2010-12 Winter in Florida at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park

 (Rainbow Springs)

On December 16, we arrived at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park in Crystal River, Fl.  We checked in and were informed that we were on site 147.  A kind gentleman led us to or site and helped us get parked.  It was a challenge to get into.  After backing up and pulling forward several times - and getting out the ladder to cut tree limbs, James finally squeezed into the site.

We were both disappointed in our site.  We did not realize that we would be so close to a busy road.  Then as we plugged in our electric cord, we discovered that we were on site 141 (the number was on the electric post).  Even though it was a hassle, we were both glad to move to the correct site 147!  It was further away from the busy road.

Both sites were next to retention ponds and looked very similar.  So it was an easy mistake for our guide to make. When someone came to park on site 141 a few hours later, we were glad we discovered the error before we had set up.

We liked our site.  The retention pond would get muddy during a heavy rain, but otherwise was dry.  We had a wooded area behind us.  There was a row of trees and some small shrubbery between our site and site 148, the one next to us.  During the four months we were there, we had neighbors for only 2 months - a very nice quiet Canadian couple parked in their Roadtrek.  There were trees between us and the RV’s in front of us, so we felt like we had a fairly private spot!

Since we were parked facing one of the perimeter roads, we had quite a bit of traffic from people who were taking walks or riding their golf carts.  This is how we met Zack - a very sweet black lab who was out walking with his owners.  We enjoyed playing with Zack, and going out to eat with his owners Larry and Anne from Maryland.

One of the first places we went after arriving in Crystal River was to the Christmas Eve service at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church.  This became our church home while we were in Florida.  We enjoyed Ray Cortese’s sermons and the outstanding praise music.  Larry and Anne came to a service with us and continued going to church there during their stay.  They brought their friend’s Bill and Shirley who were parked next to them.

We had bought Trek Navigator Bikes when we were in Zion, Illinois several years ago.  After our first month in Florida, we started using them.  We biked 2 to 3 times a week along the Withlacoochee Trail a “rails to trails” path.

We entered the trail in Inverness, FL where it went beside beside a lovely city park.

We were on our way there one Saturday when we saw an Antique Car show in process. 

We ran into Larry and Bill while we were looking at cars.

We have a friend from our church in Columbia who married and moved to St Augustine, FL last year.  One Saturday we met them for lunch in Gainesville and then went to walk around the Kanapaha Gardens. 

We were glad to be able to spend some time with Rob and Farhat.

In March we went with Larry and Anne and their friends Bill and Shirley to Rainbow Springs State Park which also has a beautiful garden.

Anne and Larry:

Bill and Shirley:

In February we met up with Dennis and Carol Smith and two of their friends to attend the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL.  We enjoyed looking at the vendor’s booths, the craft displays, and eating a nice big bowl of strawberry shortcake.

Our friends Dale and Cindy Sumner who had fulltimed for ten years bought a lovely new home.  We met them for lunch at Ruby Tuesday in Wesly Chapel, Fl and then enjoyed a tour of their wonderful new home.  They had only been there a few months, but they had the yard beautifully landscaped and the house completely furnished.  They did a good job in making a comfortable, inviting home.

There were many activities planned for the people staying at Rock Crusher Canyon.  We went to a few of these - the Christmas Buffet dinner and our favorite - the chocolate buffet.

Monique took a Bob Ross painting class while we were there and painted this picture which she gave to Dale and Cindy as a house warming gift.

Since there are many trees at Rock Crusher, there are also many squirrels.  They enjoyed the free meals from our “squirrel proof” (ha, ha) bird feeder.  They also went for the acorns on our sire - including the ones under our patio mats.   A mat is no obstacle for an attack squirrel - they just ate a hole through it to get to the goods. 

This started the ineffective “Squirrel Wars” which promted a lot of raucous laughter - from the squirrels.  James researched various squirrel repelling ideas from the Internet.  The small fake snakes did not fool them, and the fake owl with the solar activated rotating head did not fool them.  The large inflatable rattle snake did grab the attention of several people who passed by our RV.  One person even stopped to photograph it.  The squirrels just ignored it.

We put pepper on the mat.  That didn't work.  We took up the mat and raked up as many acorns as we could see.  Then we sprinkled cinnamon (large containers bought at Sam’s Club) on the ground and put the mats back down (another "sure fire" repellant idea from the Internet).  This provided a pleasant fragrance for us and even tastier acorns for the squirrels.

The best thing that came out of this was the hilarious story our friend DeDe Fischer came up with - it included squirrels wearing helmets and watching James through binoculars while laughing at what he was trying next.  In the end we just learned how to patch the holes in the mat.

In spite of the “Squirrel Wars”, we plan to go back to Rock Crusher Canyon again next winter.

2010-11 Carrboro, NC

In November 2010, we traveled to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC for a second opinion to verify Monique’s diagnosis.  Monique had a thorough exam by Dr. Joseph Moore and his staff.  Dr. Moore did confirm that Monique has a type of Lymphoma Cancer called SLL/CLL and that “Watch and Wait” or  his preferred description of “Active Monitoring” was the appropriate course of action.

We found a very nice campground near Carborro, NC.  This small town adjoins Chapel, Hill, and it is hard to know when you have crossed from one town to the other.   The campground was Spring Hill Mobile Home Park.  As the name implies it was once a mobile home park, but is slowly converting to a RV campground.  We had a large site with huge beautiful oaks overhead.  We hope to return sometime in the future.

We stayed a few extra days to tour the area.  We always love touring gardens and found two very nice ones.  First we visited the NC Botanical Gardens near Chapel Hill.  It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed walking the woodlands trails.

(The photo of the pitcher plant at the top of the page is from another part of this garden.)

Another day we visited the Sarah P Duke Gardens at Duke University.  This is an especially nice garden.  There were not as many things in bloom as you would see in the spring or summer, but the gardens were still very lovely.  A few roses were still blooming.

Here is a pretty gazebo overlooking a small pond.

Another area has an oriental design with a lovely little red bridge crossing one end of a lake.

A third day we visited the historic town of Hillsborough, NC.  It was established in 1754 and has more than 100 historic homes and buildings dating from the 18th and 19th century.  Most of these are well marked with a sign showing the home or building name and date built.  We enjoyed a nice stroll around several neighborhoods using a walking guide we picked up at the town museum.   This town is well worth a visit if you are  in this area.  On the way back to the campground we stopped in Carborro and shopped in some nice craft shops.  We love seeing the craft work of local artists.

We definitely want to return to the “Research Triangle” area of NC to see the gardens in a different season and to tour more of the historic towns.

2010-07 Soo Locks

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

(Aerial photo of Soo Locks seen in the Visitor Center)

Our son Ward drove up to Mackinaw City from Chicago and stayed almost a week. It was great to spend time with him. We primarily stayed around the campground, but did take a day trip to Sault Ste. Marie, MI to tour the Soo Locks.

It was just over an hour’s drive across the Mackinaw Bridge and up through the Upper Peninsula. This is a sparsely populated area of forests and some farmland until you reach Sault Ste. Marie, which is pronounce “Soo Saint Marie” and comes from a French translation that means “the falls of St Mary’s (river)".

We had a very enjoyable stay two years ago at Aune Osborne campground which sits right on the bank of the St Mary’s river just south of the Soo Locks. Our campsite was next to the river, and I was frequently stepping out to take close-up pictures of the Great Lakes freighters (“Lakers”) as they passed. Here is one of those photos:

From 08-08 Sault Ste Marie

Looking at the Soo Locks visitor center web site I learned that freighters passed through the locks on average every 1 1/2 hours.  So based upon that information and our prior experience, we assumed we would be able to watch a ship pass through. Well we were wrong. Six ships had passed through that morning, but none were in the St Mary’s river channel from the south or in Lake Superior from the north. The visitor center has a computer display that shows the location of ships in those areas, but no incoming ships were visible. We learned that traffic had been way down in 2009 due to the economy, but had picked back up so far this year. However a recent visitor came in from Duluth, Minnesota who works at the huge grain elevators on Lake Superior. He said their elevators were empty because there had been too much rain and the crops had failed (I assume winter wheat.) So he said no international ships nor “Lakers” would be coming through the locks with grain anytime soon.  I imagine that is a key reason we did not see any ships.

We did watch a tour boat go through the locks.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

And just enjoyed looking at the locks and entrance way.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petoskey, MI

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Tuesday July 13th we headed on a day trip toward Petoskey, Michigan.   On the way we took a short detour after we saw a sign for the McGulpins Point Lighthouse. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

This lighthouse went into service in 1869, but was only used for 37 years.  It became redundant when a lighthouse was built in Mackinaw City that provided a better light for both the west and east entrances to the Straits of Mackinac.  The local county bought the property a few years back and began restoration.  The iron top was rebuilt and installed just a year again in April 2009.  I read that many lighthouses still owned by the Federal Government are being decommissioned and will be sold over the next few years.  Wouldn’t it be neat to buy and live in one?  (But perhaps not that far north)

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Before we had left, we had chosen a route that was marked scenic.  Since this road is along Lake Michigan, we thought we would have great views of the lake.

The route is known as “The Tunnel of Trees”,  It is a beautiful drive through a heavy canopy of trees. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The road is winding, narrow and a bit of a challenge to drive.  We only had some occasional views of the lake.

Along the way, we spotted this group of people practicing polo.  Wish it had been a real match.  We would have stopped to watch having never seen one before.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

We also drove past a golf course that is quite a distance from anywhere.  It was appropriately named The Wilderness Golf Course. 

The lovely town of Harbor Springs was our next stop.  We enjoyed lunch, a stroll through the town, and going into some of the shops.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The town was very clean and all the buildings were so well maintained.  We asked one shop keeper if there was a town ordinance about how frequently they needed to paint.  She said no it was just the pride of the town and shop owners.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Almost all shops had beautiful window boxes of flowers.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

There were lovely homes

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

and this one is the town museum.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

In Petoskey, we stopped at a park and enjoyed the beautiful view.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

After a short drive through Petoskey, we headed back to the RV.  This time by a more direct route

2010-07 Mackinaw City, Michigan

From 2010-07 Mackinaw Bridge

We reluctantly left Creekwood Farm RV Park on July 6th. We really enjoyed our stay there, but we had firm reservations in Michigan.  So it was time to go.  

We traveled 4 days with three overnight stops along the way. We drove about 250 miles each day for a total of almost 900 miles.  We much prefer making shorter trips where we only stop overnight one or two nights before we stay a week to a month in the same area.

This trip was made more stressful because we are having problems with the slide mechanisms that open the room expansions in our bedroom and kitchen.  Each stop we had difficulty getting the bedroom slide to open or close.  We did not even attempt to open the kitchen slide.  It appears we have a voltage problem due to either a battery problem or some other electrical component.  Based on advice from my friend and Master RV Tech, Dale Sumner, I'm going to clean and check all the battery connections.  If that does not fix the problem, we  are hopeful someone from Newmar can diagnose the problem while at the upcoming Newmar Rally in Indiana. Anyway we were really tired when we reached Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

This is a huge campground with over 600 sites, although probably only about 1/2 are actively being used.  We are fortunate to have a large site and one of the few full hook-up sites with 50 amp service.  Most sites have only partial or no hook-ups and many are much smaller.  Lots of RV's are crammed in with barely enough room to open their slides and patio awnings.  There are a lot of tent campers here with many of these also on very small sites.

This a popular spot for family campers.  In spite of  some of the cramped spacing, all seem to be having a good time.   There are a lot of little ones on bikes with training wheels.  They are learning to ride and having great fun, but neither they nor most of the other children are being  cautious about where they are going.  It sure makes us pay close attention as we slowly drive in and out of the campground. 

The main attraction for the campground is its location beside Lake Huron with a great view of the Mackinaw Bridge.  The "Mighty Mac"  connects the lower peninsula of Michigan with the Upper Peninsula.  It was built in 1957 and, at almost 5 miles, is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the western hemisphere.

Our site is just around the corner from a nice park area with a wonderful view of the bridge.  
 

From 2010-07 Mackinaw Bridge

We have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.

From 2010-07 Sunset at Mackinaw Bridge

From 2010-07 Sunset at Mackinaw Bridge

So far we have had very pleasant weather with only one day of rain.  We are looking forward to touring some of the surrounding area over the next month.

2010-06 New Friends and the Grove Park Inn

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn

Our stay at Creekwood Farm RV Park was one of our most enjoyable.  Besides the beautiful scenery in the surrounding mountains, we really enjoyed the people we met.  

Among the first we met were Jim and Sharon who were parked just behind us.  Jim is one of about 13 work campers who work about 20 hours a week in exchange for their campsite.  Jim works with the grounds crew, and they kept the campground looking immaculate.  Jim remembered meeting me somewhere.  We quickly established that he and Sharon belonged to the Palmetto Pals Chapter of the Newmar Kounry Klub, and that we had attended the same rally in SC last year.  However Jim said that was not where we had met.  The next day he came back and told me that he remembered that we had met two years earlier in the Barnyard RV Park back In Lexington, SC.  Boy I wish I had a memory like Jim's.  Regretfully I failed to take a photo of Jim and Sharon.


The next friends we made were Bob and Barbara who are also full time RVers.  We enjoyed visiting with them and took a day trip together to Dillsboro, NC to eat lunch at the Jarret House, a historic hotel and restaurant we highly recommend to those visiting in western NC.  Then we came back to Waynesville and toured the Shelton House Museum of NC Handicrafts (See prior post about this wonderful museum.)

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Bob is an outstanding wood carver.  He carved this "patriotic" gecko that he put up on his motorhome mirror for a July 4th decoration.

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Here is a duck decoy that is in progress.  He is working to complete the detailed painting of the feathers.

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Here is a completed decoy:

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Another couple we enjoyed meeting were Jim and Cora who were parked across the road from our site.  

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Jim and Cora are from Louisiana and were staying for several months.  They have camped at Creekwood Farm in prior years and enjoyed returning to the area.  They joined us for a day trip to Asheville.  


After I stopped at an allergist to get my weekly allergy shot, we had a great lunch at Cheddars.  Then we spent several hours wandering through the two gift shops associated with the Southern Highlands Craft Guild.  One shop is in Asheville and the other is a short distance away on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We all enjoyed seeing the wonderful artwork created by local artisans.

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

We next drove over to the Grove Arcade (see our earlier post) and then to the Grove Park Inn.  The Grove Park was built in 1913 and is a famous regional resort.
 

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn

It is a wonderful hotel with outstanding restaurants.  One is on a balcony facing this lovely view to the west.

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn

The Balcony Restaurant is a great place for a special occasion.  My sister Nora Ann and brother-in-law Jack celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there on July 3rd.

From 2010-07 Grove Park Inn and Neighbors

Jack and Nora Ann's visit also added to the enjoyment of our time in Waynesville.  They brought their travel trailer up from Lexington and stayed at Creekwood Farm.  They came back to Waynesville for their 50th anniversary because their honeymoon trip had been to Lake Junaluska and Fontana Lake, which is a bit further west in NC.  It was great spending time with them before we headed north to our next scheduled stop in Michigan.