2019-3
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| now this is a porch worthy of sitting a spell or even taking an afternoon siesta |
Traveling through Florida
Campground:
Southern Palms a Thousand Trails/Encore park. PA discount $22.50 +
$4 daily resort fee + taxes of $1.76 and $9.90 for (4 nights).
Approx 1100 campsites. Mostly grass sites with hookups behind camper
requiring long extension cords, water lines and sewer connections. PS
cable tv was a joke, more snow on the screen than a winter storm up
north. Passport America search.
Campground: Devils
Den. A natural spring (for snorkeling and scuba diving) and
campsite. $120 per week +9% tax, full hookups back-in and
pull-thrus. RVParky search. ($17 per night)
Distance traveled:
64 miles
Eustis Florida
Heading out of the
Orlando area which is always a challenge deciding which route to
take. Almost all routes involve toll roads which I’d advise any
Rv-er to take. Traffic will still be heavy most likely, but you
avoid stop and go traffic. I took toll road 417 up to Sanford before
heading inland to Eustis Florida.
It’s odd that I’ve
never explored this small community not far from the more famous Mt
Dora community that most folks including myself have venture too.
Eustis is a thriving small community connected to the rest of the
state via hwy 19 and hwy 441, originally to main arteries through
Florida.
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| Eustiis Historic museum, lots of interesting stories |
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| view from a restaurant |
Eustis is bordered
on the west side by Lake Eustis which has a nice boardwalk along the
lake. I was in luck as the day I arrived the town was celebrating
it’s 1st Friday Downtown fest. I arrived promptly at
6pm and was able to find plenty of parking. The festivities are
centered around the main heart of the pretty little town. A jazz and
blues band was playing, excellent music by the way. Lots of food
vendors and a number of the local bars/restaurants were selling beer
and wine out on the street for $3 a glass. The food vendors all had
very reasonable prices as well. What an awesome way to spend an
early evening. Good music, drinks and food and I even went into a
thrift store and purchased a couple bargains.
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| fountain on Lake Eustis and downtown |
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| Anhinga |
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| 1st Friday night performers |
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| an excellent blues and Jazz band |
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| gorgeous Eustis downtown area |
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| florida in full bloom |
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| classic cars downtown |
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| another downtown building |
A second plus is
that the County Fair is right next door to my campsite. Haven’t
explored it yet, but will probably go this evening, since the daytime
temperatures are heading into the 90s. Went on Sunday ($2 entrance,
great deal) but hotter than a steam pot on a hot stove. I stayed
only a short time before walking back to the campsite. They had a
small number of farm animals and a nice selection of 4-H exhibits,
photography, preserves and baked goods many with ribbons, lots of
winners.
At the local museum
I learned about an artist Catherine Stockwell who painted over 5000
paintings. She painted with both hands at the same time, often
finishing her masterpiece(s) in 20 minutes.
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| artist Catherine Stockwell |
Big freezes in
1894-95 and 1899-99 brought temperatures down to around 8 degrees,
exploding and killing the orange trees. Though it recovered and
eventaully became known as the orange capital of the world.
A Band Shell was
built down by the lakefront facing the main street. However, the
locals all hated it, as the sound echoed off the buildings and
irritated the downtown owners. It was lifted up, moved a bit and turned
sideways and still stands today.
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| the band-shell down by the waters edge that was turned sideways so sound would not echo off the downtown bldgs |
Eustis started one
of the first festive events honoring George Washington in 1902, today
it is known as GeorgeFest.
Distance Traveled:
72 miles
Williston Fl
Visit with Eddie and
Debby Tennant.
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| Eddie and Debby, proud owners of a new motor home congratulations and many happy travels, only a couple more months before Eddie retires |
I took all the back
roads and must admit some were really narrow. Looking back through
my rear-view mirrors, I could see that my trailer tires were touching
both the middle line and the white line, ekkk.
Fortunately there
was little to no traffic on those back roads.
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| Williston downtown |
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| you know you are in a rural town when you see this in the heart of town Williston Fl |
Devils Den Springs
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| so much history, now used for snorkeling and scuba diving |
I found a great
little campground which is part of the Devils Den springs complex.
It’s a simple campground, most with full hookups, lots of shade
trees and dirt driveways. The springs are used mainly for snorkeling
and diving. Water temp is a constant 72 degrees. The cave was
originally entered through a small “solution hole” in the roof.
In the 1990’s the hole was enlarged and a set of stairs was cut
into the side of the limestone to enter the cavern and springs.
Maximum depth is 54 feet and there are four underwater passages the
longest of them being 90 feet in length. Chamber three, 70 feet in
length contained human remains dating back 9,500 years ago and
extinct Pleistocene species bones which seem to be associated with
the human bones though they are from 2 to 11 million years ago. A
museum in Gainesville has these artifacts.
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| this entrance and the hole up top were built/expanded in the early 90's |
Above ground a large
concrete pond was built with multiple depths, designed to train scuba
divers, but hurricane damage was done to it the 90’s shortly after
it was completed and the pumps etc were never restored. The private
company now running the place in in the process of reviving the pond,
draining silt, fixing a leak in the cracked concrete and restoring
the pumps to full operation.
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| man made pond, built in the early 90's damaged shortly afterwards by hurricane |
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| only now is it being restored for use as a dive training pool |
I’m visiting with
friends from my from my former Naval job. Eddie and Debby. Eddied
is set to retire with a few months and they already have a bigger
motorhome to travel in. Wishing them all the best on the new journey
in life.
The town of
Williston is holding on but the original downtown buildings are in
bad disrepair and are mostly vacant. It’s a relatively poor
community, but it still has all the basics. Within an hours drive to
Gainsville or Ocala as well as the gulf coast.
This is horse
country, farm country and Debby tells me meth country as well. A sad
note on the opioid epidemic.
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| stunning horse farms throughout the area |
Cedar Lakes Woods and Gardens
Next door to Devils
Den is Cedar Lakes Woods and Gardens. It was built in an old
abandoned
limestone quarry.
With last years heavy rains in Florida and hurricane Michael, the
water level in rose about 11 feet in the quarry. When it was first
decided to make it into a garden with surrounded by water, the owner
had concrete sprayed along the walls and floors of the limestone
pools to contain the water, creating islands for the gardens linked
by bridges and paths. Needless to say, the limestone pit is
currently underwater including all the of the tropical plants, palm
trees, bridges and paths. Only the upper levels were navigable.
Still it made for a pleasant morning walk, though one wonders why
they never incorporated a means to remove or drain unwanted levels of
water.
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| the limestone quarry with 11 feet of flooding |
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| most of the tropical flowers were either moved or destroyed |
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| upper level walkways were available to view the flooded out limestone quarry |
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| dogwood in bloom |
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| been flooded for over 6 months |
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings historic state park
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| back side of one of the three buildings that make up the Rawlings "cracker house" |
About a 35 minute
drive through horse and cattle ranches I revisited the Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings historic state park. I so enjoy touring the home she
lived in and wrote such books as The Yearling, Cross Creek and South
Moon Under and The Secret River among others. This is a favorite
stop in Florida as the house is a true “cracker house” and
contains all the original furnishing when Marjorie lived here with
her first and second husband. Afterwards I drove over to the small
town of Micanopy another historic location with lots of antique
shops, a few restaurants and B and B’s. Not a single commercial
modern day store or gas station in sight. Bringing me back to what
Florida was 50 years ago.
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| pantry window |
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| dining room and kitchen make up one of the bldgs |
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| all connected by breezeways, so Florida |
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| living room |
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| living room, half door to her liquor bar/storage |
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| the porch was soon added and is where she wrote most of her books |
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| side view of main bldg |
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| the tenant cottage where workers would stay while tending to the orange groves or house |
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| barn was reconstructed as much of the buildings were let go while under ownership of the FSU |
More photos:
Eustis Florida quaint small town part of the Real Florida
Williston Florida and Devils Den stunning prehistoric springs
Williston Florida and Devils Den stunning prehistoric springs
Cedar Lakes Woods and Gardens totally flooded with up to 11 feet of water
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park a favorite tour and cracker house
Micanopy Florida historic town with no modern stores or gas stations
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