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.