First Day on the Road

10:00 a.m. and we head out the front gate of our community.  Jim is driving with Snoopy in the coach while I follow behind in the car.  We need to drive until we can find a long straight place to park both the coach and car (about 65 feet in length) to hookup the car with the tow bar  to the coach.  As we cross the Manatee River on the north border of Bradenton, I spy some dolphins in the river surfacing to draw in a breath of the fresh morning air as the sun glints across the water.

We connect to I-75 which will take us north past Tampa and onward to the hills and horse farms of Ocala.  Spring is in the air with new red and light green leaves interspersed with delicate mauve flowers of blooming trees I confess I can not identify.  But my artist’s eye longs to paint them.

White or black fences with elaborate gates dividing one estate from another follow the frontage roads along I-75 while passing through Ocala.  Horses seem to be grazing everywhere.  We pass a horse show with horses bearing English tack and riders decked out in the formal dress favored for competing.  The draw of the horse life from my youth beckons me to stop and savor the competition.

We turn northwest on Route 27 heading to Perry, Florida for the night.  A thunderstorm with ongoing flashes of lightening threatens as we progress west of Williston near Manatee Springs State Park but Puff the Magic Green RV takes it all in stride.  A spring in this State Park produces 100 million gallons of clear, cool water daily.  West Indian Manatees swim to the spring in winter up the Suwannee River to enjoy its warm waters.

Nearby is Dead Man Bay where the Steinhatchee River meets the Gulf.  Its interesting history dates back to 12,000 BC when prehistoric man settled here.  (Rumor has it that the Bay acquired its name in the 1500s when Native American Indians found several white men floating in the river.)  Spanish explorers such as Hernando de Soto passed through in the early 1500s followed by the Seminoles who migrated here in the early 1700s.  European settlers started coming to Florida in great numbers after it became a territory of the United States in 1812.  Sponge divers predominated in the 1940s and 1950s.  Now the area is known as the “Scallop Capital of the World.”  Now I know more about a spot on the map that seemed interesting just because of a name.

Continuing onward we encounter the town of Fanning Springs and nearby historical Fort Fanning on the Suwannee River.  People don’t realize the river was once a major military objective leading the U.S. Army to build the fort in 1838 in an effort to contain Indian raids that were occurring across North Florida during the Seminole Wars.

I may have spied a kingfisher sitting on a telephone line as we reached Perry, FL and the KOA campground where we will spend the night.  The rain continues and is expected to last through the night until about 3 a.m.  We settled in for our first night in the RV and even Snoopy seemed relaxed by the time we finished dinner.  It is taking a little effort to remember all the nuances of living in an RV, but we are all comfortable.  9:00 p.m.

Snoopy's Corner:
Whew!  I am on board and now I can stop worrying that something sinister is afoot like a stay at the Pet Spa.  It did not take me too long to get used to things again.  I rode along for the day under Dad's desk.  It was pretty comfortable.  I'm glad this packing stuff is over.  It was wearing me down (Mom and Dad, too!)