Chasing the thermometer around Florida
Even Florida gets chilly in the middle of winter. There are 600+ manatees huddled up in Blue Spring State Park riding out a cold snap. The spring is always 72 degrees, and while that is not the warmest water, it is better than the 54 degrees that the St. Johns river was running at during this cold snap.
Martha’s nephew Kevin invited us to come stay with him and his fiancee Meredith’s home in DeLand Florida. They have a few acres, so we just pulled around back and got comfortable for a week.
It was great to get together with all of the Florida branch of the Crager kids and their kids.
A nice cozy fireplace was nice to warm up to.
Greg and Brenda Rushing joined us for an afternoon and evening out on the town. We have enjoyed many vacations with Greg and Brenda over the years.
Kevin and Meredith took a spin on our funny little bikes. After zooming around the neighborhood, they definetly approved! Meredith wondered why you would ever peddle at all!
We toured Stetson University where Meredith works. It was founded by John Stetson of the famous hat company. Since they thought he was a larger than life character, they made this statue to remind you of that.
Next we headed further south to Lake Hatchinea near Haines City. It is a wonderful county park. We enjoyed ourselves for a week here.
These Sandhill Cranes came by each day to say Hi. Ruckus was not too sure about them and the dinosaur like sounds they make. By the end of the week he had decided he could take them on!
Martha set us up for a run of 5 Harvest Host locations in south central Florida. First up was Turn 2 Brewing in Sebring.
Tasty beverages were enjoyed. Definitely worth the stop.
Our next stop was Faded Bistro also in Sebring. We had a fantastic meal. The Owner was very accommodating and went out of his way to make sure we were well taken care of.
Next up was Don Davie’s Sugar Sand Distillery. We parked MzDazy right next to the tasting room and enjoyed the spirits that he makes.
The distillery is right in the middle of Don’s sugar cane fields. Ruckus decide these were the best sticks ever!
This is what you find when you are the last one to bed!
We stopped off at a park along the Peace River in Acaidia Florida for the afternoon. We enjoyed a walk under the trees and came upon this section of river where everyone plays and looks for sharks teeth. This is a long way from the ocean, so I am not sure how they got here. Ruckus did take advantage of this stop for a bit of swimming.
We spent the evening at Linda and Gary’s Butterfly Landing. It is their home on 5 acres that they share with us traveling folks as a Harvest Host.She even gave us 6 of her duck eggs which we really enjoyed. They had a pond with a small gator too which was fun to see.
This young Raccoon came by to say hi. He was not too sure about getting his picture taken.
Our last stop in this circle was Orange County Brewers in Lake Mary. It worked out perfect as this was Super Bowl Sunday and we go to enjoy the game on the big screens.
Florida seemed all booked up so we headed north to Georgia for a few days to stay at Crooked River State park right over the state line. Literally at exit #1!
They even had a gym! I had fun playing on the machines.
Ruckus learned about armadillos here. Something he can chase and catch that doesn’t seem to bite. They bounce along like a rabbit and ball up when caught. Ruckus just pokes it with his nose and then the chase is on again until the little guy can find his hole to dive into.
There were lots of nice trails around the park with great views to be had.
We met up with Don and Penny Childs from Wasilla for a few days at Otter Springs. We had fun catching up on the happenings since we left their place in August. They headed back home for a month and we are off to Skoolie Swarm. We will meet up again next month to go to Sun N Fun together.