Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 18

Saturday, February 28

(At Whimcycle RV Resort) Yesterday, when we first got here it was starting to rain. And the place looked so bare and seemed to have no amenities at all--I was disgruntled. How could this little circle of asphalt with angled parking spots for the cars and grassy driveways into little gravels "pads" for the RVs…be any good?

It then proceeded to rain all night.

We had a great dinner at Los Magueyes about 6 minutes away. The chips and salsa weren’t so special, but Ed’s molcajete (I think that’s Spanish for mess of meat) was great and my veggie bowl quite tasty. There was lots of good looking fish dishes too and at least six other veg dishes on the menu.

But in the morning, the day of this post, things were still dripping and skies overcast, but it was nicely warm. And not overly soggy. Florida drains well. And I found the lovely little dog park tucked away behind the laundry room. They also had a recreation area and a bike wash station, plus a 200' trail over to a lovely, paved bike trail that connects to lots of walking trails and other bike trails.  A sign at the dog park explained which trails were dog-friendly, which was very nice and exactly what I needed to know.

By the way, the Florida Trail comes by here!

We went over to Silver Springs SP and walked the boardwalk there. We never did see the monkeys, even though a man and woman said the monkeys had been there by the river just two days ago. But we did see Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, Wood Ducks, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,  White Ibis, Swallowtailed Kite, and Yellow-throated Warbler. Merlin heard Northern Parula (and I did too) but never saw one. Cool place and lots of birds!  I’d have seen a lot more if I hadn’t been looking for manatees and monkeys.

 

 There was a wedding going on when we arrived; we didn’t see it but the number of dressed up people was surprising. And at about noon the number of people in general peaked and it became hard to enjoy much of anything—too much dodging of people and dogs and strollers and children. What else would you expect, so beautiful a place on a Saturday?

If Molly and I had been by ourselves we would have wandered a whole lot of the lovely little wooded trails, both around the river and away from it. We could have spent a lot of hours there.

 

 

 

Male Wood Duck 

Female Wood Duck

Anhinga

 Note: next time in Florida, check out camping at Manatee Springs SP. Looks awesome.

Back at Whimcycle, after a quick late lunch and a little computer time, Molly and I took a long jog on the bike trail. (dogs allowed; I checked) After about 34 minutes we came to a state park with a campground and this sign—

This was also the junction of the Marjorie Davis Greenway and the Florida trail passed through there. I saw the sign for it, but didn’t walk on it.

I used the bathroom and we headed back,watching for bears all the way. We saw none, since it was about four o’clock in the afternoon, but we saw a whole lot of little gray squirrels. Bear food.

But when we got back to the cutoff that goes to the campground, I wasn’t ready to stop. We went on for 1:15 of jogging time and then started walking. In the other direction from Whimcycle (I think it was north), the trail goes on across two roads and keeps on going. I noticed that some of the people using the trail had parked alongside the road in the grassy shoulder, so I guess there is no official parking area near there. It would be interesting to see where it goes at that end.

 Correction to earlier note: it was officially called the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. But according to the map I didn’t get there, instead I got to the Santos Campground. To go further I would have had to cross a street, and I didn’t. But anyway I got to the Florida Trail which was my hope.