Sauntering to Suwannee....

When the sun came up and it's warm beams reached my face, summer break was finally here. What a difference from the crazy three weeks of rain that had saturated SW Florida. Ray and I had packed most of our things onto our Travel Trailer, Saunter, but as always on our trips, there was still plenty to do. Bank runs, last minute shopping, breakfast, mail, and a goodbye to our kitty, Brisa. We decided to leave her this summer with our friend, Sheila who had agreed to house/kitty sit for us. We snapped a couple of pictures, got into our truck and pulled out for our first summer adventure of camping across the country.

Most everyone has memories of their summer breaks from school. The lazy days that stretch into one another, hot afternoons cooled off at the beach, the pool, or in my case, the pond, summer camps, ice cream on the picnic table, nights at Granny's house and the long awaited family vacations with my brothers and sister. I had quite the magical childhood that is now etched into my memory. Luckily, for me, my summers are still filled with anticipation and adventure. Teaching may not pay enough to make me rich, but it gives me a summer break to go and relive some of the childhood shenanigans. Now, I get to go with my husband, which makes it all that much more amazing.

This year, we are leaving our sailboat, NuTrix, safely tucked away in the boatyard and taking our TT, Saunter, to see the USA, well some of it anyway. Since I have never done anything akin to traveling across the country, I took some advice from friends, read articles, joined a group on FB for RV'ers and crossed my fingers that it would all work out. But then again, adventures happen when nothing works the way you have planned.
For our first night, I booked a site at Suwannee River State Park. It is 302 miles from our house in SW Florida, so it seemed an easy run.... HA! Up, up, up I-75 we drove around Tampa, Ocala, Gainsville and finally merged onto I-10. Our little Nissan truck pulled Saunter like a champ. The big semis passed us with a laugh at our 60 mph speed, but we were not in a hurry..... we like to saunter! That is a good thing, because 6 hours and 15 minutes later, we pulled into Suwannee River S.P. The ranger told us that we had scored the best spot in the campground, #20.

Well, I guess I did a good job on that... totally lucky...haha. Ray backed into our spot which was totally secluded from other sites. We put out our flag, rolled out the rug, set up the chairs, unhooked the truck and sat down with the sun. What an amazingly beautiful spot too!  Ray grilled filet mignon and I made green beans and potatoes. We sat inside because there was a welcome committee of mosquitoes that came calling for more blood than we were prepared to give. Glasses raised, we made a toast to the beginning of a wonderful adventure ahead. The day had been long so we pulled down our Murphy Bed (what a great invention!) and climbed into a cloud of covers and pillows. I grabbed my phone to try and call my mom when it slipped and fell in between the bed and the wall. We searched the cabinets but there was no way to reach the phone! FOREVERMORE!!! The crevice was too narrow for my hand and we didnt have tongs long enough to reach that would fit in the small space. Finally, I had an idea... never a good thing..... I figured that if I lay across the top of the bed and Ray raised it up, I could get my hand into the crevice and retrieve my phone. Well, I meant for him to slowly raise the bed, however, I did not make this part clear. Ray shoved the bed up and down down I went.... but I was stuck and could not get a hold with my foot or hand to get back out. I had visions of the fire department coming through the campground, lights blarring, to pull some crazy ass woman out of a Murphy Bed! Panic was starting to bubble up as Ray kept pulling to get the bed back down, but my leg was jamming the mechanism to lower the bed. I did manage to grab my phone, you know, so I could call 911, but I was stuck. I took a breath and remembered all the times that I rolled a kayak and how I needed to position myself. I am slightly bigger than I was way back then, however, I girls gotta pull it together in times like this... I pushed against the wall with my hand, twisted my foot... omg that hurt.... and pushed with my foot as Ray pulled down. Well it worked!!! I came down with the bed, we looked at one another and burst out laughing!! "Did you get your phone?", he asked. I held it up and assessed my bruises and cuts. Not too bad for  a 49 year old who is far from the shape I once was. We finally succumbed to sleep, leaving our first night with laughter and hope for more to come.

The next day, after coffee and breakfast, Ray and I took our bikes out to find the hiking trails. We got new water bottles at Walmart and were anxious to see how they worked out, so we attached them to the bikes and rode off.
We came to the Suwannee River and found very well marked trails. The river was massive and running quickly from all of the rain. Most of the tributaries were still dry, however. There was an old bridge going one way and two trails cutting off the other way. We decided to go the Lime Sink Run trail. I had no idea why it was called that, but wanted to find out. One wonderful thing about state parks, is the signs that are available along trails to tell some history of the area, a little about the flora and the animals that we may encounter. The cypress trees tower up over the rest of the canopy and fall into the black water pools that stretch for miles.

Ray tried to see how far he could reach around one tree and I got a picture just to show the magnitude of the size. It was a reverent walk with no one else around and only the sounds of birds and insects to fill the silence. We came up to a clearing and found a pond so green that it looked like a painting. Stretching across the end of the pond was an old cypress tree that hadn't the strength to stand up anymore and looked as if it was taking a nap in the shade of the younger trees. On top of the tree was a huge turtle. It was the size of a small child, just quietly enjoying the rays of the sun streaming through the canopy. We gazed around just trying to take it all in before we moved on. Up ahead was a set of stairs leading up to a bridge. Up we climbed to the next amazing site to behold. The river was dammed up with tree limbs and other debris from storms so that it was not moving. The green covered the water here also from lime deposits and small birds had left prints. Everything was so still and peaceful; I felt I could sit and stare for hours.

The little gnats had other plans though so once again, we made our way through the forest. Finally we came back to the river and our bikes. The water bottles, by the way, work wonderfully! They were a great investment of 2.99 and cut down on all the plastic that seems to be taking over our oceans.... different story though!!
We walked along the river, seeing mushrooms, big spiders and even a sturgeon that took a giant leap out of the river. Finally it was time to get back to the camper and make some dinner. We were back for about 45 minutes when we heard a rumble in the distance. A nice man from across the road came to tell us that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning and probably needed to bring in the awning. Campers are a nice bunch of people, kind of like sailors. I guess people in general are normally friendly, its the 1 percent of goobers that we like to focus on most of the time. Anyway, we got everything in just in time for the lightening and rain show. WOW did it put on for us too. Safely tucked into our camper, we watched the rain form ponds around the picnic table and trees. Then as suddenly as it came, it left. 

Steamy air hung around in it's absence, but the little squirrels still scampered out to see what we were doing, hoping for a morsel of food. I kept telling them that we were not feeding them, but they could dream, I suppose.  Day two of our trip was coming to a close. Two weary hikers, full of a wonderful dinner, happy from a day of adventure and excited for the upcoming days ahead, feel into bed and were soon fast asleep.

We awoke, enjoyed our coffee with the squirrel friend that always showed up, and had some breakfast under the trees. We hooked up the TT, stowed all the stuff into cabinets and baskets, climbed into the truck and waved a goodbye to our first park. 408 miles stretched ahead to Mississippi and our next park..... what an amazing summer already! I am anxious to see what tomorrow holds, but wow am I enjoying today, also!!!
Saunter on......