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Winter Trip - January-April 2017
Gainesville, FL
We arrived in Florida several days before the departure of the cruise we would be taking out of Tampa. We had stopped in Gainesville on a couple of other trips and decided to spend the time there visiting parks in that area rather than go to a large tourist area. We visited several parks & small tourist areas. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera to some of the places we visited so there are no pictures of these places.
Trying to save money and have a place where we could prepare our own meals instead of eating out all the time, we went onto airbnb.com and found a reasonably priced place. Having not done something like this before we were not sure how it worked, we thought we were renting a condo. When we got to the address we could not find anyone with whom to check in. We went to a McDonald's that has free wi-fi and sent a message to the person from whom we were renting. He called us immediately and said there was a key under the doormat. When we got into the condo it was obvious someone else was living there. We again contacted the manager, he told us that it was his condo and which room was ours. He was staying with his girlfriend while we were staying in the condo, so we did have it to ourselves. So we had what we were looking for at a reasonable price and convenient to the places we wanted to visit. (Pictures)
Gainesville Itinerary
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens
Manatee State Park
Silver Springs State Park
Devil's Millhopper State Park
The Florida Quilt Museum
Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo
Paynes Prairie Preserve
Historic Micanopy
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens
The Kanapaha Botanical Gardens is less than a 10 minute drive from the condo. It was the wrong time of year to see much in the way of flowers, but we had a good time walking around the grounds and Dale took pictures of what flowers there were. The map shows some waterfalls, being in Florida we figured they must be man-made waterfalls. They are somewhat natural, they flow over natural rocks, but the source of the streams are fed with reclaimed water which keeps them from going dry in the dry season. The waterfalls were very small, the total drop of the highest falls is about 6' with several layers of smaller drop-offs comprising the total drop. The area is separated into more than 20 different types of gardens. There is a large sink hole with a walkway down to the bottom. We plan to visit the gardens again the next time we are in Florida in the summer. (Pictures)
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Manatee State Park
One of the places where we forgot to bring a camera. We were driving on US-19 in Chiefland, FL when we saw a sign for Manatee State Park. We had a few hours before the park closed, so we decided to see what it was. We did not see any manatees, but we did see a lot of birds, especially black vultures. At the park there is a really nice boardwalk along the river to the channel that goes into the Gulf of Mexico. It was at the end of the boardwalk that we saw the vultures, there were 4 or 5 trees full of them on one side of the landing and another 2 or 3 trees full of them on the other side of the landing. While walking the trails in the park we both had a first, it was the first time either of us has seen an armadillo in the wild, we have seen them in zoos but not in the wild.
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Silver Springs State Park
We also neglected to bring a camera to Silver Springs State Park. Admittance to this park is only $2.00. We walked the boardwalk along the spring. We watched a river otter playing in the water and saw several turtles, fish, and birds. We then walked the nature trail. There are glass bottom boat tours available at the park. There are two options for the tours, 30 minutes $11 ($10 for seniors) and extended tour of 90 minutes $25 ($20 for seniors). The shorter tours are available every 20-30 minutes, but the extended tour is only available a couple of times a day and only certain days so check the website. We opted for the extended tour and we were glad we did. After a surprisingly good and inexpensive lunch we went on the tour. At the beginning of the tour we saw a few fish and some birds. After we had gone past the turn around point for the shorter tour we saw several alligators, uncountable turtles, and one or two manatees. We saw one manatee on the way out and then saw it again or another on the way back. It appeared that the one we saw on the way back was considerably smaller, but it might have been the same one as we were viewing it from a little further away. The tour guide was really good, he spoke in a slow clear voice and was entertaining and informative. Dale had noticed that they had a place that serves ice cream, so after the tour, of course we had to have some ice cream.
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Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park
Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park contains a trail that goes around a massive sinkhole. There is also a nice picnic area and a visitor center with displays explaining the theorized development of the sinkhole. The sinkhole is 120 feet deep with a 270 step stairway to the bottom. At the bottom of the sinkhole is a miniature rain forest. It is considered a significant geological formation and is a National Natural Landmark that has been visited by many people since the early 1880s. It was a nice place to visit but the best part of the day was that our son Ern's family met us there and spent the day with us, they drove the considerable distance down to Gainesville to join us which made us very happy. This is another place that was a 10 minute ride for us, but it took hours for Ern and his family. (Pictures)
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The Florida Quilt Museum
We have been thinking that since every winter we make a trip to Florida it might be a good idea to buy an inexpensive place in Florida to stay at in the winter. Neither of us want to be in the high tourists' and snowbirds' areas of Orlando, Tampa or southern Florida, so we decided to look at what might be available in the area between Perry, Chiefland, Gainesville, and Ocala. One day when visiting Ernie's cousin Bob and his wife Alice, we mentioned where we would be looking and happen to say one town was Trenton. Alice told us that she used to go to The Quilt Shop in Trenton and that it was really interesting. After looking at a couple of houses we went to The Quilt Shop where we had a great lunch and Dale looked at all the material they had. The building next to the shop's parking lot contains The Florida Quilt Museum. They have a facebook account and a website but when we checked the website had been created and established, but it had not yet been populated with content.
Ernie figured that this was a nice place for Dale to visit and he would bear it. When we first walked in Ernie saw a quilt that was made to look like a stained glass window in a church and was really impressed. They have hundreds of quilts and needle stitch items. Dale found the place to be wonderful and Ernie saw several quilts by which he was quite impressed. Though neither of the houses we visited were what we are looking for, this was a very good day. (Pictures)
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Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo
Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is a small zoo, but it has a good variety of animals. We again neglected to bring a camera, but that was OK since there were not many animals of which we do not already have lots of pictures. Additionally, it freed us up to just enjoy the animals. There are quite a few kinds of animals, but only 1 to 3 of most kinds. We were able to get reasonably close to the animals and really enjoyed watching them. It is not very expensive ($5 per person) and we spent a relaxing enjoyable 4-5 hours there.
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Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park
We visited Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park 2 consecutive days. The first day we spent several hours at the main entrance area, the Bolen Bluff Trail, and the Ecopassage Observation Boardwalk. The second day we spent a few hours at La Chua Trail.
Day One: At the main entrance area we visited the visitor center where we watched a video about the area. We then went to the Wacahoota Trail Observation Tower. From the tower we could look over a large section of the prairie, but only saw a couple of wild horses a long way off. We then followed the Cones Dike Trail for about 1.5 miles of its' 4.0 mile distance. We saw a few wild horses in the distance, but could not get a good picture of them. We saw the horses when we first started the trail then after walking 1.5 miles of the trail without opportunity of seeing any other wildlife and not thinking things would improve we turned around and went back. We did see some rangers doing prescribed burning of an area near the beginning of the trail and talked to one of the rangers about the burning and the preserve in general. We returned to the Wacahoota Trail Observation Tower and saw a few wild horses.
The Bolen Bluff Trail is a loop with a spur going to an observation tower. The round trip is about 2.5 miles. Other than a few birds we did not see any wildlife on this trail.
The Ecopassage Observation Boardwalk is just about 0.1 miles. There is an observation platform at the end of the boardwalk. We finally saw a little wildlife, there was a gator directly below us when looking over the side of the observation platform.
Though we did not see much wildlife, we had an enjoyable day walking the trails in really nice weather. Additionally, we met some very nice people. There was a lady with her teenage granddaughter at the Wacahoota Trail Observation Tower with whom Dale had a pleasant conversation. When we were at the Ecopassage Observation Boardwalk observation platform we had a really pleasant conversation with a nice young man, then with a couple each with a small dog. The only ones we learned the names of was the couple, Sharon & Tim. Tim's mother had lived in the town where we currently live, he now lives in Connecticut where he is the director of the Milford Marine Institute: Gulf Pond Museum, when next in New England we plan to visit this museum. (Day One Pictures)
Day Two: La Chua Trail consists of a cement walkway, a boardwalk, a wide trail that narrows to a much narrower trail ending at an observation platform. Once on the boardwalk we were walking in a raised area through wetland prairie. We did not see any wildlife on the trail itself, but there was a lot of bison & wild horse scat on the trail and beaten down vegetation where alligators had come up from and/or entered the water below. We saw hundreds of alligators, several wild horses, a small heard of bison, uncountable cranes, some turtles, several egrets, some ducks, and some cormorants. This walk more than made up in wildlife siting we did not have on day one. (Day Two Pictures)
We returned to Paynes Prairie in February 2018. There had been a hurricane that flooded the area 3 or 4 months earlier. We were told that the water had receded about 4 feet since the hurricane. It was still so flooded that the water was over some of the La Chua Trail and the gate at the end of the boardwalk was closed because there were alligators on the trail just beyond the boardwalk. We took a couple of pictures from similar locations as on the 2017 visit and combined the pictures from the two years.
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Historic Micanopy
Before we made arrangements for the place we stayed in Gainesville, we had tried to get a place in Micanopy, but it did not work out. The first day we visited Paynes Prairie Preserve we talked with a ranger at the visitor center who told us we should visit "Historic Micanopy".
The first thing we learned is Micanopy is NOT pronounced my canopy. The proper pronunciation is mic-uh-no-pee. Historic Micanopy is a national historic landmark. Our first stop was at the Micanopy Historical Society Museum and Archives which is housed in the Thrasher Warehouse. After spending some time in the museum we walked past many of the historic buildings. Most of the buildings are now antique shops/secondhand stores and cafes. An old mansion on the main street of the district is now a bed & breakfast. Other than the museum, the buildings we went into were "The Garage" an antique store and "Micanopy Cafe: Coffee N Cream" where we had some ice cream.
At least three movies have been filmed in Historic Micanopy: The Yearling (1946) starring Gregory Peck, Cross Creek (1983) starring Mary Steenburgen, and Doc Hollywood (1991) starring Michael J. Fox.
It is a very interesting place to visit. (Pictures)
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Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is in Ocala, FL. "Big Daddy" Don Garlits is known as "The Father of Drag Racing" and "King of the Dragsters". He has won 17 world championship titles and the prestigious NHRA U.S. nationals a record 8 times. He was the first drag racer to officially surpass the 170, 180, 200, 240, 250, and 270 miles per hour marks in the quarter mile; he was also the first to top 200 in the 1⁄8 mile. In 2001 at age 79, he drove Gary Clapshaw's Top Fuel Dragster to 303.37 MPH with a 4.720 second E.T. In 2002 at age 80, he resurrected Swamp Rat 34 out of the Museum of Drag Racing, entering it in the NHRA U.S. Nationals and ran a career best of 318.54 MPH with a 4.76 second E.T. In May 2014 at age 82, Garlits set a 184 mph speed record in an EV dragster, a battery-powered electric vehicle that does not burn fuel.
After a catastrophic failure of the transmission caused the racer he was driving to split in two as he left the starting line causing him to lose part of his right foot, he began developing rear-engine dragsters so almost all the mechanical elements of the dragster are behind the driver. He was the first to use and promote full fire-proof apparel including gloves and socks and helped develop many other safety features.
One of the other featured drivers is Shirley Muldowney also known as the "First Lady of Drag Racing".
The museum houses most of Garlits dragsters and many dragsters of other drivers. There are two rooms of dragsters and an engine room in one building and an antique car museum in another building. We started taking pictures of all the dragsters then determined that was nuts and took pictures of ones that piqued the interest in one or the other of us. We spent more than 4 enjoyable hours here. There is a plane outside the museum that has the name Capt. Lites Leenhouts, so it may be a memorial to this captain, unfortunately we did not notice the plaque on it until we were looking at the pictures. Capt John R. "Lites" Leenhouts is a highly decorated and respected Navy pilot, Don Garlits has a close connection to the Navy so that may have a connection to this memorial. (Dragster Pictures) (Antique Car Pictures)
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apr 07 2018