Salt Springs Feels Like Home

We've been in Salt Springs for a month now, and have gotten into a good routine here.  It's a lazy life style, where we get up somewhere between 7:30 and 9:00, get on the internet (on our very weak on again-off again connection), walk the dog at 11:00, read a book in the afternoon, take the dog for another walk in the late afternoon, and settle in for dinner around 5:30.  In the evening we have Direct TV and network TV off of our antenna - all except for NBC which we can't seem to pull in.  On Saturdays there is the flea market up in the local shopping center where you can get a paperback book for $1.00.   There is a restaurant up the road that offers an early bird meal for $4.00 if you get there by 4 O'clock, $5.00 if you get there by 5 and so on.. (the beat the clock special).

We found a great dog park in Ocala - Millenium Dog Park.  We took Mirra for a visit there on Sunday, which was a good day to do it because there were plenty of dogs there.  She loved it, and we will go back again next week.  It's at least a 50 mile drive, so we try to do some shopping when we're in Ocala.

We will be going for a boat ride this week now that the weather is warm again.  We will also finally get into the Springs.  It went down into the 20's for the last couple of nights and highs in the 50's.  Today is starting another heat wave, going up to 77 today, and 80's by tomorrow.  There certainly has been some crazy extreme weather this year.

All in all, we are used to the area, and love it.  Except for missing our family and friends,  life in Salt Springs feels like home.

Salt Springs Recreational Area

Well, we made it down to Salt Springs Recreation Area in Ocala National Forest, and are having a great time so far.  We had one mishap on the way down - our slideout failed to come in on our second night's stay in South Carolina.  Bob used a wrench to bring it in and to put it back out once we settled into the campground.  We got a mobile RV repairman to come out and determine the problem and order the part, which ended up being a broken gear box. (This is the second one that went on our trailer).  He'll be back next week to install the part.  We still have the trailer under a service contract, so everything except $100 should be covered.

The weather here has been wonderful - it will be in the 80's all of next week.  This makes us very happy, particularly since it is in the 20's and 30's back home, and they just had snow.  We're glad to be here instead of there.

We got the canoe out a couple of days ago and tried to take pictures of the manatees.  They were swimming all around the canoe, but it was hard to get any good shots of them.  They come up for such a short time, then go back down again.  The picture below is of one on his back with his nose and whiskers sticking up - pretty funny looking!

We love this park - it's one of our favorites.  It is very quiet, and there is so much room on your site.  The woods are beautiful to hike through, so we've been getting plenty of walking in.  I think that is will be warm enough to swim next week.  The spring is always a comfortable 72 degrees, and is crystal clear.  There are some springs within the pool that are 20 feet deep.  You can see striped bass, mullet and small fry as well as crabs in the pool.

The only problem with this area is lack of internet access.  We get a feeble signal sometimes in the morning and at night, but cell phone and internet service is usually hard to come by here.  Right now I'm writing this post from the local VFW hall which generously provides free internet access.  As a plus, they serve some pretty good food.  Tonight is Rock Cornish Hen with rice, so I think we'll hang around for dinner.

We'll be here until March 10th, and so are happily settled in for awhile.  I'll post either when we go up to the VFW or when I'm lucky enough to grab a decent connection in the trailer!

Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park is a wonderful must-see National Park.  The lake is breathtakingly beautiful, and you can easily see the entire park in one day.  We stayed for three nights at the Crater Lake Resort, which was 25 miles SE of Crater Lake on Highway 62.  The campground was comfortable, and offered  full hook-ups for $30.00 a night.

We went through the National Park twice, but also had time to explore the surrounding area which included checking out nearby Kimball State Park and Collier Memorial State Park which offers full hookup sites on a first come first serve basis.  Collier State Park even offers a logging museum which is quite interesting.

We were there in July, and as you can see it was still pretty chilly and some snow was still on the ground, so plan accordingly.

Getting Ready For Florida

Well, it's that time of year again, and I'm getting excited.  After spending half of the year at home we are once again getting ready to depart for Florida.  We think that the trailer is ready, although there is a pesky leak that hopefully got fixed after caulking the roof a couple of weeks ago.  The car just got new heavy duty break pads on the back along with a new caliper - the old one broke apparently.  New back tires are going on the truck tomorrow.  Outside of that, it's just a matter of loading the trailer up, enjoying the holidays, and then heading out January 7th.

We're going to winter in Salt Spring Recreation Area until March 10th this year.  Then we'll be heading to the keys for two months.  We're booked into John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park for 10 days then Curry Hammock for two weeks.  We had intended to book Long Key for the two weeks after Curry Hammock, but had to change plans when we found out that the road work they had planned will close the park until May.  As an alternative, we booked two weeks into W.P.Franklin North, a US Army Corps of Engineers park.  It will make a nice change, and it will be good to see something different.  It's between Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee, and our site is right on the water.  Should be interesting.  After that, we'll head down to Bahia Honda for two weeks, then travel up the coast to Jonathon Dickenson State Park near Jupiter, Florida, for two nights.  Our final Florida stop is Anastasia State Park near Saint Augustine.  We're staying there for three nights.  We will probably stay at Hilton Head Island for one night, then enjoy a one week stay at Huntington Beach State Park in the Myrtle Beach area - one of our favorites.

Hopefully I'll be able to access the Internet during this time.  I get service through my Palm Pre phone - it has a WiFi hot spot for up to five devices, and works really well.  However, the service was very shaky in Salt Springs, and often we'd have to drive a few miles in the truck to pick up 3G.

Miracle - Our Traveling Companion

Our Old English Sheepdog Miracle (Mirra for short) is our constant companion, and a great traveling dog.  We got Mirra soon after we lost our male Old  English Sheepdog Buster.  Buster made it to the ripe old age (for an Old English Sheepdog) of 13.  My husband and I were heartbroken over loosing him.  We lost him right before I retired, and we had our first big post-retirement trip scheduled - a winter in Arizona, then stops along the way home in Texas and the Florida Panhandle and Keys.  I couldn't envision making this trip without my Buster, and just had to get another dog to ease my breaking heart.  We searched for a dog that was old enough to travel with us but was still a puppy, and lucky for us we found a breeder in New Hamshire that had a 41/2 month female that she had decided she didn't want to show and would sell.  Anxiously, we went to pick Miracle up.  She greeted us by jumping up on us and licking our faces all over, something we have now gotten used to and call a "mugging".  She jumped into the car with us and I could tell from the trip home that she was going to be a wonderful traveling dog.  She has accompanied us on all of our trips since, and has brought us so much laughter, joy and love.   Here's a cute video of Miracle's first encounter with Sheep that I put on YouTube. 

From Coast to Coast on Vancouver Island

Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino

As the grand finale of our 2010 cross country tour, we decided to make Vancouver Island our last northwestern stop before heading home.  We had just finished visiting Olympic National Park which was nearby the ferry in Port Angeles, so it was a natural extension of our trip.

Our first stay was at Crystal Cover Resort in Tofino which is on the West side of Vancouver Island.  The drive to Tofino was somewhat rough once we got away from Victoria.  The road took lots of really sharp turns and wound its way through mountains.  Finally we reached Pacific Rim National Park, so I knew that we weren't far from our destination.  It was foggy and damp, a theme that remained throughout our entire stay in Tofino.  We pulled into our campground late in the day, checked in and headed to our site.  The site was extremely narrow and hard to get into, but Bob, ever the skilled driver, got it in after much grumbling. The resort was really quite beautiful though, and was right on McKenzie Beach.  Although no campsites were on the beach it was a short walk to the access path.

We had dinner out in the small town of Tofino that night and were treated to a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.  The next day we took a whale watch, expecting to see Orca Whales, but found out that you rarely see them.  We did see some Humpback Whales and lots of Sea Lions laying around on rocks.  The next few days were spent exploring Pacific Rim National Park which is outstanding, but after just having been to Olympic National Park probably didn't seem as spectacular as it should have since the two parks are quite similar.  Still, we loved hiking along the Ocean every day.  However, by the time our five days were up in Tofino we were anxious to get going because of the eternal fog and damp cold air, which was really getting to us.  Keywords for Tofino - foggy, damp, cold, expensive.

Whale watch from Tofino

Sea Lions seen on whale watch

Tight fit!

Weirs Beach Campground in Victoria was our next destination.  I had booked us into an oceanfront campsite for five days.   It felt like a long drive from Tofino to Victoria, but we arrived at our campground fairly early and we were pleased with our site, although once again it was a little tight.  However, the clear sunny weather more than made up for any displeasure felt, and we happily settled in.

Of course we went to Buttchart Gardens, a must see in Victoria, and we played golf at nearby course.  Outside of that our five days were spent enjoying the beach and the sunshine, walking, reading books, and just chilling out.

Moonlight Over Weirs Beach

Buttchart Gardens

Although we loved our stay in Vancouver Island, I must caution anyone going that it is VERY expensive.  Everything is taxed so much that it really costs to stay there for any amount of time.  I'm glad that we went, but think that it may be a very long time before we stay in Canada again because of the expense.

Bison Crossing River in Yellowstone

I took this video in 2010 in Yellowstone National Park.  A couple of bison crossed the river, then went across the highway.  Notice Bob quickly running back to the truck as the one big bison comes near.  They will charge you if they get aggravated, so you have to be careful!