2015 Feb 17-20 - Oscar Sherer, Relatives, Arriving at Hillsborough River State Park

On Tuesday, Mac & Jan from Decatur stopped by to see the camper. They are wintering in Port Charlotte, about thirty miles away. We went to lunch at Casey Key Fish House. The food was good, but it was just a bit chilly at our outside table.

Wednesday, we met Art, Jo, Ray, and Sheila at Pincher's Crab Shack in Lakewood Ranch for lunch. After lunch, we walked around the shopping area for a while. On the way back to camp, we stopped by and had a beer with Art while Jo was out somewhere.

That night, we roasted some hot dogs while the raccoons tried to figure out how to share our dinner.
Thursday around 11;30 Sheila called and said that a bunch of Marsha's cousins, most of whom live in the Chicago area, were going to be at her house that afternoon. So, we drove back up to Lakewood Ranch and spent a few hours visiting with all of them.

We got back to Oscar Sherer in time to spend some time listening to music played by anyone who wanted to join in. There were some pretty good musicians in the group. After the music, we went back to camp and sat around the fire with some new friends we met there.

Friday morning, we got up and got ready to hit the road. After a visit to the dump station, we made the 87 mile drive to Hillsborough River State Park. We got there at 1:00, so we had plenty of time to get set up and run in to Zepherhills to grab a few supplies before taking the 5:00 tram tour around the park.

We ate a light dinner and settled in for the night. Big plans for tomorrow!

2015 Feb 15 & 16 - In Oscar Scherer SP and Legacy Trail bike trail

On Sunday, the 15th, I took a shot of some kayakers passing by our campsite, and later in the day, a raccoon sniffing around our site after dinner.

On Monday, we got the bikes out of the car and rode about 5 miles on Legacy Trail, a beautiful bike path that runs by the back side of the park. Before we got onto the trail, Marsha got into some soft sand and dumped her bike. She rolled and was back on her feet before I could get the camera out. Darn!

Then we came back to camp and ate lunch, after which we hiked a couple of trails in the park. One of them went along the north bank of South Creek and we were able to see our campsite from across the creek.

We cooked a great pork loin on the Cobb grill and sat around with some neighbors from Missouri before turning in.

2015 Feb 14 - Lake Griffiin SP to Oscar Sherer SP Via Uncle Art's House

We didn't do much except walk around a bit and lounge a lot on Friday, our last day at Lake Griffin Stale Park. As I said in the last post, it's a nice little park, but not much to do there. So, there are no pics for yesterday.

We left there around 9:00 this morning with our ultimate destination being Oscar Scherer State Park in Venice, FL. On the way, we stopped at Marsha's Uncle Art and Aunt Jo's house. Her Aunt Sheila and Uncle Ray came by. They all checked out the camper before Art threw some dogs and brats on the grill and we had a nice lunch.

We left there about 4:00 and got to the park about 4:35. Our campsite is about 4 sites down from where we stayed last year, but it's a lot smaller. However, it's a nice site with South Creek running about 20 feet from the camper. I'll try to get some pics of a kayaker or two as they pass by.

We're going to get the bikes out while we're here, so I'm sure there will be lots of pics in the coming days.

2015 Feb 12 - Around Lake Griffin State Park

Lake Griffin State Park is a nice little park, but there isn't much to do here. You can't even get to Lake Griffin unless you have a boat of some kind. They rent canoes and kayaks here on the shore of the Dead River, then you can paddle about a mile to Lake Griffin, but the weather has been so cool here that we didn't do that.

My cousin John, who was at Alan's house last Saturday, and Ilene live in Leesburg, so they stopped by and brought a pizza for lunch. We shot the breeze with them for a few hours and, after they left, hiked around the park a bit. Most of the pics I took are of the huge live oak tree. Other than that, not much.

We'll be in Oscar Scherer State Park on Saturday. See you there!

2015 Feb 10-11 - Lake Griffiin State Park & Blue Spring

We finally got away from Ft. De Soto State Park after a very nice couple from Georgia caught us at the dump station and wanted to know all about our camper. They have been looking at them online, but had never seen one in the flesh. We spent about an hour in "show & tell" mode before leaving the park.

We arrived at Lake Griffin State Park in Leesburg, which is just a few miles from The Villages where Tim and Pat, our old friends from Charleston, IL have a winter home. We called them and they came by the campground for a visit before the four of us went to the Oakwood Restaurant, their favorite BBQ joint. It was delicious.

On Wednesday morning, we went to McDonald's, where I had no trouble sending email (unlike my experience at Ft. De Soto), before making the 45 minute drive to visit old friends, Dave and Jeanie. Dave and I were grade school classmates in Pennsylvania and our fathers worked together in Charleston/Mattoon, IL!

After a brief visit at their house, we went out for lunch, then on to Blue Spring where the daily Manatee count was 237! They come to the spring, where the water is a constant 72 degrees, when other waters in the area get to cold.

We got back to camp around 6:00. Marsha wasn't feeling well, so she took a nap while I found some neighbors to visit with.