Living Our Dream

Holy Land Experience

Blueberry Hill RV Resort is emptying out as snowbirds start heading back north. We first noticed a few empty sites when we returned from our unscheduled trip to Pittsburgh about a month ago. Now there are even more empty spaces. We can see 8 or 10 vacant sites from our window in the back section where we are staying, and the front section (shown in the photo below) is only a little more than half filled.

Our friends, Dick and Barbara, pulled into one of the unoccupied sites near us on Friday. We first met Dick and Barbara last summer in Iowa while we were waiting out the flood waters, and we have stayed in touch with them since that time. They still have a stick house near Charlotte, NC, but they travel for extended periods in their motor home. Dick and Barbara happened to be home last fall when we were in the Charlotte area, and we stopped by their house. We had a nice visit, and they ended up taking us to lunch at a great barbecue place.

Now Dick and Barbara are at the beginning of a spring trip with several stops in Florida, so they planned to stay for a few nights here at Blueberry Hill on their way south. One of the things we were planning to do before we left Florida this year was visit the Holy Land Experience, which is located about an hour away in Orlando. The Holy Land Experience is a re-creation of the city of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. It is part Christian ministry and part tourist attraction. When we mentioned the Holy Land Experience to Dick and Barbara in an email, they expressed an interest so we planned to go while they were at Blueberry Hill.

We headed to Orlando Saturday morning and arrived at the Holy Land Experience just before they opened. We ordered our tickets online, and we had to pick up the tickets at Guest Services. Not only did we get a $5 per person discount for ordering online, we also got to bypass the lines at the ticket windows. The photo below shows the entrance, which is designed to look like one of the gates to the city of Jerusalem.

The area just inside the gate is a replica of a Jerusalem street market with baskets of exotic fruits, vegetables, and other items that you might expect to find in a Middle Eastern marketplace. The central courtyard in the market is flanked by a gift shop and a cafe.

 

After making our way through the market, we found we were just in time to see the Crystal Living Waters. During the 20-minute presentation, the fountain dances and swirls in time to inspirational music.

Throughout the day, there are numerous live plays and musical presentations depicting the life of Jesus. The photo below is during a play called "The Ministry of Jesus," which is a collection of several Gospel stories.

There is a re-creation of the garden tomb. This venue is the focal point of the passion play "Behold the Lamb." We didn't see the passion play since it was scheduled late in the day, which was longer than we wanted to stay.

 

The one-third size replica of Herrod's Temple is centrally located in the Holy Land Experience, just like the real-life temple was in ancient Jerusalem.

Paul liked the scale model of the city of Jerusalem that was housed inside one of the buildings near the outdoor temple replica. The photo below shows the scale model of Herrod's Temple.

The next photo is another view of the model of the city. The temple is the tallest structure on the right.

 

There was a presentation by a staff archeologist at the model several times during the day. The archeologist gave an overview of the history of city of Jerusalem and pointed out numerous landmarks on the model. He also described many features of the temple.

Near the building that housed the model of Jerusalem was the Scriptorium.

The Scriptorium is a museum that houses a research library of several thousand manuscripts, scrolls, and other religious artifacts. Some of these items are on display to the public as a walk-through exhibit that traces the history of the Bible from early papyrus scrolls, through hand-copied manuscripts of the Middle Ages, to early printed Bibles that started with the Gutenburg Bible in the 1400s.

In additional to all the exhibits and live presentations, we enjoyed walking around the grounds. The photo below shows a flower on one of the many exotic-looking trees.

We were amazed at how well done everything was. All the exhibits and shows have an unmistakable Gospel message. Our only complaint was the crowds. We normally don't do touristy things on weekends, but because of the way our schedule worked out, Saturday was the best day for us to go to the Holy Land Experience. There were lots of people there that day, including many church groups, and the Holy Land Experience isn't as well equipped to handle large crowds the way Disney is. The walkways and exhibit layouts aren't always as efficient as they could be - the overflow crowds from some outdoor shows block pathways, and the entrances to some exhibits interfere with the exits from others on busy days like the one when we were there. We still enjoyed the Holy Land Experience and highly recommend it, but go on a weekday if at all possible. Note that they are closed Sundays, although they do have church services each Sunday at 10:30 AM.

The next photo shows our group at the Holy Land Experience. Barbara and Dick are on the right.

About mid-afternoon, our feet were getting tired and we were getting hungry. Although there is food available at the Holy Land Experience, we had our sights set on Bahama Breeze. Bahama Breeze is one of our favorite restaurants; and when we received an email from Bahama Breeze with a coupon for $10 off any dinner entree, we couldn't pass it up. We forwarded a copy of the promotional email to Dick and Barbara, so each couple had a coupon.

There are two Bahama Breeze restaurants in Orlando, and they are both fairly close to the Holy Land Experience. We stopped at one of them for an early dinner on our way back to Blueberry Hill. Barbara and Margery had almond crusted tilapia with lemon butter, Dick had Bahamian chicken kabob salad, and Paul had Jamacian grilled chicken with mango salsa. Yum!  :)

On Sunday after attending church, we traveled up to The Villages, which calls itself Florida's friendliest hometown. The Villages is located about 30 miles north of Bushnell and made up of 32 "villages" with neighborhoods of homes ranging from patio villas to ranch style homes to premium homes. We know several people who have either retired there or bought second homes. It's a golfer's paradise with 33 golf courses, but for those not so inclined there are over 100 special interest groups that meet on a regular basis. The Pittsburgh Club is so big they had to start a second one! Although neither of us is ready to settle down permanently, our stop in the Villages Sales Office was informative. Florida in general and The Villages in particular may bear further investigation in the future when we are finally ready for a stick house again.

We had a great time visiting with Dick and Barbara. We shared lots of good conversation, a ride on the Withlacoochee Bike Trail, and several meals. They were soon on their way to visit other friends in Florida, and we had to say "good bye." We look forward to crossing paths with them again.

Motor Home Project: New Tow Shield

Between sightseeing excursions and relaxing, we undertook another motor home project. We decided to replace the fabric of the tow shield that goes between the motor home and the toad.

We bought our Saturn Vue for use as a toad before we went full-time back in December, 2005. We also bought a Protect-a-Tow tow shield the following spring. The Protect-a-Tow is a perforated cloth skirt that stretches between the motor home and toad to help deflect road debris and keep it from damaging the front of the toad. The photo below shows the Protect-a-Tow in place under the tow bar.

Because our tow bar set-up requires an extra component called a drop receiver to lower the height of the tow bar at the motor home end, the Protect-a-tow was just a little too short. There was always a gap at each end as you can see in the photo above.

In spite of the gaps, our Protect-a-Tow served us fairly well for almost three years. However, now it was getting frayed and worn. You can see in the photo below there are holes in the upper left and there are light-colored, abraded spots to the lower right. All the corners are also frayed and are starting to tear.

We picked up a piece of high porosity shade cloth at Beasley Manufacturing in Center Hill, FL, where we got the material for the new sunscreens for the windshield of the motor home. The plan was to reuse the original Protect-a-Tow hardware and make a new fabric skirt a little longer and a little wider than the original.

After carefully measuring the width of the car, the width of the motor home, and the distance from the motor home to the car with the tow bar hooked up, Paul marked up the new fabric and began cutting.

The next step was for Margery to fold over and sew a 2 inch hem all around the outside edge. After Margery did some fiddling to get the thread tension right for the relatively heavy shade cloth, her little Singer Featherweight did an admirable job.

The next step in making the new skirt was to fish bungee cord material through the hem that ran around the outside perimeter of the skirt. We found a company on the internet called HTB Bungee down near Tampa that sold bungee cord by the foot. Although we could have had the material shipped, Paul wanted to pick the material up in person to make sure it was the right thing. HTB Bungee does not have a store (it is operated out of someone's home), but the owner was very accommodating and arranged to meet us so we could pick up the material in person on one of our trips down that way. Since the bungee cord is fairly stiff, it wasn't too difficult to get it through the hem.

The Protect-a-Tow has a spreader made from plastic conduit that sits on top of the tow bar, spreads the edges of the skirt, and helps support the middle of the skirt. Because the new skirt is a little longer and wider than the old one, the spreader needed to be a little longer, too. In the photo below, Paul is cutting a new piece of conduit for the spreader. He was able to reuse the hooks from the ends of the old spreader.

Our neighbors behind us graciously allowed us to pull our car through their site to try out the new tow shield. The next photo shows Paul snapping the spreader into place and checking the final fit of the new skirt. Perfect! Notice how the new skirt extends a little farther under the both the back of the motor home and the front of the car.

 

Since we were able to reuse most of the hardware from our old tow shield and because we were able to get suitable fabric for $1.50 a yard, the new tow shield was the fraction of the cost of a new one. The hardest thing to find was bungee cord by the foot, but we found several sources on the internet, and one of those sources was nearby. We were also able to customize the size of the skirt for an optimum fit for our tow bar set-up.

We'll be here in Florida for several more weeks, so it will be a while before we actually get to try out the new tow shield on the road. We still have some maintenance items to tend to and some small projects to do (like hooking up our digital TV converter box, but there's no hurry since the government postponed the switchover until June 12), but we'll be ready to hit the road when the time comes. In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy our time here.

Withlacoochee Bike Trail

At a length of 46 miles, the Withlacoochee Bike Trail is the longest paved rail-trail in Florida. Cyclists, skaters, joggers, and walkers are all welcome. There is even a bridle path for horses that follows alongside the paved trail in some areas. The trail runs from Gulf Junction near Dunnellon, FL, southward through Inverness and Floral City, to Owensboro Junction 6 miles north of Dade City, FL. The trail passes through small towns, residential areas, and rural farms and ranches. The terrain is generally flat with very gentle rises and drops.

There are at least half a dozen main trail heads along the route with ample parking. There are also several more remote locations along back roads where there are places to park for the bike trail, but most of the main trail heads have bike shops, rest rooms, picnic areas, and places to get food and drink that don't exist at the remote locations.

Floral City is only a few miles from where we are staying in Bushnell, so we decided to start our trek there. In the photo below, we are just about ready to head on down the trail. As you can see, the parking lot was almost empty on that weekday afternoon.



In the late 1800s, Henry Plant built numerous rail lines in Florida. The railroads underwent mergers over the years, with the Plant System of railroads eventually becoming part of CSX Transportation. In 1989, CSX sold the 46-mile right of way between Gulf Junction and Owensboro Junction to the State of Florida. This was one of the first purchases of the Florida rails-to-trails program.

The Withlacoochee State Trail takes its name from the Withlacoochee River. The river, the bike trail, and U. S. Route 41 all run roughly parallel in a north-south direction. The northern end of the trail is closer to busy Route 41, so we headed south from Floral City. In the photo below, Paul is warming up for the start of our ride.

After about a mile, the trail started to veer away from the highway. As the traffic noise faded, we could hear more birds. Along the trail, there are a number of benches and a few drinking fountains. The Withlacoochee Trail is one of the widest bike trails we have ever seen. Although it wasn't very crowded when we were there during the week, the width would make riding on crowded weekends much more pleasurable.

After we had ridden a few miles, we noticed the lone rider who was several hundred yards ahead of us steer off to the left side of the trail. We thought he was stopping for a rest, but he only slowed briefly and then continued on. 

Now Margery was just tooling along listening to the singing birds, gawking at the tranquil scenery thinking it doesn't get any better than this and NOT looking at the path ahead of her. All of a sudden Paul says, "Watch out!" It was then that we saw the reason the lone biker went off the trail. Although the 6-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake was almost off the trail by the time we got there, he was right in the middle when the rider ahead of us passed by. Paul gave the rattlesnake a wide berth while taking the photo below, and the snake kept a wary eye on Paul as well.



A little farther along, we came to an unusual sight. This Arabian camel (or more properly called a dromedary - it's the Bactrian camel that has two humps) was in a pasture across the rural road that ran parallel to the trail for a short distance.

 

The next photo is our turn-around point which was about 5.3 miles from the start. We enjoyed a granola bar and some cool water at a covered picnic table before heading back to the car.

 

On our return trip, Paul noticed dozens of burrows along the bank in one area of the trail. Being from Pennsylvania, Paul's first thought was it might be groundhogs, but Florida is a little too far south for groundhogs. Being a former avid gardener, he is all too familiar with groundhogs and the way they can eat their way through your flowers and vegetables. Then Paul saw this gopher tortoise sitting at the mouth of its burrow and had the answer to what was doing all the digging.

 

Although there weren't many people out the day we were there, we saw quite a high percentage of recumbent bikes as we rode down the trail and back. Recumbents place the rider in a reclining position rather than upright. This has several advantages. It spreads the rider's weight out over a larger area to make the ride more comfortable. Recumbent bikes have very large seats with back rests. The reclining position also provides good leverage against the pedals and it reduces wind resistance.

 

Back in Floral City near where we parked the car, we stopped by Hampton's Edge Trailside Bicycles. Paul has been wanting a rearview mirror for his bike for a long time. Hampton's had many to choose from. This mirror that attaches to the end of the handlebar and adjusts very easily is not your Walmart cheapo. We both ended up with one. :)

Hampton's Edge specializes in recumbent bicycles, so we took a look at one. We can see why people like recumbents. They wouldn't be very good for off-road use because when riding off-road, you frequently need to shift your weight rapidly to maintain balance on uneven terrain or to stand to pedal up a steep rise; but recumbents seem to be very comfortable for use on level pavement. Unfortunately, most recumbent bicycles have long wheelbases which makes them difficult to transport in an RV. Our Dahon folding bikes meet our needs very well for transportation and storage. Recumbents are also a bit expensive, so there probably won't be one in our foreseeable future.

We also found out the people who run the bike shop are fellow members of the Escapees RV Club. They have a 5th wheel and plan to begin their full-timing in two years; but for now, they can only get away for two months in the summer.

After our 10+ mile bike ride, it was mid-afternoon; and we were hungry. Taking a took a short detour on our way back to the motor home through Lake Panasoffkee, we stopped at Catfish Johnny's Restaurant for a late lunch to reward ourselves for the sacrifice of all that exercise.

 

Catfish Johnny is a local musician who started a restaurant a few miles west of Interstate 75, Exit 321. The restaurant specializes in Southern-style dishes like catfish, alligator, frog legs, as well as shrimp and other seafood. They have several all-you-can-eat specials on various nights and a jam session on Tuesdays. We had catfish finger baskets. Of course, catfish don't have fingers, but that's what they call the battered, deep-fried catfish strips. The baskets are served with a generous helping of catfish strips, French fries, cole slaw, and two hush puppies for $5.99.

A few days after our bike ride, we had the privilege to witness our third live space shuttle launch. We saw the first one from a few miles south of where we are staying now in Dec., 2006, and we saw the second this past November when we were staying in New Smyrna Beach.

The first launch was a night launch, and the shuttle was just a bright light in the sky because we were about 90 miles away; but for the second launch, which was also a night launch, the shuttle really lit up the sky because we were only about 35 miles away.

Even though we were about 90 miles away again for the the third launch, it was the most spectacular by far because of the time of day. This time, the shuttle Discovery lifted off at 7:43 PM, which was less than 15 minutes after sunset. The sky was dark enough to see the bright flames from the solid-fuel booster rockets as the shuttle came up over the trees, but the sky was also light enough to see the smoke trail, especially as the shuttle got higher in the sky. As Discovery rose above the curve of the earth, the smoke trail was illuminated orange by the setting sun. The upper parts of the smoke trail were illuminated yellow then bright white.

 

We saw the solid-fuel booster rockets fall away as two, distinct dots shining in the bright sun at high altitude. Soon afterward, the shuttle itself went out of sight, but the bright orange and yellow smoke trail lingered for quite a while. We went inside and followed the launch coverage for a few minutes on the NASA Channel then settled in for some regular TV.

We're working on our summer travel plans as well as some local sightseeing plans for the coming weeks. We'll be meeting some friends, so we'll definitely be in tourist mode. Stop back to see what we discover.

Weeki Wachee Springs

We spent a little over a week in the Pittsburgh area. With hospital visits, the memorial service, and numerous other tasks, we did a lot of running around and spent a lot of time on the phone. We were anxious to get back "home" and relax.

It was 81 degrees when we left Florida for Pittsburgh, and it was 2 degrees at 7:00 AM when we left Pittsburgh to return to Florida. It took us all the way to Wytheville, VA just before noon for the temperature to get above the freezing mark. Fortunately, the weather was clear all the way. We made good time on our return because we were better able to combine our rest, food, and gas stops. There was also MUCH less traffic than there was when we were traveling around the holidays.

As ready as we were to relax, we weren't able to do that the first few days back. We had summer clothes at the motor home and winter clothes we had taken with us that needed to be washed. We had so much laundry, Margery decided to go to the campground laundry instead of trying to catch up with the small loads that our on-board washer/dryer can do. Paul took the car to the car wash adjacent to the campground to wash off the road salt. We also needed to restock groceries so we would have something to eat, so a run to Walmart was in order.

After we caught up on our chores, we relaxed around the campground for several days. We rode our bikes and chilled out.

After we had rested up a week or so, we decided to drive about 45 minutes southeast of Bushnell to Weeki Wachee Springs to get back to some sightseeing. Weeki Wachee is one of those tourist places we would probably pass on except that Paul went there with his family when he was a kid back in the '50s, and he was curious as to how it had changed over the years. Since Weeki Wachee Springs is relatively close by, we decided to check it out.

Weeki Wachee Springs is a natural spring located in Weeki Wachee, FL at the headwaters of the Weeki Wachee River. The name Weeki Wachee is a Seminole Indian name meaning winding river. The river meanders approximately 8 miles from the spring to the Gulf of Mexico. Although the normal flow of the spring is well over 100 million gallons a day (1,000 gallons a second), the flow rate is currently only about 60 million gallons due to the ongoing drought. The water comes out of the spring at about 74 degrees year round.

The tourist attraction was started in 1947 by Newton Perry, a former Navy frogman. Perry cleaned the old, rusted refrigerators and abandoned cars out of the spring, built an 18-seat underwater theater, and trained pretty girls to perform an underwater ballet while breathing air supplied from a compressor through hoses.

In the early days, there wasn't much traffic in the area of the spring. When the girls saw or heard cars approaching, they would run and stand by the road in their bathing suits waving to try to attract customers. It must have worked because by the mid to late '50s, Weeki Wachee had become a popular tourist stop. The photo below shows Paul and his mom at Weeki Wachee in 1957.

The outside of the underwater theater that was there when Paul visited with his family in 1957 is shown below.

And the next photo shows the underwater theater today. The picture was taken during the performance of the "Little Mermaid" show. You can see the Prince on a platform on the roof ready to dive into the water to begin to take part in the action being watched by those inside the theater.

Weeki Wachee was purchased by the American Broadcasting Co. in 1959. In 1960, ABC built the current 500-seat underwater theater and began to heavily promote Weeki Wachee. Weeki Wachee became a Florida state park in November, 2008.

The original shows were underwater ballets featuring girls in mermaid costumes and swim fins. The next photo shows two "mermaids" in 1957 in a graceful pose.

 

This same pose became sort of a trademark of Weeki Wachee back in the '50s and is depicted in a tall sculpture that stands at the entrance today.

The shows at Weeki Wachee have changed since the early days. The shows used to be underwater ballets, but today they are more "kid-friendly" and tell stories like the current "Little Mermaid." Some of the other shows they have done include "The Wizard of Oz", "Snow White", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Peter Pan." While the kid-friendly shows are performed several times a day, there was one performance a day of a show called "Fish Tales." We went to see "Fish Tales" because it is more like the original underwater ballet shows with a little history of Weeki Wachee thrown in. During "Fish Tales", they show some old photos and movies of Weeki Wachee as well as some current behind-the-scenes video on TV monitors scattered around the theater.

The photo below shows four "mermaids" performing during "Fish Tales."

And here is the patriotic finale of "Fish Tales." Notice the turtles participating in the show (upper left and far right). There are numerous turtles and fish swimming in the spring, and they come right up to the swimmers.

Weeki Wachee also has about a half an hour pontoon boat cruise down the river. It was a pleasant trip, but we didn't see much wild life. We went on the first cruise of the day hoping the wildlife would still be undisturbed, but it was probably a little too early in the morning for the alligators and turtles to be out on the banks sunning themselves. We did, however, run across numerous canoeists and kayakers. There are rentals available nearby, or you can bring your own. Even though the river level is down 2 to 3 feet because of the drought, there were still plenty of people out paddling.

 

The next photo is another view along the river showing a cypress tree standing in the water. Cypress trees, which are conifers, loose their needles in winter.

 

A relatively recent addition to Weeki Wachee is a short, 15-minute bird show. They had several macaws and a cockatoo that were trained to do tricks. One of the macaws called Baby Bird is shown in the photo below. At about six years old, Baby Bird is the youngest bird performing at Weeki Wachee. Macaws can live to be 60 or 70.

 

In the next photo, the cockatoo is checking for her mail.

Another feature that wasn't at Weeki Wachee when Paul and his family visited in 1957 is Buccaneer Bay, a water park that was opened in 1982. The photo below shows Buccaneer Bay, which lies across the spring from the underwater theater. Buccaneer Bay opens for the season later in March.

In the times between the river cruise and the shows, we strolled around the grounds. Now that spring is arriving, they were planting annuals, and the azaleas were in full bloom.

One of the beautiful things about azaleas is way the shrubs are covered with blossoms, but the flowers are also very pretty individually.

 

We seem to be finding a lot of opportunities for tourist photos lately, and there were several at Weeki Wachee. Here is Margery sitting in a seashell.

Here's another tourist picture. Somehow we seem to have started a collection of these tourist pics. :-)

While we wouldn't classify Weeki Wachee a "must see", we did enjoy our visit there. It was interesting to learn about the history of Weeki Wachee through the "Fish Tales" presentation.

Blueberry Hill RV Resort offered winter guests an extra month's stay at half price, so we decided to take advantage of the offer. That will give us a little more time to do some leisurely sightseeing here in central Florida before we head west for the summer.