Sprinty visits Charlie in Florida

After the short golf RV trip last month, Sprinty was confident he could travel while keeping his humans as safe from COVID-19 as being at home. So he put together a trip to visit Charlie, the 2018 Heartland Landmark fifth wheel that his humans purchased earlier this year to use in the winter. The fifth wheel was delivered to Riverside RV Resort near Arcadia, FL a few hours before Florida shut down non-essential businesses. Thanks to Lloyd of Milford Motors, Riverside friend Gary, and Riverside worker John, Charlie was situated on his site and prepared for the summer (dehumidifier, DampRid, etc.) and in great shape.

Thursday, 28 May

We headed south with a plan to spend the night part way down, but also with the option to complete the 600-mile journey in one day. Traffic was light (like as in early Sunday morning light), the weather was good, and at decision time, we elected to take it all the way in. We arrived at Riverside RV Resort just before 4pm, and had things opened up enough to have dinner in Charlie in air conditioned comfort, and spend the night in Charlie.

Friday, 29 May to Sunday, 14 June

The next two plus weeks were a number of small chores to get Charlie ready for the winter season like fixing the garbage can drawer slide, washing and waxing, and other things to make ready for the winter. We had John move Charlie about 36" to free up more of the adjacent concrete patio. Darrell poked and peeked into lots of nooks and crannies to see how things worked and were put together. Darrell even mustered up the courage to drill a 4" diameter hole in the side Charlie to install a dryer vent in preparation for installing a washer/dryer later. He took the "measure twice, cut once" adage to a new level as he measured at least 6 or more times before breaking out the drill.

Most of the Charlie projects were small, so the projects were done around bike riding and golf just about every day. Sprinty spent many hours trying to figure out how to tow Charlie home for the summer.

Drone video

Bike rides included the Cape Haze Pioneer Trail (an 8-mile trail in Charlotte County on the Cape Haze peninsula);

the Venetian Waterway/Legacy Trail; Pine Island; Myakka River State Park (the day after they reopened); Deer Prairie Creek Preserve South (not recommended for bike riding, but promising as a kayak put in);

an abandoned golf course near St James Condominium Association, and rides in the RV park.

The eBikes are great fun. We got pretty proficient in loading/unloading from the bike rack - unloading takes less than five minutes from start to ready to ride.

Golf included four courses we had played before, as well as playing two new (to us) courses, a 12-hole course and walking a 9-hole course. We both played well, taking turns with the treating at Starbucks afterwards. Darrell even shot a 79 one day and did not get to buy. On our last golf outing, Darrell enjoyed a good day with a score of 80, and did not get to buy. On another day, Kris shot her all-time best score of 73. Needless to say, Darrell did not get to buy that day either.

During the week, the RV park was pretty quiet, and everyone seemed to be keeping their distance. On weekends, we saw a little more activity as families got out with their campers.

Sunday, 14 June

Having finished most of the projects, it was time to head home. Our trip plan was to take three days, bike riding two of the days and playing golf one day. We drove to Fort Cooper State Park near Inverness, FL, which had opened only a few days before.

From the park website:

• "The park is named for Major Mark Anthony Cooper, commander of 380 First Georgia Battalion Volunteers plus an artillery company of a few army regulars. In April 1836 Major Mark Anthony Cooper built a fort near the lake's edge to protect the sick and wounded left behind by General Scott as he continued on his way to Fort Brooke, which is now Tampa. Major Cooper was ordered to hold his position and await relief troops in nine days. By the third day the Seminoles,led by Osceola and other Chiefs, discovered Major Cooper and his men. They kept them under constant daily attacks. On one occasion the Seminoles tried to storm the fort with a force in "excess of 500 warriors." After 16 days, with provisions running out, the troops in the fort were saved when a relief column returned to support them.

• Due to Major Cooper's vigilant leadership during the two week siege, the Georgia Battalion sustained about 20 men wounded, but lost only one man. It is unknown how many casualties were taken by the Seminole warriors. Fort Cooper was utilized as a reconnaissance, observation and dispatch post until 1842 by various U.S. Army detachments.

• The park's diverse natural areas provide a refuge for many plants and animals. The inland woods feature hammocks of hickory, oak, magnolia and sweet gum. Beyond is the sandhill community— a dry, open forest of long leaf pines and turkey oaks. Sightings of deer, turkey, opossum and bobcat are common. Owls, herons and cardinals are frequently seen in the park."

Our purpose in visiting the park was a place to park Sprinty while we rode the eBikes on the Withlacoochee State Trail, a 46-mile rails-to-trails trail. It was a short, paved trail from the parking lot to the main trail. We chose to ride south, which was away from the nearby town of Inverness. Nicely paved, some shade from the canopy of trees. Reminded us a bit of a paved version of the Great Allegheny Passage trail we ride in Pennsylvania. We rode about 10 miles, took a break and rode back. We saw a lot of like-minded folks riding bikes on the trail as well.

Along the way, we learned of the Great Train Wreck of 1956.

Our destination for the evening was Manatee Springs State Park near Chiefland, FL. We stayed at this park two years ago on our way to south Florida and we remembered it as a nice park, but with terrible cell service. After getting Sprinty settled and the air conditioner running, we walked to the springs area. Of course no manatees to be seen as it was hot, hot. The campground was nearly full, with only 8 vacant sites out of 80 on a Sunday night. A check of other Florida State Parks found similar situation - full, or nearly full campgrounds during the week, and completely full on weekends. This seems consistent with the various articles in the press about more and more people planning to RV this summer as cruises and international travel are less attractive vacations for most.

A number of people were swimming in the springs. The wooden boardwalk to the river where we saw the manatees last time was closed as it was impossible to maintain the minimum social distancing necessary.

We had virtually no cell service on Verizon and AT&T. Even with the cell booster. Using the new PepWave cellular router on a Cricket (AT&T subsidiary) data plan that we got for going to Alaska and the mock MIMO antennas on Sprinty's roof, we were able to get spotty signal, enough to check email, and stream video at low resolution if you could be patient enough for occasional buffering.

Monday, 15 June

We got an early start and continued to enjoy very light traffic as we went north on US27 to Cairo, GA. We played golf at Tired Creek Golf Course, formerly Cairo (pronounced Karo, like the syrup) Country Club. We both hit good drives most of the day, with Kris even having a drive over 180 yards and Darrell having three or four over 240 yards. We both played better than the score indicated as we adjusted to faster greens than we played in Florida. After the last putt dropped, Darrell had a one shot lead to have honors on the day. A downside of playing golf in nowheresville is the lack of a nearby Starbucks to enjoy after the round

We continued north to Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park in Blakeley, GA. The staff had called during the day while we were playing golf to check us in by phone, so when we arrived, we headed straight to the campsite. Contact-less checkin.

From the park website:

• "This historically significant park is the oldest and largest Woodland Indian site in the southeastern United States, occupied by Indians from 350 to 750 A.D. Georgia's oldest great temple mound, standing 57-feet high, dominates two smaller burial mounds and several ceremonial mounds. The park's museum is built around an excavated mound, providing an unusual setting for learning who these people were and how they lived. Inside, visitors will find numerous artifacts and a film."

After getting Sprinty settled and the air conditioner running, we broke out the eBikes to explore the park. We rode around the campground, the beach area, to the visitor center, and out to the mounds.

We stopped at the tallest mound, which was thought to be a ceremonial mound, and walked to the top. The mounds reminded us of the mounds we saw along the Natchez Trace last Fall.

From the base of the tallest mound, the White Oaks Trail looked very ridable, and we saw no sign indicating bikes were not permitted on the trail. So off we went. The first quarter mile was wide, and easy riding. Then the trail started getting narrower. And narrower. And narrower. And we had to lift the eBikes over a fallen tree at one point. While Darrell rode almost all the trail, Kris wound up walking about a third of it. Afterwards, even Darrell admitted it was not his best decision to ride that trail.

It started raining around dinner. Temperatures dropped to low 60s overnight, making for great sleeping.

Tuesday, 16 June

Today's activity was to ride the Columbus Riverwalk bike trail.

We again enjoyed very light traffic on US27 to Columbus.

Darrell in his happy place:

We parked at Oxbow Meadows park (across street from National Infantry Museum) near the south end and rode to north end along the Chattahoochee River. Near downtown, we saw people zip lining across the river from Georgia to Alabama, an Interstate zip line. The rapids on the Chattahoochee River were the site of US Freestyle Kayak Championship.

We rode 22.5 miles, turning around at the north end of the Riverwalk at the dam.

Departing Columbia, we took the Interstate home. Traffic was much heavier on I-85, I-285, I-75 as we headed straight home, although probably lighter than on a typical pre-COVID Tuesday afternoon.