Two Pretty Kayak Paddles - Tarpon Bay & Peace River

Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge & Arcadia, FL (72 degrees, blue skies)

Carefree RV Resort, Arcadia

Our next stop for five nights is the Carefree Resort in Arcadia Florida.  It’s a quiet area to relax in central Florida and the price for a site was excellent. At the Tampa RV show we found out about a 50% discount for veterans (discounted rate $19/night with full hook ups) and decided to check it out one of their resorts.

 

The campground is well kept and  the staff are very friendly. It’s another snow bird location with a full activity schedule.  Sites are close together but for the price we had no complaints. 

 

 

 

One of favorite places to visit is the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.  When we were there earlier the weather was too windy to take out our kayaks. The weather today was perfect. Unfortunately Bev has a bad cold,, however, JC has remained bug  free and came along. 

Tarpon Bay is in the refuge and has an easy launch site.  You register at the desk in the gift shop and pay $13/kayak.  (They also rent kayaks).  There is a beautiful marked water trail through the mangroves after about a fifteen minute paddle across the bay. It was a slow, leisure paddle, and very enjoyable.  The only difficult part is crossing the bay since it was a little windy. 

 

Ding Darling Map

 

Entering the marked canoe/kayak trail




Crossing the bay

Once Bev was feeling better we drove back to Sarasota for a delicious dinner with our friends Mark and Sharon.  They were our workamping neighbors when we worked at Sheridan Lake (a National Forest Campground) in South Dakota.  They have been workampers in the Black Hills for many years and now leave their 5th wheel there and rent a pretty park model in Sarasota each winter.  Sharon cooked us an  Italian dinner and it was delicious.  It was great to see them.  They will be returning to Sheridan Lake for “one last time”.  We’ll see…the Black Hills sure have a way of drawing you back. 

 

 

John, JC, Mark, Sharon, and Bev

Very close to our campground in Arcadia is the beautiful Peace River. It runs for 106 miles and lots of folks find it fun to dig in the sand for fossilized shark teeth and prehistoric mammal bones.  Bev is still feeling under the weather so we decided to take a short paddle to check it out.  We have two cars so after some research we left one car at the Brownville Park and launched five miles upstream at the Gardener Boat Ramp.  Click this link for a great paddling trail map.

 

Gardener Launch Site



JC soloing

We saw lots of fossil hunters.  Many of them had screens for sifting the sand.  One guy had attached floats to his sifter for drifting down the river.  Pretty cool idea. 



Fossil hunters

The current was slow and it was a lazy, relaxing paddle. The banks are sandy and there are lots of places to camp along shore if you want to plan a multiple day trip. Our favorite part was listening to hoot owls calling back and forth. This portion of the river is mostly wilderness and there's a lot to like about that!

 

Wow!  Two paddle  trips in less than a week.  Life sure is good!

Swimming With The Manatees & Fun Visits With Friends

(I’m a little behind to writing some posts.Let’s just say we’ve been having way too much fun and our internet service has been sketchy lately.  This took place 1/16 – 1/22)

Crystal River (74 degrees, cloudy skies)

Two sexy dudes (JC & John)

While we were staying at Rainbow Springs State Park we took a special trip to swim with the manatees in the Crystal River. It is an easy one hour drive to visit an area where  hundreds of manatees “usually” hang out in the warm water in January and February before returning to the Gulf of Mexico.  Bev found a great bargain on Groupon with Manatee Tour and Dive ($25/person) and we planned our visit months ago to be here in time to see them. Sometimes Mother Nature does not corporate with your plans and the unseasonably warm weather sent most of the manatees back out to the Gulf. Sheesh!

Swimming with the manatees

Osprey

We had a great tour despite only seeing three manatees and our tour guide was great. We did get to swim with them and Bev  was able to pet one as it swam by.  Thank goodness there are lots of rules to protect these gentle giants.  You are not to chase or swim up to them.  However, they are usually very curious and will stay nearby their adoring fans.  Manatee are huge and can weigh up to 2000 pounds.  It was so exciting to see them under water.

Crystal River

The tour company also provided these sexy wet suits and snorkel gear.  The wet suits were definitely  necessary since the water was very chilly.  Our boat ride lasted  two and a half hours and our guide really did try to find some more. We enjoyed a nice snorkel at Three Sisters, a pretty spring feed grotto.

Our next stop was a quick visit to Cummins in Ocala to have our dryer and air filter changed. We thought we also had a fuel leak, however, it turns out this was probably another RV that previously stayed at our site and left a puddle of fuel.  We were glad it wasn’t our rig.



Our sites at the Elks Lodge, Brandon, FL

We then drove to Tampa to visit the largest RV show in the country.  And, it sure was a big show. We spent two full days there and only saw a small portion. We were able to pick up  discounted coupons for some RV parks, buy a few parts, and drool over the very expensive motorcoaches.  We stayed at an Elks Lodge in Brandon.  It offers 30 or 50 amp service with water for $17/night (dump on site).  A great bargain and very close to the fairgrounds.  We enjoyed a delicious and reasonably priced low country shrimp and sausage dinner one evening at the lodge.



Carefree Resorts "mascots"

The highlight was being able to see our friends Jean and Dick again who live in the Tampa area.  We thought maybe a class B van might be a great rig for them. They travel back and forth to Indiana quite frequently and  had mentioned at desire to see some of the sites out West. 



Jean, me, John, Dick, and JC

They have never owned a motorhome before and it was fun to show them some of the amazing options that are available  They especially liked an Air Stream van and a small size Itasca class A.  It sure would be fun to meet up with them on the road sometime if they decide to purchase one. 

Jean's curious cat checking us out

Jean and Dick treated us to a wonderful Italian dinner at their home afterwards.  We also had fun watching the Super Bowl playoffs on their huge TV screen.   After living in 350 square feet for quite awhile now there living space just seemed huge. 

Their lovely Florida room

We were also delighted to meet up with our friend Carol. She used to live in Indianapolis too and has been full timing solo for about three years. One of the great advantages of the full timing lifestyle is the ability to meet up with friends as you travel down the road. 

Unfortunately Carol is “homeless” now due to an accident with her motorhome while in  Montana.  An approaching car came over into her lane. She had to suddenly swerve over and her motorhome scrapped against a  guard rail causing extensive damage.  It’s been a slow, tedious process getting her motorhome fixed.  Thankfully she was unhurt. Hopefully this spring Carol will  be back on the road.  Currently she is renting a nice apartment in St. Petersburg. 



Carol and Carol aka "Squared"

Carol suggested visiting a manatee viewing area located around an electrical power plant in Tampa.  We had heard of this place but were amazed at how delightful it was to visit.  It  has a nice gift shop and museum.  Thousands of visitors come here in January and February  to see the manatees

Electric power plant



Manatee skelaton

We saw several manatees hanging out in the warm water generated by the power plant. We would highly recommend checking visiting this place if you are in the area.  Admission and parking is free.



Manatee coming up to surface

Lovely managrove tunnell boardwalk

Carol, me, & Bev



Just arrived fresh from the field

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We topped off the day by driving out to Plant City for dessert. The most delicious strawberry short cake and ice cream is served here at Parksdale Farm. What a fun treat.  There is also a nice vegetable and fruit market.

Carol with our amaszing desserts




Carol, Pam, Randy, and John

We also were able to see some of blogging friends. Pam and Randy Warner's were one of the first blogs we started reading.  (Roadrunner Chronicles).  They were also in Tampa for the RV show.  We had a wonderful time discussing some of our adventures over dinner at the American Grill near MacDill AFB. We met them for the first time at the RV Dreamers Kerrville Texas rally (October 2009). 

Randy writes a very informative blog and many of his posts helped us greatly as we were getting ready to hit the road. It was very interesting to hear about their recent experiences volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. 



We are  having a great time in Florida. Stop back for more adventures.  Some of our next stops include Arcadia, Naples, and Big Cypress Nature Preserve.