Dunnellon,FL--Blue Gator Bar

To help Rich get his courage up for our clear-water canoe trip, I recommended a visit to the beautiful Blue Gator Bar and Grill on the banks of the tea-brown Withlacoochee River.  We had sandwiches and tea and Rich was a new man. He was ready to tackle the mighty Rainbow the next day. I was greatly releived as I have been expecting him to come up with a hang nail or sore toe to get out of the canoe trip. But Rich is an upstanding guy---if he says he is going down river in a canoe, by golly, he was going to do it!!!!!






















A crazy kids play house that was displayed in a  Crystal River side walk sale.









Of course, while we were in the neighborhood, we had to have lunch at our favorite hide-away spot in Homasassa Springs---The Freezer!!!! The place has all the atmosphere of an old shrimp freezer, ---because that is what it is!!!!! It sits at the end of a little creek off the Homassassa River where the local shrimp boats used to off-load their catches.    Nothing fancy here---just shrimp,clam chowder, fries and cold beer---what more do you need??????



























Sylvia was pretty happy with her crab legs!!!! I can vouch for her----they were very good!!!










Just upstream from the Freezer is another one of our favorites--The Shed---just beer, wine, drinks and light snacks and a great view of the mighty Homassassa River.

Rainbow Springs State Park-FL

We visited Rainbow Springs State Park a few years ago as I didn't believe FL had any waterfalls. It turns out that the park built the falls over the remains of an old phosphate mine and pumps water from the massive spring up to holding ponds for distribution to the beautiful, man-made falls.

I was anxious to show Rich and Sue the neat falls and the 300 million gallon/day fresh water spring. Unfortunately, they were have a problem and several of the large falls were not operating. The falls were there, just no water flowing over them!!!!

The spring itself was still as impressive as everand there were even several folks swimming in it!!!! This is the head spring for the Rainbow River that I managed to talk Rich and Sue into canoeing in a day or two. Can you possibly imagine that I had to twist their arms to get them to agree to a down river canoe trip on this crystal clear river????? Turns out Rich is a shallow water country boy who never learned how to swim and tries to stay away from water any deeper than his bath tub!!! When he said they were not keen on the canoe trip, I threw a mini-hissy fit--just enough for Rich to know I was disappointed in his lack of adventure. A few hours later Rich agreed to the trip and we made reservation for the trip!!!!! 









































Hank, Sylvia and I  in front of the Rainbow spring.
The only large falls that were operating---Cherokee Falls.

Juliette Falls Golf Course

We left Orange Lake RV Resort a few days ago and went S to Dunnellon,FL. We are staying at the very rustic Lake Rousseau Park. Many of the folks here are avid fishermen and hunters and we wake up to duck hunters bagging the first ducks of the day just after sunrise each morning.

Rich Tindell, Steve  Fortuin, Asst Pro. and Vince Paglia, son of the Head Pro at the course. Quite a match-up for Rich and I. Both Steve and Vince put up with our poor play without protest and Vince even worked with Rich to improve his swing. Vince played four years of Div. I golf while in college and although he has joined the working world these days, his golf game has not sufferred much. I think growing up with a PGA pro for a Dad helps a bit, but Vince has a lot of natural ability that shine through. Steve was a great ball striker who got a lot of power into the ball with a slightly shorter back-swing. While both Rich and I could learn a lot from these guys, I'm glad that they didn't turn the round into a hypercritical golf lesson. They let us make our mistakes and kept their comment mostly to themselves. I'm sure the "teaching pro" in Steve wanted to get more involved but he only offerred advice when asked. Vince had flown in from N. New York and had to leave the course early to catch his flight back home. Good luck to you Vince!!!!!

We had a great day of golf on a beautiful course with two excellent golfers.

While I didn't score well, I would love to play this copurse with some grass growing on it!!!!   I'll be back!!!!
Since neither Rich nor I are much into duck hunting we decided to go hunting for birdies of a different kind. We asked around and found out that one of the top 10 courses in FL was just a few miles away---so we made a tee time and hit the course on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, the birdies on the course were just as safe from us as the ducks on the lake were.

Juliette Falls lived up to expectations and other than dormant grasson the fairways, the course was beautiful. Among the finest layouts I have played on. As I looked over the score card before we teed up, I noticed the we were going to play the course at about 6300 yds, with a slope rating of 130. Yikes----Looking over my handicap scores, I saw that I had not played a course with this high a slope in the past two years!!!!
























You can see the heavy landscaping done on the course from these shots. Beautiful small ponds and waterfalls were built into the course that added to both the degree of difficulty and  the eyeball factor. This was a par three that played at about 183 for Rich and I and 194 for Steve and Vince.



Asst Pro Steve in his high speed golf cart. He said it had a modified motor and no governor that let it open up on the straight-aways. Golf Pros don't like to waste time just getting to the ball!!!!!










Rich Tindell, showing fine form, just before we shot at this little par three wit both a pond and a waterfall!!! It played about 150 into the wind. I struck my tee shot to about 18 ft. and managed one of my rare pars on this hole.

196? Chevelle

Rich, myself and a fellow RV from the park--Rick-- played golf in near-by Wiliston, FL an dran into this beautiful old Chevelle. It had the little 283 v-8 engine and I think this is the same year Chevelle my buddy Terry had while we were back in college. His was actually maroon and a convertable---a much neater car, but this car was very well kept.

Seeing this old beauty reminded me that fellow Allen, MD  resident, Mike Ake and wife Patsie are down here in FL selling their immaculent old Chevy II at a televised auction in Kissimee, FL. I hope we can get together for a dinner while they are down here!!!!

























Rick, a retired Canadian fire fighter, comes down to FL each winter. He introduced us to this golf course and showed us around the course---thanks a million!!!! He has two beautiful Irish Setters that spend the winter with him and his wife Sandy. One of the Setters is just 2 years old and already hits the scales at a lean 105 lbs. The biggest Irish Setter I have ever seen!!!!!

Jumbolair-FL

Rich and Sue were out exploring the country around Grand Lakes Resort and saw this beautiful estate. They stopped at a near-by store and asked who lived at the big estate ---John Travolta owned it. He keeps his Boeing 707 behind the house---we could see the tail on it but it doesn;t show up well in the pictures. His place is very palatial and is situated in the beautiful equestrian area around Ocala, FL. Travolta keeps a couple of smaller planes in the hangars near the house and I'm sure he keeps them well greased and certified by the FAA. From what I have seen of him on TV, John is an avid pilot and he has a great place to persue his passions here in Ocala.


















Do you recognize Rich's finger in this shot????? He was in the passenger seat and I asked him to click off a few shots and his fingere got in the way----he was unfamiliar with my hi-tech camera.

Micanopy,FL

Pronounced---- mic-a-no-pee----this little town has a prominent place in FL history as the first settlement after the Spanish relinquished the territory to America in 1821. It was also the location for the filming of a Michael J. Fox movie back in the 1990's.


The neat little town is a great place to kick back and have a cold ice cream----so we did!!!! 























 Even little Micanopy has a classic old mansion/ B&B and here it is!!!!
















































We asked where the best pulled pork sandwich was made----Pearl's in Micanopy was the place that came up the most.  It was great---  they cook all the pork in-house and make all the trimmings that go along with it. On the corner of Rt 441 and Main St. Micanopy---try it you will like it.

Grand Lake Resort Citra, FL

From Lazy Days, we moved N and inland to Grand Lakes Resort which is located about equidistance between Ocala and Gainesville, FL. This is the land of undisurbed real estate with huge old Live Oak trees that have been growing for several hundred years , gracefully draped with the spooky Spanish moss. The Ocala area is also the Kentucky horse country of central FL. Huge horse breeding farms line the local roads and most have their own fenced-in tracks to time and work-out the thoroughbreds. All of these horses are beautiful, but only the fast ones are worth the big money.




Grand Lakes Resort is located on Orange Lake. Unfortunately, several years ago a sink hole opened up near the lake and drained just about all of the water out of what was a very large lake. A trickle here and there is about all that is left of the once proud lake.












































The boat slips are now just weed infested dry ground. The building behind these sliops used to be the boat house where they rented boats and canoes, but no more. No water---no boats!!!!