Never Without Challenges

Should you have ever wondered what we looked like when we were first married, wonder no more!

Although I find it hard to believe that we both once looked like this, and that we took our cats for a studio portrait, the photo evidence is clear that we did!! The Siamese is Benny, named after Elton John's hit, and Wally, whose name I can't begin to remember the reference. And how is it that I am sharing this today? That will come later, but for now, let us return to O'Leno State Park where the weather was mostly gloomy aside from one day that was perfect, albeit cold.

That would be me first thing in the morning after a chilly night. Our tent, on the other hand was cozy and roomy. Note the floor space at the end of the mattress, something we were sorely lacking in the other tent.

Another great feature, just barely visible, is the pockets lining one wall that you attach by clips. It was there that I put my glasses, toothbrush, hairbrush and that sort of thing. Every time we go we learn something new, and in this case it is the rug inside the tent which came in very handy, trapping most of the sand. Bruce found the shelter in the storage unit, and it is great too. We just bought some market lights for this shelter which I suppose we'll have to go camping again soon to test out!

On the one sunny day we rode our bikes to the other campground in the front of the park, glad that we ended up in the one we did as that one is about 1.5 miles from the river, unlike ours which was very close. Following the bike ride, we locked our bikes and hiked on the River trail which circles, well you figure it out. And how is that possible? Well, amazingly, the Sante Fe River flows underground for three miles and here's where it stops before heading underground.

Can you imagine? Seems like a wonder of the world to me, but maybe others do the same? One minute it looks like this,

And then it stops.

That would be Duckweed on the surface of the river and here's something else:

Although we did not count this amazing amount of turtles, a very nice Canadian couple we met did so, and the man counted 50 using binoculars. We traveled through the forest and it always amazes me the downed trees. This one is called a Loblolly Pine with the bark stripped. That link includes an interesting fact sheet with the history of the tree's part in American history.

Speaking of trees, and of course how could you not after having spent three days in the woods, but I digress....the contrast between the live trees and the color of the changing Maples was a scenic highlight for me.

Another beautiful sight is when the sunlight streams through the trees...just magical!

That night I made two small meatloaves in our wonderful camp oven. The sides? Why mashed potato and corn of course; one of Bruce's favorite meals, so much so that if asked what he wants me to fix for his birthday dinner, that's the one!

Note the potato peeler and the larger knife, two items I added to the box. Although Bruce already had both, neither were up to my standards. An OXO potato peeler is the absolute best! I was unsure how the potatoes would turn out using just a wooden spoon, but by golly, they were super good.  We totally snuggled up in our sleeping bag with an extra blanket that night as the temperature dropped to 36! It worked perfectly! As we are learning from experience, the right equipment makes a world of difference.

The following morning the sky looked like this,

and that cloud cover never went away. Reading and walking occupied our day with the reading occupying most of our time for reasons beyond our control. We also did more exploring of the buildings and the museum which was very informative.

One of the neatest things I learned there is that Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame was a CCCer. The town used to be called Keno, however many years ago that was replaced as they did not want to be known for the gambling game of the same name. Before the name change, there was grist mill that used the power of the river with the remnants displayed under a shelter. Seeing these I now understand the term-stone ground corn meal much better.

There are tiny rapids on the river that perhaps are bigger when the water level is higher?

After our nice long chat with the forest ranger we walked back to our site. Another thing we learned from him is that the Park service is the state's only money maker, however, unfortunately they don't re-invest the money in the parks, rather giving it to other departments. If this makes no sense to you, my previous post mentions our conversation and you can read it here. 

Before long, the predicted rain began and unlike our normal summer storms, this was more than three hours long with a steady rainfall. The good news is that our tent stayed completely dry as did we because it is large enough to bring our chairs inside!!

By the time the rain finally quit, it was after 6:00 and we were glad to have leftover meatloaf to use for sandwiches. Because I was wanting something hot in the chilly, wet weather, we ended our night with roasted marshmallows on the fire.

Still gloomy Thursday morning, we made a hearty breakfast followed by breaking down our site. In most of the campgrounds we've visited the check out time is one o'clock which was more than enough time. You would be surprised how quickly it all packs up. 11:00 and the last step is putting the bikes on the back, and that is where things became challenging. Oh my! The next two hours were tense because the back gate of our new Subaru would not latch. Okay, now what? Try again. No luck. A call to our dealer was not much help. Bruce took the rack off as I was using the iPad for locating the nearest dealer located in Gainesville. Calling them, he explained the problem. Somehow, after that conversation, he got it to latch. Whew!! Thank you Google!

Except then it would not OPEN!!! Unreal, right? Here we are two hours from home with two bikes on the ground and a gate that would not open. Meanwhile, I'm roaming with my camera in hand, surprised I'd not noticed the fantastic display of mushrooms on a downed log by our site.

Super cool, right? The symbiotic relationship in a forest is so fascinating! Being in nature just can't be beat, especially if the stars are out at night, which they were for two nights and it was breathtaking!

Okay, back to the matter at hand. Turning back to Google using different search words, I learned that if you held the button in for thirty seconds it would open, and by golly, it did! Hurray. Would it shut again was our next question and somehow it did. You know how long all of this took? More than TWO hours!! By now it was well after lunchtime, so we stopped in nearby High Springs for lunch at a cute place where the food was good.

Had we not spent so much time with the car business it appeared to be an interesting place to mosey. Our sister-in-law sent a message regarding some photo albums she'd been storing that belonged to Mom Peck. Did Bruce or his sister want them? Michele said no thanks, so I said yes which meant driving a convoluted way home to drop by Debary, meaning we got home so much later than we planned, however, it was worth it!

It was a darn good thing there weren't any more albums because the car was jam packed already! Also during our absence a package from Matt was delivered and picked up by our neighbor Connie for safekeeping. Holy Cow, how cute is this?

I'm going to venture a guess that I've not ever had five boxes of Girl Scout cookies at one time, that is if you don't count the time I sold them as a girl! Yum, yum!

During the very gloomy Saturday, I spent hours going through the albums, reliving some of the things she'd done, one of which was swim in the Panama Canal with the certificate to prove it! There was also an album containing photos of the year we lived in California when Matt was a year old and those were sure fun to see. Removing all the ones I thought anyone would want, the rest found their way into the dumpster, a sad ending for sure.

And that, my friends, is how you are seeing the very, very young, Mr. and Mrs. Peck.

your friend,

Gail

p.s. Bruce is at the Subaru dealership as I type. Say it ain't so!