Moving Day

Moving Day from Shell Mound Campground, Cedar Creek, Florida

to

Ocean Pond Campground Oceola National Forest, Lake City, Florida

We had a quick breakfast, during which we were visited by the locals.   We finished the pack up-take down and set off from Shell Mound campground.

Stopped for gas in Trenton, Florida where this quick stop mart was the view out the window as we pumped. 

I can’t imagine, even in Virginia, a tobacco state, finding a market named Smoker’s Express.   And I must say, I have seen more people smoking since I’ve been in Florida for the past month or so than I have in years in my home town.

But aside from the smokers, Trenton was a cute town.  We had passed this gas station just down the block and thought it not suitable for an RV but David wanted a picture of it so while he pumped, I walked down the couple of blocks to a take few.

On the way, I passed a connection to the Coast Nature Trail at the original Trenton Train Station. 

Right across the courtyard from the Station was this sweet looking restaurant.  Perhaps we were too quick to judge the Coast trail and should have tried other sections of it.  But Trenton is too far from our spot for the night to come back and check it out. 

On the side of the building on the other side of the station was painted this mural.   The town had several murals on the sides of buildings in this section and they were all extremely well done and apparently by the same artist I thought.  Click to make it larger for the best effect.

 I passed another old vintage building with great old signs and another restaurant with a $5 offer and hand dipped ice cream.  I had a hard time passing that sign without going in but I gathered my willpower and walked on. 

Further down the street, I came to another building mural on The City Bar. 

And although it was not even noon yet, there were a couple of patrons going in. 

I finally came to the gas station, took a few pictures and  noticed the the county court house on the corner where again they had  Halloween folks similar to those at the Chiefland trail head of the Nature Coast Trail.   Seems like this may be a late October custom on “the Nature Coast” of Florida.   These were done by and for the local 4-H club apparently.

This one was my personal favorite so be sure to click the picture to make it large enough to read her signs.

After taking a couple more pictures of the Service Station and a last mural, it was back to the Brave and back on the road.

We drove through Lake City Florida and found that there was a detour on the road into the Ocean Pond campground in Osceola National Forest.  It was now a sand road rather than paved and we had to move at about 10 miles an hour.  We later learned the opinion of our campground host (who was a workamper from Texas) that the government was wasting money repaving a perfectly good entrance road.  His speculation was end of year surplus funds which he thought would be better spent in any number of ways which he was happy to detail for me.  

He also told us that until this very morning every one of the 19 sites with water and electricity had been taken.   The campground has 62 sites, 20 of them are primitive with no hook ups.  19 have water and electric and the rest have only water.   Several of the water and electric sites are taken by the contractors who seem to be working on upgrading the showers in the bath houses.  No one seems to be working on the road.

There are 4 bath houses but only one is open and 4 showers in that bath house but only one is working.  However, we are assured that the other bath houses will reopen with new plumbing tomorrow morning and at least two of the showers in the water/electric circle will be working by tomorrow afternoon and the other two by Friday.  Hope so.  We are trying to conserve on using the tanks so we can stay here longer and had hoped to use the bath house for showers.

There is also a washer and dryer for $1.75 a load.  Someone was doing a load of wash when we checked it so it apparently is/was working.  I might try that out tomorrow since it is so close.  I’ve misplaced my laundry bag so I guess I’ll use a pillow case.  How do you misplace things in less than 300 square feet??

All that said, this is a lovely campground and the price is definitely right.   $18 a night for water and electric, $12 for water only and $6 for primitive, no hook ups.  If you have a Senior Access pass to the National Parks, it will get you a $6 discount per night making water and electric $12.  A great bargain

We had our choice of 3 sites, none of them on the water, and chose the most secluded, #9.  Here is the picture out our front window and a picture of the set up.  David says he doesn't think you'll see the water in this picture but I do.

Apparently this is a very popular campground all year long and because you can stay for up to a month, many people do.   So we are happy to be able to have a site.

We biked around to see the layout of the campground, kayak launch and the “beach” on the Pond which is apparently named Ocean Pond because of its waves.  We’ll see and let you know. 

 Looks like there are several hiking trails here.  The Florida State Trail also comes right through here.  What a great idea for a state to have  “state trails”.  Here’s the map of it as they are trying to get it to run the entire length of the state.   If you click the map, you'll see the orange lines are the sections completed and the yellow are those they are working on to get into the trail.  I wish them luck with this great idea.

 I must say, I am impressed with the number of bike trails, hiking trails and kayaking trails created and maintained by the State of Florida.  Way to go guys!!

After dinner we walked down to the beach to see the sun set.  And as usual, it was GREAT!

No plans for tomorrow.  We may just take it easy and get the blog posted before midnight, the tire on the kayak cart fixed and other chores around the place done, including laundry,   Although I’m thinking at least a sunset paddle since we are so close to the put-in.   Good test for the repaired kayak cart don’t you think?  Here’s an after sunset shot of the kayak put-in just around the circle from our site.   Everything here is amazingly close and convenient.  Once again, lucky us.

Another fabulous day which just reminds me that life is a law of attraction.  

And thoughts are things.  

Make them good ones.

Altsena Odie Key

Shell Mound County Campground Site #12

Cedar Key, Florida

Went out for my final morning run around Shell Mound and when I got back guess who had come for breakfast?  The park employee had told us yesterday about this popular group whom too many locals came to see and feed but I hadn't seen them until they dropped by to check us out.  The head mama was sauntering by the front of our rig as I came jogging up

Yup, wild boar in the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge and I thought curiosity got the cat not the boar.

Here's some of the gang but not all of them.  We counted two adult females and about a dozen or so piglets or is it boarlets??  I'll spare you the rest of the shots of their antics.

After breakfast we got loaded up to go paddling from downtown Cedar Key over to Atsena Odie Key which was the original island.  The island we were paddling to was originally called Atsena Odie but as the town developed there, they changed the name to Cedar Key.  After the 1895 hurricane killed 100 of the residents and wiped out the town, they moved to the current island location and took the name with them.  So what was once Cedar Key returned to its original name Atsena Odie.  Are you sufficiently confused?  Hope not.  We were paddling over just to see the island, its habitat and the remains of the settlement which at this point is mostly the cemetery.

Here's a map showing where we went.  We left from the First Street and Dock Street public kayak put in and paddled to point A.  Click on the map to make it larger in order to see more detail.

The dock was an easy put in right beside the public beach which you can see roped off to the right in this picture.

Off we went, leaving Cedar Key behind us.

Here's where we're headed.  The wind was up a bit but not too bad.  We'd put in about 3.5 hours before high tide so we'd be sure not to get stranded.  Always a good idea to check the tides before setting out in any areas affected by them.

I was happy to see the white sandy beaches coming up.

We decided to kayak around the entire island and then go in land to see the cemetery.  As we paddled along we came upon this fisherman.

He let us get quite close before deciding enough was enough and flying off.

More sights along the shore as we paddled.

We rounded the bend and could see the dock ahead.  We wondered how it survives the severe weather out here.  It extends into the water quite a distance.

We tried to give a wide birth to this fellow so as not to upset his fishing.  Isn't he gorgeous? Or is it that she's beautiful?  Anyone know how to tell?

As we approached the dock, we could see it was covered with birds including this pelican, one of my very favorites.  He's definitely a stand out in this crowd.

We paddled on around this grassy point to the next side of the island

Here we found some inland waterways to explore.  We sat in one of them for a very long time being amazed at the jumping fish which we assumed were mullet.  We saw some jump multiple times 5, 6, 7 like a skipping stone.  You couldn't do anything but laugh.  What makes them do it?  Could it be just the joy of it or are the scientists really convinced that they are

a) breathing

                   b) getting rid of parasites

               c) to avoid predators? 

Maybe they jump just because they can.  :-)

Well we tried and tried to get a decent picture of this fun but the only one I have is of the fish practically back in the water.  I'm not sure you can see him no matter how much you enlarge this picture.   But he's the silver bump in the water to the left of the bird.  Honest!

 Coming back out to the edge of the island we saw a group of birds mobbing.  David had seen an eagle fly over the inland area where we were hanging out and he was very excited to see if that was who was causing all the ruckus.

This is as good a shot as we could get of the osprey whose giant nest we saw when we paddled around the 3rd side of the island.

The wind and waves started to pick up.

These guys seemed totally unconcerned about it all.  But then they have wings if the going gets really tough.

Around the bend to the fourth side and time to let the winds calm a bit.

We found the perfect place for a walk.  There was a tranquil inland water body just on the other side of the sand spit.

We saw an amazing number of things along this shoreline.  This seems to be the "rough" side of the island and there were the live and the dead here including this large turtle shell in the grass just ahead of our boats.  David says it's at least 12" across.

We flipped it over for a look and a picture and then put it  back the way we had found it.

This sign had blown over and was now horizontal in the sand.

Right after reading that the horseshoes nest here through July, we found several who hadn't made it in/out/back or whatever.

Fine examples of Mother Nature's art were everywhere.  Look at the geometric designs  in these clusters.  Like the magnolia pod and the pine cone, they are simply beautiful.

And this one too........

We walked most of the length of this side and I approached the bend that would take us around to the original side where we had intended to find the trail to the cemetery.  It was clear that some tough weather had harmed these lovely palms.

I stopped and stood still for quite a while taking pictures of this little one busily hunting through the waters for his favorite morsels.  As long as I didn't move, he ignored me.

Have you noticed the design on the crab shell?

Take a look at the design when you hold it up into the light.

Nature is just amazing!

We circled back to the kayaks, paddled down the shore we'd just walked, rounded the bend and paddled up to pull out  the boats out near the trail marker for the Refuge path to the cemetaey.  It looked like a really neat path until we stepped inside and then it was clear that we were the first meal in a LONG time for a very hungry mosquito population.

They were ravenous and even David who though they bite him never has a reaction that causes him to itch wanted to be covered with insect repellant.  The spray seemed to confuse them for a bit but they were more than able to find any tiny spot that wasn't covered.

We were really sorry to have to practically run down this lovely path.  These pictures were definitely taken on the run.

A bench?  Are you kidding?  To sit on?   No you must be nuts!!

We arrived and took these pictures VERY quickly.  We would have enjoyed a more thorough look around but I could already feel the welts raising up on my arms and legs even though as you could see in other pictures I was wearing long pants and a long sleeved shirt and a hat.

Here's the list of those buried or the best QUICK picture I could get of it.  Click to enlarge so you can read the names.

A fast shot of a section of the stones.  It's a shame that the cemetery hasn't been taken care of but given the bug situation I can see how difficult that would be.

Many of the stones had lovely carvings on them but had sunk into the ground so the dates of death were often no longer readable.

We literally ran out down the path and rushed out to the boardwalk dock shocking the birds relaxing there.

It felt a bit like that Hitchcock movie as we walked further down the dock.

Here's a view of its length.  I wonder when the next hurricane will wipe it out completely.  According to the statistics, this area is due for one before the end of 2011.

As we walked back off the dock David looked down and this is what he saw.  Not sure what kind of fish but BIG, 27 to 30"!!!  I was amazed that my camera would get this picture of him under water even though he was fairly close to the surface.

Time to head back.

The swimming pool rope off committee was waiting to greet us although as you can see from the final picture, our arrival scared some of them away.  Normally there is a bird per buoy.

Looks like we weren't the only ones who had a great day on the water although the owners of these boats were no where to be seen as we loaded ours onto the car for the drive back to the campground.

We were a good tired and hungry at the end of this excellent day.  We'll be moving on tomorrow so stick around to see where we end up next.