Lake Griffin State Park, FL

Located within about fifty crow miles from our house, this park is home to one of the state's largest live oak trees. A short trail near the park entrance takes visitors to the mammoth oak tree.

A canal connects the park to Lake Griffin, the eighth largest lake in Florida, where visitors can enjoy boating and canoeing, as well as fishing. Anglers will find plenty of largemouth bass, bluegill, speckled perch, and catfish and it is fishing that has brought us here.

The park sponsors a youth fishing derby each year. Enrollment is free and each child gets a free fishing pole and tackle box full of neat stuff. There was instruction on casting and a chance to practice catching land fish before dropping their hot dog baited hook into the canal. The Friends of Lake Griffin SP provided a hotdog lunch with soda, chips, and cookies that was complimentary for the kids and only a buck for geezers.

Barbara and I arrived mid-afternoon Friday to try to get set up before the afternoon storms set in. While I got things ready in camp she drove back to Cleremont to pick up her grandniece Jocelyn. 

By the time they got back the weather had turned wet so we hunkered down inside. After dinner Barbara helped Jocelyn get her homework out of the way, and eventually turned in early to be rested for the early morning fishing.

Saturday turned out to be cloudy with some occasional light rain, but better than was forecast. The week had been very stormy and a lot of people cancelled from the derby, but there was still a decent crowd. Jocelyn did catch a small bluegill at the outset, but things turned quiet quickly. Entertainment was then limited to trying to get her hook out of the tree on the opposite bank.

After lunch we did some hiking, and thankfully there were not too many other dogs in the park so Nia was able to go along. 

Barbara found her second geocache. She finds this almost as much fun as shelling on the beach! 

The ladies also rented a canoe and paddled out to the Dead River, but did not make it all the way to Lake Griffin itself. They were happy to see a lot of great birds as well as an alligator that had its eye on Jocelyn.

Sunday was more fishing, hiking, and fishing again. We grilled hotdogs for lunch and had more of the home made blueberry pie Barbara baked last night using fresh berries she picked Friday morning. After lunch there was time to do, well, nothing.

The weather today is magnificent, and the temperature is just right. No need for air conditioning. Hey, we are camping, but there is no need to be miserable. Sure we have air conditioning!

Richloam Wilderness Management Area, FL

Ten jeeps showed up for our May Wednesday trail ride. Our riding area today was the Richloam Wilderness Management Area near Webster, FL.

A good bit of the ride was through dry terrain. At one point we were slowed by a tree that had recently fallen across the road. After considering cutting it and moving part of it aside we elected to drive over it to the side where it was on more level ground.

Richloam is noted to be a wet ride area through the rainy summer months, and since it had been raining a good bit this week we found plenty of mud and water crossings. 

Barbara and I prefer drier rides, but getting some experience in dealing with mud was valuable. Still, getting the stuff off quickly is important before it sets up like concrete under the jeep’s structure.

We managed to get through without getting stuck.

Others were not so lucky and had to be winched/pulled out of the muck.

 After the fun comes the cleanup. Dust is easier to remove!

 

Lake Wales, FL

Ah, wedded bliss! At least that is how I feel; Barbara’s mileage may vary. This is our 8^th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by driving to Lake Wales, FL to have lunch at Chalet Suzanne and walk the Bok Tower Gardens.

Chalet Suzanne Inn has been around since the 1920’s and is currently operated by third generation owners. Looking at the photos on the wall and in the scrapbooks as you enter it has been a must stop for decades for politicians and celebrities. There is a grass strip on the property and is a popular fly-in destination. During the Gemini and Apollo space programs the astronauts would fly over from the cape to eat. The restaurant even canned soup for the moon missions. It is now available at the restaurant as “Moon Soup”.

The interior of the restaurant certainly shows its heritage as it expanded in starts over the years. The bar is a quaint dark enclave, and the “round room” were we dined with a view of the lake had a dark paneled ceiling so low that I could not stand up straight.

After lunch we drove over to Bok Tower and enjoyed walking through the gardens while listening to the three o’clock carillon concert. If you are visiting central Florida this might be worth a stop. Built in the 1920’s by a Bethlehem Steel industry executive, the gardens and carillon offer a stark contrast to the central Florida citrus country. They occupy the highest point of land on the Florida peninsula and the foliage has matured to provide considerable shade and protection for the sun’s heat.

Barbara has caught on to the geocaching trend and found her first cache while we were walking the grounds.

Withlacoochee State Forest, FL

We have been on a few weekday trail rides with the Orlando Jeep Club, but today was our first weekend run. These weekend events are usually bigger and, like this week, frequently include camp outs. We elected to just show up Saturday morning for the official ride since it was a rainy weekend. We split up in to two groups of ten to twelve jeeps each to cover separate sections of the forest.The part of the forest we were riding in is the Citrus Wilderness Management Area.

We had ruts.

We had mud.

And more ruts.

And, in between, a little bit of smooth sailing.

 

Barbara Takes On Winter Garden SWAT

Barbara and I enjoy our YMCA membership. When I saw they had a self-defense class offered I signed us up not knowing it was evidently a women’s class. I was the only guy there. We had fun and Barbara learned a few things that will keep me from pissing her off anytime soon.

Barbara is shown here taking on the mugger (a Winter Garden PD SWAT member & instructor). While it does not show, he was taking a pummeling that would have caused a mugger to think about finding someone else.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but they were taken by someone else on their phone and sent by SMS.

Hardrock Off-Road Park, Ocala, FL

Barbara and I spent Wednesday at the Hardrock Off-Road Park in Ocala, FL. I had just finished installing a 2.5” suspension lift and wanted to try it out. Since our Orlando Jeep Club just happened to have a trip planned to the park we were all in. This facility is not large at somewhere around 39 acres, but it has varied terrain. With Florida’s highest point at just over 400’ you can’t expect too much, but there is quite a bit packed into this small space.

We had about ten jeeps in the group. Most were newer Wrangler JK’s, but there were a Liberty and Commander in the mix. We represented the older TJ versions pretty well, and right in there, doing everything the newer jeeps were, was a stock 1958 Willy’s. Pretty cool!

The hills were not too long, but very steep. Having a Rubicon model with locking differentials allowed us to easily handle the steep hills, and the Rubicon’s 4:1 geared transfer case allowed us to come down the very steep descents fully under control. It was a great confidence builder for our upcoming trip out west. 

All shots, including video, were from the iPhone5. We were surprised at how well the phone managed to dampen the shakes in video mode. Sorry, but one video is all I could stand trying to upload. Took way too long. I need to learn to post to YouTube and post links instead.
 

Nails on a blackboard!

Nails on a blackboard pretty much describes what I was listening to most of the day yesterday. I took “Mercedes” out for her first trail ride since she joined the family. While we found an occasional clay road improved by loggers, most of the trails we were on were soft sand and not quite as wide as the jeep. The branches and palmetto fronds were constantly scraping the sides of the jeep, and there was the occasional loud thump as the CB antenna was pulled back by a branch and released against the jeep top.

I was riding with the Orlando Jeep Club in the Ocala National Forest. This part of the forest runs along the Saint Johns River and is quite dense.

The highlight of the trip was a short, but steep, sand hill. The sand was very soft and the jeeps were sunk up to their axels as they tried to negotiate the climb. Mercedes is a Rubicon model and has the ability to “lock”, or drive, all four tires directly without the spin normally allowed a tire that loses traction. This feature makes it impossible to drive on pavement, but on loose uneven terrain it is sometimes the only way you can get enough traction to move. I put the jeep in four-wheel-low gearing, engaged the lockers and charged up the hill. There was a lot of slipping and sliding, and the back seat now resembles a cat's litter box, but Mercedes made it up just fine. Not everyone did.

Believe me it looked worse in person.

Two jeeps faltered and needed help. Due to the soft sand it was hard to get enough traction on the pulling jeep. In one case two jeeps at the top were connected end to end by a tow strap, then to stuck jeep by a second strap. They worked their way up like a train. In the other case all but that last jeep were parked at the top of the hill. There was not enough room at the top to connect two pulling jeeps with the 20’ strap. The jeep that was connected to the stuck vehicle was still in soft sand and could not get a grip. We hooked his winch cable to a parked jeep and used the winch to pull the stuck jeep, and the jeep with the winch, forward in 10' increments until the stuck jeep was able to move under its own power. Pretty cool.

Now to clean Mercedes up, Saturday is the annual club car show.

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