Hanna Park Campground

Thursday we left Stephen Foster and headed to Jacksonville and the beaches.  Sadly, the Anderson's headed home as they found that Jill (their daughter) was in the hospital in ICU on a respirator.  There is nothing we can do except keep them and Jill in our thoughts and prayers.  Jill is still in an infused coma, don't know what happened. 
Our campsite in Hanna Park is next to a lake giving us pretty views. It is site 161, a very spacious site but not as level as we would like. Also, it is uphill to the septic drain part of the way - not the best setup. We will be looking for better sites should we visit here again. 
It is about a one mile walk to the beach since our sight is one of the furthest away, but the exercise is good. Yesterday, Gus and I made the walk round trip twice, once just the two of us and the second time with Jim.   Needless to say, I got more than 10,000 steps in yesterday. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 67th birthday. I guess I should feel old, but I don't feel any older than when I turned 50 or 60.  We enjoyed a fun day, although it started with a failure to get any sites for next year. We will try again tomorrow.  Today we explored the town of White Springs, a very poor town that once had a thriving commerce. Now there are few stores in town, the biggest being a Dollar Store that carries beer, wine, groceries and household items.  There seems to be just one restaurant, a few B&B's, a few churches, a post office, an antique shop, and not much else aside from a lot of run down homes.  We then drove west toward Live Oak, with Dennis doing the driving today.  There we found a larger town with a great local restaurant to enjoy lunch.  The mural on the side of the building was beautiful as well as humorous.   Gus was glad when we finally returned to our RV as he needed to go potty.  The evening was spent at Dennis & Sharon's site enjoying smoked ribs, Cole slaw, and baked beans, topped off with some lemon cake.  The challenge was keeping their dog Hunter from eating anything and everything. He is quite a handful! 
Tomorrow we all pack up and head to Jacksonville where we will be staying at Hanna Park, a county park on the beach just north of Jacksonville Beach and just South of Amelia Island.  Looking forward to some beach time!

Beautiful Day in White Springs

Tuesday we did a lot of walking around the park, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful buildings.  Pictured below are the Museum that also houses a ballroom and Aunt Bellies Kitchen.  The biggest problem when taking walks is to watch for red ant piles.  The park has an overabundance of red ants.  Mounds that are not ants are from gophers or moles.

Later in the day we took a drive down to Lake City, about 30 min south.  We visited Camping World, had a late lunch at Steak 'N Shake, stopped at Big Lots, and then at Publix for some groceries before heading back to camp. No one was hungry for dinner, but we managed to munch on various snacks with the Andersons  for a few hours before calling it a night. 

Fun day exploring Stephen Foster Museum

We started yesterday with a visit to the "Anderson" camp where Gus and Hunter proceeded to rumble.  We took them to an open area, took off the leashes and let them wrestle and run for a while.  Later we all went for a walk to visit the Carillon and the Museum for some Stephen Foster history. After lunch the guys took a break while Sharon and I went down to the craft village. There we learned how to use alcohol inks to create a painting on small tiles. It was lots of fun even though neither of us is particularly artistic.  While we waited for our work to dry we wandered the gift shop looking at lots of crafts on display and for sale, including the beautiful quilt with the cowboys and cattle....out of my price range!
The day ended with Anderson's joining us for dinner and more conversation. It seems we never run out of conversation with them.

First Days in White Springs

We are staying at Stephen Foster Culture Center State Park now.  It is a wooded campground and has lots of red ants. Keeping Gus away from the ant mounds has been a challenge, but there are plenty of places to walk here.  If we decide to kayak down the Suwanee River we will have to arrange to be picked up downriver since the current runs pretty fast.
Our first night here we spent a lovely evening visiting with new friends Leland, Bambi, and their dog Lucy. We met them at Fort Pickens, south of Pensacola. They left the next morning for Jacksonville before heading home to Georgia.  Gus was especially sad to see them go as he loves playing with Lucy. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the near future.
Tomorrow, the Andersons will arrive here for several days with us, although their site is in another loop of the campground.  
Today we rode around the park a little, and visited the ranger station to see if we could move to a bigger site. No luck there since it is a long weekend and they are totally booked.  We will make do, but note that site 38 is not a good site for us. 

The Carillon Tower was struck by lightning a few months ago and has not yet been fully repaired.  When it was working it played Stephen Foster songs several times a day, so pretty! Hope it is able to play those tunes again soon.

Valentine's Day

We spent our last day at Silver Springs taking a long walk with Gus, just enjoying each other's company and going out for an early dinner. Our mistake was not making a reservation for dinner. Even at 5 pm, all the good restaurants were full with a 45 min to 60 min wait.  We opted for Steak n Shake instead, and after ordering, still waited at least 35 min for our food to be served.  We topped off the evening with a trip to the grocery store, stocking up for the next week. 

Silver Springs State Park

We took a long walk through the main park yesterday, before the rain came, checking out the kayaking site and walking along the river. There are glass bottom boat tours for $15 per person that we passed on. We even passed on the ice cream cones and opted instead to pick up a half gallon of ice cream at the grocery store for less money.  Our hope is that before we leave this area we will be able to kayak Silver River, weather permitting of course.

Cracker Cow Camp

The ranger program this morning took place at the Museum which accurately depicts the life of Florida folks in the 1800s. Many were called Crackers because they used the crack of a whip to round up the cattle because it was impossible to ride horses on this shrub infested land.   The museum is funded by the local school district which holds classes for 4th and 5th grade students throughout the school year to learn about Florida history.  The 5th graders are also responsible for growing crops in the gardens on site.

This afternoon we took Gus to a dog park a few miles away.  There were at least 30 dogs there when we arrived, but by the time we left an hour later the number had dropped to 10-15.  We are now settling in for a quiet evening, watching the Olympics.

Friday was a busy day

Yesterday, after taking Gus for a long walk, Jim and I went for a bike ride to explore the park.  We rode out the River Walk Trail to get some good views of Silver River.  While enjoying the scenery, we met several couples doing the same thing and spent some time visiting.  As we all started to leave the river bank, someone suggested getting together for a bonfire, and so we did at our site.  It was a fun evening of conversation.  One couple is from Michigan, and the other three couples actually live in Florida full time.

Last Day at Fort Desoto

This was Gus' last day to visit this doggy park.  He and I spent more than 90 minutes there so he could get a good run in and play time.  He especially likes to take on the bigger dogs even though he gets knocked down a lot. By the time we got back to our site he was exhausted.  Since we were going to leave him in his crate for several hours later in the day, it was good for him to have worn himself out. 

We met up with John & Dianne Gerulis for an early dinner at Walt's Restaurant & Fish Market.  Excellent food and excellent company.  John went to high school with Jim and we have been meeting up with them for dinner annually for several years now. 

Today we are headed north to Ocala and Silver Springs State for a week. 

Weekend visit from McClains

This past weekend we enjoyed having the McClains fly down and join us.  Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We explored the park, including the fishing pier,  the old fort, and the beach.  Sunday we all put on our Eagles shirts and cheered on the Eagles as they kicked some Patriots a###...loved It!  

Monday Mark & Lori had to pack up and fly home but not before treating us to lunch at Billy's Seafood Restaurant a few miles up the road from Fort Desoto.