White Springs & Holt, FL

White Springs FL
Dec. 18th – 19th, 2019

We had an uneventful drive to Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park in White Springs FL where we spent two nights. This state park is along the Suwannee River and named after Stephen Foster, who died when he was only about 40 but composed over 200 American folk classics such as Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, Oh Suzanna, Camptown Races, and My Old Kentucky Home. 

The park boasts a 97-bell carillon, one of the largest musical instruments ever produced in the Western Hemisphere, and the world’s largest tubular carillon in number of bells. It was installed in 1958 but recently sustained electrical damage so the Christmas carols it was attempting to chime were a little off key. Not an all together pleasant sound. 

They had a Christmas light display which we walked through on the first night of our arrival. Not as elaborate as the one in Charleston, but delightful none the less with free hot chocolate, popcorn, gift shops, and walking through the lighted and decorated paths. 

The next morning we visited the (free) Stephen Foster museum on the property which had some interesting and very old diorama displays that gave a pictorial representation to some of his songs. Depending on your outlook… the dioramas were either charming or a bit cheesy. 

After lunch I wanted to lay eyes on the Suwannee River in the park soooo we walked about a mile to find the river, which was picturesque with “black water.” We also found an entrance to the Florida Trail on either side of the boat launch area. On the left side was a sign saying “Florida Trail 1 mile to park exit” and on the other side was a sign saying “Florida Trail 3 miles to park exit.” We debated which one to do. I was in favor of the 1 mile out & back while Gary was thinking the 3 mile might be better because we could diverge off and make our way back to the campground and not have to “repeat” the trail. That worked for me so off we went. It was about 2ish in the afternoon, and we weren’t exactly prepared for a hike… no water, no map. Stupid, I know. Live and learn. But, I had my cell phone and my i-watch so I hit the start button for when we started our hike. Lovely hike with peek-a-boo views of the Suwannee River. We had the trail to ourselves and the trail was easy to follow as it was clearly marked with orange blazes. We had a great time…. for the first few miles…. then it occurred to us that hmmm maybe we weren’t going to be able to just wander back into the campground from the trail. This is like the Appalachian Trail, but the Florida version. Apparently their primary concern wasn’t making it easy for campers to get back to their campsites. Imagine.

After 2.5 miles we stopped to assess. We decided it was the better part of valor to go back the way we had come, rather than continue because it was looking more and more like when we got to the 3 mile mark, we weren’t going to magically be at the park exit and be able to wander back into the campground. Soooo, back we turned. I’m getting “a look” from Gary. I said “don’t look at me, I wanted to do the 1 mile in/out hike.” I think his look had something to do with the fact that he didn’t necessarily have to do ANY hike.  

By the time we got back to our campsite we had hiked 7 miles. I thought it was fun… Gary maybe thought it was a little less fun. 

That was the conclusion of that day. We didn’t go look at the lights a second night as we figured we’d done enough walking, although I was tempted… 

Holt FL
Dec. 20th – 21st, 2019

We headed to Blackwater River State Park today in Holt Fl to meet up with Stacie & Johnny once again. Great to see them! We were here for two nights but unfortunately did not have particularly good weather. We spent the afternoon visiting with J&S in their screen house and Stacie made dinner for all of us. Saturday dawned gray but we decided to head to Pensacola anyway. We visited a delightful market called Palafox Market in downtown Pensacola, a combination farmer’s market and craft fair. Gary & I bought a peach pie and a pineapple rum cake. Apparently dessert was on our minds. Luckily the rain held off during that part of the day. We also visited the largest indoor antique market in Florida. Interesting but no purchases made. We had a chilly lunch eating outside at a Philly Cheesesteak restaurant. Niky, J&S’s American Eskimo dog, was with us so we ate outdoors. Luckily Niky is totally worth it! We also visited Halls Hardware… an old time general store famous in this part of Florida. We didn’t get a chance to visit the historic waterfront part of Pensacola because of the rain. We’ll have to save that for another time. 

The state park was nice… although we also didn’t have a chance to explore that because of the rain. Notice a theme here? We do plan to venture back one of these days!

We all came back to our place for dinner and to hang out. 

Tomorrow we all head to New Orleans!