O'Leno State Park

A friend recently sent a message asking if I was stopping my blog and the answer is that I have no plans to do so even though my postings are fewer and farther between. Two factors are influencing that change, one is that I have to be at my computer to post and if we are out and about that does not work. Secondly, with Bruce's retirement, all of my habits have changed and that's a good thing. So keep looking for me in this space as long as I am able!

Sunday evening, after returning from Bunker and Cathy's house, I asked Bruce if he wanted to go camping in the morning? Say what? "I don't think we can be ready that quickly," says Bruce to which Gail replied, "I bet we can!" First was a quick search on Reserve America, the site where you book camping spots. Finding a few open days at O'Leno State Park, near High Springs, Florida, I booked them right away.  Next stop was the refrigerator--was there enough in there to put together three days worth of meals? Why, I think I can.

And so it was that after arising early and a trip to the storage unit for our gear we took off. I know we just went camping, but in the words of a camper we met at the park, "why not go camping?" Indeed.
Does anything about the photo below tell you something?

If you guessed that we took the highway, you are correct. Seriously almost a first, Bruce wanted to make good time as we were getting a little bit of a late start. Even though the campground was about two hours away, he made the decision and who am I to argue with the driver?  You see a whole 'nother side of Florida, taking the turnpike and Interstate, including this massive development going on near Leesburg.

Seriously, it was huge with streets laid out everywhere. Doing a little sleuthing on the web and I'm convinced it is part of an expansion of the The Villages. Don't quote me on that!!

This sort of display used to be very common on Florida's highways...

Perhaps it still is and I've just not seen it because we've been avoiding highways, thanks to my trusty iPad and Google maps? In those days citrus was king and baby alligators were quite the draw, long before the likes of Walt Disney came to Florida! And for your information, those are not stacked fruit at all, instead they are like half moons of painted plaster.

Okay, off I-75 and into the park we go.

Should you be curious, as seniors a night of camping here cost about $11, an incredible bargain in anyone's book. There are two campgrounds in the park, one of which is named Magnolia where our site, #28 is located, and as we discovered on the following day, was the more ideal of the two.

Our upstairs neighbor, Bill, camps frequently by himself as Julie wants nothing to do with camping. He was telling us about his tent and that got us to thinking, perhaps we should buy one that we can stand up in. So, after searching and searching, we ended up buying a new 6 person Core tent from Costco,  a brand we'd never heard of. After reading a bunch of reviews, mostly good along with a few negative ones, we decided to go for it, knowing that Costco stands behind every product. At $129 delivered it was quite the bargain. And as it turns out, the tent was put to the test on this trip. But before we get into that, another thing we purchased was a sleeping bag after Matt chided us for not having one in the cold weather and baby it was going to be cold on this trip. Another Core product, it exceeded our expectations for numerous reasons, one of which is how it hold our pillows in place!

That was a real problem with our former set up as the pillows tended to slide off the end of the air mattress. We are learning as we go that's for sure.

Anyway, another great thing about the new tent is the set up which is super fast. Without going into the specifics, as not to completely bore you, the tent is up, rain fly on and staked in about twenty minutes. Before long we were all set up and after a tuna sandwich that I'd made before leaving home, it was time to explore on my bicycle.

The first thing I discovered at the end of our "street" was this area where there was evidence of a prescribed burn, a term we learned from the ranger on day three. Once called a controlled burn he told us that term is no longer used because, frankly, it is hard to control a fire.

Unlike the Dogwood campground, ours was just minutes away from the main attractions of which there were much more than is typical of most of the parks we have visited. Consider this:

There are many remnants of this time our our nation's history, with this plaque particularly interesting.

Located along the Sante Fe River, it was a gloomy day so between leafless trees and gray skies, well my photos aren't really all that appealing but they are a bit atmospheric. Maybe?

This is the main attraction a suspension bridge that was allegedly built by the CCC.

Allegedly? Well, here's what we learned from that ranger and don't go telling anyone as it makes all of the signage a little suspect. Apparently there was a volunteer who was heavily interested in history and after exhaustive research, he learned that it was more likely built by the WPA, because he could find no evidence of a specific CCC regiment stationed in the park. So, now you know.

On this day the water was quite low, however, according to this post, it is not always that way.

Can you imagine the water rising so much? There is the usual step gathering spot as well as a dock used for jumping into the river on hot summer days.

Returning to our site, Bruce joined me on riding back so he might try his hand at a little fishing. It was a good thing he brought his bicycle instead of his kayak as they were not allowing any boats on the water as it was too low. While I was fishing for photographs, Bruce was well, fishing for fish. Any fish really. Well, before long he caught one and luckily I was still there to document the occasion. 

He called it a Mudfish, which is the common name but the more accurate name is a Bowfin, or so we learned from the brochure he picked up last week. One thing to note is that almost every photo you will see of Bruce camping, he is wearing a denim shirt. He loves nothing more than a denim shirt so all of this camping in cold weather is providing him opportunity to be clad both top and bottom in denim! After letting the fish go, he continued fishing and I went walking seeing a new bird! Not the greatest picture but I'm pretty sure this one is called an Eastern Phoebe. What a sweet name!

Definitely hard to spot in all of that that, however, the Pileated Woodpeckers I saw were anything but hard to spot with their huge bodies and bright red heads. Actually I saw two together however I was so far away, the pictures are even worse than this one!

Maybe one of these days I'll get better at bird photography.

After a lovely fire and French bread pizzas made in our new camp oven, we turned in for the night and were super comfy in our new sleeping bag and a few quilts even though the temperature dropped to 42 degrees.

More camping adventures in my next post but this last part is so I won't forget the neat event we attended on Saturday night at the church. Called Men Who Cook, they do a great job making tables nice and providing lots of yummy dishes, including this amazing apple dessert from David Rotenberger.

Clinton got this thing going a few years ago and looks forward to it every January.

So not only lots of amazing desserts but loads of savory dishes as well.

And a good time was had by all.

I am in the midst of washing the campfire smell out of our clothes and, you guessed it, Bruce is at the church hanging pictures and more. Lots of folks were worried how he would do in retirement and the answer has surprised everyone. He is doing great!!

your friend,

Gail

p.s. While tagging this post, O'Leno State Park came up and that is because we stopped in once in 2013 according to this very sweet post that is well worth your time.  Click on the link to read about Bruce's former life as a very talented and very stressed Project manager! The sad news is that after all of the misery to get those California projects opened, they have both now closed.