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.

02-09 Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Florida

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

We made a day trip from Dade City to visit Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park which was about 90 miles north of our campground.

Here is the description from wikipedia:

"Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is located near Homosassa Springs, Florida in the United States. The park is one of the best places in the state to view manatees, some of which are treated at the park before being released into the wild. Visitors can get close to the animals on a floating observatory. Black bears, bobcats, white-tailed deer, American alligators, and river otters can also been seen in the park. The park is also home to the hippopotamus Lucifer(Lu),famously known for his performances in many movies (including John Wayne's Daktari) for the past 40 years."

We had never seen manatees and that was our main reason for going. We were not disappointed. This is a lovely park with many native wildlife on display. Several streams and pools of connected water flow through the park. There are warm springs that originally attracted the manatees and tons of fish. Now there are the various wild animals and lots and lots of birds.

The manatees were very interesting. They have huge bodies, but small heads. Though they are no speed demons, I was surprised to see that they could swim faster than I expected. Four or five live there permanently and come to a spot for feeding at various times during the day. They swim around the park volunteer standing in the water. One rolls over on her stomach and floats beside him for the feeding.

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

Nearby is an underwater viewing area. The park also feeds the fish here and there are thousands of fish jammed together around the windows. This was really fascinating to see.

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

There is another area with lots of different birds gathered. Instead of getting your "ducks in a row", in Florida they get their flamingos in a row:

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

Among the birds were a good many vultures. I was a bit surprised to see so many of them. I assume they were there taking advantage of the free food.

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

Only a few varieties were caged. Most could fly away if they wanted.

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

As mentioned above, there was a huge hippo in the park. He has lived most of his life there. This park was originally a private commercial venture and the hippo dates from that period. When the state took over, the hippo stayed. He is the only non-native animal in the park.

From 2 - 2009 Homasassa Springs Florida

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour through the park - until we returned to the main parking lot. We had brought Clay with us since he hates to stay cooped up in the RV all day. We knew he could not walk the trails with us, but we had learned that they had free kennels he could stay in. We thought he would be fine for a few hours. However we did have some concerns when we went to put him in the kennel. When we arrived a young couple were just closing the adjoining kennel having placed a large bird cage with a big parrot. I can not for the life of me understand why they came with a parrot, but maybe the same reason we brought Clay. Well Clay does not like loud whistles and other noises. Apparently the parrot drove him up the wall. When we finished the tour and came back to the kennel, a park ranger was standing beside Clay's cage. Somehow he had managed to escape twice! The second time, the ranger stood beside Clay's cage since that seemed to calm him. We felt so bad for Clay and for the park ranger. We really appreciated what he had done for Clay and were embarrassed for all the hassle we had caused. That will be the last time we take Clay and plan to leave him in such a kennel arrangement.

12-08 Dade City, Florida

In early December, we moved north to Dade City, Florida about 35 miles NE of Tampa. We went to the Many Mansions RV Park which is really closer to Zephyrhills but has a Dade City Address. We went to this park because it is the winter home for our friends Dale and Cindy Sumner. It was their coach that we saw redecorated and inspired us to come to Florida to have ours done. We enjoyed being able to spend several months in the same park with them. Plus Dale is a Master RV Tech, and he did the annual maintenance on our appliances.

From 12-08 Dade City

This is a nice area with gently rolling hills. The surrounding areas are very rural. At one time this was a major orange growing region, but a bad winter in the 80's destroyed many trees. So many orange growers moved further south. We had enjoyed visiting an orange grove in Avon Park. They had wonderful Navel Oranges and, even better, a great orange ice cream made with their own orange juice. What a way to get your vitamin C. Yum!

We had expected to find lots of orange groves in Dade City. While there were some around, we only found one small grove where we could go and the folks would pick us a 5 gallon bucket of oranges for $5. The oranges were good, but not as good as those in Avon Park. We did find some good fresh fruit and vegetable stands in the area. Local strawberries were especially tasty and at a good price - about $2 to $2.50 a pint.

This was another tough winter on local crops around the Tampa area. One sad scene was a small orchard full of ornamental palm shrubs/trees. One day they were beautifully green, Two days later after two nights of freezing temperatures, the leaves on the majority had turned brown. I do not think the plants died, but years of growth were lost. I saw where the leaves had all been cut back a week later. I'm sure that was a tough financial loss. I also read in the local paper about tropical fish farms that were likely to lose their aquarium tropical fish. I had no idea tropical fish were raised in ponds around Tampa or for that matter anywhere in the US.

Some people had told us we would not like Florida. They said it was crowded and full of angry or rude "old people". We did not experience any of this. The majority of the people we met were very friendly. We would not hesitate to go back to the areas we visited in Florida for winter.

Florida has some wonderful biking trails. I(James) enjoyed riding with a group of other men three or four times during our stay. The chief organizer was Bob Brown,a semi-retired Lobster Fisherman from Maine. We hope to stop by and visit the Browns if we make it to Maine this summer or fall. Here is Bob and the other fellows riding one of the trails ahead of me.

From 2008 Dade City

Monique and I also went riding on one of the trails and wished we had gone more often.

From 2008 Dade City

The Zephyrhills airport is one of the most popular skydiving
locations in the country. Hundreds of people come from all over the US and Europe during the Christmas to New Years period to skydive. We frequently heard the planes overhead. We went down several times to watch. Sadly the first time Ward and I went down, we saw ambulances and emergency personnel rush to the airport. We did not realize it, but two people had crashed together while a large group was joining hands to make a circular formation before opening their chutes. One of those, a local woman, was killed by the collision.

From 2008 Dade City

We had a mix of good and bad experiences in the RV park. Most people were very nice, but there were a few "bad apples"- especially one couple who liked to play their music very loud right beside our RV. They did not understand appropriate RV park etiquette. We ended up moving to another location in the park. We were one of four couples to move or leave early due to this couple's noise.

The other negative was the fact the park was right next to a very busy train track. Trains came by regularly throughout the day and loudly blew their horns as they approached the road crossing to enter the park and other nearby roads. We became used to this, but we would prefer not to have this noise again.

Overall we enjoyed our stay in Florida and will likely go back again for the winter, although we are also interested in joining some friends who winter in south Texas. Time will tell.

11-08 Avon Park for Coach Redecorating

After a week in Hanna Park, we moved further south to Avon Park, Florida to have the redecorating work done by "Coaches by Design". We stayed in the coach at night in the shop's parking lot. During the day we wondered around the area and went shopping for new items such as a table cloth, napkins, magazine baskets, etc. to match the new interior. On the weekends we moved to nearby Bonnet Lake RV Park, a nice location with very friendly residents. We especially appreciated being invited to their Thanksgiving celebration - what a feast!

We had the following changes made to our coach:

• New Flooring - a lovely wood look laminate and new carpeting

From 2008 Redecorating

From 2008 Redecorating

From 2008 Redecorating

From 2008 Redecorating

• New Window Treatment

From 2008 Redecorating

From 2008 Redecorating

• New day/night shades. The original shades provide privacy at night but did not fully block the light. The new ones do so and provide better insulation since they are honeycombed and are lined with foil.

• New cornice over the driver's and passenger's chairs
  
  

  From 2008 Redecorating

  
  
  

  From 2008 Redecorating

  
  
  
• New Front curtain which also blocks the light and provide better insulation
• Replaced the carpet in the bathroom over a pipe run with the laminate flooring
• replaced the carpet on the sides of the entrance steps with the laminate flooring
  

  From 2008 Redecorating

  
  
  

  From 2008 Redecorating

• replaced the aluminum blinds in the kitchen with wooden blinds

In addition, Monique removed the wallpaper border in the bedroom and kitchen since they did not match the new colors. She also has finished the new bedspread she started in Lake Delton.

From 2008 Redecorating

We are pleased with the "new look" and think we are about finished making changes to our home on wheels or, as our great niece calls it, our "car house".

11-08 Hanna Park, Atlantic Beach, Florida

We left Columbia heading south to Florida both to have some redecorating done to our motorhome and to spend the winter. We stay for a week in Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park in Atlantic Beach, Florida near Jacksonville.

It was a nice quite park with very heavy vegetation. It was a challenge maneuvering our 40' motorhome through the narrow roads in the campground.

From 11-2008 Jacksonvile and Hanna Park

Once set-up, we enjoyed walking through the park.

From 11-2008 Jacksonvile and Hanna Park

It looked like an ideal location to film a jungle movie. You felt like Tarzan could come swinging through the trees any minute.

From 11-2008 Jacksonvile and Hanna Park

The beach was lovely. However it was a long way from the campsite and the weather was a bit cool for laying out on the sand. So we only made one visit to walk in the sand along the water's edge.

From 11-2008 Jacksonvile and Hanna Park

We enjoyed our visit except for one annoying problem that developed. I normally spray an insect spray around our wheels, leveling jacks and hoses - anything that touches the ground. For some reason I did not do so when we first arrived. After a few days we started seeing large black ants inside the RV. I went out and sprayed, but it was too late. We had been invaded by carpenter ants. I ended up sparaying boric acid in various corners and cracks and putting out sticky paper traps. Nothing worked. We kept seeing the ants. We knew they had established a colony somewhere. It was eventually found by the folks doing the redecorating when they took down the cornice over the driver's seat. They managed to carry the majority of the ants in the colony outside and kill most of th rest. It took a few days before we stopped seeing the remaining survivors. You can bet I am more diligent about spraying the insecticide now when we move to a new location.