Speedy gets fixed. It rains. Jupiter Springs next stop. It rains some more. A prairie walk for Ellen and a coffee ride for Steve. Salt Springs is next. Ellen drives, Steve rides. A ticky winter destination.
We finally decided to take some action with Speedy. Based on the poking about that Harry and I did the day before, I decided to replace the coil and coil to distributor wire. There is a Napa Auto Parts store in Umatilla, about 12 miles from Alexander Springs, just south of Altoona. I gave them a call and they had the parts.
Rather than try to get Speedy started, I decided to bicycle there. It was a two-fold decision. I hadn't been doing much riding lately and I didn't want to get Speedy warmed up, as it always started without problems when warm. Off I went to Umatilla while Ellen and Sally took their morning bird walk.
Much of the ride I'd done before, but the road from Alexander Springs to Rt. 19 was new. It is a rolling road and partially under construction. I had to wait for my turn through a long section of one-lane road in both directions of the ride. The Rt. 19 part I'd ridden before and the section to Altoona wsn't any more interesting this time. Once past Altoona, it was a few miles of new ride through the towns of Altoona and Umatilla.
After passing and group of Black Vultures breakfasting on roadkill (they just ignored me), a pass through a 55+ retirement community to see what 90-150K will buy in Umatilla (a 2-3 room bungalow with a two car garage) and a stop to peruse a pair of used 35-foot Class-A RVs for sale (A 2003 with 40K miles, upright two-door refrigerator-freezer, washer and dryer, two-slide-out and acres of storage for only $53,500—not much more than a Roadtrek of the same vintage), I finally reached downtown Umatilla and the Napa Auto Parts. The guys inside were very helpful and found the coil and wires. Unfortunately, the wire was only available as part of a kit with all of the sparkplug wires. With application of our LL Bean card, I was on my way.
The ride back was uneventful and realtively quick with only a stop at the Old Crow BBQ. It looked interesting but was closed until Wednesday—and it was only Monday. The aroma of smoking meats perked up my appetite though, so it was back to camp for lunch. A 29 mile ride overall, not a bad morning.
Ellen and Sally's bird walk seemed mildly disappointing to them. It wasn't that they didn't see any birds, but we are now back in the forest, away from the coast. There is no longer the profusion of big, bold and beautiful wading and shore birds, just those little forest birds. They were on the lookout for a Florida Scrub Jay, relatively rare. One of its few habitats is in Ocala. None were found.
After lunch, Harry and I tackled repacing Speedy's ignition coil. I should have been a pretty straightforward task, one that even I could handle. The coil is connected to its mount with pair of phillips-head machine screws with lock washers. These had been in place since 2001 and were a bit difficult to remove. I was a bit concerned about stripping the screw heads since we had no replacements and, of course, we couldn't actually see the heads the way the coil was mounted in the engine compartment . We finally got them loosened with the liberal application of WD-40 and vise-grips, no stripped heads or threads.
The new coil was easily installed, the wire attached and Speedy started right up. We didn't replace all the wires. I'm saving the rest of the wire kit for the next service, when it is time to replace the plugs anyway. The real test would have to wait until Tuesday morning, when we would be leaving. It was predicted to rain overnight, so it would be cold and damp in the morning.
Sure enough, it rained in the night and Tuesday morning started very damp. We were smart enough to to have packed everything away on Monday evening, so we were ready to go. I'd hoped to bicycle to Juniper Springs, our next destination, but the roads were wet and the sky said more rain on the way. Speedy started right up and we were off in the rain to Juniper Springs.
Ellen and I had camped at Juniper Springs in 2010, but I didn't remember many pf the details as it was only a couple of nights. When we arrived most of the campsites were occupied or reserved, but the gate attendant assigned us one big enough for both Roadtreks with the option of finding another and coming back to check into it. As we rode through the camsite loop, it all came back, right down to the fifth-wheel trailer with the loud generator that we parked across from last time. It was still there!
In reality, it was probably back again in the same site. But all the details were the same, same large pile of wood, same large loud generator. One of the differences between camping in the National Forests (at least in Ocala) and camping in the National Parks is the time limit. In the parks, it is almost always a 14 day limit in season. In Ocala NF, it is 120 days. This means one can come and stay most of the winter. The fellow with the generator does it every year—and in the same site. It is an inexpensive way to spend the winter. With a federal senior pass, Juniper Springs is less than $10 per night.
The campsite assigned to us was in a good location, but there was a pumphouse in back of it. Based on Harry & Sally's noisy experience at Myakka River, we decided to pass it up and look at the other available ones. We took one on the opposite side of the campground from the loud generator which was reservered for the weekend, but since we would be gone by then, it made no difference.
We checked back in, parked the vans and relaxed and read indoors as it was now raining heavily. The last time we were at Juniper Springs, we spent a day sitting inside in the rain. No wonder I'd stored the experience way back in the old memory banks. At least we aren't tent camping.
The front passed and the skies cleared by late afternoon, so we walked down to the springs. It is really quite a beautiful spot. It was originally built by the CCC in the 30's and some of the original buildings remain, including a mill house with a water wheel at the water's exit from the springs. The mill is a log building which has been kept in perfect shape. Only the machinery has been removed. It was originally an electrical generating plant for the CCC camp and the recreation area later. It seems that a modern generator would be an appropriate installation as a "back to the future" application of "green" technology.
As we were looking over the springs, a Swallow-tailed Kite flew over. This was one of the birds Ellen was hoping to see. They had been present at the Everglades and Myakka River, but she never spotted one. This one just hovered above us. It was like it was saying, "Here I am, get a good look". Needless to say, Ellen was excited to finally see one...then there was another one and another one. They seemed quite common at Juniper Springs and over the next couple of days, we saw many of them (or the same ones many times). The search for the Florida Scrub Jay was still in progress.
A section of the Florida Trail runs past the springs area and through the Juniper Prairie Wilderness area. This sounded like prime scrub jay habitat, so Sally and Ellen took a late afternoon walk to the trailhead and up the trail. They came back a bit disappointed. No scrub jays and the trail section they walked was very woodsy and not much could be seen.
Continued in next post
We finally decided to take some action with Speedy. Based on the poking about that Harry and I did the day before, I decided to replace the coil and coil to distributor wire. There is a Napa Auto Parts store in Umatilla, about 12 miles from Alexander Springs, just south of Altoona. I gave them a call and they had the parts.
Rather than try to get Speedy started, I decided to bicycle there. It was a two-fold decision. I hadn't been doing much riding lately and I didn't want to get Speedy warmed up, as it always started without problems when warm. Off I went to Umatilla while Ellen and Sally took their morning bird walk.
Much of the ride I'd done before, but the road from Alexander Springs to Rt. 19 was new. It is a rolling road and partially under construction. I had to wait for my turn through a long section of one-lane road in both directions of the ride. The Rt. 19 part I'd ridden before and the section to Altoona wsn't any more interesting this time. Once past Altoona, it was a few miles of new ride through the towns of Altoona and Umatilla.
After passing and group of Black Vultures breakfasting on roadkill (they just ignored me), a pass through a 55+ retirement community to see what 90-150K will buy in Umatilla (a 2-3 room bungalow with a two car garage) and a stop to peruse a pair of used 35-foot Class-A RVs for sale (A 2003 with 40K miles, upright two-door refrigerator-freezer, washer and dryer, two-slide-out and acres of storage for only $53,500—not much more than a Roadtrek of the same vintage), I finally reached downtown Umatilla and the Napa Auto Parts. The guys inside were very helpful and found the coil and wires. Unfortunately, the wire was only available as part of a kit with all of the sparkplug wires. With application of our LL Bean card, I was on my way.
The ride back was uneventful and realtively quick with only a stop at the Old Crow BBQ. It looked interesting but was closed until Wednesday—and it was only Monday. The aroma of smoking meats perked up my appetite though, so it was back to camp for lunch. A 29 mile ride overall, not a bad morning.
Ellen and Sally's bird walk seemed mildly disappointing to them. It wasn't that they didn't see any birds, but we are now back in the forest, away from the coast. There is no longer the profusion of big, bold and beautiful wading and shore birds, just those little forest birds. They were on the lookout for a Florida Scrub Jay, relatively rare. One of its few habitats is in Ocala. None were found.
After lunch, Harry and I tackled repacing Speedy's ignition coil. I should have been a pretty straightforward task, one that even I could handle. The coil is connected to its mount with pair of phillips-head machine screws with lock washers. These had been in place since 2001 and were a bit difficult to remove. I was a bit concerned about stripping the screw heads since we had no replacements and, of course, we couldn't actually see the heads the way the coil was mounted in the engine compartment . We finally got them loosened with the liberal application of WD-40 and vise-grips, no stripped heads or threads.
The new coil was easily installed, the wire attached and Speedy started right up. We didn't replace all the wires. I'm saving the rest of the wire kit for the next service, when it is time to replace the plugs anyway. The real test would have to wait until Tuesday morning, when we would be leaving. It was predicted to rain overnight, so it would be cold and damp in the morning.
Sure enough, it rained in the night and Tuesday morning started very damp. We were smart enough to to have packed everything away on Monday evening, so we were ready to go. I'd hoped to bicycle to Juniper Springs, our next destination, but the roads were wet and the sky said more rain on the way. Speedy started right up and we were off in the rain to Juniper Springs.
Ellen and I had camped at Juniper Springs in 2010, but I didn't remember many pf the details as it was only a couple of nights. When we arrived most of the campsites were occupied or reserved, but the gate attendant assigned us one big enough for both Roadtreks with the option of finding another and coming back to check into it. As we rode through the camsite loop, it all came back, right down to the fifth-wheel trailer with the loud generator that we parked across from last time. It was still there!
In reality, it was probably back again in the same site. But all the details were the same, same large pile of wood, same large loud generator. One of the differences between camping in the National Forests (at least in Ocala) and camping in the National Parks is the time limit. In the parks, it is almost always a 14 day limit in season. In Ocala NF, it is 120 days. This means one can come and stay most of the winter. The fellow with the generator does it every year—and in the same site. It is an inexpensive way to spend the winter. With a federal senior pass, Juniper Springs is less than $10 per night.
The campsite assigned to us was in a good location, but there was a pumphouse in back of it. Based on Harry & Sally's noisy experience at Myakka River, we decided to pass it up and look at the other available ones. We took one on the opposite side of the campground from the loud generator which was reservered for the weekend, but since we would be gone by then, it made no difference.
We checked back in, parked the vans and relaxed and read indoors as it was now raining heavily. The last time we were at Juniper Springs, we spent a day sitting inside in the rain. No wonder I'd stored the experience way back in the old memory banks. At least we aren't tent camping.
The front passed and the skies cleared by late afternoon, so we walked down to the springs. It is really quite a beautiful spot. It was originally built by the CCC in the 30's and some of the original buildings remain, including a mill house with a water wheel at the water's exit from the springs. The mill is a log building which has been kept in perfect shape. Only the machinery has been removed. It was originally an electrical generating plant for the CCC camp and the recreation area later. It seems that a modern generator would be an appropriate installation as a "back to the future" application of "green" technology.
As we were looking over the springs, a Swallow-tailed Kite flew over. This was one of the birds Ellen was hoping to see. They had been present at the Everglades and Myakka River, but she never spotted one. This one just hovered above us. It was like it was saying, "Here I am, get a good look". Needless to say, Ellen was excited to finally see one...then there was another one and another one. They seemed quite common at Juniper Springs and over the next couple of days, we saw many of them (or the same ones many times). The search for the Florida Scrub Jay was still in progress.
A section of the Florida Trail runs past the springs area and through the Juniper Prairie Wilderness area. This sounded like prime scrub jay habitat, so Sally and Ellen took a late afternoon walk to the trailhead and up the trail. They came back a bit disappointed. No scrub jays and the trail section they walked was very woodsy and not much could be seen.
Continued in next post
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