SOME BLOG READERS DROP IN AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A REASONABLY CIVILIZED HOME STRETCH ROUTE TO SARASOTA FLORIDA

WE’RE STILL ON THE BANKS OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER
I heard morning’s early dawn before I saw it.  From around our coach came feathered sounds from the tree tops.  Some were familiar sounds while others were not.  I recognized a pair of Hoot Owls and the knocking of a nearby Woodpecker.  A Cardinal discovered our rig’s side mirror and had quite a time with itself flustering about with the reflective image it found there.  When I stepped out with Pheebs Thursday night we heard a couple Hoot Owls close by and with the aid of our flashlight were able to see them both.  Yep, it’s a pretty nice spot we’re in here.

THIS CARDINAL WAS SURE ENTHRALLED WITH ITSELF IN OUR RIG’S MIRROR

SPOTTED THIS ELUSIVE SUWANNEE SWAMP GATOR CLAMBERING INTO THE RIVER THIS MORNING

THOUGHT AT FIRST THIS WAS AN ALIMAGATOR IN THE RIVER BUT NOPE, JUST A PIECE OF FLOATING WOOD

BENT TREE KNEES

I SEE A LONG NECKED CYPRESS WOODCRANE BIRD DINING ON SOME PASSING LEAF FISH:))

Following a nice morning walk we loaded two weeks of laundry into the Jeep and headed south to Old Town.  Last time we did laundry was in Sierra Vista Arizona so we had us quite a load this morning.  Our nice camp hosts here at Gornto Springs County Park had told us Thursday afternoon where to the find the laundromat and by golly we found it right where they said it was.

‘HEY MOM HOW’S ABOUT BRUSHING THE DOG TODAY’

‘AHHHHH, THAT FEELS SO GOOD’

We’ve been to some nice laundromats while traveling over the years but this one in Old Town was the nicest.  Recently renovated it has all new machines and the lady there (Jody) was very helpful with all our questions about the area.  For anyone traveling and dragging a boat load of laundry with them I would certainly recommend ‘An Old Town Laundromat’ at 26656 SE Highway 19 Old Town Florida.

THE OLD TOWN LAUNDROMAT

PHEEBS AND I OUT FOR A WALK AT THE LAUNDROMAT



PHEEBS AND I ALSO MANAGED TO SNAG US A QUICK JEEP WASH IN OLD TOWN AS WELL


AND WE STOPPED IN TO SAMPLE SOME BOILED PEANUTS THIS MORNING TOO
We had us a look at another County Park a short distance from Old Town called Hinton Landing.  Four sites available here with electricity and water.  Nice spot on the Suwannee River beside a spring.  We’ll keep this site on file for possible future stops.

ON OUR MORNING WALK I AT FIRST THOUGHT THESE WERE TRILLIUMS IN THE BUSH BUT ON CLOSER INSPECTION I COULD SEE THEY WERE NOT

As I’ve said, we do like this older area of Florida and it’s on our list as a place we would return to and scout out further.  As readers know we are not city folks or people who need to be near all the big box stores or glitzy beach stuff.  Traffic is light here on area roads and we see lots of dirt roads leading off out into the countryside and of course for Pheebs and I that is important.  With beaches not being a priority for us we’re quite satisfied with the slower lifestyle pace found in the area where we are.  It has given us something to think about over the next 7 or 8 months.


A FLOWERING SHRUB AT THE LAUNDROMAT

We were back to the rig before noon and were both relieved to notice the welcome coolness of our shady spot.  Today was not as hot as Thursday and for us that was a pleasant bonus.  And oh now nice to have such sweet sounding birds chirping right outside our window.  Oh my and you should hear all the little Spring Peeper Frogs tonight.

AND I NOTICED THE LITTLE CARDINAL WAS BACK BUT THIS TIME ON SOMEBODY ELSES MIRROR

I don’t know why the following font changed color but it did and I’m too tired to fuss with it.  Think it was about mid afternoon when a car pulled in and we met two of the nicest people, Rebecca and Paul Baxter from up around Buffalo New York.  They are staying in an RV Park near Mayo north of where we are.  Paul has been a long time blog reader and when he saw we were camped in the area decided to pop over and say hello.  Like I have often said in my posts I am always nervous meeting new people but some folks have a knack of putting me at ease and these folks easily did that today.  They, like us are scouting out the area for possible longer stays in the future.  We may just see them again:))

OH-OH I THINK SOMEBODY CRACKED A FUNNY

SOMEBODY MUST HAVE SAID ‘POSE FOR THE CAMERA BOYS’

TRYING TO GET PHEEBE TO POSE

The camp hosts here at Gornto are really nice folks as well and tonight they dropped off some fresh caught fried and battered Mullett fish for us.  Kelly really liked it but me not so much.  I had a bowl of Special K cereal for supper.  Now that’s my kinda eatin.

HERE’S OUR CAMP HOST CATCHING US SOME FRESH FISH FOR SUPPER TONIGHT

THIS IS THE GORNTO SPRING WHICH FEEDS INTO THE SUWANNEE RIVER TO THE RIGHT

PEOPLE SWIM IN THE SPRING TO THE LEFT AND THESE BUOYS ARE TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM BEING CARRIED OUT INTO THE RIVER


BOATS PASSING BY ON THE SUWANEE RIVER


Our final Florida destination will be right in Sarasota Florida itself where the main purpose of our Florida trip is to visit Aunt Jean.  Fortunately for us we have a really nice place to stay  and it’s the same place we stayed when last here back in October of 2016.  More about that when we get there in a few days.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than ten years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?"
"I'm four and a half."
You're never 36 and a half . . . You're four and a half going on 5.
You get into your teens; now they can't hold you back.
You jump to the next number. "How old are you?"
"I'm gonna be 16." You could be 12, but you're gonna be 16. Eventually.
Then the great day of your life; you become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony.
You BECOME 21 . . . Yes!!
Then you turn 30. What happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED! We had to throw him out. What's wrong?
What changed? You BECOME 21; you TURN 30.
Then you're PUSHING 40 . . . stay over there. You REACH 50.
You BECOME 21; you TURN 30; You're PUSHING 40; you REACH 50; then you MAKE IT to 60.
By then you've built up so much speed, you HIT 70. After that, it's a day by day thing. You HIT Wednesday . . .
You get into your 80's; you HIT lunch, you HIT 4:30. My grandmother won't even buy green bananas. "Well, it's an investment, you know, and maybe a bad one." And it doesn't end there . . .
In the 90's, you start going backwards. "I was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens; if you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"
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A nursery school teacher was delivering a station wagon full of kids home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children fell to discussing the dog's duties.  "They use him to keep crowds back," said one youngster.  "No," said another, "he's just for good luck."  A third child brought the argument to a close. "They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrant."
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TRAVELING ONLY 55 MILES TODAY WE SNAGGED US A REALLY NICE SPOT ON THE BANKS OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER

CAMPED ON THE BANKS OF THE  OLD HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER ABOUT A DOZEN MILES NORTH OF OLD TOWN FLORIDA
‘OMG’ even I could hardly believe it but there I was Tuesday night outside in the Walmart parking lot with shorts on and  no shirt.  Not even my hat did I have on.  ‘OMG’ I think that is even worth another ‘Oh My Gosh’.

MY GROOVY SOCKS AND YOU CAN TELL FROM THE TAN ON MY LEFT LEG THAT IS THE ONE i USUALLY HAVE DANGLING OUT THE MOTORHOME WINDOW WHILE DRIVING:))
It was already 70F at 7 a.m. this morning so I knew we were in for an uncomfortably hot and humid day.  Predictions were for 90F and we later reached 86.  With so much humidity in the air everything is damp in the morning including the ground.  If one happens to be parked in a sandy area that wet sand sticks to shoes and has a habit of finding it’s way into the Motorhome.  What a mess it can be and that is the problem we had the Pine Lake RV Park.

LOOKING OUT THE RIG’S WINDSHIELD THIS MORNING I SAW A HOMELESS PERSON SLEEPING ON THE GRASS
It was an easy 55 mile scenic drive for us this morning.  Scrambling around on our computers first thing today we came up with what finally looked like a suitable out of the way campground for us.  Located 12 miles north of Old Town and 12 miles south of Branford right on the banks of the Suwannee River we headed for Gornto Springs Park.

OOPS, MAKE THAT TWO HOMELESS PERSONS….A HIM AND A HER
Leaving Perry about 9 we made our way down highway 27 to Branford where we picked up highway 349 south towards Old Town Florida.  It was a mixture of sun and cloud today.  Wasn’t long after leaving Perry we began to notice the landscape changing and I immediately took a liking to the change.  More agriculture with large green fields, farm fences, horses and cows.  Gone were the unending rows of pine trees lining the road.  We could look across some of those farm fields for a good mile or more and the area reminded me of Huron County back home around Bayfield Ontario.  Liked it way better here than the bushy landscape we had seen further back in the panhandle.  This area seems to be an older part of Florida and that suits us just fine.  After all we’re far more comfortable hanging out with the Clampetts than the Rockefellers.

COUNTRYSIDE IN THIS AREA REMINDS ME VERY MUCH OF BACK  HOME AROUND BAYFIELD ONTARIO

A LOT OF PINE TREE LOGGING AROUND HERE BUT ALSO A LOT OF NEW PINE TREE PLANTING AS WELL

TURNING OFF THE HIGHWAY TOWARDS THE CAMPGROUND WE NOTICED THIS LARGE IRRIGATION SYSTEM
Not knowing what to expect we wheeled off highway 349 and headed in an easterly direction back in about a mile and half to the campsite.  A few minutes later we pulled into Gornto and liked it right away.  There we were right on the banks of the Suwannee River with only one other RV and a horse trailer in sight.  Big old Oak trees and lots of shade gave this small Park a homey feel.  Nobody around except the owner of the newer Motorhome so we talked to him for a short bit.  Nice fellow.  We decided to stay and pulled ourselves into one of the two pull through sites.  Could have parked a hundred feet closer to the river but I liked the spot we had under the big trees.  Put our coach levellers down, popped out our two slides and un-hooked the Jeep.  ‘Finally’ a place we like.  Might hang out here for a few days, maybe longer.  It’s $20 a night and we have electric and water.  In this humidity we definitely need A/C so we’re happy to have electricity.  We can run our A/C without using electricity by running our generator but we prefer the quieter electricity if available.  


FOUND US A NICE SHADY SPOT UNDER THESE TALL LIVE OAK TREES

THIS IS SURE OUR KIND OF QUIET PLACE ALRIGHT


NICE TO BE AWAY FROM ALL THAT COAST TRAFFIC

WE WERE ABLE TO SIT OUT FOR ABOUT HALF AND HOUR BEFORE THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY GOT TO US AND WE HAD TO RETREAT INSIDE TO COOLER AIR
Although we have never been to this area physically we have been here before via Google Earth as far back as 2011.  After a severe kidney stone attack landed me a Tucson Arizona hospital and a follow up Cat Scan alerted me to the fact I had a fairly large kidney stone problem it prompted Kelly and I to overreact to the situation and consider buying a place in Florida where we would be closer to home in case of emergencies.  It all seems rather silly now of course but we did go on-line and start looking at a bunch of properties right around the area we are now in.  Old Town, Williston, Chiefland.  Can’t remember why we picked this particular area to look but we did.  There was a lot of affordable places for sale at the time and we did do some serious thinking about it.  I think at the time we were beginning to tire a wee bit of our RV lifestyle.  A year later we bought the house in Congress Arizona.


THE SWUANNEE IS A VERY CLEAN SPRING FED RIVER AND THE BROWN SURFACE TEA COLOR I THINK IS CAUSED BY THE LEECHING OF TREES INTO THE WATER

OLD CYPRESS TREES LINE THE RIVER BANK

KELLY SAID THE WATER FELT COLD WHICH SUGGESTS IT IS SPRING FED

AND YEP WE HAVE CUTE LITTLE GECKOS HERE
And a big thanks to all the folks who through emails and comments have suggested places for us to stay and things to do.  We are keeping a separate file for all this info should we decide to return to this area at some point.  We still have a lot of looking around to do.

WE’RE RIGHT ON THE BANKS OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER
GROANER’S CORNER:((  A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving some oxen before him.
The farmer stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The husband accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, "You know, you're the tenth car I've helped out of the mud today."  The husband looks around at the fields incredulously and asks the farmer, "When do you have time to plough your land? At night?"  "No," the young farmer replied seriously, "Night is when I put the water in the hole."
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So this old man is walking down the street in Brooklyn.  He sees a young boy sitting on the street in front of a candy shop, shoving sweets in his mouth as fast as possible.  The man walks up to the boy and says "You know son, it's really not healthy to eat all that candy."  The kid looks up at him and says, "You know my grandfather lived to be 97 years old."  The man replies "Oh and did he eat a lot of candy?" The kid looks at him and say’s, "No, but he minded his own damn business."
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