Trimble Park July 2013

I had a particularly bad day on Monday, July 1.  A recent hard drive crash of my desk top computer had caused the loss of over two years worth of bookkeeping data.  Even though I back up every time I use Quicken, for some reason the last two years just could not be restored.

I decided to "bite the bullet" and start entering the data from bank statements again.  I had one year restored and we had company so I went downstairs to visit for a few minutes.  While I was away Windows decided to update and shut down my computer and restarted it.  I lost everything.

It was time to get away from the house and the computer.  As I was searching for a place to spend a few days camping I ran across Trimble Park, part of the Orange county Florida, park system.  I discovered it quite by accident but it proved to be a very happy accident.  It is literally right under our noses but yet out of the way.

Trimble Park is located just outside of Mount Dora, Florida but in Orange County.  I had noticed the sign many times on my way to Zellwood, FL, to buy corn.  I had never taken the time to investigate the park and therefore had been missing a shining star right in my own back yard.  It is literally about 2.5 miles (as the crow flies) away from our home.  Driving distance is 6.7 miles.  Close enough for Wayne to work and come to the campsite at night, far enough away and quiet enough to enjoy some time away from the rat race.

Trimble Park is a small, compact campground but all campsite are directly on or very near the water.  The park is sandwiched between Lake Carlton and Lake Beauclair on a peninsula.  There are showers and toilets nearby and a dock for boaters.  There is also a group camping area but it is quite a distance from the facilities with no electric.  Running water is only located near the group campfire where there is a fish cleaning sink and work bench.

I went out early and rented a space (#13) as it gave us the most space and was directly on the lake.  We erected our tent by the water and placed our screened room/kitchen close to the driveway and the gear trailer.  There were a few other campers but none adjacent to us on either side.

We spent several days at Trimble Park and with the exception of a brief encounter with a very nasty park employee we really enjoyed our stay.  It was July in Florida with all the accompaniments:  mosquitoes, gnats, heat, rain, thunderstorms and wildlife.  I am hoping to return this year during cooler weather.

The park closed for several months last year for campsite renovations so I'm anxious to see what improvements have been made.

Enjoy the pictures:

Fire ring beside the lake:

Nature path leading away from the group camp area:

Tent erected beside Lake Beauclair:

Hey!  Smells good.  What's cookin'?

A rain storm moving across the lake:

Wooded area near the playground:

Camper woman hair in stifling humidity:

Boat dock:

Rodman Campground March 2013

Rodman Campground

March 2013

I made a trip to Rodman a month or so before we made our camping trip.  The POMP group wanted to try and group camp trip so I agreed to do the scouting and booking.  Rodman is a nice facility on the Ocklawaha.  The full facility sites right on the water are very small so we opted for the primitive area.  Primitive equals no water or electric.  It was our first time without electric or running water and I was a little nervous about it. 

I selected sites 36 and 37 for our group.  Wayne and I were going up for the entire week and the others in the group were coming up for the weekend.  Unfortunately, Wendy and Tim’s son had a ballgame and they won (Yeah!) so they had to go back for the finals on Saturday.  I hated they didn’t get to spend more time relaxing and enjoying our camping but ballgames are important too.

Brittany and I went up on Wednesday.  Wayne came along and helped us set up our tent, screen room, canopy and kitchen.  We have a smaller tent Brittany used and we erected her tent too.  Wayne had brought our rain barrel in the trailer and he went to the water spigot at the entrance to the primitive area and filled it.  He placed it at the side door of the trailer and hooked a hose to it for our water needs. 

The weather was very cool and it was the first time Wayne and I had a need for our sleeping bags.  We were grateful to have them.  It went down in the low 30s at night and I slept in all my clothes, socks, sleeping bags with a comforter over it.  We were toasty in the bed but it was hard to get out of it in the icy air.  Being cold on a camping trip was a new experience for us.  We are usually hot.  We kept a campfire going the entire week.

I had ordered a lot of strawberries for making jam and Brittany and I started cleaning, culling and chopping berries.  We had a large restaurant bowl full.  Making jam is relatively easy but time consuming.  We had to use the large water bath tub for cooking the strawberries.  Since it is only used for water usually, it is not a good quality pan and the berries burned a little on the bottom of the pan.  The berries were not harmed but the pan has never recovered.  Anyway, we made many, many pints of strawberry jam.

Lee and Marcia arrived a little later than planned as did Orin, Sherri and Heather and Wendy, Tim and their children.  We were struggling with trying to get all the tents set up in the waning light.  We managed to get everyone settled and enjoy dinner together.

I had made a “possible” menu for our group and a camping checklist.  I sent the spreadsheets  to everyone weeks earlier.  We decided each family would be responsible for one evening meal.  Wendy and Tim had Friday evening meal.  Wendy made slow cooker taco soup.  She made a vegetarian version for me and the others had one with chicken.  It was delicious!  I don't know if I was just extremely hungry or it was the outdoors or what but I ate until I was stuffed.

My menu selection was to make a chicken, herb and wine dish in my cast iron Dutch oven.  I also wanted to try a new recipe for yeast rolls in the Dutch ovens.  The chicken was outstanding if I do say so my self.  The kids loved, loved the yeast rolls.  I made a double recipe and we ate every last roll.  Most of us topped off our rolls with the new strawberry jam too.

Wayne and I had our new camp sign we hung on our post.  See the picture:

We purchased it when we visited the Strawberry Festival in February in Plant City.  I also bought a new kind of knife and board:

Supposedly, if you cut cabbage with it the cabbage will still look fresh hours later and will not turn dark.  I haven't put it to the test yet but I can attest to it's sharpness.  The thing will cut anything paper thin.

On Saturday evening our "primitive" campsite turned into a movie theater   Tim and Orin hung a sheet between two trees, hooked a projector to a power inverter and showed a movie.  I think most of the neighboring campsites were watching it too. 

Since there was no running water at our camp we had to fill a 55 gallon rain barrel at the entrance to the primitive camping area.  We must have filled that barrel 4 times during that week.  All that cooking and washing dishes requires a lot of water. 

Sunday morning after breakfast we had "church" around the campfire.  Orin was prepared to lead and did an excellent job of "preaching" for us.  It was great fun and good fellowship along with worship and praise. 

Marcia made a delicious oatmeal with fruit for breakfast but Orin needed pork fat.  He fried bacon and I helped him make some eggs.  We had a feast!

Unfortunately, all the other families were required to return break camp and return home on Sunday as most were due back at work on Monday morning.  We did manage to enjoy most of the day together though.   

As I recall, we all had dinner before everyone left for home.  Wayne, Brittany and I stayed for a couple of days.  Rodman was probably the quietest campground we had visited in two years of camping.

I would definitely like to return for a longer stay.

Paynes Prairie SP May 2012

Paynes Prairie SP May 2012 16-May-12  We arrived in a drizzling rain.  We spent the last half hour at home just throwing things in the trailer and my car trying to get to Payne's Prairie before the down pour we knew was coming.  My phone began to ring immediately.  I had mentioned the previous weekend, Mother's day and Britt's 42nd birthday that next year would be our (mine and Wayne's) 20th anniversary and I would love for the whole family to go on a cruise together and Wayne and I would renew our vows.  I wanted to have the wedding I missed with my first marriage to Mike Hunter and my marriage to Wayne Hoffman.  I made the comment that I wanted to be slim and trim and fit into a really sophisticated simple wedding dress.  Unfortunately, and typically, my two sons can't agree on anything and disagree on everything.  Now there is a war between them on who is doing the booking of the cruise and which itinerary, etc.  They call me constantly to rag on the other brother. After getting the campsite somewhat organized in the rain it was time for me to go to my nutrition class at Deb Harrell's house in GNV.  She served authentic Spanish rice, black bean burritos, salad and the most magnificent, healthy dessert.  It was strawberry pie but no sugar, crust or anything not so good for you.  Yum!  I surprised to find upon my return that absolutely nothing else had been done since I left.  17-May-12 I didn’t sleep a wink all night.  It drizzled a little and I had to go to the bathroom about 100 times.  I couldn't wait for daylight so I get the drive back to Eustis over with.  We had scheduled a "lunch and learn" with Dr. Wise.  Just as I was about to leave Burney called to tell me the event had been rescheduled.  I was very relieved and immediately set about getting organized.  Wayne needed to return home to work so we left to have breakfast together.  There is absolutely nothing open before 9am in this area.  We finally stopped at an "Iron Skillet" restaurant next to the interstate.  I returned to the park to set up the baker’s rack I had purchased to use for food prep.  As I was completing the assembly of the bakers rack Wayne called from Gander's Mountain in Ocala to say he was buying a camp kitchen he had found.  I told him to purchase it, leave it at customer service and I would come pick it up.  When I put it together (the picture on the box was very promising) the tables were at knee height and the sink/prep area was at thigh height.  I was currently using my portable potting bench and since I already had the bakers rack put together I decided to leave them all assembled until Wayne returned.  I spent the remainder of the day trying to find a grocery, purchase a few things and get back to cook.  I made a salad and ate at 2:00 so I wasn't very hungry for dinner.  I finally decided to cook the Spanish rice I had learned but it was late, I ate a lot of it with some left over fried okra and went to bed.  I managed to fall asleep but awoke before 4:00 a.m. and never went back to sleep. 18-May-12 I had a splitting head ache and a bad stomach ache.  I talked to the sisters on our weekly Friday call and tried to go back to sleep.  I think I dozed for a few minutes but was awakened by text messages coming in.  I finally got up, took a shower, dressed and sat around trying to decide what to do first.  I went to the visitors’ center to check it out.  It's a nice place but there was a talk in progress.  I'm going to try to find out the times for the talks and attend one.  Payne's Prairie is a beautiful preserve with an abundance of wildlife.  We are experiencing one of the worst draughts in years and a sign informed it's a good time to hike the "Alachua" trail as unusual wildlife can be spotted.  They have wild horses, bison, sand hill cranes, etc.

Wekiwa Springs SP November 2011

November 14th…arrival day

I had planned to be dropped off to set up our camp site by noon.  Wayne needed to work so my thoughts were that he would

bring me to the park, drop me off, help set up the tent if he wanted to and leave.  I would spend the afternoon setting up and

getting organized.  Instead we came together, didn't leave home until  3:30, forgot everything we knew about erecting our tent,

the mosquitos nearly ate us alive and it was dark before we finished.

If you are going to camp in Florida during warm weather you MUST arrive early enough to set up, organize and get dinner going

before the mosquitoes come out to play.  Now it's 10:00PM and the tent is full of the varmints.  We have returned from taking

our baths, we ate earlier (I made chicken tetrazzini early this morning) and now it's time for bed.  We went to Publix and CVS earlier

looking for candles and/or batteries as we seem to have forgotten them.

Tuesday morning the alarm went off at 5:30 AM for prayer breakfast.  I forgot to turn it off.  Wayne slept through the alarm but I

was already awake since about 2:30.  I have to do something different to get some sleep.  This is the second state park we have visited

on a camping trip and the traffic noise is annoying.  Isn't the point of camping to find some peace and quiet?  Seems all the state parks

are right in the middle of civilization.  I suppose we shall have to try primitive camping to get total quiet.

We made a very large breakfast of fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon and croissants this morning.  It was yummy but an awful

lot of food.  We didn't eat again until dinner at 7:30PM.  We drove down to the swimming area and did a little "exploring" which

means checking out the concession and the swimming hole.  The springs is  very beautiful and quiet during the week.

Wayne found a walking stick someone had left at the top of the stairs going down to the springs.  I was grateful to have it as my

ankle has been a real issue this week.  I must go see someone about it.  The pain and lack of mobility has become debilitating.

We thought Susan and Alan were coming to visit to sit by the camp fire this evening.  We had intended to make dinner for them but

we never heard back from them.  We may have an issue with our phones out here.  I spoke extensively with Chris Dillard until I lost

him and Jim Stinson called to say he was trying to return Wayne's call but couldn't reach him.  I had several voice messages when I

should have heard the phone ring.  I hope we didn't just misconnect!?

We made hamburgers (very large) over the fire pit and I threw together some baked beans.  I brought some tomatoes from Ruskin

that looked awful but tasted good.  The burgers were accompanied by some onion, lettuce from the towers, the tomatoes and a fresh Florida onion.

Yum!  Dinner was really good.  I visited the local CVS to try some Melatonin tonight.  Several friends claim they are sleeping much better

since starting Melatonin.  We'll see.  I just took my first dose.  I'm feeling pretty sleepy already.  Don't know if it's psychological or if the stuff really

work.  We'll see tomorrow.

We are making a lit of all the stuff we think we have figured out.

Really, really sleepy now, good night!