Wednesday, November 23rd we packed up Voyager and Nomad to drive about an hour away from Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont to Wekiwa Springs State Park, just north of Orlando in the Apopka area. We’d be spending the next two weeks there so that we were a little closer to the kids and grandkids for Thanksgiving and Cindy’s trips to Universal and EPCOT with Amber and Abby.
We got everything set up, including the screen room and then spent the rest of the day walking around the camping loop checking out various trail locations.
Wekiwa Springs, originally named Clay Springs after the property owner) sees 42 million gallons of crystal clear water flow from it each day into Wekiwa Springs Run and the upper Wekiva River. Seminole Indians are the most recent Native Americans to have lived there and in their language Wekiwa means ‘spring of water’ and Wekiva means ‘flowing water’. More than 70 years before the opening of Walt Disney World, Wekiwa Springs was the first tourist attraction in Central Florida.
There are many recreational activities to enjoy at Wekiwa Springs. The springs themselves provide limpid water at a constant 72 degrees for swimming, diving or just relaxing on an inner tube floating along the surface. There are over 25 miles of hiking and biking trails (one of our favorites) as well as wildlife viewing, bird watching, equestrian camping, fishing, picnicking, and, of course, tent and RV camping.
We had a site that was very easy to back into, fairly level, had extra space for our screen room and full hook-ups (water, electric, and sewer). Several trails were just a short hike away from our campground and we got to see deer, turtles, rabbits, squirrels and a multitude of birds. The dumpster was just close enough to be an easy walk to get to but not close enough to be assaulted by the odor of its contents. There is also a bathhouse with toilets and showers, but we didn’t check either of those out on this trip. Just a few miles away from the park entrance were a variety of grocery stores, pharmacies and eating establishments.
Our stay was so enjoyable that we plan to return to Wekiwa Springs State Park next year for our holiday visit to Orlando.
Thursday we drove into Orlando to meet AnnMarie, Mikey, Charlotte. Amber and Abby for Thanksgiving lunch at the Perkins’ Restaurant on University Drive in Winter Park. If it were up to me, we’d have all our family/holiday meals at a restaurant instead of at home. I much prefer going to a restaurant, ordering food, eating it and leaving all the clean up for the staff as opposed to the huge production that is entailed with cooking the food and cleaning up at home. And I’ve never been one who believes that the “women-folk” should do all the cooking and cleaning up…but I also don’t want to do it myself either. Though sometimes, I have no choice (more on that in a soon-to-come post). So taking everyone out is my preferred MO.
So we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving lunch, got to visit for a 90 minutes or so, and then everyone went home to sleep it off or see others.
During our two weeks at Wekiwa Springs State Park we stayed quite busy. Cindy and I hiked trails; Bella and I hiked trails while Cindy was spending a weekend with Amber and Abby; Cindy had a CT scan done for her calcium levels; I had a wonderful dinner with AnnMarie at Chuy’s; Cindy and I did some work in our storage room where most of our belongings stay while we travel; we all celebrated Charlotte’s 17th birthday at Nomad and Cindy, Amber and Abby visited Universal Studios.
Next up: we spend two weeks at a beach on the East Coast of Florida and Cindy ends up in the ER.
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