Left Jenny’s Friday January 19th. Heading to Deland to spend some time with another great friend Danny. Stopped in Orlando and had lunch with nephew James and we had Pho at Pho 88. Twas good. Onward to Deland to see Dan Smith a friend of many many years. Another great campsite in a great friend’s front yard 🙂
We hung out a bit and toured his house, had some cocktails then went to downtown Deland and had a very nice Italian dinner. Danny took us to a local brewery (alas we were the oldest there in this college town) and had a brew.
Saturday we ventured out after a nice home cooked breakfast. Went to check out Blue Springs state park where tons of manatees are but 1/2 hour line of cars to get in so we aborted. We ended up taking hike in Black Bear Wilderness which in part was along St John’s river. 7.7 mile walk. Very nice since it was cool and not buggy. Saw one Alligator, many birds and one Armadillo. We started at like 3:30pm and sunset at 5:30pm so we had to walk fast! It was a very nice walk
After the walk we checked out the near by marina and found a pool bar comedy club: Otter’s on the river which was the Boat Tree Marina (actually we were in Sanford). Then Saturday night cooked Chili and tried cornbread (tried Gary’s method… it tasted ok but not great).
January 21 st: We left Danny’s on the way to meet Mom in Ocala for her eye appointment at the Retina Center. We got up very early and went to Blue Springs State Park to beat the crowd and see Manatees. Mission accomplished it was very cool and 389 counted that morning. Saw a tiny baby and lots of others. One smaller one, likely a youngster was playing in the spring. He’d swim across and get pushed up and then would do it again.
Had a nice couple days with Mom and Calvin in Ocala. Did not do much as Mom was fighting a cold. Said good-bye to Mom and Cal Tuesday and went to Juniper Springs State Park. Spent the night and it was nice.
Big sites, private because not many people there.We got there early afternoon so took a walk on the Florida Trail and a connecting forest road with the dogs. Then went to the spring and had a swim all by our selves.
Walked the nature trail along Juniper Run and then had an easy supper and to bed early. Heading to Gainesville tomorrow.
January 24th and 25th we spent in Gainesville. Got there near noon and met Jane at Blue Highway for lunch. Actually first met at Tioga parking lot and walked the neighborhood with the dogs then had lunch. After lunch she took us on a campus tour: WOW things have changed! We stopped at her hubby’s Todd’s office and lab for a quick visit. She had to go do kid things and we hung out at Forest Park while we waited to meet Bob and Anne for dinner. Anne brought home a lovely Vietnamese dinner for us and we had dinner at the house. Met a friend of Bob’s after dinner as we sat around his pool under very cool heat lamps (it was cold). Camped out in Bob’s yard. Had lunch with Dennis the next day, walked near Hogtown creek (Loblolly trail) and then Dinner with Jane.
So the plan was to head west after this Gainesville visit but Alex found a house in Largo so we headed back down to Largo to look at a house. It filled our ideal requirements: on the water, deep water dock, near dog beach and neighborhood park. The house had good bones but needed lots of work and was way over priced so not the house for us.
However, on the up side, we got to spend more time with Tampa bay area friends. Spent Friday night with Gary and Marcia then Saturday we were planning on going to their Dekle beach house. Saturday we went to visit Jenny for a few hours and took a great hike in Hillsborough River State park with all four dogs (Solstice, Sierra, Terra and Holly) and Dan, Jenny, Leah, Alex and myself. It was nice hike. Sadly said good-bye to bestie Jenny and family for real 4pm ish and drove to Dekle beach house to meet Marcia and Dallas dog.
