QC11-04 Alexander Springs RA

January 13, 2011 (Thu) Juniper Springs RA to Alexander Springs RA (34/1278 miles) 30/50° - Turkeys have been seen wandering through the Juniper Springs campground now and then but only in groups of 5 or 6. Today we saw a rafter of 18, one being a male proudly strutting his colors. They were interesting to watch as Mark approached them to take a picture. The females would skitter off but the male would continue to strut - a little faster, maybe, but strut none-the-less.

We got off at 11:30 (clear sunny 42°), dumped and headed west on US 40. Oops, we should be going East! Getting turned around is not an easy task with a car in tow - especially on a road through a national forest. You can't back up. It meant unhooking on a busy highway with no shoulders or continuing on out of the forest until we found a business that had two entrances/exits in its parking lot, which we did. It's 20 some miles between campgrounds so we got here to Alexander Springs RA at about 12:20 - 40 minutes before our reserved site would be empty. So we ate our lunch in the day-use parking lot and waited for them to leave. This campground is all but empty too. One rig in loop A, one in loop B (us), one in loop C and 2 in loop D (our friends Bill and Margaret from Michigan and Dora from up state New York).

January 14, 2011 (Fri) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (2) 32/57° - When we came in yesterday, our site was one of the 5 being occupied - thus our having to wait. This morning, as we sat waiting for warmth to penetrate the forest, at least 3 separate cars came by, slowed down to look our campsite over and then move on. We don't think that we or our rig is that interesting or unusual so the interest must be in the site itself. Why this particular one when there are nearly 70 empty ones in the campground? It reminds us of the time when we were two of maybe 6 people in a movie theater and a couple came in, squeezed by us in our row and sat a couple of seats away. People are strange sometimes.

The campground is beginning to fill - in other areas. We have one new neighbor across the way, a single guy, but we can see no one else from where we are. It will be interesting to see how many more will be around in the morning.

January 15, 2011 (Sat) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (3) 41/64° - Early last evening, shortly after dark, our neighbor across the road was joined by another car. The group soon had a roaring fire going. At 6:00 this morning we looked out and saw that the fire was still going, or going again, and there was a lot of activity around the site. When it got light we could see that the group consisted of two adult men and two (maybe 3) mid teen boys - father and sons? They packed up and were gone by the time we finished our breakfast.

Bill and Margaret invited us to their campfire tonight. They spend their winters here every year and have worked out a way to keep their wood pile well supplied. They go around the campground (usually Monday mornings) and collect the wood left behind by weekend campers. Sometimes the campground hosts even help them. They have collected quit a pile in only a few weeks. In addition to Bill and Margaret and us, our circle consisted of Dora, Hardy and Caroline from Fort Wayne, IN and two of the volunteer campground host couples (Bob & Betty and Rick & Lynn). It was a lot of fun listening to stories of campground hi-jinks.

January 16, 2011 (Sun) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (4) 47/63° - We had thought that our propane would last until we passed by the Ace Hardware in Umatilla on Thursday. It should have but all the cold weather has caused us to use the furnace more than we'd expected to. Last night the indicator light dropped to "empty". There is more propane in the tank, as there is when a car's gas gauge shows empty, but we don't know how much or how long it will last. So this morning we took off for Umatilla for a refill. We also went on and got gas ($3.06) while we out since we didn't have Lamont (our toad) with us to make getting to the pump more difficult.

It's been a relatively warm day - not shorts and T-shirts weather by any means but comfortable being outside. We went over to Bill & Margret's campfire again tonight. Joy learned, to her great delight, that two of the women in the group are quilters also. One of them brought a quilt that she is working on to show off. Very nice.

January 17, 2011 (Mon) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (5) 53/69° - The rain started during the night. At wasn't a hard rain but enough to be of concern to tent campers if they hadn't planned for it. It kept up fairly steadily until about noon. By then about everyone in the campground had given up and gone home. Our walk around through the park this afternoon revealed a total of maybe five other units left. We have the campground to ourselves again.

January 18, 2011 (Tue) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (6) 59/70° - We took off for Umatilla this morning to do a laundry and get a hair cut for each of us. (Actually we went on and got them all cut :-)) Then we went on south to a Publix food market in Eustace to restock the larder. We are now set for another week or so.

It was supposed to get up the 74° today. Maybe it did in places but here in the forest it only got up 68. And we got a little rain. It wasn't enough to cancel the campfire in the evening though. Fred & Jean from NJ, joined us tonight. It's interesting sharing a campfire with campground hosts. They have such interesting stories about the aggravating and sometimes disgusting things people do. For instance there has been a fellow (man? boy?) taking some kind of perverse delight in filling the toilet in the men's rest room with toilet paper - great wads of it. Mark saw the evidence one morning. Another story was about investigating a small tent that remained on a campsite several days beyond when the site was to be vacated. They found that someone had been sick in it and apparently chose to leave it rather than pack it up to take with them.

January 19, 2011 (Wed) Alexander Springs RA, Ocala NF (7) 59/68° - There was a bit of rain during the night and the day started off gloomy. But the sun came out after a while and it turned into a pleasant day to sit out and read. There was another campfire this evening.

Off to Clearwater Lake campground tomorrow.

Q072880 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #30 dry $9.50 A (x7)