Boy, it has been a LONG time since my last post. I'm not quite certain where to even start. So, OK, the last time I posted was on February 9, after we had been at Fort DeSoto for about a week and a half. Since then, we moved up to Rainbow Springs State Park, just outside Dunnellon (about 30 miles west of Ocala) and spent two weeks. I didn't post even once while we were there - who knows why???? And then today we moved up here to Cedar Key, where we'll be spending the entire month of March.
So after my last post, we only had another few days at Fort DeSoto. I don't think we did anything really special during those days, but having said that...every day at Fort DeSoto is pretty wonderful. I think one of our favorite things, though, was the dog park and dog beach. It was so cool to have such a great spot only a mile from our door. I think we took Brandi up there almost every day during our stay. One of the challenges of traveling with a dog, especially a medium sized dog like Brandi, is that you absolutely have to be sure that you provide opportunities for long walks and, when possible, the chance to run off the leash. And the dog beach was just perfect for that - plus it was so fun to see all the dogs out on the beach, playing together and just having so much fun! I think the only other thng we did during our last few days there was go out to dinner at this really nice restaurant, Billy's. It prides itself on serving primarily fresh seafood, mostly right out of the Gulf (supposedly, at least). This was our early Valentine's Day dinner so we had a really nice meal, with a couple cocktails at the upstairs bar before dinner. I had a combo plate, with some of the sweetest, most tender scallops I've ever had and Dave had stuffed flounder. We had their "bang bang" shrimp as an appetizer - excellent meal, I have to say.
When we left Fort DeSoto on Thursday (the 14th) we had to head north so we took I-275 through St Pete's and then across the bay and through Tampa. Honestly, the traffic in that whole area is SO awful, I can't even imagine living there and having to deal with it everyday. We were SO glad when we finally pulled out of the north side of Tampa and got back onto I-75. After that, it was a very easy drive up to Ocala and then a few miles west to Dunnellon. The major appeal or attraction in that area is Rainbow Springs, and the State Park. We don't think a lot of people realize that the interior of Florida has many, MANY beautiful springs that bubble up and then flow into their own little river (i.e. the Rainbow River) until they hit the next larger river and eventually end up in the ocean or the Gulf. When a spring creates it's own river, it is called a "spring run" (for obvious reasons) and generally these rivers are abosolutely beautiful spots to visit. The spring runs tend to be incredibly clear, and generally you can kayak on them and see literally every bit of foliage, every fish, even additional small springs as clearly as though you were floating on top of an aquarium. Hard to overstate how beautiful they are. This one, in particular, was really gorgeous, with these REALLY deep holes where additional springs were feeding into the river. We were told that some of these holes are as deep as 25 feet or more. Because of this, Rainbow River is a very popular destination for snorkeling and scuba diving. We saw many, many pontoon boats loaded with suited-up scuba divers headed up the river. We also saw lots and lots of people snorkeling, swimming up the river, people pulling kayaks behind them while they swam, and one day we saw probably three groups of children, maybe a dozen or more in a group, all snorkeling down the river on what was obviously some type of class trip. That was pretty fun to see! Dave and I agreed that we don't think we've been anywhere that seemed to have as many different types of activities taking place on one stretch of river. The campground was actually a couple miles downriver from the "head springs" which is where the main "visitor" part of the park was. So if you just want to visit the springs, or swim in the designated area (where the water remains a constant 72 degrees year round), you would go to that part of the park. This area used to be a privately owned "attraction" back in the 30s or 40s (the pictures of the old post cards are a hoot!) but it was purchased by the state a number of years ago and converted into a state park. But the old gardens and man-made little waterfalls and the beautiful landscaping are all still there. A few miles away is the campground, where we stayed for our two weeks. We drove up to the park (the "attraction" area) a couple times, and we kayaked up the river to the head spring twice. If you paddled at a "normal" pace you could probably get to the head spring in about 30 minutes, but we spent probably four hours on the round trip each time. We barely moved! It was just fascinating to SLOWLY move up and then down the river and just look down and see everything happening below the surface of the water. In fact, we both (separately) decided that we want to invest in snorkeling equipment and carry it with us in the future.The campground itself was very nice, with full hook-ups (which is unusual in a state park). The only complaint (and this is just us) is that the campground was about 4 miles outside of town, without any bike path or even shoulder that you (or should I say Dave) could ride on to get into town. So all he could really do was ride around in the park itself. Fortunately, there was a third section to the state park, about 1.5 miles down the further down the road - this area is strictly for loading and unloading tubers for a day of floating in tubes down the river. There is a very nice, smooth paved "trail" that connects this area to the campground area and, since their "season" doesn't start until April 1, the trams are not running yet. So, in effect, we had this 1.5 mile trail pretty much to ourselves, and at the end of the trail, where the tubers get picked up after their float, there was a very pretty boardwalk that went from the parking area down to the river. So by the time we biked, or walked, from the campground to the end of the trail, and then down the boardwalk to the river, and all the way back, we had about a 4.3 mile loop. We walked the route with Brandi almost every day, and because we hardly ever saw anyone on the trail, we were very comfortable with letting her run off her leash. She is getting to be so good, she basically just runs ahead of us, behind us, whatever, but always stays close. And when we DID see anyone else on the trail, we would just tell her to come to us and "sit and stay" and she's getting really good about obeying us. Believe me, that trail was an absolute god-send for us - we probably would have really not enjoyed the campground at all if that hadn't been there. Plus it was the perfect spot for me to run my 3 miles every other day!
Which leads me to my 5K! I knew I wanted to do a 5K sometime in February, since I have been pretty faithful with my running since we left home. After looking at some running websites, I found this "Citrus County Blessings" 5K and 10K in Hernando, which is only about 10 miles south of Dunnellon. I signed up for it a month or so ago and did the run on February 23rd. It was pretty fun - they all are, to be honest! It was a little smaller race, with maybe 180 people or so doing the 5K and another 50 or 60 doing the 10K. So a nice small group - which meant that there wasn't a LOT of competition, which meant that I was able to come in second in my age group! Yay for me! I got a little medal on a ribbon - such fun! But to be completely honest, there were only three women in my age group in TOTAL, so we ALL got a ribbon. Pretty funny! Dave and Brandi came along and were my cheering section - Dave took Brandi a few yards down from the finish line, so as I ran by them I got to reach over and give her a little pat on the head. It was kind of cute - Dave said that she spotted me WAY down the road and went onto instant "alert" and watched me every second of my final approach. So now I've picked out and registered for my NEXT 5K-it's going to be in New Orleans on April 14th and takes place inside one of those wonderful old New Orleans cemeteries. It'll be a riot! And the post-race foods and beverages are being provided by a number of New Orleans restaurants, along with live music afterwards. Should be great fun. It's very helpful to me to know that I have another run scheduled - it keeps me motivated!
And speaking of physical activities, Dave and I also did two, yes TWO, AVA walks while we were at Rainbow Springs. The first one was in Gainesville, primarily on the FSU campus. Very pretty walk, very interesting. I really enjoy the AVA walks that take place on college or university campuses. The FSU campus, not surprisingly (because of the mild temps), is extremely pretty, with lots of very nice landscaping, flowers, trees, and so on. And the football stadium is SO huge - I'm always amazed at the monstrous sports complexes at some of these schools. Between the basketball center, the baseball diamond (which is every bit as nice as where the Whitecaps play), the swimming and track facilities and of course the football stadium... I swear these buildings cover as much ground as the entire collection of "academic" buildings! But - it makes for a great AVA walk! And then about a week later we drove about 20 miles south to Inverness, which is also a very pretty little city, and did the AVA walk at Fort Cooper. After we got there, we realized that we did this one two years ago, but that's OK. You can get "credit" for the same walk once every six months, so I was able to stamp my book, which is all I care about. And because the walk was mostly along trails kind of removed from the main road, we let Brandi run loose which of course she loves to do! I know I've said this before, but it is SO very, very nice to have Dave join me for these walks, now that he has two good knees! What a difference from a couple years ago!
So other than that, we've pretty much have done the "normal" - we did have ONE (!) campfire finally - we haven't been able to have a fire for two months because of being in the "RV resorts" - so I'm not sure why we only had one, but there you go. And, as usual, we found a couple nice little bars in the area - one is called "Swampy's" and the other is the "Blue Gator". Both of these are situated right on the side of the river, with boat rentals, tube rentals, and other "river" type of activities. They both have outdoor seating where you can sit and watch people going up and down the river while you drink your shared pitcher of Bud Light - not a bad way to spend a couple hours in the afternoon! We had dinner at the Blue Gator last night and indulged in FRIED food - fried shrimp, hush puppies, and sweet potato fries - horrible for us but SO VERY good! Gonna have to run an extra couple miles for THAT!
And then this morning we packed up and headed out here to Cedar Key (a nice short 55 mile drive). As I mentioned earlier, we'll be here for a whole month, and then we head up to New Orleans for the first two weeks of April. It's kind of unbelievable to us that tomorrow is going to be the first of March already. Every year we have the same reaction when we realize the majority of our trip is over - how does that time go so FAST? This should be an interesting month for us, since I'll be flying back north for about ten days in the middle of our time here. I'm going back to work for a few days, but I'm starting and ending my trip in Columbus so I can spend a few days with Brenda and her family. I'm really looking forward to it, although I feel a LITTLE guilty leaving Dave here alone for so long. But fortunately, he really likes it here and will be able to entertain himself just fine - plus it helps that I'll be gone during March Madness - so I'm not sure he'll even notice I'm gone now that I think about it! Cedar Key is an interesting place, but I'll save that for my next post.
