Juniper Springs

Ocala National Forest has several campgrounds within it. Last year we stayed at Big Bass Lake. This time we’re at Juniper Springs. The campgrounds don’t have any water or electricity, but this one has hot showers. Plus, there are springs here.

The water comes out in places called “boils”. Here’s a quick movie of the biggest one. They say the daily water flow from the springs in this particular park is 13,000,000 gallons.

The springs put out so much clear water they’ve make a pool for people to swim in. During a hot summer, the 72 F year-round spring would be great. Right now it’s a bit chilly. Years ago, the water flow was used to make electricity. Now the mill and wheel just looks pretty.

  

There are a lot of warnings about bears. I heard a noise in the bushes near our RV one night, but I think it was feral pigs, not a bear. Later on a hike I saw prints from the pigs. Wild turkey can be seen around the area. One picture is the Toms (male) while the other picture is a turkey hen (no wattle).

No idea on the identification of these, but these are a few of the butterflies around our campsite.

Conference

Every year I attend a metals conference. This year we stayed at a nearby park and I drove to the conference every day. John spent his time working on the RV and relaxing (occasionally…he did a lot of work on the RV). Moss Park is known for their Sandhill Cranes. At least twice a day this couple visited while John was eating. I guess most campers don’t follow the rules about not feeding the wildlife.

The Sandhill Crane call is very loud. I wonder if the hole in their beak helps make that noise or if it has another purpose.

After the conference, we stayed at an RV park that has wifi. Unfortunately, it’s like the last one where it’s too slow during the day. I try to get my wifi work done very early in the morning. 

Lake Wales

The final morning at Highlands Hammock I saw a deer eating ferns along a boardwalk. He kept looking at me but didn’t seem interested in running away from me.

Spook Hill is a gravity hill. What you do is put your car in neutral and let it roll. The fun part is that it looks like you’re moving uphill. When we started to roll, it seemed stupid since we could tell we were rolling downhill, but suddenly it changed to look like we were going uphill. Pretty cool!

 John thought I was absolutely crazy going to this spot. But it is actually advertised by the town. There’s a sign explaining the legend and how to do this and even a white line painted across the road as a starting point. Plus, when we got there another car was doing the same thing. We laughed about taking turns “having fun with the hill”. It wasn’t even kids, they were older than us.

We also saw about a dozen people parachuting into the local (Lake Wales) airport. They were remarkably precise in their landing for such a large group. We also stopped at a new winery (Fiddler’s Ridge Farms & Winery) that have only been in business for 4 months. It must be difficult to get a new business started like that. Both the manufacturing portions and the marketing would take time to build. We liked the honey wine.

Just because I liked this old hotel in town.

RV Invasion!

Obviously, we’re camping every day. So we are surrounded by all sorts of creatures. Recently I woke up to hear rustling in the kitchen area. After turning on a light, I saw a mouse that was around the door and then climbing up to the kitchen counter. I quickly woke John and then jumped on the couch (but I didn’t scream). He tried to get the mouse outside using a broom but this guy was fast. John decided to put out a sticky mouse trap in the area we saw him (yes, we keep some mouse traps around just in case). The mouse was caught later that night and thrown outside so we could take care of in the morning. By morning, though, the mouse was gone from the trap. We’re not sure if he escaped or got eaten by something bigger.

The other problem we’re having is stink bugs. Almost every day we find a big stink bug somewhere inside the RV. But we don’t see them outside the RV so it seems we have eggs that are hatching. The weird thing is that we never see small baby stink bugs. Do stink bugs grow? We tried using a bug bomb, but it didn’t seem to work. We’re trying to figure out our next step. Ideas, anyone?

We’re up-to-date now on the blog. Right now we’re at a RV park in Lake Wales (central Florida). While we came here to get internet, its impossible slow during the day. I've been lining up work during the day and then getting up in the middle of the night to use the internet. Ah....RV life!

Highlands Hammock State Park

Our next stop is another Florida state park. Many of the trees are really wide and/or tall.

This park promised a lot, but hasn’t really come through. They promised internet and even gave us a password, but later told us it hasn’t worked for a while and they had no idea when (if ever) it would work. The showers don’t work in half of the bathrooms. The dump station stopped working for a day or so after the Sunday rush. The paperwork talked about a 1,000 year old oak tree on one of the trail. Turns out it’s basically an old tree stump. The only thing that is still alive is a palm tree growing at the top and a few air plants.

Walking the trails is interesting. You constantly hear noises as lizards scamper past every few feet. Really, there’s a LOT of lizards here. This one’s a red-head.

Many of the hikes are on boardwalks through a swamp. The boardwalks must have been here for quite a while since the trees have grown around some of the boards.

The squirrels were friendly at the campsite. At one point a hawk showed up and scared our squirrels so that they were crying or screaming or whatever they do.

While it’s too cold in most of the U.S., it is unseasonably warm in Florida. It’s so hot we had to run the air conditioner several nights. Do you feel bad for us? Anyhow, here are some spring flowers.

Game of Thrones in the U.S.

I really can’t remember all the details, but I believe I learned in grade school that Hernando de Soto was this great explorer. That was back when Native Americans were still called Indians and the whole thing about Europeans killing them was minimized. The de Soto National Memorial (our 114^th national park to visit!) discussed the less savory parts. Some of it like chopping off hands of the natives they captured and/or making them slaves, reminded me of Game of Thrones. Very creepy and disgusting.

We got to see an interesting demonstration of the weapons of the time (1539). One of the points was that the guns of the time weren’t mass produced or even made by one artisan. You had to buy the mechanism (lock) from a clock maker, the stock (wooden portion) came from a cabinet maker, and the barrel came from a blacksmith. That’s where we got the term “lock, stock, and barrel”.

We drove around nearby Sarasota and Bradenton. This house combines the look of a boat and lighthouse.

My grandmother used to live somewhere around here. One of the few things I remember during a visit when I was young was being taken to see a shell castle. I think the Braden Castle must have been the one I saw. It’s not a castle, just a house built by Dr. Braden in 1850 using tabby (lime, sand, crushed shells, and water). It withstood a Seminole attack, but was destroyed by a fire in 1903. By the way, I’m still amused when I see what I consider house plants (these are snake plants) in the wild in Florida. I’m in a jungle!

Air Plants

I love the idea of plants that live on the moisture in the air and the dust and minerals in the wind. For whatever reason, the trees in this park are full of air plants (also called epiphytes). I’ve talked about Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns

before, but they are still great to see. The ferns were mostly dry, but some were ‘resurrected’ near the tree tops. After a rain, more ferns opened up.

This is a Pineapple Airplant. Frogs, lizards, and birds will drink the water that is trapped in the leaves.

Serpent Ferns and Shoestring Ferns (the droopy ones).

Ball Moss

   
The park has a tower along with a canopy walkway so you can see the plants in the tree tops. Really a nice touch! Much of the plants In this picture is the red tipped air plant called Southern Needleleaf. There’s a story that goes with this. Even though this air plant is everywhere, I couldn’t identify it by the signs on the trail. I asked a volunteer at the visitor center. She had me pick up a sample off the ground (they are EVERYWHERE and this one was on a broken branch) and bring it to the ranger station. The ranger got all upset that I moved this plant. She also couldn’t identify it other than it was an air plant. Luckily, there was a visitor in the ranger station who could identify it and talk about the blooms that will be opening soon. Afterwards, I returned the broken branch and plant to the ground in same area so the ranger wouldn’t yell at me again.

The signs say there were 8 different types of air plants in the area. I saw seven. I guess I just needed to look harder for the last one! Instead I’ll include this pink lichen. It’s not an airplant, but it’s different.

 While I was checking out the air plants during a morning walk, I heard crashing and grunts in the trees. Two feral hogs ran across the path. No pictures, they move fast!