Manatee Hammock Campground

This place is in Titusville. It's a county park. We are here to visit the Kennedy Space Center. I have flown over Cape Canaveral 100s of times and always wanted to visit. We drove over there this afternoon and watched a 3D Imax movie and visited the building that housed the Space shuttle Atlantis. We also went into the gift shop. That goes without saying. We have booked two tours, 1 tomorrow and 1 the next day.

Blue Spring days 3 & 4

Things spiraled out of control yesterday and I didn't get around to posting anything. Today I had a good ride on a paved trail that runs through the park. That trail is called "The spring to spring trail". It will eventually run from Blue Spring (here), to DeLeon Spring. This afternoon we drove to the town of DeLeon Springs to visit with Reggie and Lisa Lennon. Reggie is a long time friend/business partner of the Everett's. We move tomorrow.

Blue Spring day 2

The 40 days and 40 nights of rain ended around 5 AM this morning, 39 days short of a repeat of the biblical flood. Due to a bizarre bit of circumstances we found out that Mike & Linda Everett were staying in their RV close to us. Mike is Jenny's cousin, Larsons nephew. We ate lunch together and had a good visit with them in their PP (Princess Palace). The Blue Spring we are camped near is the winter home to a group?, school?, herd? Of Manatees.

Blue Spring State Park

We only had a hour and and a half drive. It started raining at 4AM this morning. It's now 7PM and it's still raining. So, we had to break camp in the rain and we had to make camp in the rain. The breaking camp went pretty well, the making camp not so much. When we got here we discovered that our reserved campsite was no where near level. Backing in had the front too high. We tried to make it work by backing up onto blocks. Keep in mind it's raining. After using all of the blocks we had in our possession it still wasn't enough. I drove back to Park HQ to see if they had another site. Nope. We finally decided that if I nosed in I could probably raise the front wheels high enough to get near level. Raising the rear wheels off the ground is a no no.That's what we ended up doing. All the utilities are on the left side so I had to run them under the MP. It's still raining. Rain + dirt = mud. The front wheels are nearly a foot off the ground. We are here for 4 days. This is going to be terribly disappointing but I'm sad to admit I didn't take a single pic today. Should stop raining in 40 days.

Rodman day 3

Our major event today was a yak trip on the Ocklawaha river. We had to drive 6 miles to get to a ramp we could use. The river braids a lot as it meanders through the swamp so there were several opportunities for navigation screwups. I would say the most significant part of our time on the water was the large number of White Ibis, flying up and down the river and hanging out in the trees. There were 1000s of them. It was like an Alfred Hitchcock thing. We move tomorrow.

Rodman day 2

Today was partly filled with administrative details. I started with a bike ride along the berm tha parallels the canal. They had to dig up a lot of earth to get a 200 feet wide and 30 feet deep trench. The berm was straight as an arrow so the ride was unexciting. After lunch we crossed our fingers and went looking for a liquor store in Palaka. Our worries were totally unjustified. Our liquor locker has been restocked. Lunch was at the # 1 rated restaurant which was on the banks of the St. Johns River. That river is the longest river in Florida and the only river in the country that flows north. After lunch we hiked through a garden park, went to Home Depot and bought champagne at Walmart. That was about it. P.S.- the government has reopened. Whopee!

Rodman State Park

We have moved north along the path of the Cross Florida Greenway.  As we learned in yesterday's post the Greenway was originally supposed to be a Cross Florida canal. We are camped on the bank of the canal that was actually built. I got my kayak wet for the first time on this trip by paddling on the portion of the canal adjacent to our camp. The nearest town to us is Palatka. We are in dire need of a liquor store. Hopefully Palatka can satisfy our need.