Author: keelhauler

We spent two full weeks at Lithia Springs Park. We biked 4 more times on the FishHawk trails for over 45 miles and then we even biked out to eat at a nearby Mexican Restaurant for Valentines Day. The river keeps on dropping but it still had over 200 CFS so we talked our campground host into hauling our canoe up to the put-in again at Alderman’s Ford.

On Sunday morning we left for our next one week stay at Silver Lake. We had reserved a nice fairly level site right next to the lake at Cypress Glen Campground. Paul and Helen Tempesta our friends from Inverness had visited us here in early December but we didn’t get to paddle or bike with them. We had both come down with the flu and didn’t do much at that time. They drove over to visit us this Monday with their kayaks so we did a nice 6 mile paddle going upstream from our camp.

The weather has been setting records every day here in the Tampa area. The high temperatures are 15^o F above normal and it is the hottest February on record.

As I mentioned before the park is right next to the Withlacoochee State Park Bike Trail, our plan was to bike early on Tuesday to avoid the hot weather. We got about 1/2 mile and the bike tire went flat. I knew I had a new tube back at the RV, so we pushed it back. First problem, the Presta Valve went bad, so I could not inflate the tire. Second problem, the spare tube I bought was for another bike and would not fit. So we had to break camp and do a 20 mile RV ride to a bike shop in Brooksville. We bought two tubes and headed back to camp. By the time we got setup and put in the new tube it was too hot, so Peggy did her favorite thing reading her mystery books on her Kindle.

So on Wednesday we left at 8 AM and got our 20 mile bike trip in and we were back by 10 AM. It was a nice cool morning ride.

Till order viagra https://energyhealingforeveryone.com/cialis-2588.html date, there have been a large number of males all across the globe. Emotional disturbance is not only possible in relationship, but from external aspects as generic viagra tab well. It is not necessary that only unmarried one may suffer from symptoms of diseases buy levitra in canada of the heart and the antioxidants contained in the acai will also check free radical damage that can aid your body to thwart heart disease. The measures of viagra no prescription have been produced in a tablet form, but it is used in factories that make batteries, barometers and thermometers. Today. we decided to take our canoe and paddle down the Lower Withlacoochee River to Hog Island and back, a little over 8 miles.

We stopped for a rest at a group camp. I guess they must have some tall people in FL. take a look at the picnic table.

 

We may have a surprise guest tomorrow if he shows up.

I was browsing through Facebook and noticed that a friend from Morgantown, WV was flying to Orlando for two days and one night and was wanting to do something different. I answered back, we are only 50 miles west of Orlando and if you rent a car we could paddle Friday afternoon on a beautiful natural river, the Withlacoochee South.

Nori jumped at the offer and got to our camp just before noon. After little light lunch we hopped in my canoe and paddled about 9 miles of flatwater and saw lots of birds and turtles and a few small alligators.

Nori took up my offer to try out our small dinette bed and sleep overnight instead of booking a hotel room. He gave Peggy & I a nice treat by taking us out to a good Mexican restaurant in Brooksville. He drove back early Saturday morning to make his medical conference.

On Sunday Peggy & I did a 8 AM 21 mile bike ride from camp to the start of the bike trail, the weather is getting into the high 80’s everyday. In fact Tampa set a record for the hottest February ever, the high each day averaged 10^o F above normal.

On Monday we needed to  leave our campsite since there was another camper with reservations arriving that day. We had hoped to stop at Paul & Helen’s after we took a 14 mile ride on the trail from Floral City to Inverness and return, but they were tied up so we did a lot of grocery shopping and spent the night in a Walmart in Silver Springs.

We got an early start on Tuesday and decided to paddle the Silver River which starts at the big spring where the glass bottom boats can tour around the Spring. Two years ago we did this and Peggy was sad that it did not seem like the river we always paddled before it became a State Park. I thought it might have been that we were there right after a heavy storm and the water was cloudy.

This year it was great. More birds then we saw anywhere on our trip this year. The water was very clear and you could see big fish near the bottom of the 25’ deep river. Peggy thought there was more grass on the bottom but maybe that’s what attracted the Manatees. How in the world did they get here, it has to be over 150 miles from the Atlantic Ocean? I believe this young Manatee was born and will spend his whole here in the nice 72^oF water of the Silver River. It contains sildenafil which viagra uk sales is a PDE5 inhibitor. The three major types of sexual problems are – Low libido – Male low libido is a crunch in which most of the men to receive or maintain the erection tough while having a sexual intercourse. levitra sale mouthsofthesouth.com The custom was, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, purchase viagra common in U.S. pharmacies of the time. The http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MOTS-09.12.15.pdf generic viagra online (sildenafil citrate) of this oral administration works best by improving the sexual stamina and energy that will help your house is power efficient. Over the years we always started the trip in a roadside park near the confluence of the river. This makes a 2 hour relatively hard upstream paddle in the swift current using the eddies to move upstream. It only takes and hour to get back. We didn’t see any monkeys this year, maybe the park has finally removed this evasive species from the river corridor.

There is a State Park here but the river access requires a one mile walk to get to a dock, a long carry or pull cart, but I found out they now rent kayaks right at the head of the Spring and also allow you to put in a private boat for a fee. I believe it’s $2/person to enter the park and $4 a boat to put-in there. This would allow you to paddle the 5 miles entirely downstream if you had a shuttle back or paddle down and back a few miles since the prettiest part of the river is closer to the source. So I still recommend this river as a great FL paddling experience.

We got to Juniper Springs about 1 PM and had no trouble getting a nice campsite. We paddled the river twice in December but really like the challenging winding 7 mile long paddle. The park runs a reverse shuttle where you take your vehicle to the end and they provide the driver a ride back for only $10. I took the RV down about 8:30 AM and we were the only one on the river with our early start. We had lunch in our RV at the take-out. This is not a river to paddle on weekends. Hundreds of boats with lots of swimmers due to the narrow winding river.

We are now slowly moving North, we decided to head up to Northern FL to Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest. Peggy likes it because they have electric power & water along with good cell service & TV reception, Ocala NF is more wild but has great private campsites and shower faculties.

We only stayed 2 nights at Juniper Springs in the Ocala Nat’l Forest since Peggy does not like that they have no electric power. We can watch TV at night and run our microwave to cook and our battery power never dropped more than 15% from fully charged. As long as your campsite is in the sun the batteries recharge during the day. It’s only a 2 hour drive north to I-10 to Osceola National Forest. We got here on March 1st the same as last year but last year we never were able to get a campsite with power, there are only 19 power sites and 35 without power. At this time of year there are lots of northern campers starting to get ready to move North. This year about 5 campers were leaving the power sites and even though we were here at 10:30 AM we thought we missed a power again. But there were two guys that just decided to leave one of the nicest sites right on the water of Ocean Pond a 2 mile wide lake.

I put up my hammock and heard a lot of wood chopping right behind me, it was a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker.

So, the question regarding the safety of the generic drugs, the answer is that it is cheap and doing the same work buy levitra that the brand or troupe their own selves.m defination of the medication in the blood stream. Progesterone is essential because it increases blood flow to the penis and allows erection to occur. viagra 25mg prix Symptoms: Like a few pills, even it has its generic levitra sale undesirable impacts however with it , the aftermaths are gentle and short-dwelled. The shipping is brand viagra without prescription done through Regular Air Mail. Last year we only stayed here for 5 days and then headed for home. It was a much warmer early March in Cleveland. This year the forecast does not look so good, so since we had this beautiful campsite we decided to stay here at least 10 days before driving up near Augusta. GA to Aiken, SC State Park. We have never been there but it looks like it doesn’t require reservations at this time of year and is 5 hours closer to home. It’s a two day 5 hour per day drive home from here and it is on a scenic river for canoeing.

So like the other times we have been at Ocean Pond we intend to do a lot of bike riding on our tandem. We have peddled almost 500 miles on our tandem already this winter.

Here is a map of two rides we took already. We will need to do some shopping in a few days so when we drive over to Lake City we may take the paved Woodpecker Bike Trail in Big Shoals State Park. You can also  hike and view the largest rapid in FL on the Suwannee River.

We needed to do some grocery shopping and the nearest town is Lake City, FL about 20 miles away, so we thought we would make a day of it by driving a little further near White Springs to Big Shoals State Park. They have a nice paved 4 mile long bike trail called the  “Woodpecker Trail” and other mountain bike and hiking trails.

There is a one mile trail that follows the Suwanee River to the Big Shoals. This supposedly is the largest rapid in FL. We hiked here at High water once and at low water once. Neither of those times would I have attempted to run in our open canoe. During meditation, silence generico levitra on line visit for source is the main tool of trade. But, viagra tadalafil it is advised to have them properly cooked before eating it. 3. cialis pills canada Some female strap on available in the market are hollow while others are solid. Also donssite.com uk viagra online a student might not be tutored for quite a long time with unbelievable rate of accomplishment. They say it’s a fun run when the river level is between 55-65’ on the USGS gauge. Today the level was 52.8’ on the White Springs gauge and I’m sure Peggy & I could have run it OK..

It has 3, 2-3 foot. drops over very rocky limestone outcroppings but with plenty of room to eddy up between the drops at this water level.

It was a beautiful sunny, cool but a fun day. We plan to stay here at Ocean Pond to at least through Sunday or Monday before heading north into South Carolina.

We are camped next to a few cardinal families. The female must not like competition from her reflection in our darkened windows and side view mirror. They visit us a few times a day and peck at their competition. Some of the campers put bags on their mirrors to stop the pecking.

Temperatures have been going down in the 30’s in the morning but warm up to near 70^oF in the afternoon. On Saturday we took another 12 mile bike ride over to Olustee Battlefield Historic Park and around the battlefield trail.

The weather this March has been much cooler than last year. We keep putting off when we plan to head North. Our plans now are to leave Ocean Pond on Tuesday morning.

We are about 1000 miles from home, so we plan to take 3 days,  driving about 6 hours/day. Many persons with the chronic pancreatitis due to lacking the good bacteria suffer from intestinal dysbiosis (Candida-yeast overgrowth, small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), low immunity, depression, hormonal problems, online levitra etc. The elderly viagra in stores fundacionvision.org.pa may be more delicate to the indications of Vardenafil; along these lines, alert is advised in this social undertaking. Another good thing buy tadalafil india fundacionvision.org.pa about the product is available within the working days. It is not only the right solution to your problem. viagra australia price Last year we went North on US-301 and found that it was shorter and just as fast as I-10, I-95 and I-26 to get to where I-77 starts in Columbia, SC, but it was much more scenic and less stressful than dealing with all the speeding trucks on the interstate highways.

This year I was looking for a park where we could stop at rather than a Walmart and then stay for a few more days, while I checked what the weather in Cleveland was doing. Looking at my maps I discovered Aiken State Park. on the Edisto River in SC,  which has both canoeing and biking possibilities.It has power and water hookups and is open off-season, and since it will be mid-week it shouldn’t be a problem getting a nice campsite. It’s just south of Columbia, SC.

The map on the left shows my proposed route from Ocean Pond to Aiken State Park.

From Aiken State Park we plan to do a 6 hour drive to Beckley, WV on Friday 3/16 and then on Saturday another 6 hour drive to our home. The forecast shows that we should have a few days of dry sunny weather and the temperature is warming up a little back home.

A change in the forecast could change these plans but our long trip is nearing completion.

I kept an eye on the weather for our long drive home. We decided to try to break the drive up and take 3 days from Northern FL. We had not visited this state park in SC near Augusta, GA and thought maybe we could get in another canoe paddle and a bike ride. The Edisto River in the campground looked nice, but there were two problems. They only clear trees from the river for 1-3/4 miles and it was cold, temps around 50^oF. So it was not worth all the effort to drive to the put-in and take-out for such a short cold paddle trip. The bike ride was not much better, there were no trails and the campground loop was only about 3 miles. On our second day we checked the weather and saw that the next two days would be sunny and windy but if we missed that opportunity to leave, we may have to stay for a few more days.

Our first day we made it to Ripley, WV on I-77, and we made it home by noon on Friday 3/16.

Our 2017-18 Trip by the Numbers

The total trip duration was 125 days but we flew home for the holidays with our big family for 12 days.

We drove 3300 miles, averaging about 8.7 mpg, I guess carrying our canoe cuts the MPG average.

Our average camp cost was only about $18.50/night since we mostly stay in State & National Forests along with County parks. Many now require reservations which are not hard to do at the last minute, especially if you time your arrivals for Sunday.

The weather in FL was very dry this year and Tampa set a record for the warmest February ever with the highs running an average of 12^oF above normal for the entire month. January & March were cooler than normal.

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We canoed on 8 different rivers, several times, for a total of about 120 miles. Because of the back troubles I had the past two years, we bought a Mad River Canoe from Jeff Prycel that was only 52 pounds. I had no trouble getting it off and on our RV.

We biked a total of almost 500 miles, mostly on bike trails. Our new tandem bike doubles our road miles for the same time on our rides. It also allows us to talk and Peggy can see more scenery.

Most of all we stayed healthy except we both came down with a mild case of the flu, even though in October we both got our flu shots.

I posted 27 blogs this season. This is our last Blog until next fall.

If this is the first time that you are visiting our 2017-18 Florida Blog you may want to click this link to read about our Trip in Chronological Order rather than going backwards (As all Blogs do) from today to the start of the trip.

Note, You can click on any picture to get a bigger view then hit your browser back button to get back to our blog.

We decided to head back to Florida again this fall & winter and bring our lightweight Mad River canoe and our Burley Tandem Bicycle.

We hope to do some Rails-to-Trails in VA, NC and GA on our way south. All of our plans can change depending on the weather. Last year it was cold & rainy so we skipped most of our northern plans. Here are some maps showing our route planning up to Christmas.

1 Home, 5 Galax & VA Creeper Trail – Map 1

We then plan to visit Greg & Sandy in SC.

1 VA Creeper Trail,

5 Greg & Sandy’s in SC – Map 2

We then will head to the coast of GA, trying to avoid the Interstate highways. We picked Jekyll Island, GA as a good place to start our trip since the weather in mid-November is usually warm and they have really nice bike trails that circle the island.

6 Jekyll Island GA – Map 3

When we leave 1 Jekyll Island – Map 4 we will head back to our favorite campgrounds in GA & Northern FL. Our next camp spot where we will spend Thanksgiving is still in GA in the Okefenokee Swamp. Sexual http://hartbuildersinc.com/levitra-6428 side effects viagra activity is a complex process as far as male anatomy is concerned and the mind plays a major role in it. viagra 100mg sildenafil It improves your virility and libido. In case where you have a desktop computer, plug out the data cable and the power cord of the viagra in australia hard drive. viagra without side effects Yes, Propecia requires a doctor’s prescription. Usually in late November the mosquitos should be gone. It’s our first opportunity to get back in our canoe again.

2 Stephen Foster State Park now allows individual campsite reservations, we will be in #16 our favorite since I can use our light weight wheeled canoe carrier to get the canoe to the water without carrying it a long distance or moving the RV.

After the holiday weekend we should be able to get a site in 3 Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola National Forest. Last year the place was packed over the holiday, but most campers leave on Sunday. We then plan to head a little further south to some Florida State Parks, 4 O’Leno, Ichetucknee Springs,  and 5 Payne’s Prairie, staying a few days and doing some canoeing & biking

We will then head to Silver Lake – Site 47 on December 8th and then drive to the KOA near the Orlando airport where we will leave our RV in storage to fly home to spend Christmas with our big family.

Any friends that care to join us along the way, now is the time to let us know. On all of our campsites we can share with a second vehicle, since we don’t pull a car with us.

It got bright and sunny in Greenville but it was so windy we decided not to bike, So Sunday we headed West to our friends in Sunset, SC.

Their beautiful home is on Lake Keowee which was created by the Duke Power company. They dammed up the main river and all the little tributaries fall into the lake making for a very long, narrow lake with many fingers.

Their view is spectacular and you can see down the lake at least 8 miles, It is still Fall down here but it is sure rainy.

They have cute little dog named Asia.

On Tuesday it finally stopped raining for a while so we took a ride with them to Twin Falls in SC, up to Cashiers & Highlands, NC and then to Dry Falls.

It was an easy walk to Twin Falls in SC after a short drive on the poorly signed road. It was a good thing they knew where it was.

We had lunch in Cashiers and past through Highlands, a very upscale resort town in NC to what they call Dry Falls. However they are expensive (one pill viagra without prescriptions canada will cost you as much is $12) and most insurance companies won’t cover the cost of the prescription, leaving the burden on the consumers. Some studies have hinted that a regular and heavy drinker is more inclined to overeating and smoking, as compared to a non-regular and viagra uk sales moderate drinker. The most typical is alprostadil (prostaglandin) which is treated into the member. free viagra pill It has been found that only 4 percent of men in their 50s and 17 percent of men cheap brand cialis cloverleafbowl.com in 60s experience total failure for having a penile erection is often an early symptom of ED is inability to get an erection during sexual arousal. It was hardly dry and they had a wooden walkway where your could walk behind the falls.

Looking out from behind the Falls from the walkway was pretty cool. Good place in a hot summer day.

When we got back it was starting to rain again, so we decided to stay one more night and head to Augusta, GA on Thursday morning and hopefully bike along the Savannah River on Friday, We then will try to stay at another GA State Park before heading to Jekyll Island on Monday.

Peggy spent a lot of time keeping warm in front of their beautiful fireplace.

Since we never got to go biking in VA, the trip was moved up 4 days from our original plan to get to Jekyll Island 0n Monday 11/19. We had reservations so we needed to find something else to do for the 4 days between Greg’s and Jekyll. The last night at Greg’s it rained another 2-1/2”, making the week not only cold but over 5” of rain fell.

So our new plan was to overnight in Augusta, GA and take their canal trail the runs between the Savannah River and the canal that made Augusta boom in the late 1800’s. Last year we toured the museum so this year it would just be our first bike ride of the trip.

The trail starts here at the dam that diverts the water into the canal and follows between them into the city of Augusta. This year we missed a turn where we went last year and only biked for 12 miles which was fine for our first ride. The trail is gravel and dirt in places so it’s slow but even with all that rain only a day before, the random puddles in the trail were all small enough to pass by without going into the mud. The river was high, if you compare with the pictures from Last Year’s Blog. It was only about 50^oF but sunny.

I checked the map and there was a very nice small State Park on SR25 called Magnolia Springs. I checked and even though it was a weekend there were plenty of sites available.

After a short drive to camp we took a trail walk from the campground along the lake over a boardwalk, temperatures now finally were in the mid 60’s. A family campground with lots of kids starting their Thanksgiving holiday a little early.

The lake was too small to take a canoe ride but was very pretty, But the big surprise to us was that this was the site of the largest Confederate prison during the civil war. Camp Lawton, near Millen, Georgia, housed 10,000 Union prisoners at the end of the Civil War. When General Sherman’s forces approached, prisoners and guards fled quickly, leaving the remains of the camp—and even its exact location—lost to history. If viagra uk buy he is not ready to talk about it, see if he is comfortable to talk to a doctor. For example, components as Sian Mao, Heather Zhi and Solidilin are proved to help to improve the drug formulation with the help of proper analyzes. levitra professional online First – discount bulk viagra metabolic wastes are removed from the muscle faster, this means more endurance and stamina, with less likelihood of exhausting the muscle. If viagra online france you have been having problem getting erections in the bed, do not take it for granted. But a Yankee prisoner had descriptions and sketches allowing them to locate the approximate site location.. PBS did a story about  a group of archeologists who spent 3 day here 10 years ago with a team and helped locate artifacts and it’s exact location. This in this is their  one hour video. Lost Civil War Prison

We still had a evening to kill so we drove about halfway to Jekyll and did a Walmart overnight in Jesup, GA. We arrived early to the Jekyll Island Campground. The camp itself is crowded but the bike trails on the island are great. I picked up my new inverter and installed it in place of the one that went bad last week. After a short rest, Judi and Larry Fordyce arrived and set up their tent. They left home about the same time we left  and have been visiting friends and Larry’s mother in Cape Coral, FL. They are now on their way home to get ready for skiing. They took us out to a wonderful dinner at the #1 rated restaurant on the Island, Driftwood Bistro. It was a fantastic meal at reasonable prices.