Blogs from Ocala, Florida, United States, North America

Happy New Year to each one of you. We wish you all good health, happiness and peace for this new year. Cory and I AND Lulu are all warmed up for the big celebration tonight. We are so ready. We are back in the RV, under warm blankets, watching CNN with Anderson Cooper & Kathy Griffin as they moderate the ball drop in Times Square. They are so funny. Probably won't make it to midnite but I leave the TV on in case we wake up around the time when 2016 becomes 2017. Yippee. Happy New Year! ???? What are you doing? Hope it is as exciting as our festivities. Toto....are we really in Florida? It seems so cold here. Brrrr. Took a long time for our 2 furnaces to warm up our RV this morning. ... read more

After moving to Florida, Mark and I were eager to get back into our camping routine. We discovered Ocala National Forest, just a couple hours north of Orlando, and a couple very established campgrounds. Juniper Springs - November 2015 Our first camping trip as Florida residents was to Juniper Springs. As a recreation area, there are both day use and overnight activities. They have a swimming hole, canoe rentals, the Florida trail*, campground with flushing facilities, and a little convenience store. We were going for the experience of being removed, and did not check out the store at all. It was a well-maintained campground, and I would visit here again. We saw a couple signs of large wildlife – there was a deer grazing just beyond the campground, and a pile of bear poo on the ... read more

A couple of years ago, we went to Silver Springs Nature Park which is located in the city of Ocala in Florida. Ocala is a quaint little town where horses are bred, and it is known as the "horse capital of the world." It took us only about an hour from Orlando to drive to this park. Being a weekend, there were a lot of people on this nice day. A car show was also being held there which added to the atmosphere. Although the weather was quite hot we enjoyed going around the place, and saw a lot of fauna in their natural surroundings. We took two short river cruises, both times in a glass bottom boat and we could see different species of fish and amphibians underneath the boat, not to mention the alligators ... read more

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, FL I arrived in this park on Thursday afternoon and here it is Sat night and almost time to leave. I have had a great time hiking, flee marketing and attending a knap-in. This is another jewel in the crown of the state parks in FL. I am so grateful that our fore fathers had enough insight to preserve these natural wonders for generations to come. This park is another natural spring that flows into the St John River that eventually flows through Jacksonville and into the Atlantic Ocean. It flow north. This spring discharges 516 million gallons of water per day and creates it’s own river. It is a preserved area so the water is pristine and the jungle a fabulous habitat for all wildlife including monkeys, yes monkeys. Kat ... read more

I woke early, had coffee and a shower by 6:30am. The showers here are unbelievable. They have separate rooms with toilet, sink and shower beautifully maintained and cleaned. Great set-up. Oscar and I went for a walk as the sun rose higher increasing the heat. Then it was off to the community room for breakfast of waffles and sausage. It was a feist. At 9:40 we jumped in cars and headed off to the flee market. For the life of me I can't understand what people get all excited about with flee markets but there was great anticipation. I ended up getting produce, strawberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cantelope, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. My vegetable level is low. When I got home I cut up a tomato and ate it on the spot. Boy was it good. ... read more