December 31, 2009 by steve.

One last RV/Camping entry for 2009. The weekend before Christmas, we took the motor home to Lake Kissimmee State Park near Lake Wales, Florida. This was the next to last place we camped in the fifth-wheel back in December of 2006, and it is located in a fairly isolated part of Central Florida, so it is a pleasant place to wander to for the weekend.

The campground is a typical state park campground, lots of good sized sites, with most being fairly roomy so that you don’t have to get to know your neighbors too well. There is water and 30 amp service with dump station on site. The road in to and in the campground is paved, but the sites are dirt. One of the great things about this park is that there are a number of lovely old live oaks throughout the campground. You do not have to try hard to get a site with a great big old tree behind it. If you have kids the best thing about this is that it gives you a great natural play set located in your site.

This is a big park, it is over two miles from the front gate to the campground, and a bit further back to the day use area. The day use area has a boat ramp, and a couple of floating docks so that you can tie up your boats if you wish. The canal from the boat launch to the lake usually has a couple of good size gators hanging around, we only saw one on this trip, but on past trips to the park we’ve seen half a dozen big gators drop into the water when boats were coming back to the ramp. There is other wildlife that roams the park including deer and wild turkeys. As noted, this park is in the middle of nowhere, cell service is intermittent to non-existence. There is also an 1870s Cow Camp at this park. It is staffed with a re-enactor that plays the role of a Cracker Cow Boy and will talk to you about cows without ears, cattle drives and the “current” President “Useless S Grant” In the couple of trips that we’ve made here, I’ve only seen the volunteer break character once, for the most part they are pretty good about behaving like they are in the 1870s. Pictures of our trip are on flickr.

This wrapped up our trips for the year. We spent a total of 42 nights in the motor home this year, bringing us to a total of 117 nights in the RV since we acquired it in April of 2007. We’ll try and top that next year.

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December 16, 2009 by steve.

I am terribly behind in writing the blog post. It is December and almost time to make the last camping trip of the year and I’m just now getting around to writing about Thanksgiving. The CurbCrusher gang headed just a short way up the road to Ocala and the Silver River State Park for the holiday. To make this holiday a family affair, we met Grandma and Grandpa CurbCrusher at the park, and spent from Wednesday through Sunday lounging around and enjoying each others company.

Silver River is located adjacent to the Silver Springs attraction, which is one of Florida’s original theme parks. The source of the Silver River is the springs after which the attraction is named, and it flows down through the park. There is a canoe launch ramp in the park, about a half mile hike from the parking lot, and the park rents canoes. The river is fairly wide at this point, and looks to be a pleasant canoe trip. We didn’t partake of the canoing, but apparently one can put in at the park, and then paddle right into the middle of the Silver Springs attraction. as long as you don’t set foot on the land around the springs, you are welcome to paddle and swim in them. We might just have to try that on the next trip. The park also has a number of hiking and biking trails, which we availed ourselves of on a couple of occasions during the weekend.

Continuing the tradition from last year, Mr. CurbCrusher rose early and ran the Ocala YMCA Turkey Trot. This was a pleasant 5K (3.1 miles) through parts of Ocala, with something that I’m not used to seeing in Orlando, a hill right as you finished the first mile. Unlike 2008, the temperature was more pleasantly in the 50s, still cold, but not like the 30’s. My new goal for each Thanksgiving is to start it with a Turkey Trot.

The campground is fairly large with approximately 60 gravel spaces (I took pictures of most of the sites here) and many of them are pull-thrus. The pull-thru sites are fairly large (long and wide) with lots of room to park and set up. The utilities (water and electricity) are nicely located in the middle of the site, so that you shouldn’t have to use extra hoses or extension cords. The back-in sites are fairly wide also, so it shouldn’t be a problem for most folks to find a spot that they can fit. The bathhouses are fairly new, and appeared clean on our visit, they are at the back of the loops and we were at the front, so we didn’t visit often. The dump station is a two-holer so it makes for a more expedited exit on the way out.

We had a great weekend camping, and you can find the few photos we took on our flickr account.

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November 24, 2009 by steve.

Well, I’m late in posting our last trip report, so I’ll start by just saying that we went to Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground for Halloween and had a great time. This is our third trip to Ft. Wilderness in the motor home, the others being in November of 2008, and September of 2007. The pictures of all the fun we had can be found in our flickr account here. But since I’m so tardy in posting, Lady CurbCrusher has written a review, that’s what follows:

We heard so much about the Fort at Halloween we decided to try it for ourselves this year.

I booked a Full Hook Up (FHU) site which should have put us in 1600-1900 loops but I faxed a request a week ahead and we did get into the 1300 loop again. Our site wasn’t too bad. We were right next to the comfort station and the first site on the right as you enter the loop. We had no neighbors beside us and only someone behind us on the 1200 loop. They were never there though.

We got there Thursday afternoon and waited forever in the check in lane again. I think this will be our normal routine of fixing lunch while we wait for Disney to figure out how to check people in faster. There was no FastPass lane for check in designated so I was glad that I didn’t do that, though I tried 9 times and each time it said I needed to be 18. We finally get our site and head to set up. Little CurbCrusher got out the decorations and started to “spookify” our site.

After we were finished, we (Little CurbCrusher and I)headed to the pool to check out the upgrades, while Mr. CurbCrusher had to go back to get our Disney cards since they didn’t give them to us at check in. The pool area has been remodeled since our last visit and the new water slide was nice as well as the hot tub. Little CurbCrusher played for a few minutes at the new splash pad, and then CurbCrusher got there to try the slide. We spent about an hour at the pool and then went to check out the store and a few of the loops by bike. Later we went back to our site for dinner and CurbCrusher went home to go to work on Friday. He would come back Friday after lunch. Little CurbCrusher didn’t want to go looping or to the movie or campfire so I went by myself. There were some amazingly decorated sites that really put ours to shame. I told Little CurbCrusher that we needed Grandpa to come and decorate our site next time with all the stuff he has for his haunted houses. It was really getting dark early since time change was only 2 days away so I was careful to stay on the sidewalks while riding around. Even so I nearly got hit from other bikers that didn’t have any reflectors or lights on while riding. I stopped by the campfire and roasted one marshmallow then left. It’s no fun without others there, after all it is a group activity. I went back to the RV and we watched a movie before going to bed.

Friday morning Little CurbCrusher and I looped after breakfast. We went and visited the Settlement store and toured all the loops looking at the decorations. Finally we ended up at the cabin pool which has stayed 6 ft deep but they have new lounge chairs and a hot tub now. After that we went to the Whispering Canyon (at the Wilderness Lodge) for lunch. They didn’t do much antics as we were there early. Just the hobby horse ride but my camera was jammed so I didn’t get a picture of it. Lunch cost $34 so we won’t be doing that again soon. We decided to go to the pool when we got back and just as we were leaving CurbCrusher pulled up so he came with us. The day was so hot, I think it was in the mid 90’s all weekend. Not what you want for October. We looped a little bit after the pool and got back in time to see the golf cart parade after we ate dinner. There were quite a few really cool carts. People are so creative. We decided we want to rent a cart next year so we can participate too. After that we went to Downtown Disney to trick or treat and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people there. CurbCrusher had to let us out so he could find a parking space. They had 23 stations set up and a few had already run out of candy. Later on we went to the beach to watch the fireworks and water parade, then we wandered over to site 114 to look at their decorations. As CurbCrusher was taking pictures with our new Canon, Little CurbCrusher and I and saw the headless horseman come from the woods and go into the enclosure behind the store. None of my pictures came out so good though.Then we came back and went to bed.

Saturday we had breakfast and walked the loops looking at the decorations. A lot of people had left on Friday and new ones had filled up the Fort. At 11 am we went to the dog park to watch the pet parade. I felt sorry for the pets as most of them didn’t like wearing a costume. They were all cute though. Afterward we left to go to Downtown Disney and eat at Earl of Sandwich and Ghiradelli for dessert and walk around the stores. It wasn’t as busy in the daytime but I bet Saturday night was just as crowded as Friday. We took it easy for the rest of the day reading, biking, and walking around. We had dinner and got ready to trick or treat as it started at 5 pm. There were a few early ones and CurbCrusher walked with Little CurbCrusher around our loop and I took her around the 1200 and 1100 loops. We came back and left the candy and all walked around the 1000, 900, 800, 700, 100, 200, and 400 where the DisBoarders were going to have a party later and then back to 600. By then we were pooped and decided not to go to the party. We handed out the rest of our candy and called it a night. The kids across were hiding in the bushed and scaring people when they came around the corner until they made a little girl cry and their parents made them stop. We watched another movie and then went to bed.We heard sirens and found out later that a golf cart had flipped over and had hurt a 4 year old girl. She was in ICU for a few days with head trauma.

Sunday we looped a few times after breakfast then came back to pack up and get ready to leave. There was so much to do that we didn’t do everything on the schedule. There was a mummy wrapping contest and games, pumpkin carving, and Bingo that we didn’t get to try. There’s always next year, since this was so much fun we think it will become an annual Halloween tradition.

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October 31, 2009 by steve.

Well, the week before Halloween and its time for the last triathalon of the Team CurbCrusher season. As with last year, I’m ending the season a short trip down the road from the house at Moss Park for the Masters Triathlon Championship race. Of course there is good and bad to this, the good is that it is close to the house, the bad is that this race is put on by Buttar.com which is probably my least favorite race promoter.

Pre-Race

I was busy on Friday and Saturday, so I wasn’t able to get my packet early. I showed up at Moss Park around 6am for a 7:30am race since I needed to get my packet. I checked in fairly quickly and put my number on the bike and headed to transition. After body marking, I wandered into the transition area to find an ‘open-seating’ policy in place, put your bike and stuff where ever you want. So I found a nice spot up against the fence and set up. I then wandered back to the car and noticed that the race t-shirt said it was Nov 1, a week later than the current date. I thought that was odd.

The race was advertised as starting at 7:30am, with pre-race meeting on the beach at 7:15, so I made my way to the beach about 10 after 7. Someone got on a bull horn and announced that the time on the web site was wrong, that the race would be at 8:00am. Then about a minute later, they announced that the race meeting would be at 7:30 and the sprint tri would start at 7:45 and the Olympic tri at 8:00 because the original date was Nov 1 and that was after daylight savings time ended. About 7:30am the bullhorn came alive again and race instructions were given, and it was announced that the sprint tri would start in about two minutes and the Olympic tri would start three minutes after that.

Swim - 15:25
So we finally start the race about 7:35am, just five minutes after the advertised time. The air temperature was in the low 70s and the water was probably in the mid 70s. There was only one wave of sprint tri athletes, but it wasn’t too crowded in the water. I settled into a good rhythm swimming and made my way toward the first buoy. We were swimming east into the lake, and the first buoy seemed to be right where the sun was rising over the lake. So, I just followed some other folks and made my way there. After turning at the first buoy, I looked at my watch to see how I was doing. My watch face read something like “-=L_” hm, not good. After a few more strokes, I looked at the watch again, and could see a line of water behind the face of the watch. Looks like the battery replacement might have caused the waterproofness of the watch to be compromised. I kept swimming and finished feeling pretty good.

T1 - 5:44
Moss Park races have a pretty good run from the swim finish to the transition area, and this eats up most of my time in T1. The first part of the run is not bad, along the beach in the sand. Then you turn through some pine woods with lots of roots, pine cones and pine needles on the ground which all seem to hurt when you step on them. Next is the pot-holed pavement of the park road that seems to just eat at the bottoms of your feet. Finally, as you get to the transition area, the ground becomes sandy and grassy and comfortable to run on again. A pretty straight forward T1, bike jersey on, helmet on, socks and shoes on and off you go. Although I did take time to remove my worthless watch as I figured if I kept it on I’d just keep looking at my wrist.

Bike - 40:58
Almost 12 miles on the bike. The course is flat and runs through the neighborhoods around Moss Park, so it is pretty easy. I used a five minutes of riding hard with a one minute break cycle, sort of imitating the Galloway running method on the bike. Also, continuing the practice of consuming something other than sports drink on the bike that I started at the last race, I had a goo at about the 25 and 36 minute marks. One of the things that I don’t like about Buttar races is there never seem to be any officials on the bike course. There were at least two different groups running a pace line of at least four bikes on this course, along with a large number of others drafting in twos and threes.

T2 - 1:22
Not much to T2. Rack the bike, put on a dry shirt and head out to run.

Run - 31:19
I really wanted to break 30 minutes on this run, and I think I could have done it if I’d had an idea of what kind of pace I was running. But, I found that without a watch, I am terribly incapable of judging my pace. There are two water stations on the race, and I ran between the water stations. I stopped at the water station and walked for a counted out minute (1 - Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, …) after each one. This seemed to work well, and I was feeling very good during the run. I thought that I was doing fairly well and running at about a 10 minute or less pace. Obviously, looking at the time, I was really wrong about this, I was on more of and 11 minute mile pace.

Overall - 1:34:51
Well, I felt good at the end of the race. But I was slower than last year. That was a real disappointment as I was convinced that I could do under an hour and a half for this race. Of course five minutes is a bunch of time, but I’m going to blame it on the broken watch. That wraps up the Team CurbCrusher triathlon season, now for the one endurance running race of the year, the OUC Half-Marathon the first week of December.

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October 9, 2009 by steve.

We extended our limits this month and headed all the way to the Florida Keys for a week. As our home base while in the Keys, we stayed at Long Key State Park. Long Key State Park is mostly a campground, there are two small day use areas, but most of the park which is located at mile marker 67.5 between Islamorada and Marathon seems to be sixty camp sites with water and electricity sandwiched between US1 and the Atlantic. The sites are right on the beach, giving you a great view of the water from the front window when you pull in to the sites.

Campground – The road on the way in from the ranger station is nice and smooth, until you get to the gate that gives you access to the campground. Then it appears that the road has not been surfaced in at least three decades. The campsites are all between the campground road and the water, with the first 10 or so sites being fairly shallow. The sites all have water and electricity, and there is a dump station opposite site 14. The sites are configured so that electric and water are between every other site (between sites 1 & 2 then 3 & 4) so regardless of whether you pull straight in to get the water view in your window, or if you back in, it will likely be necessary to have extra hose and an extension cord if you want to use the water and electricity. Sites in the teens and twenties also seemed to retain water for an extraordinarily long time following rain, with some of the sites appearing to have a small lake between them and the road that stayed for one or two days.

The Park – Yes you are on the beach, but… It is one of the filthiest beaches that we’ve ever seen. For the first four nights we were there, we’d walk down the beach from our campsite to the day area. After the first night, we started taking at least one (sometimes two) large plastic garbage bags with us. There was not a trip down the beach that we did not completely fill every bag we took with us. There were bottles, shoes, ropes, lightbulb and all kinds of trash on the beach. The Ranger said it is because of where the park is in relation to the currents and most everything gets washed up with the tide. Regardless of how it happens, it does take away from the experience. In the day use area there is a boardwalk that runs from the parking area to the water with some pavilions located near the water. Along the boardwalk there is an observation tower, but it is not high enough to see anything, just the tops of mangrove trees. Also off the boardwalk is a hiking trail. Beware though if it has rained, or if the tides are extra high, you may find that portions of the trail are underwater. More pictures of the park are here.

One of the most popular past times for all the campers was floating. The water is very shallow, you can walk out a couple of hundred yards and not have the water get any deeper than your knees. So most everyone blows up inner tubes or a raft, and then wades out in the afternoon an floats for a while. The bottom is sandy, so there aren’t a lot of fish, and when it’s hot it makes for a very refreshing time.

Stuff To Do We found other things to do in the Keys as well. A day trip from Long Key down to Key West let us visit the Southernmost Point, the Key West Lighthouse, the Mel Fisher Museum and Fort Zachary Taylor Sate Park. We put our bikes on the car and drove down and parked at Zachary Taylor State Park and toured the fort, then unloaded the bikes and went around Key West. That allowed us to avoid the hassle that is trying to park in Key West. Pictures of our Key West adventures are here for the fort, the lighthouse and the southernmost point. After biking around Key West, we returned to the fort and snorkeled around the rocks that are just off the beach at the park.

There are also some other state parks in the area, Curry Hammock State Park, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and Bahia Honda State Park.

We had a great lazy week, it might have been too lazy. With this trip, we have now spent 110 nights in the motorhome since we got it in April of 2007, and 35 nights this year alone.

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September 20, 2009 by steve.

It’s been five months, but it is still triathlon season in Florida, and I finally got off my rear and ran another race. For the second year in a row, I ran the Downtown Orlando Triathlon that starts at Lake Underhill and finishes at the Wall Street Plaza in downtown Orlando.

Pre-Race

Like last year, I went and picked up my packet on Friday afternoon. But this year I decided that I didn’t want to fuss with the parking at Lake Underhill, so I put all my stuff in a backpack and rode my bike the three miles from the house to Lake Underhill. This marked a first, the first time I haven’t driven to a race site. I figured I might regret it after the race, but that’s why I had the cell phone so that I could call Lady CurbCrusher to come get me if I was too tired to ride back home.

The transition area was well organized, with each bike spot marked with the race number, and officials wandering around and making sure that people racked their bikes in the proper spot, and didn’t try and homestead and take up three or four spots with their stuff. Since I rode the bike up, I got there about an hour before the race, so I didn’t have to hang around long.

Swim - 10:30

My age group started in the third wave at 7:40am, 10 minutes after the first wave went off. It is a quarter-mile swim, and unlike last year, most all the weeds were gone. Last year this lake was so full of weeds, that on just about every stroke your arm came out of the water with weeds wrapped around it. This year I only had that happen twice, once in the middle of the race, and once after turning at the last buoy and heading for the swim finish. Swimming out to the first buoy seemed a little crowded, even though I hung back at the back of the starting group. Once we rounded the first buoy, it seemed like it thinned out a bit.

T1 - 4:44

The transition is very close to the swim finish, so it is fairly quick to get to your bike after you swim. Of course I have an innate ability to take something that should be fast and make it slow. I got to the bike fairly quickly, but seemed to take forever to get my bike jersey on. Once I got that done, I was able get out of transition.

Bike - 39:00

The bike ride as changed a bit from last year. Instead of heading all the way east on Robinson to OEA, we turned at Bumby and went down to Central, then turned east to OEA. This introduced about four extra turns into the course, and a bunch of rough road. I know that last year I felt that Robinson and South streets were rough, but they must have been repaved during the year as both of these streets seemed smoother that last year. I did two things different this race, that may have contributed to my better time, or maybe I just got faster.

I had noticed in the last couple of races that I’ve run out of energy on the run after about a mile and a half. So I decided that I’d try eating a bit on the bike. So I ate a gel, and also had a couple of these gel-drops that they gave away in the bags for the race. To take the time to eat, I also applied a bit of a Galloway Method to the bike as well as the run. So every six minutes, I took a minute to get out of the drops and take a break for a minute while riding. This gave me time to drink and take the gels.

T2 - 1:34

Fairly quick and uneventful transition. Switched from a bike jersey to a dry t-shirt, grabbed my belt with my number and started running.

Run - 43:58

I ran with a Galloway approach, running for five minutes, walking for one. I tried not to pay attention to the amount of time that it was taking, as last year I’d pretty much run out of gas on this run and ended felling miserable. One thing that made it better in 2009 was an overcast day, so the sun wasn’t beating down on you as you ran. Since I had plan to walk, I always found myself running again after each break. Since I was using a six minute walk run cycle (1 minute walk, 5 minute run), and I had run this course in just under 56 minutes last year, I’d figured nine walk run cycles. I was just focusing on how far I’d gone using my nine cycles, and not where I was on the course. So, I’d finished seven cycles, and looked up and was like “Wow, I’m almost done.”

Finish - 1:39:47

Well, I was happy. I ran the same race and shaved about 14 minutes off of last years time. And, I didn’t feel like crap. I still think that the Wall Street Plaza is a bad place to end a race, it is crowded, and the lines of people looking for free beer, water and food all cross and it’s hard to figure out which one is which. But they did seem to move some of the goodies to the street that runs up behind the plaza in front of the History Center, so there was a bit more room this year.

Mears ran the shuttle this year that transported you back to Lake Underhill and the start. I had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus, and it was pleasant riding in the air conditioning back to the start. I felt good enough that I didn’t bother calling Lady CurbCrusher, and just rode the bike back to the house.

All in all a great race for Team CurbCrusher. Taking almost a quarter hour off of last years time was fantastic. Now maybe one more race at Moss Park in October, and then I’ll wrap up the year at the OUC Half-Marathon.

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September 8, 2009 by steve.

Labor Day weekend, and we headed up Florida’s second oldest settlement, St. Augustine (for the oldest see here) and the Anastasia State Park that is located in the city. It had been two years since we had camped at Anastasia, so it was time to go back. This was also a Florida Pop-up Camper (FPUC) gathering, and it had been a few months since we’d camped with our FPUC friends. Combine all that with a holiday weekend and the beach, and you’ve got yourself a good time.

Camping - Anastasia has somewhere around 140 camp sites, of which about 20 are probably big enough to put a 35 foot rig into based on the information on Reserve America. We camped in site 123, which is the same site we had two years ago. The sites have water and electricity (30 Amp), and there is a 3 lane dump station at the campground exit. The roads are a bit tight, and there are some sites that are probably deep enough to park in, but if you have a towable you may find yourself doing a bit of maneuvering to get into the site. Most of the sites are very shady, and the vegetation around the sites serves as a good wind break, so you do not get the direct wind off the Atlantic like you do at campground that are right on the beach. The campground is about a quarter to a half mile from the beach. You can easily walk or ride a bike, or drive up and park with the day use folks to use the beach. There is a store/snack bar at the beach parking lot, Island Joe’s, that has wi-fi along with souvenirs and basic camp supplies.

Stuff To Do - At the park you can go to the beach, or hike the two trails that are on the park property. There is also a water sports concession that is on the lagoon where you can rent sailboats and kayaks to roam around the lagoon. In addition, on Saturday morning, there is a farmers market at the St. Augustine Amphitheater which is located adjacent to the park just south of the park entrance.

If you are willing to leave the park, there is the entire City of St. Augustine to visit. This includes the lighthouse , which is located just north of the park off A1A. You can climb the lighthouse (as we did) and tour the old keepers cottage.
There is also the Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort that was built to defend the city. If you time your visit right, you can see them fire the cannons in addition to touring the fort.
We did something new this trip and visited Fort Mose State Historical Site, which is just north the Castillo on US 1. Fort Mose is just a site, there is no fort left. This is the location of the first settlement of free Africans in the New World. The story of how the Spanish King offered freedom to any escaped slaves that converted to Catholicism is told in historical markers and a small interpretive center. You can walk out on a boardwalk and see the location where the fort was, but since it was primarily earthworks, there is nothing left.

We had a great weekend, and enjoyed visiting with our FPUC friends and hanging out on the beach and soaking up the great history in St. Augustine. Pictures of the park are here.

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August 12, 2009 by steve.

The second weekend in August and Florida is hot. Hot and humid. There is no better way to beat the Florida summer than a visit to one of the natural springs in Florida. So with that in mind, we headed up to Chiefland, Florida and Manatee Springs State Park. The park is located at the end of State Road 320 about six miles west of US 19/27/98 on the Suwannee River. With a constant water temperature of 72 degrees, its the perfect way to cool off from the summer heat.

The campground is organized into two main loops, along with two small fingers that stick up off one loop, and has 100 sites with water and electricity. A number of the sites are tent only, and another group are for smaller rigs. Details of the campground, along with links to pictures of the larger sites can be found here. The road through the Magnolia camping area is pretty tight, nothing that is not negotiable, but you will definitely be looking to make sure you’ve left enough room on both sides of the rig for trees. It would probable be a little more unnerving pulling a trailer or fifth-wheel, as you have to remember that the trailer can turn inside you. The sites are true to their sizing on map, and it was fairly easy to back the motorhome in and park.

It is just a short walk from the campground to the spring head where you can swim, or just sit in the cool water and enjoy the coolness. From the spring head there is a short run to the river, but you can not swim out into the river. There is a boardwalk that runs along the springs run, with a dock in the Suwannee from which you can fish at the end. The water is extremely clear in the spring and the run, making it possible to look all the way to the depth of springs, and see fish and turtles along the run. During the winter months there is no swimming, and the manatees make their way up the river and hang out in the springs. There is a good bit of scuba diving going on at the spring head, and at Catfish Hole.

Only scuba divers are allowed in Catfish Hole, and it servers as the access to a large underwater cave system. Catfish Hole is kind of cool as it is entirely covered (or at least was when we were there) by what appears to be a green slime. It is actually all the seeds and droppings from the trees that surround the sink, and they float on the top of the water. As divers breathe and exhale under the water (where you can’t see them), their bubbles rise and break the surface, and create little holes in the green covering of the water. Eventually, as the divers surface, the bubbles rise more quickly and open the water up where the divers then surface, looking like the creature from the “green” lagoon. A pull through site in the Hickory camping loop overlooks this sink, and we think that is the site we are going to try and get on the next trip.

In addition to hanging around Manatee Springs, we headed up the road a few miles to Fanning Springs State Park. In addition to trying to visit as many state parks as possible, we had heard that there was a dive platform at Fanning Springs so we wanted to try it out. Fanning Springs has some cabins, but no camping and is a fairly nice spring that is located very close to the Suwannee. Boaters pull up to the dock that surrounds the swimming area from the river and tie up and take a dip. The dive platform was OK, but no where near as high (or as much fun) as the one we found at Madison Blue Springs last summer when we camped at Suwannee River State Park.

Overall it was a great weekend, with cool water, in a great park. We’ve put Manatee Springs on our go back to list. We will probably try and make the next trip during the winter so that we can see the manatees. Pictures of our time at Manatee Springs State Park are here, and Fanning Springs pictures are here.

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July 29, 2009 by steve.

Well with one weekend left in July the CurbCrusher’s headed for beach. Not far from home, just a little bit north of Daytona Beach near Flagler Beach is the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area. This is a beach park because that’s about all there is to the park. The campground is located on the East side of A1A and the check-in and administrative offices are located on the west side of A1A. So when you arrive, you turn west, go to the ranger station and check in. There is a small road that leads to a circle where you turn around and head back out of the park. When you reach A1A, you look both ways and hurry across the road to the campground area and small day use parking area. There is a locked gate that you then go through, and find yourself in a fairly simply laid out campground. There is one road down the middle, and sites located on either side of the road.

The campground has 34 campsites, one bath house and a dump station. About half the sites are on the beach side of the campground road, and the other half back up to A1A. There are dunes and vegetation between the sites and the beach, and a good bit of vegetation between sites and the road. Some of the dune side sites have a decent view, and there is enough room on the road and the sites to pull in forward in a motorhome so that you could fill the windshield with beach. One note of warning though, they are fairly strict about not showing any lights toward the ocean after dark because of the sea turtles. As far as amenities, it is fairly basic, there is electricity and water. Behind the bathhouse is a boardwalk over to the beach, and an outside shower to remove the salt and sand. Not a lot more to say about this park. If you like the beach, and your goal is to be on the beach, this is probably one of the best state parks where you can accomplish that. Pictures of Gamble Rogers are here.

We spent a good bit of time at the beach, but also went wandering around the area. A few miles north of Flagler Beach there is another state park, the Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. There is no camping at this park, but it has a very nice garden on the river that was established back when this is was a private residence, and a coquina rock beach on the Atlantic. While it was ok to do in the July heat, I have a feeling that the gardens would be a fantastic place to visit during the spring when it is cooler and things are blooming. Pictures of Washington Oaks are here.

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July 16, 2009 by steve.

As noted elsewhere in this blog, Lady CurbCrusher is a lighthouse fan and one of the only lighthouse in Florida that she has not seen is the Cape Canaveral Light. This primarily because the lighthouse is located on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is closed to the public. Through some means, Lady CurbCrusher found that a free tour is offered the second Wednesday of each month (more here, then follow the tours link) that visits the Air Force Space and Missile Museum, and then stops as the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse.

The tour is three hours long (queue Gilligan theme here), and depending our your tour guide, might really feel like six or seven. The tour starts with everyone gathering at the gate to the Cape Canaveral Air Station by 0845. A bus will arrive from Patrick Air Force Base, and your two IDs will be checked and everyone gets on the bus. The tour will then meander around the Air Force Station, driving past a couple of launch complexes, and you will find yourself at the Museum.

The Museum consist of two buildings, the old blockhouse, and a facility next door, and a rocket garden that are all located on an old launch complex. Inside the blockhouse is a launch control room with computing equipment that is fresh from the 1950’s. One exhibit is labeled “Data Printer” and looks like an old Underwood Typewriter with a serial and power cable attached to it. Punched tape (not even magnetic tape) drives labeled as data collection and storage devices, and the analog clock faces that served as a countdown and mission clocks. Even if you’re not a rocket fan, the display of historical technology is pretty cool. The building next to the block house has various photos, and some references to the populations that lived in the area before the space race took over the Cape, and the rocket garden has a number of static displays.

The next stop was the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located about a mile from the actual coast, moved to this spot in 1894 to keep the lighthouse save from beach erosion (which oddly enough has not happened). This lighthouse is made out of iron, so moving it was a matter of taking it apart, and then reassembling it in the new location. Unlike most lighthouse, this one was created with four lower floors for living space (which were never used for that purpose), and then the stairs continue on up the top of the lighthouse. If the Friends of the Lighthouse are present, then the bottom four floors will be open and you can wander through them, otherwise this just becomes a stop on the tour. We were lucky, since the lighthouse folks were there during our tour, so we were able to climb the four floors and talk to the volunteers about the lighthouse and its history.

After this, its back on the bus for some serious touring. A lot of Cape Canaveral is simply launch complexes, and apparently the Air Forces and NASA don’t seem too keen on re-using old launch complexes. So much of the this part of the tour is riding past a concrete pad, maybe a blockhouse structure, that is all overgrown with vegetation and the guide saying “This is launch complex X.” There are 40 something launch complexes and I think our guide wanted to make sure we saw everyone one of them. This is were having a good guide would have probably made a difference. If you had someone that had stories about the launch complexes, and was familiar with them, it could be interesting. We apparently drew the guy who could read the signs “Here is launch complex 23.”

The final stop is Hanger R. The Space and Missile Museum folks have a number of missiles and training artifacts that are stored in this hanger, and maybe more importantly there are facilities (after all the last ones you saw were at the Museum two hours earlier). You can walk around and touch the exhibits and take pictures to your hearts content.

Finally, three hours after it starts, the bus pulls back up in front of the gate to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and lets you off at your car.
Links to pictures of the Lighthouse and Space Museum.

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