2017-5 Silver Springs, Florida

2017-5

a true tourist gift to remember Florida by

Lithia to Ocala Florida

Silver Springs State Park

Silver Springs, Site 30 a back-in site

Campground: Silver Springs State Park. Senior rate, $14, 50 amp elec/water. Nice modern large camp sites. With camping fee there is free access to Silver Springs park w/glass bottom boats etc.

A Round-about we go

Before heading out this season, I was talking to some folks familiar with my summer destination, the New England states. One of the first things they mentioned were the numerous round-abouts in that part of the country. We only have one that I know of in my area of Florida and that's in Kissimmee. I even went through it heading out of town figuring that would be the only one I'd see until hitting the New England states.

Not so. As I entered Alafia River State Park, I encountered a couple of round-abouts getting to the campsite. An interesting concept especially when towing a fairly large camper. All went well and I'm getting a chance to practice my skills going around them before heading up north. I guess with this being one of Florida's newer state parks, they decided to give the round-abouts a try.

My big adventure in this area was a trip to Plant City for lunch and a visit to Dinosaur World. It's a kitschy park mainly for kids, though we adults can enjoy it as well. Lots of large life size replicas of dinosaurs that lived between 65 and 125 million years ago. Of course no dinosaurs have ever been found in Florida, as it was most likely under water during the Dinosaur era. A small museum has some interesting displays of small bits and pieces of dinosaurs and the read-outs that go along with the displays are quite educational. But it's the outdoor life size displays that help one feel the size and power these creatures once had roaming the earth millions of years ago. A fun morning, exploring the past.

Dinosaur World, Plant City Florida

Plant City is the location of much farming in the area. Lots of strawberry, blueberry, orange groves and of course vegetable farms as well. I had to go to Fred's Market Restaurant the Johnson family started the restaurant in 1954 at a gas station. It now resides next to all of the produce warehouses here in Plant City. Great home town cooking with of course only the freshest of ingredients.

Distance Traveled: 111 miles

Silver Springs Florida (Ocala area)

I was again able to take many of the back-roads to my destination of Silver Springs in Ocala. One section passed through the green swamp and the Withlacoochee forest, one of the straightest sections of highway in the state.

Silver Springs State park has combined with the campground and now permits access to the Silver Springs park which was once a private attraction. Silver Springs is also noted as having been the 1^st tourist attraction in Florida, started around 1852. With the first glass bottom boats giving tours in the 1870's. Many of the Tarzan movies were filmed there and one can occasionally see the wild monkeys that had gotten loose during filming and still live in the area. Today, I attempted to go to the museum and historic old timers village but was turned back. Seems the Hillsborough School system actually owns/runs the museum and it is only open to school children Monday thru Friday. Somehow, even though the facilities are on State park grounds, the school system controls the museum and historic buildings, yet the park personnel take it over on weekends.

Although I enjoy camping at Silver Springs st pk, I'm finding that there are aspects about it that I don't particularly like. I've never been able to get to my reserved campsite when arriving. Seems the “camp hosts” have control of when a site is available for occupancy. If they don't get around to cleaning a campsite, the camper must wait up front until they get around to it. It's the only campground I've ever had a problem getting to the campsite. The other being the a fore mentioned closure of the museum and historic village complex to the public.

Now the good part about the park is that it's a fairly new and modern campground with large campsites and many are pull-thru sites. On Saturday I was finally able to tour the on-sight museum and it was awesome. The displays were topnotch with excellent display signage. There were a number of large animal bones from the about the one million years ago to the last ice age around one hundred thousand years ago.

Silver Springs Museum, next to the campgrounds

tourists first arrived at Silver Springs via river boats

Seminole Indians

when Silver Springs permitted swimming

one of many movies filmed here

Tarzan movies were filmed at Silver Springs
and many monkeys now reside in the area after getting free

history of the Spanish arriving

when turpentine was big business in the area 

Spanish first meeting the Timicuan Indians

large mammals from around the last ice age

Displays chronicling the Spanish landing and impact on the native Indian tribes, through to the Civil War and the age of tourism beginning with boat rides from St Augustine and Palatka to Silver Springs and the eventual development of the park and it's famous glass bottom boats.

Besides the wonderful tour of the museum, I'm enjoying a few morning walks along the trails in the park and furthering my education with the online Harvard University course on Architecture. This is the second course I've taken and the first through H.U. It's a top notch course, though I'm realizing my vocabulary skills are being challenged by the professors awesome use of the English language.

nice walking trails, many along old dirt roads

I entered Silver Springs in hopes of listening to a music jam session today, but I guess it was cancelled with it being Easter. Silver Springs attraction is only a shadow of it's hayday, having eliminated the zoo, miniature train rides through the park and recently they've eradicated all of what they consider invasive plants. Meaning they've pretty much destroyed the many flowering plants that once filled the park. The other main attraction used to be musical groups on the big stage during the spring/early summer. That has apparently been abandoned as well. Sad, it was a great attraction for the music lover. Now all they have is a drumming session once a month.. woopie.

I think I'm stuck, Help!

the Sabal palm, or cabbage palm,
Florida's state tree

magnolia blossom 

Silver Springs and the famous Glass Bottom boats

RV CAMPER INFO:

I've updated my Shelter Cove Blog to include information on my two RV lots available for renting. Both sites have large concrete pads and have updated electrical, water and sewer hookups. If you have plans to be in the Central Florida area, please check out my Shelter Cove Blog for more information.

Additional photos:

Dinosaur World, Plant City Florida

Silver Springs, Museum, Florida

Silver Springs, park, Florida

2017-4 Finally On the Road Again. Alafia River State Park Florida

2017-4

Shelter Cove Sunset before heading out

Busy Time before heading out, Part 2

Campground: Shelter Cove Resort. Where I own two Rv lots available for rent on a monthly/seasonal basis. See my Blog/website for details.

Alafia River St Pk, large spacious campsites

Campground: Alafia River State Park. Fl Senior rate: $14.00 (includes taxes and reservation fee)  50 amp/water. Dump station available. Unique park. Former phosphate mine land, having created multiple lakes, lots of horse trails, bike trails and hiking. My campsite is available for horses as well and they have a nice barn/with hay for the horses.

The anticipation of heading out has grown only as the amount of last minute details need to be taken care of. Setting up additional accts. in preparation of renting my two Rv lots. Sorting out details with the company doing the electric installation/configuration, visiting the Tax assessor’s office, completing the concrete installation and hiring a lawn service to maintain the two Rv lots while away for the summer.

my new RV lot for Rent
1356 Shipwreck Lane, Lot 56

Lot 56 sits next to my original Rv Lot 55

The Mystery of the Trailer Movers

Along with those mundane but necessary activities I’ve been learning more about the person that was recommended to us for the removal of the old trailer/mobile home that sat on the Rv lot I was preparing to purchase.

Here are some of the facts that came out after Alan, also known as the Colonel, removed the Trailer.

• Russ suggested Alan might be interested in moving the trailer as he had large the large moving equipment to do the job
• Alan has a large compound in Holopaw where folks have camps set up for dirt biking, four wheeling, ATV activities.
• Alan and son came to Shelter Cove and gave a great first impression. Disconnected the trailer, removed all the old pipes, connections, and skirting, added tires to the single axles and proceeded to move the trailer off the Rv lot
• They got as far as the entrance of the park before breaking down
• Their second attempt got them about a mile down the road before breaking down again
• The third attempt was late at night when apparently, they went back to Holopaw for a larger truck to move the trailer. It got a few miles down the road and onto I-192 before breaking an axle, flat tire and being abandoned on one lane of the highway.
• Dave, the previous owner who signed over the deed to the trailer was called out at 2am the sheriff assuming he was still the owner.
• Numerous attempts to contact Alan were unsuccessful and eventually a tow company from Orlando moved the trailer and impounded it.
• A $4,500 towing fee and police ticket ensued.

The story becomes really interesting as we learn more about this mysterious and now elusive Alan. A search on the internet and we found out he was associated with a religious group through marriage that was closed down do to some sex crimes, later the case was dropped. After that closed down Alan started a Military style school to handle troubled teens. It was an illegal operation and the state of Florida forced it to close down.

The Colonel “Alan” has apparently started a new Military style school/compound out in Holopaw where Russ and Rusty (relatives) have property for 4 wheeling etc. Russ told of a recent occurance where a young man came running out of the woods in terror and hid under Russ's jeep. The kid told of being held captive in Alan's compound. Shaking and scared he pleaded not to let Alan take him. Russ called the local sheriff who came out to investigate.

Alan came by and insisted on taking the kid back. Providing the sheriff and Russ with the phone number of the parents. The parents apparently pleaded with the sheriff to give the kid back to Alan, saying he was an out of control kid and this was their last resort.

Alan promised the kid he would come check on him a week later.... did in fact attempt to go check on the kid, but was denied access to see the young boy.

I have so many questions. Why did the sheriff's office permit the kid to go back when the kid was obviously terrified of Alan? It's obvious Alan has started some kind of Military school for kids, but it is not registered or known about by the State of Florida. How can it operate now that the sheriff's office has been made aware of something going on out there in Holopaw. Should Russ inform the sheriff's office that he could not see the kid a second time. How many kids are back there. Russ mentioned something like 105 kids, but I'm not sure if that was a reference to Alan's compound out in Holopaw or the previous military style place he once ran in Port St Lucie.

In the last couple of days Florida, due to an extremely dry summer has had numerous forest fires. One forest fire just took place in this Holopaw area where all these ATV camps are located.  Burning through much of the camp.

Check out some of these links if you'd like to find out more on this bazaar story.

one more shuffleboard game

a great morning walk with my sister

one last get together before heading out....

Now back to camping adventures.

My ship has set sail
for another season of traveling

I finally was able to leave Saint Cloud, heading to a couple of Florida State parks to start out my summer travel adventures. The first destination has taken me to Alafia River State Park which I've never gone to in the past. What a charming campground. It's east of Tampa and rather than take the typical I-4 highway I took all the back-roads. Hwy 17/92 through the country towns of Davenport, Haines city, Winter Haven and Bartow before turning south on old hwy 60 and 39. Taking this route is like traveling the snowbird route used by northerners coming to Florida 50 years ago. Little has changed in these once thriving winter destinations and probably still are for many snowbirds. Old orange groves, horse farms rail road tracks still active and in use, palm trees lining main streets through small country towns, often bordered by placid lakes.

The closer I got to the Tampa area, the more industrial the landscape became. With warehouse and manufacturing buildings in between rural farming communities.

After setting up at Alafia St Park, I headed back to county road 60 to Tim's Cafe. It's in Lithia Florida, barely a blip on the map, if it even shows up on any maps. But what great country food. Wow, had two center cut pork chops, grilled, with two sides and a drink for $10. And just down the street on the corner of hwy 60 and 39, I went into the Tin Roof Trading Co. that would have fit in any boutique shopping area, but here it sits on the crossroads of a rural farming community. You truly never know what you'll find on these back roads.

one of the many lakes formed from the phosphate mining operation
the land was then donated to the State of Florida for a park

nice lake front amphitheater 

cypress tree

nice large campsites

the Tin Roof Trading Co. in Lithia Fl
the middle of nowhere

The adventure has begun and I can assure you, I'll have many more stories to tell in the coming weeks.

additional photos:

Alafia River State Park

2017-3 Saint Cloud Florida, Battle of Narcoossee

2017-3

Saint Cloud Florida

Busy Time Before Heading Out  (Part 1)

Shelter Cove Clubhouse at night

Campground:  Shelter Cove Resort.  Two Rv Lots for Rent, Check out my Blog report @ ShelterCoveLot55.blogspot.com for more info. And share site with your fellow Rv-ers.

Obviously this blog is supposed to be about my travels and we will get to that, but I have to fill in all my readers on the recent events before heading out for the season.  So consider this more or less the prep work required to get back on the road.

I delayed all winter long about making an appointment with the dermatologist in town figuring I only had one little spot worth looking into.  Well, after making the appointment and seeing the doctor, He found much more than I expected.  The doctor aggressively zapped 10 pre-cancerous spots, did a biopsy on one spot and removed an icky looking spot on the middle of my back.  I go in next week to have surgery on spot that had the biopsy.  One good thing about a small town is that I can get a doctor’s appointment very quickly.  Delaying my travel plans an extra week.

Dave and Vickie to the left
"Dave's girls"

The big news though is that my neighbor, Dave and Vickie, have decided to move for health reasons as well as getting Vickie much closer to the sweetest little grandchild imaginable.  Their RV lot which had an old trailer on it was going to be sold.  As things have turned out, I am able to purchase the Rv lot since Dave was planning on having the old trailer moved off of the lot.  With the trailer gone, I would be able to convert the site back into an Rv lot and rent it out.  Or possibly move my own camper on it while wintering in Florida, leaving my current RV lot available for rent.  Hint, hint, to all my friends reading this, I’d love to have you come visit and be my next door neighbor.

Dave and Vickie's trailer being moved out
that's my camper on the right

the neighbors watching the move

Things have moved on rather swiftly since Dave and Vickie moved out this past week.  Days later the trailer was disconnected and moved on out.  Though there’s much more to that story and I hope to fill you all in on it down the road.  Within days, I’ve been able to contract for improvements to the Rv lot.  Additional Concrete pad will be installed making the lot a pull-thru site.  Upgrades to the electric/water and sewer are also in the works.  All these tasks are so much simpler to accomplish in a small town.  Being able to get service within days instead of weeks or months elsewhere.

Imagine, something I had planned for down the road, perhaps within the next couple of years, is coming to fruition as we speak.

this is the Rv lot I'm purchasing.  The concrete pad will be expanded
Water/Electric and Sewer will be upgraded

simple installation

Along with all the excitement, I have been preparing for my travels.  Getting a new toilet installed in the camper was essential.  The closing lever never functioned properly when flushing the toilet and there are no adjustments that can be made.  After a couple of years of iffy service, I finally had a couple occasions where the toilet kept running, water filling the holding tank or the most recent event where the toilet overflowed. Ekkk!  Water flooded the floor, down the heating duct and into the basement.  It was quite a clean up project at 2 am in the morning.

That task was recently taken care of this past week.  I now have a functioning “thrown room”.  More tasks will follow, including restocking the basement with essentials, greasing the wheel hubs, checking tire pressures on truck and camper and a few other odds and ends.

Now you might think that would be more than enough to keep me busy but one has to have fun activities as well.  Here at Shelter Cove we’ve had a great season playing shuffleboard, bingo and game nights are popular as well.  I even headed up a Casino Cruise for the community, taking my sister Dorothy along as she’s the gambler in the family.  What an awesome day out on the water off of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.  Along with the 4 floors of gambling, there was a dance floor with a great band, buffet lunch and what I enjoyed the most, the top back deck of the ship where you would find me most of the day enjoying a guitar player, outdoor bar and seating to enjoy the blue skies and ocean views.

top deck my favorite location

4 floors of gaming

Cape Canaveral Florida

I started taking another online college course in the past couple of weeks.  It’s out of Harvard University and the class is called:  The Architectural Imagination.  The lectures are very well presented by various professors in the Architectural field and the visuals are stunning.  Lots of new vocabulary for me to learn and digest as well.

Re enactment of the Battle of Narcoossee Mill

On Saturday I headed out to the Ralph Chisholm park to experience the Battle at Narcoossee Mill.  It’s a Civil War reenactment.  A fancy brochure is given to each guest as we pay our $7 entry fee.  It covers and supports the Confederate point of view, never mentioning slavery as the reason for the civil war.  One description states:  “these individuals were pursuing the dual and what they believed to be honorable, causes of maintaining the sovereignties of Florida and the Confederate states of America.”  The reenactment included a Confederate and Yankee camp with actors in costume playing the parts.  The battle was basically over the sugar mill.  Remains of which are still visible today.  The Yankee army was in the pursuit of  disrupting all commerce in the south which could fund and aid the rebels.  And the small sugar mill became one of those objectives.  The confederate army won this battle but in an odd twist of fate, Saint Cloud, as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, was founded as a settlement for the veterans of the Great Army of the Republic (Yankee’s) after the war between the states.

at the Union camp site

Union Campsite, many slept here overnight

one of the re-enactors

an oak tree heavily draped with Spanish Moss

getting into position for the battle

the Confederate soldiers

strategy of the war games

There was also a fine three piece band called “7 pounds of Bacon”.  Playing lots of civil war era tunes.  (You-Tube video) 

The Travel Report:

RV Tip:  I’ve found a nifty little smart phone app called “haystack”.  Do you collect business cards and fellow Rv-ers “travel cards”, then can’t find the card when you need it?  Well haystack is an app that scans in those business cards using your cell phone camera.  It then reads the info and stores it all in your “contacts” list.  Look for “haystack business card reader” in the play store.

Additional Photos:

Around the area

Dave and Vickies Trailer moved off the Lot I'm purchasing

Battle of Narcoossee Mill

To be continued:  Part 2