06/19 /15- 06/21/15 This was our inaugural trip in our new Airstream named Airhed! We've spent almost every single weekend for the last two months painting, polishing and repairing her. We've wanted to take her out for a weekend of fun or two before she goes into the shop for a bit and add any last minute items to our repair list while in full-on camping mode.
After researching and pondering how far we wanted to take her along with locations we could bear for camping in this June Florida heat; we decided on Blue Springs State Park. The promise of cold fresh water springs with a nice campground sounded like fun and bearable. In the two years we've lived in the state we hadn't managed to visit any springs so this was high on our list.
After spending a couple of hours doing the house to truck to camper loading shuffle we hit a snag with the tail lights. The left turn signal and break light wouldn't work and when all the running lights were full on the right one wouldn't work. Wade did some investigating which involved taking off the covers and checking out the bulbs. He determined that our first stop would be at the Auto Parts store. New bulbs were purchased and installed we hit the road for the three hour drive to our destination.
We left St. Pete after 7pm. The trip there was uneventful, we made better time than the map program determined as we left so late we missed the Tampa evening traffic. We noted that some of the road in Orlando on I-4 was all patched up and rough and noted to try to avoid that area in future trips.
At 10pm, we arrived at the gate to the park and regretted immediately that we didn't call them before 5 to tell them that we'd be arriving late as we needed a gate code. Thankfully after a few minutes someone pulled in behind us and gave us the code. Mistake noted and adding that to our journey check list. The campground here is called Pine Scrub which was not indicated on our reservation anywhere so we weren't sure if there was more than one campground but it turned out to be the only one. Because of the overall length of the truck and camper it's too far for us to hear each other when trying to park her into her space which makes it difficult to communicate without yelling. Mistake #2 don't rely on your cell phones as a communication device to park the camper at night as you might not have cell signal which was the case for us. Mistake noted. Adding walkie talkies to our purchase list.
Got Airhed in her spot #38 and hooked up the power and water. The spot was huge and there were no spots on one side of us and there was a tree and scrub buffer on the other side of us. It was pretty private. The air conditioner wouldn't blow cold and after unpacking and getting settled we figured out we had it on the wrong setting. We eventually put the dial on the side that said heat instead of fan and we got cold air and finally stopped sweating, Go figure :-) Wade hit the showers and I mopped the floor. We really wished that our shower worked multiple times during the weekend so it's definitely on the list to have repaired while she's in the shop. We busted out the wine, congratulated ourselves for making it happen and finally hit bed around 2am.
Mistake #3. Don't go to bed without putting the stabilizer jacks down. This makes for a lot of shaking in the morning when milling about. I couldn't sleep past 8am despite going to bed so late. So me being up and about woke the sleeping bear named Wade. Wade has to have at least 8 hours of sleep every day, the first thing he said when I started milling about was "what time is it?" I thought about lying but couldn't. So he asked that I keep quiet so he could go back to sleep. Well, that would have been an easier task if my cell phone had coverage so I could play on the internet. It would have been easier if I didn't leave the kindle in the bedroom with The Bear. I decided I'd open up the curtains quietly so I could at least look outside; but the moving around shook the trailer, which got The Bear up and he was in a foul mood.
Anyway after The Bear had his coffee; I made a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with peppers & onions along with toast. I noted immediately that I need to add a good knife or two to my list.
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| Scrambled eggs for breakfast! |
During check in the with office and we noticed the wait for people wanting to get into the park and we decided that camping there was the best way to visit this very popular place. There is a footpath from the campground but we didn't know the lay of the land yet so drove over to one of the two parking lots. The whole park is just wonderful. I am not sure why they call it Blue Springs when clearly the water looks Green :-). We walked along the boardwalk on the river banks and checked out the shack with the canoe, segway and boat rentals. We wished we had brought the canoe and bikes but alas we just had too much going on to get ready for this trip as it was. We figured the best time of day to canoe in this heat is in the morning. We made our way over to the multiple points of entry for humans on the springs which was where the camp and gift stores were located. We decided to rent two tubes, two masks, snorkels and a locker. If you bring our own tube they will inflate it for you at the rental shop. Mistake #4. We have masks, snorkels and water boots and we should have brought all of them but didn't. The water was pretty cold around 73 degrees but it was so refreshing from the heat. The under water cavern where the springs came up from underground was truly an amazing sight. It was worth dealing with the sharp rocks, downed underwater trees and what seemed like hundreds of other people doing the same thing. We spent lot of time snorkeling then floating down the slow current to final stairs to exit the springs.
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| Manatees in Blue Springs SP |
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| Wade at Blue Springs SP boardwalk |
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| Boardwalk at Blue Springs SP |
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| Boardwalk to tubing drop in point at Blue Springs SP |
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| Snorkelers and Scuba Divers over the Spring Cavern |
We were ready for lunch after that so decided to find the pathway to the campground. It wasn't terribly far but bikes would have been useful. We noticed immediately that the entire camper smelled like gas when we got back. Apparently we have a gas leak. We shut off the gas and opened the windows to air it out., After it was clear we made lunch and decided that from now on; we should always shut off the gas at the tanks when the camper is unattended at least until all leaks are resolved. After lunch we were ready to get back into the springs to cool off so went for round two. My spray on sunscreen wasn't holding up to the water activity so noted that we need to bring better waterproof sunscreen next time. Fortunately there was much shade to be found.
After we were done with the springs we decided to make a store run which was pretty close. We managed to get some beer, rum, a can opener and a couple of other things. We went back to camp and shortly after it was time for the afternoon tropical rain and lightning storms. We were so happy that we were in our dry camper making dinner, having wine, watching, singing along and dancing to 80's video's from my dvd collection. We tried using Wade's brand new suitcase record player but it wouldn't work. The rain lasted a few hours and made it inconvenient and messy to go in and out of the camper. Wade was right, an awning is a must and is now at the top of our list of purchases to make.
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| Wade with dinner, he is a happy camper :-) |
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| Smores prep! |
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| Stove top Smores! |
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| Wow! We couldn't believe what Airhed looked like in this light |
Campground check out was at 1pm and we decided to get some organizing done around the camper and truck that was needed after all the weeks of shuffling everything around. Last month; I had removed and cleaned all of the anti skid material that was on nearly every shelf surface. So putting that back in took some time. I also went through a couple of bins under the couch of odds and ends RV stuff and cleaned out what we didn't need to hold on to. Before we knew it; it was 12pm and we were scrambling to get everything done so we could take a shower before hitting the road. If you are outside even for five minutes in this heat doing any moving around you will be a wet mess and you will need to shower unless you want to be sticky for a three hour ride home. After we were done with the showers, we unplugged and broke camp.
We stopped at a waterfront park on St. Johns River and had lunch. We talked about planning a trip back there sometime with the boat for exploring.
We decided to take a longer way home so we could check out a town called Mt. Dora. I had heard it was supposed to be cute so wanted to check it out. Well, it was super cute! There are actually some decent sized hills and it has all sorts of cute restaurants, arts stores and a beautiful waterfront area. Not your typical flat Florida town. We're definitely going back there to spend a weekend. I just got a few pics of the waterfront park. We didn't have time to explore the town by foot as we were driving through and it felt like 100 degrees out with the humidity levels in the afternoon sun with concrete everywhere. This will be a great place to explore when it's a bit cooler.
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| Gazebo at Mt. Dora waterfont |
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| Lighthouse at Gibson Park from Mt. Dora waterfront |
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| Wade at the gazebo at Mt. Dora waterfront |
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| Grasses at Mt. Dora waterfront |
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| A nice parking spot in downtown Mt. Dora at the waterfront park |
We needed to make it to Camping World Tampa before they closed as we desperately needed to get a few things for next trip. After 85 miles and hauling ass we made it 5 mins before they closed so we ran around the store and got what we needed. Maybe next time we'll be able to browse a little longer :-) Side note: we took toll road 429 from Mt. Dora to I-4 and it cost us $7.50 to go thirty miles and had to stop three times to pay the cash only toll, or we could have used an EZ-Pass if we had one. This was inconvenient and will avoid this road next time.
We made it back to the storage unit and did the move stuff to the truck shuffle. All in all it was a great trip. We were both so happy we didn't break down or blow a bearing like we have three times with our boat trailer :-). We'll definitely be planning trips and exploring the hundreds of springs in the state. I finally feel like we made the right decision in purchasing Airhed and look forward to many many future trips with her :-)
