WELCOME TO OUR 200th POST!

We left Rainbow Springs State Park just before the 1 pm checkout time and drove an absurdly long distance of 43 miles to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. They were kind enough to let us check in before the usual 3 pm check in time.

We were here last year throughout the last week of January and the first week of February. During that stay we looked at a couple of other sites we would prefer to be in and Cindy was able to get one of those for us for this stay. I also couldn’t help but notice that the park had cut down the almost dead tree I dented my bumper on that was across from the site we had last year.

Our Site

This year our site was at the curve leading out of the loop , so it was very easy to back into. We had no neighbors on one side and a quiet van lady on the other. No one was in the site across the road from us until the last 3 days and unfortunately they had 2 large, noisy standard poodles that barked at every whisper of the wind.

Like last year, this site is mostly limestone so no way to put up Cindy’s screen room. We had lots of trees around our site, but you’re not allowed to attach anything to them so I couldn’t use them to tie ropes to for stability. Cindy had to settle for sitting under the awning for shade or shelter from rain.

Saturday we took a long 2 1/2 mile hike along the Lake Trail. Sunday we took another 2 1/2 mile hike. Doing that two days in a row was not something my right knee handled very well. We spent the rest of the day reading, writing and napping.

Cousin Visit

Monday was a special day. Cindy’s cousin Darla and her husband Ron came from Leesburg to visit us and we had a good time talking and laughing from Noon to 4:30 pm. It had been several years since Cindy saw them and even more since I had. They brought us a wonderful and appropriate book, “Great American Road Trips – Scenic Drives” as a gift. I grilled burgers and Cindy cooked up curly fries in the air fryer. We topped it off with Cindy’s homemade key lime pie.

We had such a good time that we forgot to take a photo of us together!

Chacala Trail

Tuesday was a day of errands in Gainesville in the morning. We then did a 3 mile hike on the Chacala Trail near our campground in the afternoon. We hiked this last year when we were here and enjoyed it. This year there was a pink tape stretched across the entrance for vehicle traffic, but not across the pedestrian entrance. So, we thought we were good to go. Then, we got about 1 mile into the trail and saw firefighters conducting a controlled burn about a half mile away, so we turned around and retraced our steps to a cutoff that looped around back to the entrance and went down that.

But, there was another pink tape across the trail about a half mile from the entrance. We just crossed the tape and continued to the entrance, thinking any moment we’d be confronted by angry firefighters. Thankfully, we were not.

That night I watched the first two episodes of “Daredevil: Born Again” on Disney+ while Cindy watched one of her shows. I’m enjoying the new series so far, though I wasn’t thrilled with (NO SPOILERS) a certain character’s death within the first 10 minutes of the first episode.

Wednesday it rained most of the day so we were stuck inside Nomad. Cindy baked honey wheat bread and we made club sandwiches using it while it was still warm. SOOOOOO Good!

Bolen Bluff Trail

Friday morning we hiked the Bolen Bluff Trail. This trail is outside the park, about 3 miles north of it on US 441. It’s almost 5 miles of beautiful walking trail through shady hammocks of trees and sun-soaked prairie. It is near the historic route of the conquistador Hernando de Soto and his expedition through the Florida Native American territories in his quest for gold and glory.

There are no pets allowed on this trail, so Bella could not go with us. That is because there are typically wild horses and bison roaming around, as well as alligators and snakes. We did get to see some wild horses, and Cindy was thrilled with that. Sadly, we saw no bison. Gladly, we saw no alligators or snakes.

At the end of the trail in the prairie there is an “observation tower” and I expected it would be a minimum of two or three stories high. It was barely one story high, lol. It did allow an unobstructed 360 degree view of the prairie of about a mile to a mile and half in distance. You could also barely see traffic on US 441 to the west and some of the University of Florida campus to the north.

We were tired afterward so instead of going home to cook we stopped and had pizza at Blue Highway Pizza, a place we had enjoyed last year during our visit. The pizza was still very good.

That night we watched episode 5 of “Reacher” season three and the last two episodes of “Modern Family” season six.

Dance Champions

Saturday it rained most of the day again, so I worked on blogs while Cindy did some tatting.

But the big news was that our middle granddaughter, Abby, and her high school dance team competed at the state level and won several awards.

In fact:

• 13th Senior 17-18 Solo
• 1st in Jazz
• 1st in Contemporary
• 1st in Hip Hop
• 1st in Large Ensemble (Open-Vogue)
• Outstanding Choreography Award – Overall
• Judge’s Award – Jazz
• 1st in Small Select Division
• 4th in the State of Florida

We were SO proud of Abby and her team. Especially because Abby competed with a painfully sprained ankle that was wrapped so she could compete. But she toughed it out like the strong person she is. We got to watch her in several videos her mom sent us during the competitions throughout the day and night.

Sunday we lost an hour, damn it! There was a “dry” period in the morning that we used to take Bella for a walk before it started up again at 11 am. Another day of reading, tatting and blog writing.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Monday it poured down rain from 6 am until 11 am. I got up at 5:30 am to take Bella out for her morning potty break before it started raining. But then, of course, I went back to bed, lol!

Later in the morning I drove into Gainesville to pick up a prescription, get an oil change and full tank of gas for Voyager and do laundry.

Tuesday we did a 2 1/2 mile hike in the morning and spent the rest of the day getting packed and ready to leave for our next stop on Wednesday morning.

Thanks for following The Wandering Wetheringtons