Bezabor: Florida Trip Summary (posted from home)
The idea for the Florida trip came from wanting to get somewhere we could be outside much of the time this winter. We had had an extra-nice January and much of February still had daytime temperatures in the mid-Forties and above and even a day in the Sixties. I was getting in quite a lot of motorcycle riding and walking but the latter half of February saw daytime temps only reaching the Thirties. I have also wanted to experience Bike Week at Daytona at least once--- just to see the crazy people if nothing else. I had also recently learned that the Florida Trail Association was to hold its annual meeting the at the end of the week after Daytona so that led to the following plan: hit Daytona for one to three days (depending on how we like it), then go east to the Space Coast area for a few days of tourist attractions like Kennedy Space Center, then hang out in the Ocala National Forest hiking and kayaking until the FTA meeting starts, stay one or two days at the FTA conference, then visit our friends Mark and Sue for a few days in St. Petersburg. Afterwards, we’d head north to Florida’s “Nature Coast” at Crystal River and Rainbow River, then start wending our way home, perhaps dipping a paddle in the Suwannee River on the way, and hopefully getting a chance to stop at the southern end of the Appalachian Trail to see what it’s like at the start of the main thru-hiking season.
Our trip started off strangely. Only a few miles from home, still in Pennsylvania, we witnessed an accident on I-83. A pickup towing a ‘bobcat’ excavation machine was coming up the northbound lane. Our attention was drawn to it as it started to swerve a bit. Then it started swerving wildly across both lanes, each oscillation getting larger and more violent. The driver was trying to correct but the corrections were making the oscillations worse. I hit the brakes and headed for the shoulder because the rig looked as if it would hit the center divider on the next oscillation and the bobcat might get knocked loose from its trailer and fall over into our lane or the entire rig might flop over or break through the barrier. But at that point the trailer came off the hitch and broke the chains as the pickup spun around. The pickup ended up facing southbound in the northbound right-hand lane. Inexplicably, the trailer spun sideways to a stop on the shoulder of the northbound right-hand lane, looking like it had been carefully parked there by its owner. The south-facing pickup could apparently see that oncoming traffic was still some distance away and he ripped the truck around, spinning the tires enough to smoke them.
He pulled around the trailer and was backing toward it when we last saw him. Can you imagine what his heart rate must have been at that point?
A few hours later we saw another oddity. We had pulled into the rest area along I-95 just south of the Washington Beltway for lunch. We saw a sport motorcycle pull in and I briefly looked up but then looked back down. Labashi then said, “Hey, that guy just crashed” and sure enough, the motorcycle was lying on its side in one of the angle-in parking spots. I got out of the van and started walking over to him when I saw another guy walk up to him and the two of them righted the bike, so I went back. During lunch I saw them checking the bike over so when we were ready to leave I drove up and asked whether he needed any tools or any help to get the bike going again. He said everything was fine and explained that his foot had slipped in a pool of oil in the center of the parking spot and he had been too cold and tired to react quickly enough to stop the bike from falling over.
But after that our trip settled into a normal travel routine and we saw only one other odd thing on our trip. I believe we saw an attempted car theft thwarted by a car alarm. We had just left an outdoors shop in one of the small Nature Coast towns. As we turned the corner to enter the main road, I noticed two men approaching a car parked nearby and something just didn’t look right. Their body language said they were doing something they shouldn’t. Both stood along the car’s doors and afterwards I realized that one of them had been jimmying the lock. But soon a car alarm sounded and the two men quickly turned and started walking away, trying to look like they just happened to be passing by. They strode across the lot and jumped into another car and sped away.
The blog entries below cover the day-to-day things we did but I’d also like to summarize my thoughts about the trip.
Florida is a great place to visit in winter. We loved central Florida and the Ocala National Forest. The lush growth and interesting plants and wildlife are calling to me to return already. I’m considering taking the Florida Master Naturalist course as an excuse to go back. We had glorious sun the entire month with daytime temps typically in the seventies or low eighties. Night-time temps ranged from low thirties for several days when a cold front came in to the almost-too-warm mid-seventies. The cold-front low temps sound ominous but they really aren’t. The daytime temps linger into the evening and the mornings heat up quickly. Typically you are in shirtsleeves by 0900 even after waking up to wake-up temps in the low thirties. And the people we met were interesting, colorful, and willing to share their enthusiasm for the Florida outdoors.
Bike Week is fun. Daytona is well laid out for an event like this and we never felt things were too-overcrowded. We were able to find convenient (and mostly free) parking and we enjoyed the different venues. I’m not enthusiastic about the overwhelming choppers-skulls-and-black-leather feel to it, but this too has its place. It’s amazing to see how many ‘rebels’ there are, all with their head-rags, sunglasses, tattoos, black leather, and stern looks. And all seem to have throttle-blip-itis at the redlights. But as I say, it was fun.
Kennedy Space Center—been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. Actually, it was nice to be reminded of the amazing things man has done in the space program. We also had a bonus on the tour bus; we got to see a family of feral pigs (big mama and three little piglets) along the road not far from the space shuttle landing strip.
Florida Trail Association. An amazingly-effective group of volunteers. We were surprised to find most of the members in attendance to be our age or older. These folks have their act together. I look forward to their new program for hiker safety.
St. Petersburg/Treasure Island — I have to go back for the kayaking and just spend more time in the area. And interestingly enough the Gulf Coast Sea Kayak Symposium is held there the last weekend in January each year.... hmmm.
Crystal River—again, we didn’t stay long enough. Highlight of this area was the coral snake we saw in the wild between mile markers 3 and 4 on the South Loop Trail at the Crystal River Preserve State Park. I also will have to do the sea-kayak trail starting below Homosassa Springs sometime (soon!).
Amicalola Falls / Springer Mountain – We thoroughly enjoyed this visit. We thought it might turn out to be a bust as we arrived in rain and fog but after it cleared we met some really, really interesting people and had a chance to get a feel for the woods in this area and thru-hikers in general.
Patchwork Storytelling Festival- We enjoyed the storytelling we heard here but would like more variety and choice (in other words a larger festival). (to hear a sample of Bill Harley’s singing and storytelling (if you have RealPlayer), try this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5023162)
Trip stats:
Miles traveled- 4094 (avg=132 per day)
Wal-Mart free-camping nights- 12 of 31
Pay-camping nights- 13 of 31, total cost $143.31, avg pay-camping cost per night: $11.02
Hotel nights- 1 (at Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge), $80
Average nightly housing cost: $7.21
Gas: 284.5 gallons costing $682.48, averaging $2.40/gal (low= $2.19, hi=$2.60). Avg mpg: 14.4 (hi=16.0, low=13.3)
Overall cost: $2427.20 or $78.30 per day
Overall value: priceless!
The idea for the Florida trip came from wanting to get somewhere we could be outside much of the time this winter. We had had an extra-nice January and much of February still had daytime temperatures in the mid-Forties and above and even a day in the Sixties. I was getting in quite a lot of motorcycle riding and walking but the latter half of February saw daytime temps only reaching the Thirties. I have also wanted to experience Bike Week at Daytona at least once--- just to see the crazy people if nothing else. I had also recently learned that the Florida Trail Association was to hold its annual meeting the at the end of the week after Daytona so that led to the following plan: hit Daytona for one to three days (depending on how we like it), then go east to the Space Coast area for a few days of tourist attractions like Kennedy Space Center, then hang out in the Ocala National Forest hiking and kayaking until the FTA meeting starts, stay one or two days at the FTA conference, then visit our friends Mark and Sue for a few days in St. Petersburg. Afterwards, we’d head north to Florida’s “Nature Coast” at Crystal River and Rainbow River, then start wending our way home, perhaps dipping a paddle in the Suwannee River on the way, and hopefully getting a chance to stop at the southern end of the Appalachian Trail to see what it’s like at the start of the main thru-hiking season.
Our trip started off strangely. Only a few miles from home, still in Pennsylvania, we witnessed an accident on I-83. A pickup towing a ‘bobcat’ excavation machine was coming up the northbound lane. Our attention was drawn to it as it started to swerve a bit. Then it started swerving wildly across both lanes, each oscillation getting larger and more violent. The driver was trying to correct but the corrections were making the oscillations worse. I hit the brakes and headed for the shoulder because the rig looked as if it would hit the center divider on the next oscillation and the bobcat might get knocked loose from its trailer and fall over into our lane or the entire rig might flop over or break through the barrier. But at that point the trailer came off the hitch and broke the chains as the pickup spun around. The pickup ended up facing southbound in the northbound right-hand lane. Inexplicably, the trailer spun sideways to a stop on the shoulder of the northbound right-hand lane, looking like it had been carefully parked there by its owner. The south-facing pickup could apparently see that oncoming traffic was still some distance away and he ripped the truck around, spinning the tires enough to smoke them.
He pulled around the trailer and was backing toward it when we last saw him. Can you imagine what his heart rate must have been at that point?
A few hours later we saw another oddity. We had pulled into the rest area along I-95 just south of the Washington Beltway for lunch. We saw a sport motorcycle pull in and I briefly looked up but then looked back down. Labashi then said, “Hey, that guy just crashed” and sure enough, the motorcycle was lying on its side in one of the angle-in parking spots. I got out of the van and started walking over to him when I saw another guy walk up to him and the two of them righted the bike, so I went back. During lunch I saw them checking the bike over so when we were ready to leave I drove up and asked whether he needed any tools or any help to get the bike going again. He said everything was fine and explained that his foot had slipped in a pool of oil in the center of the parking spot and he had been too cold and tired to react quickly enough to stop the bike from falling over.
But after that our trip settled into a normal travel routine and we saw only one other odd thing on our trip. I believe we saw an attempted car theft thwarted by a car alarm. We had just left an outdoors shop in one of the small Nature Coast towns. As we turned the corner to enter the main road, I noticed two men approaching a car parked nearby and something just didn’t look right. Their body language said they were doing something they shouldn’t. Both stood along the car’s doors and afterwards I realized that one of them had been jimmying the lock. But soon a car alarm sounded and the two men quickly turned and started walking away, trying to look like they just happened to be passing by. They strode across the lot and jumped into another car and sped away.
The blog entries below cover the day-to-day things we did but I’d also like to summarize my thoughts about the trip.
Florida is a great place to visit in winter. We loved central Florida and the Ocala National Forest. The lush growth and interesting plants and wildlife are calling to me to return already. I’m considering taking the Florida Master Naturalist course as an excuse to go back. We had glorious sun the entire month with daytime temps typically in the seventies or low eighties. Night-time temps ranged from low thirties for several days when a cold front came in to the almost-too-warm mid-seventies. The cold-front low temps sound ominous but they really aren’t. The daytime temps linger into the evening and the mornings heat up quickly. Typically you are in shirtsleeves by 0900 even after waking up to wake-up temps in the low thirties. And the people we met were interesting, colorful, and willing to share their enthusiasm for the Florida outdoors.
Bike Week is fun. Daytona is well laid out for an event like this and we never felt things were too-overcrowded. We were able to find convenient (and mostly free) parking and we enjoyed the different venues. I’m not enthusiastic about the overwhelming choppers-skulls-and-black-leather feel to it, but this too has its place. It’s amazing to see how many ‘rebels’ there are, all with their head-rags, sunglasses, tattoos, black leather, and stern looks. And all seem to have throttle-blip-itis at the redlights. But as I say, it was fun.
Kennedy Space Center—been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. Actually, it was nice to be reminded of the amazing things man has done in the space program. We also had a bonus on the tour bus; we got to see a family of feral pigs (big mama and three little piglets) along the road not far from the space shuttle landing strip.
Florida Trail Association. An amazingly-effective group of volunteers. We were surprised to find most of the members in attendance to be our age or older. These folks have their act together. I look forward to their new program for hiker safety.
St. Petersburg/Treasure Island — I have to go back for the kayaking and just spend more time in the area. And interestingly enough the Gulf Coast Sea Kayak Symposium is held there the last weekend in January each year.... hmmm.
Crystal River—again, we didn’t stay long enough. Highlight of this area was the coral snake we saw in the wild between mile markers 3 and 4 on the South Loop Trail at the Crystal River Preserve State Park. I also will have to do the sea-kayak trail starting below Homosassa Springs sometime (soon!).
Amicalola Falls / Springer Mountain – We thoroughly enjoyed this visit. We thought it might turn out to be a bust as we arrived in rain and fog but after it cleared we met some really, really interesting people and had a chance to get a feel for the woods in this area and thru-hikers in general.
Patchwork Storytelling Festival- We enjoyed the storytelling we heard here but would like more variety and choice (in other words a larger festival). (to hear a sample of Bill Harley’s singing and storytelling (if you have RealPlayer), try this: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5023162)
Trip stats:
Miles traveled- 4094 (avg=132 per day)
Wal-Mart free-camping nights- 12 of 31
Pay-camping nights- 13 of 31, total cost $143.31, avg pay-camping cost per night: $11.02
Hotel nights- 1 (at Amicalola Falls State Park Lodge), $80
Average nightly housing cost: $7.21
Gas: 284.5 gallons costing $682.48, averaging $2.40/gal (low= $2.19, hi=$2.60). Avg mpg: 14.4 (hi=16.0, low=13.3)
Overall cost: $2427.20 or $78.30 per day
Overall value: priceless!
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 12:30
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