Another Adventure to Florida, Part 1

Monday, 26 October 

Sprinty is off adventuring again. After over four weeks at home, which Keis and Darrell used to catch up of a variety of checkups, we are off on a short trip that winds up in Florida for a bit.

We decided to wander slowly towards the Florida destination and planned a bike-golf-weather rotation of activities. Actually, we only planned biking and golfing destinations, figuring weather was just something we had to work with.

As we started the trip planning, we found that many standard overnight type stops for Sprinty had few vacancies. While we expect limited availability on Friday and Saturday nights, that places were so booked up during the week was a bit of a surprise. To lessen the stress, we decided to travel with reservations. Yup, you heard it here first - we are deviating from our preferred style of winging it and have reservations for all but one night of this almost two weeks trip.

Today was a a bike riding day. We set our sites on the Columbus Fall Line Trace trail in Columbus, GA. An 11 mile Rail Trail, the Columbus Fall Line Trace trail runs between the 14th Street pedestrian bridge in Uptown Columbus and Psalmond Road Recreation Center in Midland. It follows the former right-of-way of the Norfolk Southern Railroad, paralleling Warm Springs Road.  https://www.traillink.com/trail/columbus-fall-line-trace/

We parked at the trailhead at the eastern end of the trail in Midland. The trailhead parking area is quite small, holding about 10 or 11 cars. While we had backup plans (nearby school, nearby church, nearby business), when we arrived, there was one parking spot remaining. Wah hoo.

The trail was asphalt and concrete paved. We enjoyed a very lightly used trail and rode towards Columbus. We knew from the trail map that the "trail" became a sidewalk in town, and figured we would turn around rather than ride on city sidewalks. As it was, we were able to ride 9 of the 10.5 miles trail before it became just sidewalks.

Near the turnaround point, we had a nice lunch break at a trail side set of benches. On the way back, we rode through Flat Rock Park, which is located near the eastern end. The park has a lot of walking and biking trails. Lacking a trail map, we thought we might try riding the trails. After about 200 meters down a green (easy) trail, Kris cried "uncle". Darrell lasted about 150 meters more. While he felt capable of riding the trail, he decided it was not wise to ride it alone. After all, he is the one with the history of "oops" on the ebike.

Flat Rock Park is centered on some exposed rock - although the exposed rock seemed mostly in the front of the park. Although we took a pass on the mountain bike trails, we enjoyed the two mile road loop through the park.

After the 22 mile bike ride, we made our way to the Uchee Creek Campground, which is a Fort Benning FamCamp located on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River, south of Columbus, and is outside the base security gate. Sprinty's track record of staying at Army FamCamps has been mixed. The FamCamp at Fort Huachuca in Arizona was a very nice FamCamp, while the one at Fort Eustis in Virginia was so disappointing we only stayed one night of a planned four night stay, and headed for the nearby Navy FamCamp. The FamCamp in Fort Campbell in Kentucky was somewhere in the middle. Uchee Creek had five star reviews so we figured we would check it out.

As we got near the Uchee Creek recreation area, we saw a C-130 flying overhead with people parachuting out the back. Fort Benning is the site of Jump School where they teach you how to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. And the 101st Airborne Division.

The campground did not disappoint. Large campground with 103 sites, the sites are very well spaced and every one of the 85 RV sites is full hookup. Several comfort stations in the campground, with each one of them having laundry. Not that we will be using them under current conditions. And about 50 cottages for folks wanting an outdoor recreation experience without an RV or tent.

After getting settled, we walked through the campground, and got in almost two miles and still did not walk through all the loops. The jump training must run all day as we continued to hear C-130 airplanes flying overhead until bed time.

Tuesday, 27 October

Today was a golf day. We found a couple of golf courses located about an hour south of the campground in Eufaula, AL. Based on reviews, our first choice was Eufula Country Club. As is often the case, we called yesterday to make a tee time, only Darrell forgot they were closed on Mondays.

With some possible backups, we were up at regular time, Eastern Daylight Time, knowing that Eufaula was on Central Daylight Time. As we would be breaking camp about 7am CDT with an hours drive to a golf course that would not open until 8am CDT, we headed out on a hope.

When we arrived, we found a fairly small parking lot, which suggested it was not going to be a very busy golf day. And only one car in the parking lot. While Darrell got Sprint settled, Kris headed in to the Pro shop to see if we could get on. Not only could we get on, but we could start anytime we wanted.

After a few quick putts on the practice green, we headed for the first tee. Darrell proceeded to hit a tree with his tee shot while Kris placed her tee shot in the fairway. Seemed like it was just going to be one of those days for Darrell.

Darrell bounced back on the second hole to tie it up. For the rest of the front nine, we stayed within a shot of each other, and made the turn tied up at 4 over par. The back nine was more challenging with dogleg holes and water hazards. We had to dodge lots of fire ant mounds - seems like they were every 20 feet or so. Fortunately, we avoided ant bites. The greens were fairly small, making them small targets to hit. Overall, the course was okay to play - the condition of the cart paths, some drainage issues, and signage suggested the course that had seen better days. Kris struggled on a several holes on the back nine. Darrell had honors for the day - which seemed only fair as Kris took him to the cleaners just before we left on the trip.

We were the first ones off, played at our own pace, and finished in under three hours. Which provided us a cushion on the rain forecast for the afternoon.

After golf, we headed south for Dothan, AL for a Starbucks so Darrell could pay up. After Starbucks, we turned southeast and headed for Three Rivers State Park near Sneads, FL. At the entrance gate, the staff advised that the roads were pretty rough from logging trucks and Hurricane Micheal. She also said they were monitoring the storm and that they might have to evacuate the campground, warning us that we may get a knock on the door in the middle of the night. As we looked around at some of the other campers, if we have to evacuate, we will be one of the lucky ones as we can be rolling out within a few minutes. Some of the campers look like they would need half a day to pack up, likely longer if they had to do it in the dark.

Probably the roughest roads we have ever experienced in a Florida State Park. Usually, Florida State Parks are very nice, especially the ones that have been renovated to meet ADA requirements. Three Rivers SP must be low on the priority list as it is not up to the standard of other Florida State Parks we have visited. Perhaps the widespread damage to Florida state parks from Hurricane Michael makes recovery take a long time.

Three River State Park is located on Lake Seminole. The brochure said freshwater anglers travel great distances to fish Lake Seminole. Bird and botany enthusiasts delight in the abundance opportunities to study nature within the park.

There are only 30 campsites, and the sign at the entrance gate said that they were full for tonight. When we made the reservation, there were only two or three sites available. A little surprising for a small campground that is not located near anything (including the Interstate). Sprinty had reserved a nice little site with the right slope near the edge of the campground loop about a week ago.

After getting Sprinty settled, we took a walk around the campground and down by the lakeshore. Took all of about 20 minutes, even with Darrell spending some extra time down by the water's edge looking for alligators - Kris observed from a distance. Fortunately, the campground was much smaller than yesterday as it started to drizzle by the time we got back to Sprinty. Pretty much drizzled the rest of the afternoon.

Wednesday, 28 October

A peaceful night with no surprise knocks on the door to advise we needed to evacuate. Based on the weather information we had consumed, we felt it unlikely that the storm would create conditions that required evacuating. At least last night. It was a reminder that when traveling, you have to stay abreast of weather conditions and to have contingency plans just in case. As the storm was pretty certain was going to come ashore near New Orleans, we figured we were far enough east that we would not be impacted. Our plan, if ordered to evacuate, was to head east, away from the storm. No specific place in mind as finding anyplace in the middle of the night would be a challenge. Darrell and Kris just put Sprinty in charge of figuring it out.

Golf today was at Indian Springs Golf Course in Marianna, FL. We called yesterday to make a tee time - after confirming they were on Central Daylight Time, we picked 9am knowing our bodies were still on EDT. And as we planned to be back in EDT later today, we just kept our EDT based routines.

Both of us were up early, even for EDT. That made for a leisurely morning routine as it was still very dark. A check of the golf course found they opened at 7am, so we decided to depart earlier than needed for our 9am tee time. A check of GolfNow found the tee sheet wide open.

When we arrived at the course, the parking lot was nearly empty. We could see a couple of golfers on the first hole, so we knew we would not be first. As Kris was paying for the golf and getting the golf cart, Darrell got the clubs ready. While he was unloading, the owner of the course came by to welcome us and thank us for playing today. Very nice gentleman - nice that our recreation makes a difference.

We both started with nice drives, but neither could convert it a par. Same on the second hole - we remained tied. Then Darrell started connecting the dots and picked up a stroke here and there. Kris remained within a stroke on every hole, but Darrell was up at the turn. Kris came on strong on the back nine, but Darrell continued to have a good day as well. On the 14th hole, the three walking golfers in front of us waved us up. Both of us hit beautiful drives, both placed our second shots on the green. Kris finished with a par and Darrell sunk his putt for birdie. Nice way to play through. And the three onlooking golfers were impressed. At the end, Darrell had honors with a 4 over par score of 76. Admittedly, he had a couple of lucky breaks - like the tree monkey who threw his ball out into the fairway instead of into a nearby backyard.

As we finished about 11am CDT, we had a lot of day left. Our plan for tomorrow was to ride a Rail Trail south of Tallahassee. With rain forecast all day, that was not going to be possible. So we decided to make today a two-fer. After a quick stop for a couple of grocery items, we headed for the J. Lewis Hall Woodville Park and Recreation Complex located about 7 miles south of the north end of the Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail. The 21-mile Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail is the first paved rail-trail developed by the state, and it follows the route of Florida's first and longest-operating railroad that was used primarily to transport cotton from plantations to awaiting ships. https://www.traillink.com/trail/tallahassee-st-marks-historic-railroad-state-trail/

Parking near the middle of the trail gave us the choice of riding north about 7.5 miles to Tallahassee, or south 13.5 miles to St. Marks. Kris pointed out that the wind was from the south and if we rode south, we would have a tailwind coming back. Darrell liked the idea of checking out the town of St. Marks on the Wakulla River at the southern terminus of the trail . Although Kris initially was not too keen on riding 13.5 miles each way, she had decided we would ride an hour, turn around and ride back. Kris set the pace and decided to push it - and we ran out of trail before the hour was up. Darrell calmly noted that if we had to ride the full hour, we would be turning around somewhere in the middle of the Wakulla River.

After a brief stop to admire the river view, we causally rode though St. Marks. That took all of about 2 minutes. A large boatyard, a boat repair place, a bar, one or two seafood restaurants, and that was about it. On the ride back, Kris set the pace and with the tailwind, we rode even faster.

Our campground for the night is Coe Landing County Park Campground, a Leon County campground located west of Tallahassee,FL. The campground is contactless - you have to have a reservation, and you have to make your reservation at least 48 hours in advance. No winging it here. When we made the reservation, the county staff assigned us site 7. When we arrived, we found it was a waterfront site. Very nice.

Thursday, 29 October

A pleasant night last night running the quiet air conditioner mostly for the humidity. After a couple showers, we can confirm the addition of the thermostatic mixing valve to the shower is a huge improvement - easily enters the "top 10" modifications list for Sprinty. Which is no small feat as the list of modifications has over 120 items on it. Already thinking about how we might could add one to Charlie.

We woke up to a general tornado warning, but as we looked at the details, it was for west of our location. Sprinty fared much better than our sticks-n-bricks in Canton, where they had high winds (forecast at 60+) and a seven hour power outage. Probably the most impact we had was when one of the trees overhead dropped some squirrel food on Sprinty's metal roof.

The rain started as forecast before daybreak. We had mostly light drizzle all morning. We were pleased with our decision yesterday to do today's planned bike ride.

With a break in the rain, we ventured out and walked down to the boat ramp, all of about 150 meters away. While looking out in Lake Talquin, we saw a large white headed bird on a nest in a small tree in the middle of the lake. We pulled out the Canon point-n-shoot camera (80x zoom) we bought for our planned Alaska trip and zoomed in. It was a bald eagle. Way cool. Alas, at 80x zoom, we could not handhold very well enough. These are the best two photos we got.

We took advantage of the 4pm checkout time to just do quiet things in Sprinty all morning.

After lunch, we headed out, making a stop at a Starbucks in Tallahassee for Darrell to pay up. That was a bit of an adventure. As we neared the Starbucks, we could see that it was rather popular today - with cars backed up down the road to turn in for the drive through. We went past and used a What-a-Burger parking lot to drop Kris off. While Kris retrieved our treats (ordered ahead using the mobile app), Darrell went searching for someplace nearby to park Sprinty. It turned out well, just was a bit more challenging than usual.

After getting our treats, we headed south to Ochlockonee River State Park near Sopchoppy, FL. Passing through Sopchoppy, we checked out possible parking places in town for our bike ride tomorrow.

We got Sprinty settled and had several periods of light drizzle. Once the rain stopped, we ventured out to check out the day use area. Nice water access to the Dead River that flows into the Ochlockonee River at the state park, which then flows into Ochlockonee Bay that connects to the Gulf of Mexico. We took the hiking trail back to the campground.

About 5pm, the humidity dropped significantly - so much so that it felt like the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees, even though the thermometer showed little to no change. Low temperature expected to be around 50 degrees tonight - a big change from the low of 77 degrees last night. And Monday night the low temperature in north Florida is forecast to be in the low-40s.