November 18, 2015 - Leesburg, Tavares & Eustis, FL

It was 9 am when we were all dressed up and ready to hit the road. Last night Edith made a list of places to visit today. A lot of places, but we will visit few at a time, save the rest for the remainder of the week.  The weather is perfect for sightseeing.

First stop was at Lone Oak Cemetery and Masouleum in Leesburg, FL. It is the oldest cemetery in Leesburg. The cemetery has a wealth of history from the beginning through to the present. It has a burial area for babies and pets.  There are many old tombstones and some interesting shaped tombstones. Edith realized it will take a long time for her to scout the area to decide which to take pictures of while Erwin waits in the car.  She is going to go back there by herself another time.  

Next stop was at Mote Morris House that was built in 1826. It is located at 1195 W. Magnolia Street in Leesburg, FL.  It is a historic home and was built by Leesburg’s eight-term mayor, Edward H. Mote.  It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.  The city owns the house now and opens it for public tours two times a month. It was closed when we were there. 

We stopped to check out Leesburg’s historic downtown district, but many stores were closed.  We continued on to Tavares, FL via US 441.  

We parked the Jeep at the edge of Lake Dora. Al’s Sand Bar restaurant was in the back.  We walked to the marina, watched the seaplane.  There was a brown rabbit grazing the grass, Blue Heron in the water.  Great Blue Heron was on the bank.  We found a bench, sat down to rest and enjoy the view. It was very breezy.

A perfect spot to sit and enjoy the view of Lake Dora! 

It is lunchtime and we were in mood for pizza, looked up for restaurants on www.tripadvisor.com. Oh perfect! Tripadvisor ranked Pastore’s Downtown Pizza at #3 out of 39. It took us 4 minutes to walk to Pastore’s.  Guess what?! The lease sign was on the door! CLOSED for good! Very disappointing.  Of course, we had to check Tripadvisor again and decided to try Al’s Sand Bar (ranked #1). We walked back to where our Jeep was parked at.

Al’s Sand Bar has a very interesting atmosphere, Caribbean style bar - very cozy. Erwin got fried chicken basket and Edith had enchiladas.  The service and foods were great!  On top of that, the view of Lake Dora is great!. A great place to relax, order a drink and have something to eat. Their WIFI strength was better than average and was very fast!

We wanted to see Lake Eustis, drove on Lakeshore Drive that is along the side of the lake.  Homes around the lake are beautiful, but the homeowners have to walk across the road to their boat docks.  

We arrived at Eustis Lake Walk/Ferrano Park for a better view of Lake Eustis.  There is a historical building near it, but it was closed.  

A guy called Edith over and wanted her to see something in the water.  She was not sure what she saw, asked the guy if it was a snake.  The guy shook his head ‘yes’.  “What kind of snake is it?”, she asked him.  “Water moccasin”, he replied.  Yikes!  Well, we were safe because we were not in the water.  

There was an egret in the tall vegetation, several ducks.  There was another big snake resting on a piece of a board or something. It was hard to tell what kind of snake it was. Another guy walked by and said it was a Water Moccasin.

Anhinga

It started to rain and we went back in the Jeep, left to go back to the campground.  We took County Route 44, a very nice drive.  There was a bull with longhorns (we were not sure of the right name for it).  

We rested for about an hour and half before we went out again.  Edith wanted to go back to Eustis Lake Walk for sunset photography.  The sunset time was 5:33 pm and she wanted to be there 30 minutes before.

When we got to Eustis Lake Walk the clouds started to build up almost blocking the sun.  Edith hurriedly set up the tripod to catch pictures of the sun. After the first shot a big raindrop fell on Edith’s head and she looked up to be sure if it was the rain or something else.  While she was doing that Erwin ran over and told her to get out.  The storm was rolling in very fast.  We were going to run back to the Jeep, but there is a shelter not too far. Erwin made it safely, but poor Edith.  She tried to run as fast as she could, made it to the shelter, but her shirt, hair and jeans were almost wet.  The storm lasted for about 20 minutes.

Rain Clouds rolling in

Of course, we missed the sunset!  We may try to come back here another time.

Waxing Moon at 44.1%

Back home it was raining, but we were dry and comfortable in our Lil’ Home. 

November 17, 2015 - Micanopy, FL to Fruitland Park, FL

Again!!! Edith missed sunrise photography. She had a good night’s sleep, did not want to break it.  Always another time, she kept reminding herself.

It is a very gorgeous day. Blue sky with not a single cloud in sight.  Very pleasant in low 70’s

We did a bit of quick clean-up in the Lil’ Home (LH), swept the floor, cleaned the shower and sinks. It was 9:30 am when we closed all the slideouts, put folding chairs away, put bicycles on the rack.  However, it was too early for us to check out of Paynes Prairie State Park because at Lake Griffin in Fruitland Park the check-in is at 3 pm.  Most of the times the park will let us check in very early, but not too early.

A dirty job but must be done!

Erwin had a nice chat with a fellow camper and they exchanged stories about trips they took.  In the meantime Edith was busy making travel notes. 

We finally left the state park at 11:30 am.  We took US 441 South and it was a very lovely drive. Not much traffic, saw some so-called longhorns (their horns are not as long as those in Texas).

Saw some run-down houses and barns, but there was no place to pull over to allow Edith to take pictures.  

Before reaching Ocala, FL we got on US 27 South.  Ocala has gotten bigger than the last time we visited. We will want to spend few days exploring the area.   The Villages has become very busy.  You will see a lot of customized golf carts going around in the town.  

It was in Summerfield, FL that we saw Camping World street sign by the roadway, so we made a quick turn into the parking lot.  There is something we wanted to get for the LH.  Pads for the levelers, but they had only two in stock and we needed four.  We picked up mirror and windshield wiper covers for protection while camping.  The store is very huge and the staff was very friendly.  Of course, we looked through their 2016 Class A and Class C models.  There is one Class A by Winnebago, but the asking price was $429,000!!!  No way!

$429,000

We went to the service department and asked about the roof vents on our LH that need to be replaced.  The earliest date they could take our LH in for service is November 30th and we will be out of the area at that time.  We can wait until we are in Tampa in January 2016.  

We arrived Lake Griffin State Park in Fruitland Park, FL around 2:15 pm, picked up the parking pass.  At first, we thought we had never camped there before, but after driving into the campground we suddenly remembered that we did camp here for 2 nights when we had Roadtrek Class B camper van two years ago.  We got the site #37, a pull-thru site long enough for our LH and the Jeep. 

We decided not to go out for rest of the day.  All slideouts were extended and the awnings, too.  Erwin started the campfire because Edith wanted to fix supper on the grill.  Folding chairs and a small table were set up not too far from the campfire.  

Apparently Erwin did some rough maneuvering on the way to Lake Griffin 'cause when Edith opened the cupboard to get the dishes, they came tumbling out and one big bowl crashed onto the floor and broke into many pieces! Sigh! That means every time we take a drive we will have to be very careful upon opening the cupboards so we can catch them before they hit the floor.

Clean up duty!

While Erwin began to read a book Edith started doing her homework by checking out what attractions we should visit while in town.  There are so many places to see/do, but we don’t think we will have time or energy to see everything.  Of course, two cemeteries are already on the list.  Edith thinks Erwin will probably tell her she can go there by herself. We’ll see...