Yes, We're STILL in Florida

We do like to move slowly when we can. We've been snailing along through central Florida, staying a week at a time at a series of pleasantly surprising campgrounds. I'll just mention the last few here for those who are interested, and get on with the story.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound, FL 

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Jonathan-Dickinson

This one is just about perfect. Reasonably priced, large, full hook-up sites, close to the ocean and shopping yet quiet and surrounded by nature, great hiking/biking trails, well taken care of. We'd go back and spend a month in a flash.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park - Site #79 (paved!)

             

River Ranch RV Resort, Lake Wales, FL

http://www.riverranchrv.net/riverranchrv/outside_home.asp

A kind of odd place. It's an ownership resort that the owners all seem to be leaving. Many lots for sale. It's affiliated with a dude ranch kind of resort with a rodeo, teepees, glamping - all beautifully landscaped jungle style and very well cared for.  The sites were kind of tight getting into and it was pretty pricey. 

River Ranch RV Resort - Site #278

             

Wilderness RV Resort, Silver Springs, FL

wildernessrvparkestates.com

This place is all about the location, right near Silver River State Park and close enough to Ichetucknee River. (More about those later.) The park is known for it's little restaurant and sweet shop that makes great whoopie pies.

Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park, White Springs, FL 

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Stephen-Foster

This is a very nice state park, but kind of far away from almost everything. Good for catching up on the blog and some nice hiking. There are some very nice long pull-throughs, but very few sites that would get satellite reception. All the sites are 30 amp and have no sewer.

Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park - Site #34

Florida is like three totally different worlds: the beach-focused, busy, wealthy east and west coasts and the Keys; Orlando and all the theme park culture; and the central wild and agricultural stretch that starts at the Everglades, squeaks around Orlando and continues all the way to Georgia. Some call it the "old" Florida. Since leaving Jonathan Dickinson we've been hanging out in the latter and enjoying it a lot. It's rural and surprisingly remote in places, but full of hidden treasures, like the many rivers and crystal blue springs.

But back to Jonathan Dickinson on the beautiful east coast of Florida for a moment.  Much of the east coast is heavily developed, but there are little windows of undeveloped seashore, like between Jupiter Island and Hobe Sound, where this state park is located amidst miles of undeveloped rolling sand dunes.

It's a great location to visit some really excellent beaches, including the amazing miles-long Juno Beach where dogs are always allowed off leash. They're treated like one of the family- no fuss about it. The dogs have miles to play and swim, are not crowded into a nervous little area, and are pretty relaxed as a result.  The ocean was divine - perfect temperature, manageable waves and pretty colors. Ahhhh....

We also visited the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and took the guided tour.  Rick was fascinated by it all and walked up to the top. 

I opted out of the climb and lounged around under this spectacular ficus tree. Florida does have some amazing vegetation.

As we were leaving we saw this fisherman (with the gold necklace) haul in an amberjack after fighting with it for a long long time.  He and everyone around him were pretty excited and full of admiration for his accomplishment.  I guess it doesn't happen every day.

While at the River Ranch Resort near Lake Wales we spent a very pleasant afternoon at Bok Tower Gardens.  Near the entrance gate there is a visitor's center, gift shop, cafe and plant shop. In the patio garden they had created a wall of epiphytes (air plants) that happened to be in bloom. Not something you'd see anywhere else in the USA. They also had about 15 varieties of baby airplants for sale in the plant shop.  I was seriously tempted.

Bok Tower was built in 1929 by author and publisher Edward Bok.  It has a carillon that gives  automated concerts several times a day... 

...but occasionally it is played live. We just happened to be there at the right time for this unique experience at the end of our guided tour through the gardens (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted!). Our guide dropped us off at the base of the tower at a seating area where a closed circuit TV allowed us to view the carillon player as he gave the concert.  Watching the grace and finesse of his playing gave us a whole new appreciation for carillon music, which can sound kind of clunky and off key.

Closed circuit TV at the base of Bok Tower

We aren't big on the theme  park experiences that central Florida has to offer, so we passed on all that (except for one very fun visit to Epcot with our friends Lynn and Glenn) and spent more time hiking and paddling. While at the Wilderness RV Resort we kayaked the Silver River from one of Florida's newest state parks, Silver River State Park. 

Silver Springs is one of the largest fresh water spring in the world, putting out 550 million gallons of water daily.  It has a long and varied history as a water-based entertainment park. At one point monkeys were brought in and put on one of the islands to create a jungle theme. The imaginative owners didn't know the monkeys could swim, so now their descendants live a relatively natural and free existence at several points along the Silver River. (I don't know why they aren't all over Florida by now.)  

I learned another fascinating fact while visiting the lovely Appleton Museum, a small art museum at the College of Central Florida in Ocala. There was a short term photography exhibit about Paradise Park, a twin park to Silver Springs, which was for about a decade "exclusively for colored folks."  In the spirit of "separate but equal" it had all the same features and fun. How easy it is to forget that before the 1960's most of Florida's tourist attractions were segregated or unavailable to people of color. Silver Springs was eventually integrated, and later the state of Florida bought all the land surrounding and including the spring, and recently re-opened it as a state park. Now visitors have access by boat to the source of the spring and the river system that flows from it, and the state does its best to preserve the beauty and natural state of the springs. (There is no longer any swimming or fishing allowed in the spring or river.)

Rick and I paddled our kayaks from Silver River State Park to our campground, an easy downstream trip that took us about three hours.

The river passes the remains of the old tourist attractions, along with varieties of wildlife, including alligators, turtles, gar, jumping mullet, herons, egrets, wood ducks...

Mama wood duck and three ducklings

...swallow tail kites (one putting on a flying show for us, here skimming the water for a drink)...

...and yes, monkeys. We saw about three families or troops going about their business along the river.  This is a mother and baby, but you'll have to take my word for it.

For the first time we also saw why those growths at the bases of cypress tress are called "knees." Here is one example of a long chain of knees extending from the cypress tree on the left. The water  must have washed away the ground that usually hides the infrastructure of the knobs/knees above ground that we usually see, leaving behind this fence-like structure that does look a lot like knees. 

Silver Spring is impressive for its size and the monkeys of course, but we still think the Ichetucknee is the best spring in Florida.  We just had to paddle it again.  

The beautiful Ichetucknee River

We basically just replayed our paddle of three years ago, but got off the river at the southern most point in the Ichetucknee State Park before the river joins the Santa Fe and becomes a grueling six hour paddle against the wind.  This river is like nothing else we've ever experienced - like a magical wild river in a fairy tale. 

Afterwards Rick took a dip in the Blue Hole - the source of the Ichetucknee.

 It was cold and the current coming out of the hole was very strong. Here he is right above the upwelling of the spring.

We're finishing up our four months in Florida in Jacksonville at the Pecan Park RV Resort. It's just a stop along I-95, and right under the flight path for the commercial and fighter jets from the nearby airport. Wouldn't recommend it, but it's easy on and off with big concrete pull-throughs. We're here so I can check out some furniture stores in Jacksonville. We'll also spend tomorrow on Amelia Island before we go back to Brunswick, GA to see our future home on Jekyll Island next week. We're so excited!

Stepping South One Week at a Time: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Since August we've been "dancing" diagonally across the country from Montana toward our destination this winter at The Great Outdoors in Florida.  We don't really have a repeating annual pattern other than generally north in the summer and south in the winter.  Sometimes we take the short slide straight north or south, and other times we take the long crossing from corner to opposite corner. As we most often try to, we're taking it slow, driving a couple of hours, often stopping for a week at a time at locations along the way. Some are simply the right distance from the last stop, and may not be particularly exciting, while others are "hot spots" like Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

This is our second visit to Hot Springs. The first was on our RV honeymoon in the tiny rented Cruise America in '09-'10. We stopped for one night on our midwinter rush to get to California. The weather was cold, wet and dreary and Hot Springs looked old, grey, funky and forlorn, but our friends Lynn and Glenn love it, so we thought we'd give it a second chance.

Well guess what, Hot Springs was cold, wet, dreary and still looked old, grey, funky and forlorn. (Sorry Hot Springs, I just had to say it.) 

On the first night I went to the Maxwell McBlade Theater of Magic. Don't know what got into me, but I just wanted a change of routine. Like Hot Springs, it was funny, funky and a little forlorn. An appropriate experience for Halloween. In fact, I'd say that second to New Orleans, Hot Springs might be the most perfect location to spend Halloween. It's historical and mysterious, with a lot of old and/or abandoned buildings perfect for haunting fantasies.  In fact my favorite thing about that evening was wandering Central Ave, getting a glass of wine and an ice cream cone (not together) and looking at all the Halloween decorations in the funky downtown store windows. Spooky fun. 

Why am I wandering the streets alone, you ask? Well, this is football season and Rick's Patriots are doing great, so he's really into it. Me, not so much. That leaves me with plenty of time to explore and adventure on my own.  In addition to the magic show, I also indulged at the Quapaw Baths and Spa on historical Bath House Row in Hot Springs National Park. My indulgence included a private 20 minute steamy aromatherapy bath and a 50 minute massage. (Both were lovely, but there was an awkward and poorly timed 40 minute wait between them, sitting in a bathrobe in a lounge/waiting area. No explanation given. If you go, check the timing of your services.) I also did a little personal and Christmas shopping in the chain stores just south of town. And got a haircut. That was kind of fun. 

In all fairness, I know some of our impressions were due to the rainy weather, and we did have a couple of sunny days that perked up our opinion of the place, just a bit.  The sunnier perspective may have also been because on those two days we didn't go downtown to the historic bath house district, but spent them outdoors in the beautiful natural areas that surround Hot Springs. (There, does that make up for dissing it earlier?)

On our first sunny day we went to the University of Arkansas' Garven Woodland Garden, a first class, scrupulously maintained and developed garden on the shores of Lake Hamilton.  

View of Lake Hamilton from Woodland Loop

The garden was created by Verna Cook Garven who almost single-handedly designed and implemented this gorgeous place and then donated it to the University upon her passing.  It's a shaded garden, so it's a cooling break from the humid Arkansas heat that surprised us after the chilly rain we'd been having.  Despite the deep shade, there are colorful plantings and great ideas for gardeners similarly sun challenged.

Seasonal mum planting

Fall annual plantings

The Gardens are preparing for their holiday light display, which looks like it will be glorious. It starts around Thanksgiving. Wish we were going to be here for that.

Blue lights running down the streams and waterfalls 

Koi pond with matching light sculpture

Fairy Garden

Miniature train display

There are themed sections of the Gardens, including a Japanese garden and a children's garden. We crossed a few architecturally stunning bridges as well.

Full Moon Bridge

Floating Cloud Bridge

Here's one Honey wouldn't cross. Just too wide a gap to jump.  Yes! They allow leashed dogs, for a $5.00 admission fee, which was the first we've encountered. We thought it was reasonable.  

We had a great lunch at the Chipmunk Cafe. This is not your typical attraction food concession. This was really good food. I'd absolutely recommend eating there when you visit, and I'm not just saying this to fill space. (Try the Grilled Chicken Raspberry Chipotle Sandwich. You will not be sorry.)

This guy kept us company during lunch. 

The grand finale of the visit was the Anthony Chapel, designed by Arkansas architect Maurice Jennings.  It is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's style, but we thought even better.  

It is beautifully integrated with it's wooded surroundings. 

Constructed completely of wood and glass above the stone foundation, not only does it let the light and views of the trees in, it reflects the images of the trees in the glass...

...and reflects the shapes of the trunks and branches in its structures.

We thought it was architectural perfection, down to the last detail.

The Chapel is part of a five building complex that is popular for weddings. We could certainly understand why.

The Anthony Family Trust Carillon

While here in Hot Springs we are parked at Catherine's Landing, one of the RVC Outdoor Destinations.  RVC is not an ownership park, it's just a corporate chain of RV parks that are very nice. They have a modern feel to all the facilities, rather than the more traditional rustic feel we encounter at so many RV parks. We got a nice long, level, concrete, full hook-up pull-through down by the river.

Site 84 at Catherine's Landing

What I'm calling the river is actually part of Lake Catherine, created by damming the Ouachita River. The park is nicely situated on the river, with a marina and boats for rent, and is surrounded by many many acres of woods and fields with a very long trail winding through them for comfortable hiking and dog walking close to home. They've got a beautiful saline pool and a nice fenced dog park. (Oh, there's a good dog park in Hot Springs as well, just a couple of miles up the road from here.)

Lake Catherine

There's lots of wildlife in the area, including many deer who frequent the dog park. Yes, inside the fenced dog park. They just jump in and out at their pleasure.

Some of the local wildlife

On our other nice day here we kayaked Lake Catherine in a leisurely manner up toward the dam and back. 

View of our rig from the river

More local wildlife along the river

We're wrapping up our stay here tomorrow and moving on to Little Rock. We'll be at the Downtown Riverside RV Park for our next week.  If you're there, let us know!

Kayaking the Niobara in Valentine, Nebraska

While some states in the USA are known for their spectacular scenery, Nebraska is not. Most people see Nebraska as they pass through on I-80, and as a result it's thought of as flat cornfields.

But what we've found is that there is something of interest almost anywhere, and Nebraska is no exception.  When planning to pass through the state we did our best to find the most interesting places to visit. We started our Nebraska tour with an overnight in the very small town of Haysprings at the town campground  with full hook-ups for the very reasonable price of $15 ((pay at the town hall).  I circumnavigated the whole town on my bike in about fifteen minutes. Although not the most interesting of locations it was a nice example of very small town life, complete with a beautiful town park, swimming pool and a school with a rousing football game going on. I guess it's common knowledge that Nebraskans are big into football.

"Sunset" (Town) RV Park - Haysprings, NE

Our next destination was Valentine, known as a central location for accessing the Niobrara River.  Valentine is a small agricultural city in the midst of ranchland and hayfields. Not surprising, it has a theme of valentine hearts throughout the town.

On Main St. we found one of the most remarkable murals we've ever seen, on the Security First Bank.  It's actually called a brick relief mural and was created by Lincoln, NE artist Jack Curran. It depicts a longhorn cattle drive in the upper portion and local wildlife and the railroad on the lower. I apologize for the picture - it doesn't begin to do justice to the details of this work of art.

Our goal here was to kayak the Niobrara, so we took a couple of days to get oriented and gather information locally and online. Because parts of the river are closed off to any access at all, researching would prove important. It is very popular for tubing, with at least eight outfitters in town, none of which looked like they were operating now. There is a very helpful Niobrara National Scenic River Information Center right on Rt. 20 in Valentine, where we got advice and an excellent Park Services brochure with a map of the entire river. Basically, its an easy river to navigate, at least in open areas, but shallow at this time of year, thus no tubers now I guess. Because it has been wicked hot we expected some folks to be out on the water to cool off. 

One thing we discovered at the Center was the unique climate, geology and topography of this area, intersected by the 100th Meridian that geographically divides the eastern and western US.  The area is also at the intersection of northern and southern geography, resulting in major biological diversity. This cool diagram explains the characteristics of some of the vegetation along the Niobrara River Valley. "Six major ecosystem types converge in the valley, including northern boreal forest, ponderosa pine forest, eastern deciduous forest, tall grass prairie, mixed-grass prairie and shortgrass prairie" (from the US Park Service webpage.)

Here's how that looks in real life...

That also means that the bird watching could be great, so we took along our binoculars for the paddle.  We decided to put in at the Fort Niobrara launch just below the Cornell Bridge.  We planned to take out at Smith Falls State Park, so parked the truck there, about 10 river miles or 14 road miles from our put in location.  It was going to be another hot day so we set off early, paying the $1 per person launching fee.

Putting in at Fort Niobrara

As mentioned, it is a shallow river now, so we were especially grateful for our inflatable Advanced Elements kayaks. We scraped the bottom occasionally and one of us got caught up on the rocks a few times.

The river has carved out steep cliffs in the sandy hills, so much of the river was shaded early in the day, thank goodness.

We were surprised we didn't see swallows, thinking they'd like these kinds of river banks, but I guess not. What we did see was many bald eagles. At least ten mature and one juvenile. And many belted kingfishers, one of my favorite birds.

This is one of the prettiest places to access the river and use the public restrooms. It's Berry Bridge and Berry Campground is right there.

After four hours on this fast moving river, with the wind at our back much of the time, we pulled into Smith Falls State Park. We saw only one paddler briefly at one location on the whole river.

These kayaks are about the most comfortable and easy to get in and out of that we've ever used. But I still need a little assistance most of the time. 

Nickols Landing is the name of the launch site at the park.

Valentine has a few other places of interest, including the Niobrara Wildlife Refuge where Honey and I saw a bison herd, one large male elk and prairie dogs.  This pond is on the Refuge, and the bison corral is behind it. Like many wildlife refuges in the western USA, they do a roundup annually and sell a certain number of their bison.

We took a drive to the Merritt Reservoir in the hopes of taking a dip to cool off a bit. The water was low, with lots of algae, so Honey was the only one dipping and cooling. Because it's in the sandhills, the beaches are all soft fine sand. That was nice.

Valentine also has a beautiful, shady, 40 acre city park, with about a ten "hole" disc golf course through the wooded hills and banks of the creek. Honey and I spent several evenings exploring the trails, spotting lots of deer as we romped.

Minnechaduza Creek in the Valentine City Park

The ranger at the information center also recommended Snake Falls, about 19 miles south of town. It is definitely worth the drive, but ask for directions before you try it. There's a bit of a steep sandy hike down to the falls so be prepared for that. We met people on the trail who had been cooling off under the falls.

While in Valentine we stayed at Fishberry Campground, about 4 miles north of town with nothing but ranchland for miles around. It was quiet, clean and simple, with long pull-throughs that were very close together. But we were often the only ones there, so it felt very spacious. 

So far Nebraska is offering us plenty of color, texture and adventure, challenging its unfortunate reputation as flat and boring.  Next we'll drive south through the beautiful sandhills and end up in Lincoln in a few days. Go Huskers!