will be staying here through Wednesday, and then will store our camper and catch our flight out of Miami.
A little rain set in last night, and it's drizzly today. Our neighbor's cousin lives here and is coming to the camp later on to bring us some firewood and to show us where we can store our camper while we are in Costa Rica.

A Florida delicacy, possum on the half-shell !!

Deeper into Florida

We had a surprise call from Dick and Betty Carter (Rick Bolling's Brother in law and sister), who are renting a place in Florida about twelve miles from Silver Springs. They saw Nancy's Face Book posting and called us. We met them for breakfast this morning and had a nice visit. Rick's brother Glenn use to have a place near here and now Dick and Betty have spent a few weeks the past couple of winters.
After we left them we broke camp and drove south to Lake Louisa State park just west of Orlando. This is a nice park that we have stayed at in the past. They have several lakes here and a nice beach on Lake Louisa, but you have to share it with the alligators. Lots of hiking trails and biking galore. In fact we put about eight miles on our bikes this afternoon. Later we enjoyed a nice steak on the barbie and went for a long walk after doing dishes.
The weather has been awesome with sunny skies and low humidity. What's not to like?

One of the smaller lakes at the park

The beach at Lake Louisa

Looks like they make turtle soup out of roadkill here.

Sunny Florida at Last !!

We drove into Florida yesterday noon amid scattered rainstorms. Sunny one minute and pouring rain the next. It was this way all the way to Ocala but the temperatures were mild in the sixties and low seventies.
We made it to Silver Springs State Park just east of Ocala and set up camp The high in the late afternoon was 78 degrees and it stayed there well after dark.This is a nice campground with water and electric at each campsite. We settled in and got the camper organized, then had dinner, watched TV and took a walk before retiring for the evening. Its so nice to be able to enjoy the outdoors without having to bundle up.
Today we rode our bikes to Silver Springs and enjoyed a glass bottom boat tour of the springs. This is a gorgeous spot with crystal clear water and blue sandy bottom where the springs come up. Mammoth Spring here is the larges artesian spring in the world according to our guide.

We made it! Sunny Florida at last. 

The most interesting guy in the world was transporting his helicopter south along I-75. We met him at the Florida Welcome Center. The craft was huge, and they had to take the blades off to fit down the freeway.

Silver Springs is now owned by the State Park Service. They have done a lot to renovate the site.

Mullet swimming in the crystal clear waters of the spring.

Sitting in the glass bottom boat for out tour.

Fish swimming above one of the many springs in the Silver River.

They had three glass bottom boats for touring.

Nancy posing in this twisty palm tree. It's trunk goes over the river and back up through the platform. Rumor has it that posing here will bring you five years of good luck! I am encouraging her to buy lottery tickets!

Twin Oaks Mansion is actually an outdoor concert stage where many famous musical groups have performed.

Makin' Macon

Another long day of driving today.
If you ever get the opportunity to drive through Georgia on I-75 resist it with all of your being! I was so glad we were making such good time and would be at our destination long before dark for a nice relaxing evening. But then it took us about three hours to get through the greater metropolitan Atlanta area. Crawling along on the freeway with at least six lanes of traffic all going in the same direction at five miles an hour must be some automakers vision of heaven. How can so many cars be going to the same place at such a ridiculously slow pace?
If you ever want to test your level of stress endurance try getting these cars all rolling along at sixty five miles an hour in the dark with torrential rain coming down, the wipers going at full tilt, while you're pulling a huge trailer and trying to stay in your lane with an eighteen wheel semi truck on each side of you. Oh, well, we'll be in sunny Florida tomorrow and everything will be all right.
We are currently safe in our hotel room in Warner Robins, Georgia, and it is storming out but due to clear up before morning. I am anticipating a good nights sleep and a fresh outlook on life in the morning.
Peace to all....

On the Road Again

We celebrated New Years with Becky and Dave and the kids at their house last night. We were treated to a feast of prime rib and twice baked potatoes along with appetizers and plenty of New Years cheer. Jenny and Tom and Evey joined us too! We all stayed up to ring in the new year except for Trevor who just couldn't make it.
This morning we hit the road after a fine breakfast and we made it to Williamsburg, Kentucky just ten miles short of the Tennessee state line. We didn't have any snow on the landscape all the way, and the temperature here is 50 degrees. Traffic was light and very few trucks on the road today. It was an easy driver with no issues. Hopefully tomorrow won't be too bad since a lot of folks get Monday off for the New Year Holiday.
We are hoping to make Macon, Georgia by tomorrow evening.

Go Lions!!