Thur - Jan 17, 2008
Heavy rain all night long but by morning the weather cleared and the forecast was for 75^o. So we took a short bike ride into the nearby town of Micanopy(Mik-a-no-pee). The town is very small and consists of 10 antique shops, a restaurant and a museum. Every shop had different selections, so Peggy had fun shopping and I enjoyed the fact that we really couldn't carry much on our bikes. It started to look like rain so we quickly pedaled back empty handed. It rained a couple of drops then got sunny, so we biked around the park. My cell phone rang, it was the repair shop where we left our microwave. Bad news, it would cost $160 and couldn't be completed for 5 days. We will go appliance shopping tomorrow.

Fri - Jan 18, 2008
We got an early start and picked up our bad microwave, cost us $40 to get it back unrepaired. Went to Sam's club and found a microwave that fit into the space perfectly, cost only $70. We did some shopping and decided that since this was a holiday weekend (Martin Luthur King) we should get moving to a place that may have room. We found a spot in Juniper Springs campground in Ocala NF. We love this place and will stay for a while and paddle Juniper Springs and the Silver River.

Sun - Jan 20, 2008
Cool and rainy so we spent the day reading, and kept running down our batteries. This campground does not have electrical hookups.

Mon - Jan 21, 2008
Cold morning but the promise of sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's by afternoon. I decided that our coach batteries should be holding their charge better than they have been. So we planned a busy day. Get propane filled, go grocery shopping, get new batteries even if they are not bad, then go paddling on the Silver River which is a beautiful wildlife filled trip. You start where it confluences with the Oklawaha River at a boat ramp and paddle against the strong current for 5 miles up to Silver Springs where all the glass bottom boats hang out. It takes 2 hours to go upstream and a easy float back, but today we had a 20 mph East wind blowing in our faces so we had a little more paddling on the way back. See the pictures of our trip below.

Great White Egret	Head of the Spring	Ibis
An Anhinga drying his wings	He is a big one	Keeping an eye on danger
Monkey Family	Monkies in the trees	Momma with her baby

Tue - Jan 22, 2008
Sunny but cool morning with 20% chance of rain. Finally we will paddle Juniper Springs. But first I need to do a 8 1/2 mi bike shuttle to leave the RV at the takeout. This run does not have all the birds or aligators we saw yesterday on the Silver River. But it is a real wilderness 8 paddle with a swift current. It starts in the campground just a short walk from the RV and is only about 10' wide. It picks up more springs along the way and eventually enters a marshing area where we normally see some gators but none today.

River start shallow and narrow

A brave turtle, most jump in

Canoeing Juniper presents many obstacles

Wed - Jan 23, 2008
Our last day at Juniper Springs. Light rain overnight but the temp is about 70^o so we decided to take a bike ride. There are no good bike trails in the campground so we went down the main road to get to an isolated side road for a 14 mi ride. Trucks on the main road blew peggy right off the bike lane. Not a good ride.

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