I was up at 7:00 this morning.... I know,,,,, why, right, but I was awake at 5:30 anyway, because we all know how that works when you have set an alarm to wake you up, you wake up early so you don't sleep through the alarm. And why did I do this you ask.... well it was because I wanted to get over to the campground office right after they opened up in order to see if it would be possible for me to stay here for another week. And the reason for that is because I couldn't find any available camp sites over near Jacksonville, where I wanted to go, because I didn't realize that at this time of year, at least over in that area, you need to make reservations at least 2-3 months ahead of time..... Of course, what I didn't realize about the office here, is that it didn't actually open until 9:00 a.m. anyway.... duh! I could of slept another hour at least this morning.
   Even with all of that I did manage to get an extension on my site for the next week, so I didn't have to go back to the trailer and pack everything up and leave. Instead I went back to the trailer and took a nap.
   As it turned out I was up and going by late morning anyway, and by lunch time I was in the truck and heading south to Silver Springs State Park. This park use to be privately owned, but the state of Florida purchased it several years ago and turned it into one of their premier parks. I had been there several years ago but the part I was at today wasn't even open at that time. This part is where the actual springs come up out of the ground and in the past it had been a pretty large resort area with it's own water park tacked on to one edge. They are doing a lot of grounds work in and around the area as well as rehabbing some of the buildings, but they had the glass bottom boats running trips, so that is what I decided to do.
    The trip today was about 40 mins long and it was in an actual glass bottomed boat, which meant we, about 30 of us, were seated in a single row around the center section of the boat which had 3 large 1/2" thick panes of glass installed in the middle. I was a little bit skeptical about it all, but was pleasantly surprised to note that you could actually see everything under the water, fish, rocks and such, even down to 60+ feet deep.
    A pretty good narrative about the history and the flora and fauna of the spring run. One piece of info of note is that the main spring in the area, there are about 12 right near the source, spews out nearly 900,000 gallons of water per day. Well over a million gallons per day when you add them all together. All of it is crystal clear, 99% pure and 72 degrees F all year round, when it comes out of the ground. I wandered around the grounds for another hour or so, but the actual museum wasn't open today and it was to late in the afternoon to actually rent a canoe and paddle a little bit.
    Once done there it was already early evening so I stopped on the way back to the trailer and had some fast food and read a couple chapters in my book. Tonight it was time to watch a movie here in the trailer, so I spun up my copy of Avatar and watched big blue people do battle with puny humans. Of course there is more to the movie than that, but lets face it, we all wish we had our own personal dragon like critter we could fly on. Especially in a biome such as the one there on Pandora.
   It's going to be an early night for me tonight, so I am going to get the heck out of here and go to bed. 

*brk

  A fine day all around. Went and did the last sessions of contra dancing at the 'GODS' weekend dance. I missed some of the morning session because it was way to early and my feet were still sore. But the afternoon session was a fun time. The saddest part is in knowing that I won't see some of those people again for another year. It is nice to know that I have friends, or at least people I know, all over the country these days, so it will be sad to know I won't dance with some of them for a long time.
   Not much else going on today. It was beautiful out this afternoon so I spent some time outside just hanging out. The pet chicken that runs around the RV park here came by and clucked around my feet for several minutes. She seems to like the attention she receives and will let you pet her a little bit if you move slow enough.
    Just hanging out this evening. Worked on some pictures from a couple of weeks ago and they are posted below. My girl friend Rima and I spent a day driving over to Wakula Springs one of the days she was here and we stopped by St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge when we finished up visiting there. These are just a few pictures from that day.

St Marks Lighthouse near Wakula Springs Florida

February 12, 2016

Looking west at the lighthouse from a lookout platform they have over looking the salt marsh.

This is actually the third lighthouse built in this area, the first two being destroyed by hurricanes and surging seas.

Rima

(From Lighthouses by Map website). Using grant money, the Fish and Wildlife Service had the Fresnel lens removed from atop St. Marks Lighthouse in November 2014 so the lantern room could be restored. The lens was transported to Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse, where a team of volunteers spent over 500 hours cleaning the historic artifact before it was returned home the following March and placed on display in St. Marks Wildlife Refuge’s visitors center.... That small little light on the left hand side of the lantern room is the current lighthouse light.  

I like the light in these last two photo's. I think they would make a great painting. ( Hint, hint Barb.)

*brk

   Danced the night away last night. It was day two of the 'GODS' weekend contra dance, and last night was the main dance of the day. Three hours of fun, hot and sweaty good times. Both of the bands were on fire and the callers pulled out some of their best material. I sat out a total of 3 dances during the whole night, but it was nice to be able to dance all the way through to the last waltz at 11:15 without my left leg giving out on me. Granted; my feet were really tired at the end of the night, but a couple ibuprofen fixed that problem over night. Today is the last session of the dance and I am looking forward to some good dancing later on this morning and into the afternoon.  
   Have been trying to firm up some plans for this next week as far as where to move the trailer to. The plan had been to go on over to the Jacksonville area tomorrow and hope that there might be a campsite open in one of the two state parks over there, but I had wanted to have a fall back plan at another RV park just in case that didn't work out. So I have been busy on the phone trying to find some place to stay, but that evidently seems to be a very desirable area at this time of the year and I can't seem to find anything open for more than a single night. So with that in mind it seems like it would be good to just stay here for another week if they have a site available. A suitable site being the one I'm sitting in right now.
   So about the only other thing that has been going on is that I finally got my taxes done for last year. Other than some minor problems with the WiFi going out a couple of times as I tried to access some banking and work records, it wasn't to difficult to gather everything up and get it all done. Lucky for me, I guess, there isn't much to my taxes any more. There are no deductions for a home any more, nor any other deductions of any note at all. So I just take the standard deduction and figure it all from there. It probably means that I pay a significant higher percentage of taxes than most people, but I really don't mind too much. As long as it seems to be somewhat equitable, I don't mind paying taxes. I like having good roads to drive on and nice state parks to visit and a good police and fire department to call on if needed, and even a strong military, though I do feel we spend way to much on that part. I also think it is important to have some programs in place to help those who are less fortunate than I am. It haunts my thoughts to think that I could be one bad accident away from living under a bridge for the rest of my life. But enough of my ranting, I'm off to do some dancing and lose myself in the music and movement.

*brk

   The weekend contra dance put on by the Gainsville dance community started this evening. The 'GODS', Gainsville Oldtime Dance Society, are putting on the 3 day event and they have brought in some amazing talent to dance too. For music they have both 'Notorius' and 'Nightwatch' as bands and calling is being done by Will Mentor, one of my favorites, and Angela DeCarlis, someone I have not danced to before, but who seems to be more than adequate.
    So I got there at 7:30 and started dancing as soon as the first 'mixer' dance was finished up. After that I danced through until the last waltz at 11:00 p.m., sitting out only 1 dance in the first half and only 2 dances in the 2nd. Otherwise I danced the whole time with only the mid dance break for re-hydrating and getting some grapes and m&m's for sustenance.
   I'm back in the trailer right now and feeling tired but happy. Once the ibuprofen kicks in I'll head off to bed for some much needed sleep.
   The dancing starts up again at 10:00 tomorrow morning, but I doubt I'll get there until late afternoon at the earliest. I am finding that as I grow older 3-4 hrs of hard dancing is enough for one day, other wise I just don't want to get up the next morning.

*brk

   Really cold first thing this morning. I knew the cold front that blew through yesterday was going to drop the temperature over night, but I wasn't expecting it to get down to near freezing.... okay, so yes I did, that's the reason I turned the heaters on last night. But it was still colder than I care for these days. I even had to get up, turn the thermostat up higher and wait under the covers for it to warm up a bit before getting out of bed. What a wimp I have become.
   But the rest of the day was nice, even though it was cooler than it has been this past week. Really though it is hard to complain much about a high temperature in the high 60's, when parts of the country are suffering from much colder and snowy weather.
   The idea was to get out and about later this afternoon and enjoy some of that sunshine, but I ended up getting caught up in a new book and reading instead. Soon it was nearly 6:00 in the evening and I had to run to get out of the house and get into town for dinner.
    I had a ticket to a play this evening, so the idea was to take myself out to dinner before hand. Because it was only me, the choice of where to go for dinner was easy, I of course went to my favorite Mexican place and had another burrito. Since it is such an oddity in most places, I opted for  a 'Chivo' burrito, or one with pulled goat meat. Yum!
  I then spent a pleasant evening at the Gainsville Hippodrome watching a newer play called 'Women in Jeopardy'. A funny romp with 6 actors creating memorable characters with a decent plot and some sly sexual innuendo that will keep you laughing the whole time..... I so enjoy being entertained.
   Back at the trailer now the heaters are back on so that the trailer will warm up enough to feel comfortable. More reading is on the agenda and then it's off to bed. Tomorrow another contra dance weekend starts here in Gainsville. It seems like it has been a long, long time since I have done any dancing so I am really ready to go and have some fun.

*brk

   Rain pretty much all morning and early afternoon today. Woke up to the patter of raindrops on the roof around 6:30 a.m. and it didn't really stop until 3:30 this afternoon. No problem though, I just put the kettle on and drank hot tea and read the comics and did crossword puzzles.
   It could of been worse, I have heard that the country north of here really got nailed by this cold weather front, with tornado's in the Florida panhandle and high winds and torrential rains from the Gulf of Mexico on into Virginia and Maryland.
   The wind finally calmed down here after the sun went down and it is suppose to get cold tonight as the skies clear up, with actual frost warnings in the low areas. So it may be time to get the electric heaters out again.
    Did some planning for where I am going to next starting on Monday of next week. Have checked out several different state parks between Florida and Virginia but so far the only one I have made reservations at is in Georgia, and that won't be until March 7th through the 13th. I have reservations at Crooked River SP on the coast just over the border with Florida. It will be fun to explore the area between Jacksonville FL and Savannah GA. There looks to be several lighthouse's along that section of coast that I have never seen.
   Tomorrow I'll make a few phone calls and see if I can't get something for next week here in NE Florida and then something up near Norfolk Virginia for later in March. Worse case scenario is that I'll just stay here for a few more days. Certainly not the worse thing that could happen. 
   Otherwise it has been quiet here this evening. Once done with this I'll probably just make another cup of hot tea and cuddle up with another book.

*brk

   Despite a couple of rain storms that passed through the area this afternoon, it was a very nice day overall. The sky was bright and sunny this morning and the temperature made it well into the 80's by this afternoon. As I said, there were a couple of rain showers this afternoon, but they were wide spread and didn't last for very long, and even with the rain, the temperature only dropped into the high 70's. The humidity has sure gone up however. Right now the trailer is pretty steamy and that is with all of the vents and doors open. I'm hoping it will cool down as the night advances.
   Spent the morning doing paper work and working on photos, but took off this afternoon and took a short ride over to a local state park on the east side of the lake I am currently camped near. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Historical Park is over near the town of Cross Creek. She was a pretty famous author early in the century and is probably best known as the author of 'The Yearling' and 'Cross Creek'. The park consists of her old homestead including the house where she wrote, a reconstructed wooden barn, assorted out buildings, including a chicken coop, and a couple of acres of assorted citrus trees.
   I liked the chicken coop the best of course, since it had nearly 20 assorted breeds of chicken in it. Ones I recognised included Buff Orpington's, Dominique's, and Black Austrolorp's. All seemed pretty happy strutting around the fenced coop checking out everything they came across.
   Spent about an hour there touring the grounds and taking a few pictures. There isn't all that much there to see however, so I soon headed off to a hardware store in Ocala where I could find a good selection of LED light bulbs.
   I have been converting all the lights in the trailer to LED over the past couple of months, and now have all of the DC current, (battery power), lights switched over. So there are now only a couple of standard light bulb style bulbs to change out in the 3 reading lights I have running off the AC electrical system. I have been holding out for the price to come down on 100 watt equivalent bulbs to something I can afford. Just two years ago, 100 watt bulbs were costing more than $60 apiece in the stores. Today I got one to try that was less than $9. So far it seems to be just right. Plenty of light and it is a nice warm color instead of that harsh blue-white light old fluorescent lights use to put out. I like it a lot, and the nice thing is that it puts out at least 1600 lumens, more than a standard 100w incandescent bulb, for only 15 watts. So score!
    Stopped off at Taco Bell on the way back to the trailer and had a snack for dinner while reading a couple chapters in one of my books. Looks like it will be another quiet evening with more book reading in my future tonight. Not a bad life overall.
   Today's pictures are the last ones from my contra dance vacation week on St Croix in the Caribbean. They are just miscellaneous photo's of things that caught my eye during the week, so a few flowers, a few trees and several ocean subjects. It was a great week and I am already looking forward to doing again net year.

Misc. pictures from the Contra Dance Week on St Croix 

Feb 3-10, 2016

Looking at the beach right out side the resort condos where we all stay during our week of dancing. It doesn't get much better than this.

Another scene shot from the beach in front of the resort. I think I'm probably on a lounge chair under one of the palm trees enjoying the scenery. In the distance on the left is Buck Island, a National Ocean Park with it's own underwater trail for snorkelers. On the right is the far side of the harbor at Christiansted.

Some of those palm trees I was talking about.

This is a fruiting 'Christmas Tree' palm. With the green and red it is easy to see where the name comes from.

One of many flowering shrubs, most of which I don't know the names of.

I've heard this called 'Ugli Fruit', but obviously not the kind that you would find in a local grocery store, because I have also heard that eating it will most likely make you throw up.

In the distance is the two masted schooner 'Roseway' coming back from taking a group of local school kids back to port after a morning of lessons on board. ( See photo's from last night for additional info on the Roseway).

More flowers.

This one is always pretty.

This is the swimming pool and deck at the 'Sugar Beach Resort'. This is one of three resorts, all alongside each other, that we all stay in while here. Just to the right is the common room and kitchen where the staff cooks make the most amazing after dance snacks as well as several full meals for us during the week. In the rear are the remains of one of the windmills that dotted the island during the colonial times. They were used to turn the grinding mechanism that ground sugar cane up and released the cane juice needed to make sugar and ultimately... Rum.

This shrub comes in some 20-30 different colors but the answer to the question of how many different colors does the actual flower come in is always just one.... white. The flower is that little bitty thing in the middle, while the colored part are just bracts, or a specialized kind of leaf.

The view from one of the two restaurants that we would often eat lunch at.

Another view of the Roseway.

This tree is located on the Sugar Beach grounds right next to the main dance tent. Most people seem to concur that it is probably a Calabash Tree. I find it interesting in that the fruit stems come right out of the side of some of the major tree limbs instead of off of some of the smaller ones like apples do. But then, most apples don't weigh 10-20 lbs each.

More beach shots. I never get tired of looking at this stuff.

 Doesn't that little cabana with table and chairs look inviting?

Another type of palm tree, this one right outside the club house at Sugar Beach.

A final look.

*brk

   Once more it was a nice day here in the Gainsville area. Sky's were a little bit cloudy this afternoon, but overall the temperature remained in the upper 70's for most of the afternoon. The weather forecast is for more clouds to move in however, and a few scattered rain showers by tomorrow, with increased cloudiness by Wednesday with quite a bit of rain and wind.
   But for today it was nice to get out and about for a couple of hours. I drove over to the north side of Paines Prairie State Park and walked out on the trail there. Lots of critters to look at and take pictures of. There are always gators to ogle and some of them are quite large. Most of the ones out sunning today were on the other side of the waterway unfortunately, so getting good close up photos of them was harder to do. There were a couple right along the trail though, so it was fun to take even 'more' pictures of them. By the time I leave this area I'll probably have hundreds of pictures of alligators, but so be it.
   There were also plenty of birds to look at of course. A short list would include, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Black Capped Night Herons, White Egrets, White Ibis, Moor Hens, Dabblers, American Coots, Anhinga's, Cormorants, Buzzards, Osprey and two Bald Eagles. It's fun to just stand or sit for awhile and watch as they hunt little bits of this and that in the bog plants. No one caught a fish of a snake this time around, but its fun to watch them grab a big old water snail, throw it in the air and swallow it down in one gulp.
   A late lunch at La Tienda Latina rounded out the afternoon with a wonderful chicken burrito. I'm working my way back through all the different types that they have on the menu, but they have so many that it is unlikely that I will get through them all before leaving early next month.
   Ran over and did some grocery shopping afterwards. There wasn't a whole lot that I needed, but I picked up some more eggs, yogurt and cheese. Also found a bottle of capers that I'll use in some of my pasta dishes as well as maybe in some kind of egg dish. Speaking of eggs; I found a sure fire way to cook eggs with easy to peel shells in a 'Cook's Country' magazine I picked up the other day. These are the people that test all of their recipes, sometimes hundreds of times, until they get it right.
    So quickly: Put about 1 inch of water in a kettle and heat it to a rolling boil. Place eggs in a single layer into the pot using a spoon or steamer basket. Turn the heat down to medium, put a lid on the kettle and let boil for 13 minutes. (Use a timer, the amount of time is very important). When done cooking, immediately remove the eggs and plunge them into a bowl of water with ice cubes. Let chill for 15 mins before removing and using. I've tried it twice now with good luck at peeling them.
    Going to hang out for the rest of the evening, probably reading or watching a movie. I re-watched the movie 'The Imitation Game' last night. Good acting and a story that is spell binding. It was also neat to know that I got to visit Bletchly Park, where the story takes place, last spring while in England.
   For photo's today, and it should be noted that there probably won't be pictures every day, I have some that I took a couple weeks ago on St Croix. Rima and I try to take a sunset sail on the schooner Roseway every year while we are there. The following information is from Wikipedia and seems to cover most of what I know about the boat except for the following; The Roseway holds the one day record for catching the most sailfish at 86 or 87. It should be noted that at that period of time an average sailfish weighed around 500 pounds.
   It is also known that the boat sank at the dock once the bank foreclosed on it. The Organization that ended up with it, World Ocean School, asked that it be donated to them but the bank maintained that they couldn't just give it away for nothing. The story goes that they showed up a couple of days later with a check for $10 and bought it free and clear. After that though it took another $1.4 million dollars to redo the hull, masts and other rigging before it could be sailed again

From Wikipedia:  Roseway is a wooden gaff-rigged schooner launched on 24 November 1925 in Essex, Massachusetts. Built in 1925, she is currently operated by World Ocean School, a non-profit educational organization based in Camden, Maine, and is normally operated out of Boston, Massachusetts and Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 as the only known surviving example of a fishing schooner built specifically with racing competition as an objective.
Roseway was built in 1925 for Harold Hathaway of Taunton, Massachusetts at the John F. James & Son shipyard in Essex. Hathaway's intention was to build a boat that might beat the Canadians in the international fisherman's races popular at that time; to that end, Roseway was impeccably maintained and used only occasionally as a fishing boat.
In 1941, Roseway was purchased by the Boston Pilot's Association to serve as a pilot boat for Boston Harbor. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year, mines and anti-submarine netting were installed to protect the Port of Boston, and all lighted navigational aids were extinguished. Roseway was fitted with a .50 caliber machine gun for service with the Coast Guard Reserve as patrol vessel as CGR-812. She continued her piloting duties in this challenging environment, for which service her pilots were awarded a bronze plaque from the Coast Guard at the end of the war. 
Roseway continued to serve as a pilot vessel until the early 1970s, at which point she and San Francisco's Zodiac were the only pilot schooners still in service in the United States. She was then sold and converted into a passenger vessel for the tourist trade. Roseway changed hands several times in the ensuing decades, operating primarily out of Camden, Maine and the US Virgin Islands. In 1997, she was listed as a National Historic Landmark. Roseway, at that time, retained between eighty and ninety percent of her original hull fabric and was badly in need of repairs. She remained docked in Rockland, Maine until she was repossessed by the First National Bank of Damariscotta, which in 2002 donated the vessel to the newly founded World Ocean School.
Following two years of restoration in Boothbay Harbor, Roseway again set sail in 2005. She currently serves as the platform for the World Ocean School, which offers various educational programs in St. Croix and the northeastern United States.

Evening Cruise on the Schooner Roseway on St. Croix 

 Feb 9, 2016

A shot showing two 'Tall Ships' at dock in St. Croix. On the left is the 2 masted schooner Roseway. The one we ill be sailing on. The one on the right appears to be a two masted Barquentine. I don't remember the name, but it had been built in France and was new enough to have a steel hull and modern furling gear for all the sails, even the square sails on the foremast.

Getting ready to board the boat.

Across the harbor stands the Christiansted fort that was built to protect the harbor entrance. The town of Christiansted is just behind the fort.

Looking out to sea as we get ready to leave the dock, it is fun to note all the different sailing craft in the harbor. I remember sailing boats like the dingy that is under sail, an 'El Toro', many, many hours when I was younger.

On board and looking aft as the crew begins getting the boat underway.

Looking up at the top of the foremast before the sail has been hoisted.

Both the main and fore sails have been hoisted using the crew and, in this case, most of the paying passengers to haul them aloft. Note to self: go on a night with more passengers if you want to be free enough to take pictures while the sails are being hoisted. The main sail alone weighs 4 tons, so it isn't like you can just stand around and watch a couple people doing all of the work. The jib and stay sail are much easier and take only two people on each to get them up.

The crew does a good job of coiling up the various halyards and sheets so they will run free when needed.

Nothing is the same as feeling the sails fill out and the boat start to move. Once the sails are up there is time to sit and watch the water or the boat.

My girlfriend Rima. She makes a beautiful boat look even better.

A bit of 'fancy work' under a turning block to protect the deck.

Looking forward as the boat is preparing to tack. The wind wasn't all that strong so I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to make it all the way around the first time.

But they back filled the jib and stay sail and forced the head of the ship over. Very well done by the crew.

Enjoying the setting sun.

The ocean was pretty flat this year but I am still grateful that Rima seems to have found some motion sickness meds that work for her. She has a nice tan after only a week in the sun.

The stay sail traveler. This block is part of the sheeting system for the stay sail and connects to a couple of other blocks mounted on the bottom of the stay sail boom. Also known as 'the club'.

Messenger lines for attaching to mooring lines before throwing the 'monkey fist' end to someone on the dock. I remember using these things often while in the Coast Guard. We tied them to our towing line before we threw the end to the boat in need of a tow. I use to be pretty good at tying 'monkey fists' at the end of a line. haven't had to do that much lately.

Another nice view of Rima.

 

The sun is going down, and as always it is beautiful.

The crew, other than the captain and the cook, are all young high school and collage age kids. Here they are taking in the jib and stay sail. Boy do I wish there had been something like this when I was their age.... or if there was, that I would of known about it.

One last picture as the crew drops and stows the main and fore sails. An end to a wonderful couple of hours with sweet memories to keep until next year.

*brk