Learning the Area

Today wasn’t much to write home about.  I got the laundry done this morning while Gene worked on our post Florida plans.  His main concern is getting the Everest back in for another service for a few minor warranty issues before our one year anniversary in this rig.

Just after an early lunch, Bill and Helen, full-time RVers spending the winter in their home park just down the road, stopped by just to say hi.  These good folks have lots of experience in this area of Florida and have been very helpful in suggesting things for us to do while in Silver Springs.  Thanks Bill and Helen.

One of the things that is a favorite of Helen is the Market of Marion.  That was our first stop this afternoon.  We wanted to see what all they had, but we went especially in search of fresh vegetables.  The Market had anything and everything you could want and a whole lot of stuff you probably don’t want.  We saw socks, saws, and swords; baseball caps, books, and beaded bras, peanuts, popcorn, and puppies.  The things we were most interested in were the kitchen gadgets and used books.  There were plenty of each.  We hit the jackpot in the vegetable hall.  I found fresh strawberries that are absolutely wonderful, fresh slicing tomatoes, and acorn squash all of which we are having for dinner.

After the market we headed back toward Ocala.  Instead of coming straight home, we took a detour through Ocala’s historic district.  The old homes within this 6 or 8 square block section date from the turn of the last century through the 50s or so.  Most are well maintained as are the small yards.  There were huge, gorgeous live oaks spreading their branches all over this old neighborhood.

Peanut is cheering his team on to victory.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy the big game.  Hope your team wins.

Cross Florida Greenway

After a couple sprinkles this morning, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day for a walk.  It was a little bit cool and with the strong wind, we needed jackets.  Still, it was a great day to be outside.

Our walk for today

Baseline Road Trailhead Park

The Cross Florida Greenway is indeed a foot path across the state from the Gulf near Inglis to the St. Johns River near Palatka--a distance of 110 miles.  The greenway pretty much follows the route of the old Cross Florida Barge Canal through central Florida.

The section we did today was totally paved.  We saw walkers, cyclists, and a couple runners.  From our parking lot on 64th Ave Road, we walked 2.5 miles to the Baseline Road Trailhead.  Baseline Road is a major trailhead with a large parking lot, restroom facilities, picnic tables, and a nice playground for kids.  We stopped there for a short break before our walk back to the truck.

The Silver Springs Attraction is across the street from our campground.  The brochure bills it as “Nature’s Theme Park” and there are wildlife exhibits, a botanical gardens, and amusement park rides.  It’s also the place for the glass bottom boat cruises.  During the summer months the water park is open.  During the winter, that’d be now, there are weekly concerts.  The concerts begin at 3 on Saturday afternoon and last about an hour.  This is an outdoor theater where you bring your lawn chair or blanket and sit on the lawn.  The lady at the campground office said we would be able to hear the concerts from our campsite, especially since we are parked close to the street.  We had looked forward to today’s event and planned our schedule accordingly.

Today’s concert featured Tracy Lawrence.  Gene and I don’t get out much, so we had to look him up on the internet to find out who he is.  We were especially interested, not to mention shocked, when we noticed at 7:30 this morning a line was forming at the entrance for a 3 pm concert.  By noon, the campground residents were beginning to pass by with their lawn chairs.  Most were carrying the sling type chairs over their shoulders, but we saw some of everything.  There were more than a few padded card table chairs.  Some folks had the small two-wheeled carts to haul their chairs, but we also saw one couple with their chairs strapped to the back bumper of their bicycles.  We saw two motorized wheel chairs.  One was pulling a small cart and the other with a chair on wheels carrying the driver’s wife.  What a hoot.

We were very disappointed when we couldn’t actually hear the concert.  There is a hefty 20+ mph wind today.  Perhaps the folks on the other side of the park were in better hearing range.  We’re looking forward to hearing next week’s concert which features America.

Tomorrow, we want to explore a little of Ocala to see what all we have available to us in the line of restaurants, groceries, etc.  The Marion County Farmer’s Market is also this weekend.  We want to run by there, also.

That’s it for today.

A Lazy, Rainy Day

Well, the rain held off long enough for us to get in a nice walk around the campground this morning.  Everybody seemed to have the same idea; there were several out for a morning stroll.  We occupied ourselves with household chores for the remainder of the morning--Gene outside, me inside.  I even got the dreaded freezer defrosting done.

The rain started shortly after lunch giving us a long afternoon to relax inside.  Gene working on tax stuff and other money matters while I knitted and napped.  Sometimes you just need a day like this.  Of course, if it rains too many days in a row, I get cabin fever and start complaining.

There’s not much news around the old home front today, so that’s it ‘til tomorrow.

The Florida Trail

Many states have a long distance foot path or multi-use trail which traverses the state.  Florida is no exception.  The Florida Trail extends over 1400 miles from the Everglades to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola and north to the Alabama state line.  This is a work in progress as much of the proposed trail is not actually on the ground yet.  Neither is it a truly linear trail; it makes several loops in various areas of the state.  There is one loop around Lake Okeechobee and another which roughly encircles central Florida.  Much of the northern portion of this central Florida loop is within driving distance for us while we’re at Silver Springs.  The Florida Trail has the distinction of being named a National Scenic Trail, one of only eight in the country.

Like most long distance trails, the Florida Trial incorporates other trails along its path.  Using existing trail is very helpful in getting a new trail on the ground.  Here in Marion County, the Florida Trail takes advantage of the Marion County Greenway system and the Cross Florida Greenway.  A hiker can access the Florida Trail any place the trail crosses a road and often the trail association will put up an information kiosk and provide a small area for parking.

Our hike today was along the 2.5 mile Marshall Swamp section; a portion of the Cross Florida Greenway.  The 3,000 acre Marshall Swamp was once a thriving sugar plantation.  J. Foster Marshall was the last plantation owner in Florida to supply sugar to the Confederacy.  The Union army finally destroyed the sugar mill in 1865.

Although the word “swamp” appears in the name of this section, the trail is generally dry.  Dry that is unless there have been recent heavy rains.  Even though it has been two days since the downpours, there were still several large areas of water on the trail.  It was somewhat unfortunate that we saw a snake in one of the first puddles we crossed.  I also had a sharp eye out for alligators.  We mustered our courage and continued on for the full 2.5 miles then turned around and wadded back through all those puddles again.

Tomorrow will be a house cleaning day.  We will try to get in a walk around the neighborhood, if the rains hold off in the morning.

Ybor City, Where Cigars are King

Our day started very early this morning for our trip to Tampa.  This 100-mile trip, one way, is a little farther than we generally like to travel for a day trip, but we had the opportunity to see Gene’s brother and sister-in-law so we made an exception.  They are staying in the Naples area for the winter and actually had a longer drive than we did.

The brothers had arranged to meet at Cracker Barrel at 1 o’clock.  We didn’t want to drive that far and not try to see something else of interest, so we left early and stopped by the community of Ybor City before meeting Doug and Cheryl for lunch.  Ybor, pronounced e-bor, is commonly referred to as Tampa’s Latin Quarter.

Ybor City Museum

Although founded in the late 1880s by Vicente Martinez Ybor, a Cuban immigrant who came to the Tampa area to open a cigar manufacturing business, the community quickly became a center of ethnic diversity with Spanish, Italians, Jews, and Germans joining the mix.  Thousands of Cuban cigar workers fled Cuba in the late 1860s to avoid being drafted into the Spanish army.  After a brief stop in Miami, they eventually ended up in what became Ybor City.  During the height of the production years, there were some 12,000 cigar workers hand rolling cigars in Ybor City every day.

A cigar workers station

Today, we stopped in at the Ybor City Museum.  It is a very small museum, but makes a huge tribute to the various cultural groups which made up this historic community.  The museum is housed in what was originally a bakery operated by Francisco Ferlita, a Sicilian.  Francisco and his descendants baked Cuban bread in this yellow brick building until 1973.

Company housing, restored, of course

We spent as much time as we had in the museum so had to trot on back to the truck.  However, we wanted to see Ybor City’s main street.  We hurried along making only one other stop--at the art gallery of Arnold Martinez.  Mr. Martinez greeted us as we went in the front door and explained his unique technique.  He creates his paints using coffee, tobacco, tea, wine, and beer.  It is quite unusual and, as you might expect, is all done in shades of brown and black.  Interesting.  His card says he is “painting with the tastes of Ybor.”  Well, I guess so--Cuban coffee and tobacco, Italian wine, German beer.

We got to the Cracker Barrel by the appointed time for a wonderful lunch and visit with Doug and Cheryl.  After lunch, we went next door to the gigantic Lazydays RV dealership.  Doug called it window shopping.  We looked in as many RVs as the rest of the afternoon would allow.  Fortunately, we didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without.

After saying our goodbyes, Gene and I headed north while Doug and Cheryl started on their longer journey back to Naples.  A very busy day, but a very enjoyable one, especially the short visit with family.

Plans for Florida

We had big plans for today.  One of the reasons we selected Silver Springs for our stay in Florida was its proximity to Ocala National Forest and its trail system.  For our first full day here we had plans to hike.  The weather, however, didn’t cooperate.  It started raining last night about bed time and rained, heavily at times, almost all day.

Not wanting to just sit in the house, we opted for the next best thing to hiking--eating.  No, no.  We went first to the Public Lands Visitor Center and then to one of the Ocala National Forest Ranger Stations in search of trail information, maps, recommendations, and all that other stuff we like to have in order to make a plan of attack.  We came away with a sack full of brochures, maps, and trail descriptions as well as a whole lot of information passed on by the folks manning the desks.

Some of that information wasn’t what we wanted to hear.  We were strongly encouraged not to drive on any dirt roads during or shortly after a heavy rain.  That pretty much took care of hiking plans for today.  We also found out that it is small game season and there are hunters about, especially looking for wild hogs.  When the ranger said, “small game” I thought of squirrels and rabbits; I did not think of wild hogs.  Better dig out my red shirt and orange bandana.

There were, at both of these places, books and pictures to look at.  I came across a book on how to survive in the Florida wilderness.  I was dismayed to learn that Florida has three brands of rattlesnakes and coral snakes.  Well, well now.  The ranger, who was originally from Montana, refuses to hike in Florida because of the snakes.  That was not the information we came for.  Looking at the nice $3 map of Ocala National Forest we noticed a large square shaded gray and labeled “US Naval Bombing Range”.  Well, well now.

So I think what we learned about hiking in Florida is that if the rain, the hogs, the hunters, or the snakes don’t get you, the US Navy will.  We came home.  I’ll think about hiking another day.

At home, and the safety of our dining table, we spread out the map of Florida and tried to make a rough plan for our stay here.  There are several things we want to do like visit with full-timing friends Bill and Helen who are just a couple miles down the road.  Gene also has a distant cousin in the area we want to meet.  Our campground is just across the street from one of those glass-bottom boat adventures.  And, it just so happens, Gene’s brother and sister-in-law are also in Florida for the winter trying to escape the cold of Columbus, Ohio.  Tomorrow we’re driving to Tampa to spend the day with them.

I’m feeling much better today.  Not yet in the perky range, but much better than yesterday.  Lots of rest helps.

No more news for today.

Arrived in Silver Springs

We had a very easy, short drive to Silver Springs this morning.  We started out with a few miles on I-95 then turned west on Florida route 40.  Within 5 miles of the interstate we were in rural Florida and stayed there until arriving in Silver Springs.  The road was good and the traffic was very light--a pleasant ride.

That’s going to be it for today.  I woke up feeling a little puny this morning and haven’t made any progress toward perky yet today.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  For now, I’m off to my bed.