Dunnellon, FL

Mon., Nov. 22, 2021 thru Sun., Nov. 28, 2021

Today we left Hobe Sound and managed to time it so that we hit not one, but two draw bridges in the morning. The draw bridge schedules are posted, but apparently we paid no attention, thus the reason we were stuck waiting for almost 30 minutes between the two. Although it was interesting to see the bridge raise up and allow tall private, expensive sail boats to go past. We traveled 245 miles north, mostly on the Florida Turnpike, through Ocala’s beautiful horse farms to land at the campground at Rainbow Springs State Park in Dunnellon FL. We’re here for a week and have a lovely private site in this rustic state park. We do have a very poor cell signal, so there are trade offs to sometimes being in state parks. But, we’ll take it! We did enjoy our first campfire here last night. 

Tuesday was a chore/errand day for Gary & I… then Cheryl & I did a 2-mile hike in the afternoon on one of the trails in the campground. That night we all braved a campfire with temps in the 40s. Chilly! 

Wednesday we thoroughly enjoyed a visit with our friends, Lucy & Danny, whom we met this summer at Old Stage Campground in Madbury NH. They live about an hour away and made the trip over to come see us. We chatted, laughed a lot, played Cornhole, and ate a lot. Then all too soon it was time for them to leave us. A very fun day! Afterwards Cheryl, Joe & I enjoyed a walk around the campground and sunset. Gary, bless his heart, washed the dishes.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! In the morning we connected with family including an hour+ call with Ellen & Wayne. We typically Skype with them but that wasn’t an option with a crappy cell signal. As Ellen said, on the positive side we can still be in our PJs! I can attest that I was. It was fabulous to catch up with them! 

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving day with the Hannafords! It was beautiful outside so we played cards in the early afternoon at the picnic table and enjoyed some appetizers, thanks to Cheryl. 

A cute thing happened while we were sitting outside playing cards. A fellow camper came over and said she had a turkey thermometer in her RV but it was gone now. Did we have one she could borrow. We said yes, of course. Gary went over to get ours since Cheryl was cooking a turkey breast for the 4 of us and needed her thermometer. It was funny because the way the woman had phrased it… Joe and I both thought the same thing… did she think we took her turkey thermometer??? Hee hee. She came back over to return the turkey thermometer and brought with her a roll of paper towels and a chocolate chip muffin mix. So sweet. She wanted to repay us. A simple thank you would have sufficed. But we happily took her goodies! 

We split the cooking with the Hannafords. Although as mentioned, Cheryl & Joe had the important job of preparing the turkey breast. Not an easy task in our RV ovens because typically the temps are way off.  The turkey came out great! Cheryl cooked a butternut squash ravioli with a gorgonzola cheese sauce as a starter that was out of this world and made brussel sprouts for a vegetable. I made a sweet potato casserole, my mom’s homemade cornbread stuffing, and a three-bean salad. We ate our fill then cleaned up afterwards and in the evening enjoyed sitting around the campfire, listening to music, and had Gary’s delicious pumpkin pie for dessert. 

Friday the four of us visited Rainbow Springs State Park where the actual springs are located. This is in a separate location from the campground. Rainbow Springs was designated as a registered National Natural Landmark in 1935. It’s 1,472 acres. Florida has more than 1,000 springs, the largest collection of springs in the world. Rainbow Springs is one of the largest in the state. Springs we learned “are a natural phenomena where vast underground caves and caverns form to hold water” making the water a remarkable blue color. In the 1920s Rainbow Springs was an amusement park with glass bottom boats, waterfalls, a zoo, rodeo, and a monorail with leaf-shaped gondolas. In the mid-1970s when Disney and other large theme parks came along, tourists were lured away and Rainbow Springs closed. In the mid-1990s it reopened as a state park. The four of us thoroughly enjoyed exploring Rainbow Springs and looking at the beautiful blue waters. It was a little too chilly for any of us to go swimming in the 72 degree water.  We ended up doing a 4+ mile hike which wound into the hinterland. The hinterland portion was a little less than exciting. We got back to the truck just before the rain started. 

On Saturday, Nov. 27th, we visited Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa FL. The staff used to transport you to the West entrance of the park via boat. But with Covid, the park being closed for over a year and no boats running, there’s a mass of green growth in the waterway that has to be cleared out before they can run the boats again. Instead we took a tram to get to the West entrance of the State Park.

This is a rehabilitative center. All the wildlife here can’t survive in their natural habitat due to injury. Such a great experience! There’s a mile long raised elevated trail for viewing. We lucked out on the timing because beginning Nov. 15th thru March they open the gates to allow the wild manatees access to the warm spring waters. They can come and go as they please. Such a sight! So majestic. Most of the wildlife photos are compliments of Gary. We all LOVED this place!

Sunday was a chore day. But even so, Cheryl, Joe, and I managed to get a 5-mile bike ride in before rain drops arrived. Gary stayed behind as he was in the midst of packing us up since tomorrow would be a travel day. 

As an aside, we kept noticing sandy mounds of soil dug up in fields throughout this whole area. Obviously some animal’s handiwork. On the last day we finally asked a ranger about it, she said it was pocket gophers. The females dig in a straight line, and the males dig all over the place because they are looking for the females. 😂 

Tomorrow we move on to our 4th Florida location. This one in the panhandle… Eastpoint.