Living Our Dream

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens Spring Flower Festival

Bushnell, FL - Events of Saturday, March 22, 2014

Margery was talking to one of our neighbors at Blueberry Hill who told her about the Spring Flower Festival held on the grounds of Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville on March 22 and 23. The Spring Flower Festival is an annual event with about 175 vendors selling plants, garden accessories, garden-related crafts and, of course, food.

Paul has a keen interest in gardening, and it's one of the things he misses most now that we are full-timers. We have visited a lot of botanical gardens in our travels, but it's not the same as getting your hands dirty. Since we will probably settle down in Florida for at least part of the year when the time comes, Paul has been trying to learn about semi-tropical horticulture for the past couple of years. We figured a plant sale might be a good place to gain additional knowledge by being able to talk directly to growers and other gardeners, so we planned go to the festival on Saturday.

Our experience from when we attended plant sales like this back when we had a stick house is you need to go the first day and you need to be there when they first open because the best plants will be gone within an hour or two. It's not that we were planning to buy anything, but if we wanted to see the full selection of what was available, we knew had to go early. The festival opened at 9:00 a.m., and since Gainesville is about 2 hours north of Bushnell, we were on the road around 7:40.

Admission to the festival is $8. There is limited parking at the botanical garden, but there is remote parking with shuttle service at a nearby school and at a nearby park. We were early enough to get a spot at the botanical garden so we didn't have to wait for the shuttle.

View of some of the vendor booths in the festival

The variety of the plants offered for sale was excellent, as was the quality. The prices were also very reasonable. The good selection and low prices really brought out the serious buyers because we saw many people with wagons and all sorts of carts in which to haul their many purchases back to their cars.

One flower we like very much that we saw at the festival and that we have also seen at several Walmart and Home Depot garden centers is the gerbera daisy, which is a member of the sunflower family. Grown as annuals in the north, these flowers are perennials (meaning they come back every year) in Florida. The showy flowers are also popular for cutting.

Gerbera daisy

Bromiliads are also very showy with red, pink, yellow, variegated and spotted flowers. Pineapples are members of the bromiliad family.

Margery gathering information about bromiliads from the grower

Anthuriums are native to Central and South America and are only hardy farther south in Florida. However, many gardeners here in central Florida are able to grow tender plants like anthuriums by planting them in pots and taking them into their enclosed lanai on cold nights.

Anthurium

One very striking flower we saw at the festival was a variety of hibiscus called 'Fiesta.' Fiesta is a tropical hibiscus. It might survive a frost, but it would have to be taken into a heated space to prevent it from being killed by a freeze.

Hibiscus 'Fiesta'

Another interesting plant was the aptly-named 'bad hair day plant.'

Bad hair day plant

We also came across a vendor who was selling back issues of Florida Gardening Magazine for only $1 each. Paul picked up a few issues.

Paul perusing back issues of Florida Gardening Magazine

Vendors selling garden accessories were also plentiful. Shown below are flamingos, egrets and sandhill cranes made from PVC pipe. The birds bob and rotate with the wind.

Tropical birds made from PVC pipe

One vendor had his plants displayed inside a screened enclosure with butterflies flitting about.

Butterflies in a screened enclosure

Patrons of the Spring Flower Festival were also free to walk the grounds of the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, so we explored some of the paths after we had finished checking out the festival vendors.

The name "Kanapaha" (pronounced kah-NAP-ah-hah) is derived from the Timuqua Indian words for "palm leaf" and "house." It refers to the palm-thatched roofs of the dwellings of the early inhabitants of the area.

There weren't many flowers blooming in the gardens this early in spring, but we enjoyed the foliage as the paths curved gracefully through the peaceful woods. It was nice to get away from the hubbub of the festival for a time.

Curving path in the botanical garden

Bamboo forest

More bamboo

Ponds and splashing waterfalls

When we finished walking the paths of the botanical gardens, we returned to the festival to find it a lot more crowded than when we first arrived. There were lots of wagons full of purchased plants being wheeled around, so it looks like sales were brisk.

As we headed to the exit, we wanted to stop and take another look at the Fiesta hibiscus we liked so much, but both vendors where we saw the the plants when we first arrived were completely sold out of that particular plant. That illustrates what we meant when we said we needed to go to the festival the first day and we needed to go early if we wanted to see the full range of what was being offered.

The festival was much more crowded when we left than it was when we first arrived.

From the festival, we made our way back to Blueberry Hill. We don't have any major sightseeing plans for the near future, but something is bound to spark our interest.

More Cedar Key

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, March 19, 2014

We were hungry when we finished our tour of Southern Cross Sea Farms because it was mid afternoon, so we immediately headed to Tony's Seafood in downtown Cedar Key.

Tony's Seafood

The speciality of Tony's, clam chowder, was highly recommended by former New Englanders and fellow full-timers, Rob and Linda, of My Quantum Discovery. Tony's is a three-time World Champion at the Clam Chowder Cook-Off in Newport, RI. When a restaurant from Florida wins a competition in the middle of clam chowder country, you know their chowder has to be good. The reason they only won three times is apparently because the recipe was retired to the Cook-Off Hall of Fame after the third win.

We both had a cup of clam chowder ($4.99), and we split a fried clam strip appetizer ($7.99) and a fried fish sandwich with potato salad for our side dish ($9.99).

Margery with her cup of clam chowder

The clam chowder was absolutely outstanding. It was loaded with clams that were tender and sweet, and the chowder was rich and creamy. We had chowder several times when we visited New England last summer, and we had none that was even close to being as good as Tony's. In fact, we can't remember having chowder as good as Tony's - EVER!

The rest of the food, however, was so-so. The breading on the fried clam strips was too thick in our opinion, the clams had almost no flavor, and they were tough. The fish sandwich wasn't bad, but it didn't have much flavor either. The potato salad looked appetizing, but it was also bland.

The clam chowder at Tony's is definitely worth the stop, but we recommend having either a bowl of chowder ($7.99) or a jumbo bowl (around $12) and skipping the rest. Stop at McDonalds on your way home if you're still hungry.

Right across the street from Tony's is the Cedar Key Historical Society Museum, so we stopped in after our late lunch to learn about the history of Cedar Key. Admission is only $2 per person.

Historical Society Museum

The museum covers the history of Cedar Key all the way back to prehistoric times with the mastodon teeth they have on display. They also have a few artifacts from various Native American groups that have inhabited the area.

Margery checking out Native American artifacts

Cedar Key was inhabited by Native Americans dating back to at least 500 BC. The Spanish used Cedar Key as a watering stop for their ships on their way from Mexico back to Spain in the 1500s and 1600s, and pirates like Captain Kidd and Jean Lafitte also stopped there. The first permanent habitation of Cedar Key by non-natives began in 1839 when the U.S. Army established a fort and depot there. The Army abandoned the fort following a severe hurricane in 1842.

About the same time the military left Cedar Key, land grants were becoming available to settlers, and the area began to grow. Cedar Key soon became an important port for shipping lumber and other goods to the north.

Because ships leaving the port at Cedar Key had to sail all the way around the tip of Florida, Augustus Steele, who is credited with being the founder of Cedar Key and who also was a Florida State Legislator, became close allies with David Yulee, who was the first U.S. Senator from Florida and president of the Florida Railroad. The pair worked to obtain permission from the Florida legislature to build a railroad from Fernandina on the east coast of Florida near Jacksonville to Cedar Key. The railroad was completed in March, 1861.

The Civil War broke out the month after the railroad was completed. In 1862, the U.S. Navy captured Cedar Key destroying many of the buildings including the railroad depot. They also ripped up and destroyed tracks.

After the Civil War, Eberhard Faber and the Eagle Pencil Company both built lumber mills in the area to produce cedar slats. The railroad was eventually repaired so the slats could easily be shipped to northern factories for making pencils.

Although pencils were never actually made at Cedar Key, the museum had a display showing the steps in their manufacture. A slat similar to what was produced at Cedar Key is shown at the upper left in the next photo. The slat was grooved to receive graphite (center left), then the graphite was added (bottom left). At the top right, two slats have been glued together sandwiching the graphite between. The sandwich then had the outside contoured to begin forming the hexagonal shape of the pencils (center right). Shown at the bottom right are the final steps of separating, painting, marking and adding the metal ferule and eraser.

Display showing the steps in making pencils

In 1867, John Muir the famed naturalist, walked 1,000 miles from Louisville, KY to Cedar Key. He wrote about the walk and about Cedar Key in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, which was published in 1916 after his death.

When Henry Plant completed his railroad to Tampa in 1886, it took shipping away from Cedar Key, and the area began an economic decline. In September, 1896, a strong hurricane struck Cedar Key killing about 100 people and destroying many of the cedar trees and many buildings including the two lumber mills. If that weren't enough, a fire in in the town of Cedar Key in December, 1886, caused even more damage.

By the turn of the century, fishing, oystering and sponging had become important activities. The museum also had a display of models showing various types of boats used around Cedar Key for fishing.

Models of fishing boats used around Cedar Key

The museum also owns the house next door that once belonged to Dr. Daniel Andrews. Dr. Andrews was a dentist from Indiana who gave up his practice and moved to Cedar Key in 1909 to go into the business of manufacturing palm fiber, which was used for brushes and brooms. The company was called the Standard Manufacturing Company, a.k.a. the Fiber Factory. The house, which once served as the factory office as well as the Andrews family residence, was donated to the museum by the Andrews family and moved to the site adjacent to the museum in 1995.

Home of Dr. Daniel Andrews that houses an exhibit on the manufacture of palm fiber

Palm fiber is made from the base of the leaves of young sabal palm trees which grow abundantly in Florida. The crown of the tree was harvested, and the leaf bases, called boots (shown to the right in the photo below), were removed.

Crown of a young sabal palm (left) and a leaf base from which the palm fibers are made

After soaking the boots in water to soften them, they were fed through hackles to separate the fibers.

Hackles used to separate the fibers

Bundles of fibers

The fibers were combed, cut to length, bundled and shipped to brush and broom manufacturers all over the United States and in several foreign countries.

In addition to manufacturing palm fiber, Dr. Andrews also patented the design of whisk brooms, which were sold under the Donax brand. There were several sizes and styles of whisk brooms made at the Fiber Factory.

Donax brand whisk brooms made by the Standard Manufacturing Company

There were three palm fiber factories in the world, all of which were in Florida. The Standard Manufacturing Company was the largest and the only one to also manufacture brushes.

The process of extracting palm fiber is very time consuming, labor intensive and expensive. The advent of cheaper synthetic fibers combined with heavy damage to the factory by a hurricane in 1950 forced the Standard Manufacturing Company to close in 1952. The other two palm fiber manufacturers soon followed suit.

The visit to the museum was very interesting. Everyone there was eager to tell us the story of Cedar Key. The octogenarian volunteer we met in the Andrews house was born, raised, and spent much of his adult life as Cedar Key resident, and he had lots of interesting stories to tell.

After the museum, we took a walk up the street. It looks like Cedar Key has a fairly vibrant artist community because there were several galleries, one of which had outdoor displays of art including the mosaic fisherman in the photo below.

Mosaic fisherman

There was also a mosaic cormorant outside the shop that Paul especially liked.

Cormorant mosaic

We then headed to Dock Street at the waterfront. Dock Street is where most of the restaurants, souvenir shops and night spots are located.

Dock Street

Charter fishing boats dock at the pier at the eastern end of Dock Street. There are also kayak rentals and a boat launch. We saw lots of pelicans hanging out around fishing boats looking for discards from fishermen cleaning fish.

Pelican at the pier in Cedar Key

Cedar Key reminded us a little of Key West, although not on as grand a scale. Both are pretty laid back, both have an emphasis on fishing and water sports, and both have somewhat of an artistic vibe.

One thing that is very different about Cedar Key is the absence of crystal-clear, blue-green water that surrounds the Florida Keys. As we mentioned in our last post, the thing that makes this such a good area for clam farming is all the algae in the water, which makes the water brownish and cloudy.

We headed back to the car from the pier and made our way back to Blueberry Hill. We relaxed for day or so, then went on another outing. Stay tuned.

Cedar Key

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A few weeks ago, Linda and Rob of My Quantum Discovery gave us a shout-out in their blog because they used info from one of our posts when they visited Silver Springs State Park. Now it looks like it is our turn to thank them because a recent blog post of theirs inspired us to visit Cedar Key last Wednesday.

By the way, "key" is the Anglicized version of an Indian word "cayo" meaning small island. In the Bahamas, their small islands are called Cays, which is closer to the original Indian word. Cay is spelled differently, but it is still pronounced key.

Cedar Key is a town about two hours northwest of where we are staying in Bushnell. The town is located on Way Key, which is the largest of a group of small islands just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the town occupies most of Way Key, the whole island is frequently referred to as Cedar Key. Although each island in the group has its own individual name, the entire group of islands is called Cedar Keys. Cedar Key gets its name from the eastern red cedar trees that used to be so abundant in the area.

Our first stop was at Shell Mound, which is located north of Cedar Key at the end of County Road 326. Shell Mound is a midden mound that is part of the Lower Swuannee National Wildlife Preserve.

Initially, we weren't sure exactly where the trail for the mound started, so we followed the road all the way to the end where there is a boardwalk out over the mud flats to a fishing pier.

View from the fishing pier

If you go to Shell Mound, take insect repellent. We carry Off towelettes in the glove compartment, but we neglected to use them when we walked out the boardwalk to the fishing pier. The no-seeums just about ate us alive.

There is a trail from the parking area at the pier, but we weren't sure it was the right one (we later found out it did lead to the mound), so we drove back the road about a quarter mile to another parking area where there was a sign for the trail.

The mound covers 5 acres and is 28 feet tall. It consists primarily of oyster and whelk shells along with some deer and fish bones and a little primitive household refuse (potsherds and the like) discarded by ancient Indian civilizations who lived in the area. The trail circles around the base of part of the mound and goes up over one end. We headed out on the loop, which is only about half a mile in total length. This time, we used our Off towelettes, and the no-seeums didn't bother us.

Trail heading to Shell Mound

Woodland Indian cultures used the mound as a depository for shells and other refuse from about 2500 BC to 1000 AD. Shells from the mound were used as a source for road-building material before the area became a wildlife refuge so the mound is not as big as it once was.

Paul standing on Shell Mound

Our next stop was Southern Cross Sea Farm located on State Route 24 just outside the town of Cedar Key. Southern Cross Sea Farm is one of the largest producers of hard shell clams in Florida. There are lots of clam farmers, but Southern Cross is also one of the few clam breeders. They have tours; but day and time may vary, so call ahead. They were Wednesdays at 1:00 when we went.

Southern Cross Sea Farms

It was about 12:45 when we arrived at Southern Cross, and people were already gathering for the tour. There was an aquarium inside the main building, and several of us occupied ourselves watching and photographing the resident octopus while waiting for the tour to start.

Octopus in the aquarium at the clam farm

Octopus stretching his legs

The tour was led by one of the co-owners of Southern Cross. His presentation was filled with lots of interesting information about breeding and farming clams.

The clams bred and grown at Southern Cross are northern hard-shell clams called quahogs. There is a southern variety of edible clam that lives along the Atlantic coast, but it has a softer shell and can't survive in the wild on the Gulf Coast of Florida because there are too many predators.

Clams breed in the wild in the spring and fall. Breeding is initiated by fluctuating water temperatures that occur during those times of the year. The sun heats the shallow water where the clams live during the day, and the water cools off at night.

At the clam farm, breeding can take place at any time of the year because they can fool the clams into thinking it is spring or fall by artificially manipulating the water temperature. Brood stock is kept in tanks where the water temperature is cool all the time. A couple hundred of the brood stock clams are placed in the shallow water on the table to the right in the photo below, and the temperature of the water is manipulated back and forth from warm to cool. Breeding can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on how long it takes the clams to get into the mood.

Clam breeding room and nursery

Newly hatched clams, called larvae, are microscopic. They are placed in the clear 6,000 gallon tanks in far background of the photo above and fed algae. All water used in the early part of the clams' life cycle is highly filtered to remove all potentially harmful organisms.

Clam larvae swim for about 5 days after hatching, after which they fall to the bottom. In the wild, they will live out their entire lives where they fall, but at the clam farm, they are transferred from the 6,000-gallon holding tanks to the shallow, rectangular tanks to the left in the photo above.

The clams, which are now about the size of fine dust particles, are kept in round trays with fine filter cloth on the bottom as shown in the photo below. Water containing algae is constantly circulated through the containers.

Algae water circulating through container of clams

Southern Cross purchases small vials of specific varieties of algae to feed the young clams. The algae in the vials is multiplied first in 5 gallon carboys then in the 60 gallon, cylindrical tanks in the photo below. The lightest tanks are filtered seawater that have not yet had starter algae added. The algae has been growing for about a day in the light yellow tanks, and the algae in the darkest tanks is about 5 days old and is almost ready to use.

Tanks growing algae to feed the clams

After about 6 weeks, the clams, which are about the size of fine sand, are moved to tanks outside. Water from the Gulf is circulated through these tanks, and the clams now begin to feed on wild algae. The clams are still kept in circular containers with filter-cloth bottoms.

Clams are moved to tanks outside after about 6 weeks

After a short period in the small, rectangular tanks, the clams are transferred to larger tanks in the floating dock system, and seawater is circulated through the tanks.

Tanks in the floating dock

At this point, the clams look like fine gravel.

Gravel-size clams from a tank in the floating dock

When the clams reach 3/16 to 1/4 inch in size, they are finally ready to be "planted." The clams are placed in mesh bags (about 15,000 per bag), which are then strung together and staked out in areas of shallow coastal waters leased from the state.

Mesh bags for staking out in clam beds

The mesh bags are brought in after a few months, and the clams are removed from the bags and washed to remove empty shells and other debris. The clams, now about the size of a dime, are placed in new bags with larger openings and staked out again in the shallow waters for another 18 months.

At harvest time, the net bags are hauled in and brought back to the processing facility where the clams are washed again and sorted to remove anything that is not a live clam.

Workers washing and sorting harvested clams

Washed clams ready for final processing

The white lip on the clam shells in the photo above indicate the latest growth spurt of that individual clam. Large clams with the widest white lip on their shells indicate the fastest growing clams, which make good candidates for brood stock if needed.

The clams then go to a mechanical sorter which has pairs of rollers with successively smaller spacing between them. The largest clams ride the top pair of rollers all the way to the end and fall into the yellow bags, and the smaller ones fall through the various pairs of rollers and go to different colored bags depending on their size. Clams can live out of water for three weeks or more if kept cool and moist.

Sorting machine to sort clams by size

On our tour, we learned the location of this area between the mouth of the Suwannee River to the north and the Waccasassa River to the south is what makes it so good for raising clams. The rivers deliver nutrients to grow plenty of natural algae in the water to feed the clams, yet Cedar Key juts far enough out into the Gulf that the salinity of the water is not significantly reduced by the fresh water from the rivers. Low salinity would be fatal to the clams.

The other thing that made clam raising in this area such a success was the state-wide ban on large scale net fishing in 1995. After that ban, many fishermen were retrained in aqua-culture, and clam farming took off. Today, Cedar Key is known as "The Farm-Raised Clam Capital of America."

Southern Sea Farms sells about 25% of the clams from their nursery to other clam farmers. The rest they plant themselves. They sell a few clams and other seafood to the public at their facility, but most of their product is sold to wholesale distributors.

We really enjoyed our tour. It was so interesting and informative, it took our minds off how hungry we were. However, as soon as it was over, we realized it was mid afternoon and our stomachs were growling. We headed straight into town for a late lunch. Look for our next post to see where we ate and what we did afterward.

Plant City

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, March 14, 2014

We have mentioned Plant City many times in relation to strawberries because that's what Plant City is so famous for. Plant City is called the Winter Strawberry Capital because it produces about three quarters of all the winter strawberries grown in the United States. It is the home of Wish Farms, the largest strawberry producer in Florida, and it is also the home of the Strawberry Festival (Wish Farms is a major sponsor) held around the first week of March every year. The festival features food (with plenty of strawberries), crafts and entertainment.

One might think Plant City gets its name from all the tropical house plants grown commercially in the area or even from the strawberries and other fruits and vegetables grown nearby. However, Plant City was named for railroad magnate Henry B. Plant.

Plant City was originally an Indian village called Ichepucksassa. When white settlers arrived there in the early 1800s, they thought the name was too hard to pronounce, much less spell, so they renamed it Cork after the postmaster's hometown in Ireland. When Henry Plant extended a railroad line to the town in 1884, the town was renamed in his honor when it was incorporated the following year.

There are several historic landmarks in Plant City, so we decided to go for a drive on Friday to check out some of the history and the strawberries. Plant City is right off I-4 a little over an hour south of Bushnell.

As we exited I-4 and headed south into Plant City, we passed the Daniel's Standard Oil Service Station. The station, which was built in the early 1920s, is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The building now houses a pet grooming business, but maintains much of its original character.

Daniel's Standard Oil Service Station

We then drove several blocks to Union Depot, which is a a train station built in 1908-1909 by both the Atlantic Coast Line, whose tracks ran east and west past the station, and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, whose tracks ran north and south. The two railroads merged in 1967, and the station continued to operate until 1971.

Plant City Union Depot

The depot is also a welcome center for Plant City, and it has a small, free museum inside. There is a caboose, a small diesel locomotive and a few pieces of other railroad equipment on display outside.

According to the sign on the window, the museum was supposed to be open; but it was closed when we arrived. The lights were on inside, so we were hoping whomever was on duty was just at lunch. Therefore, we decided to hang around a few minutes hoping the museum would reopen. While waiting, we checked out some of the railroad equipment on display outside including the cool benches made from rail car wheels.

Bench made from rail car wheels

We could see the signs for a train observation platform and tower on the other side of the tracks, so we headed there next.

Train observation platform and tower

From the other side of the tracks, we also got a different view of the depot.

Union Depot from across the tracks

Several minutes after we crossed the tracks and got up to the tower, the crossing gates closed, and an Amtrak passenger train passed on its way east.

Amtrak passenger train

By the time we got back from the observation tower, the museum was reopening just as we thought it might. Inside there are photos of old trains and displays of old railroad equipment.

Margery checking out old photos in the depot museum

There were several railway maintenance cars that Paul thinks are called speeders; but unfortunately, they weren't marked as to their use or what time period they are from.

Railway maintenance vehicles

There were also several handcars on display. The ones in the background were propelled by pushing and pulling the handlebars forward and back, but the one in the foreground can't really be called a handcar because it incorporates a Honda minibike for power. It is obviously something that was cobbled together in the railroad's shop.

Honda minibike-powered maintenance car

There is a nice little park across the park from the depot. We walked down to the end of the next block and paused for a photo before heading back to the car.

Margery and Paul in the park across the street from the Plant City Depot

From the depot, we drove north a few blocks to see some of the old homes in the historic district.

One of the many old homes in the historic district

We then swung past the Bing Rooming House. The rooming house was built around 1928 and was run by Mrs. Janie Bing for African-Americans who weren't allowed to stay in the segregated hotels or to eat in the all-white restaurants. The house is open for tours Mondays through Wednesdays.

Bing Rooming house

Our last stop was a short distance east of town at the Parkesdale Market. In addition to produce, the market is well known for its strawberry shortcake and strawberry milkshakes.

Parkesdale Market

The line for strawberry shortcake was really long. It snaked up and down the right side of the building in the photo above three times. Then it ran part way across the front of the building behind the potted plants, and then it zig-zagged its way to the order window on the inside. We estimated there were about 100 people ahead of us. Fortunately, the line moves incredibly fast. They have obviously been serving strawberry shortcake for quite a while because they are extremely efficient at it. It only took us a little over 15 minutes from the time we first got in line until we had our shortcakes in hand. If our estimate of about 100 people in line was correct, that works out to one strawberry shortcake about every 9 seconds.

Margery with our strawberry shortcakes

In addition to strawberry shortcake ($3.29), they have strawberry shortcake with ice cream ($3.79), strawberry sundaes ($3.29) and just about every other combination of strawberries, whipped topping, ice cream and shortcake you can imagine.

We both had strawberry shortcake with ice cream. The strawberry shortcake and all its variations are served during strawberry season, which runs from January through mid-April. Strawberry milkshakes are served year round.

Strawberry shortcake with ice cream

In addition to the delicious strawberry shortcake and other treats, Parkesdale market has a wide selection of very nice, reasonably-priced produce. No wonder they were so crowded.

Nice produce at Parkesdale Market

Parkesdale also has a section with plants and flowers. In that area, gardenia blooms like the one shown below filled the air with their intoxicating scent.

Gardenia flower

As we left the market to head back to the motor home, we passed several fields with workers harvesting strawberries. It truly looks like back-breaking work.

Workers harvesting strawberries

Having learned the hard way about traffic tie-ups on I-75 on our way back to Bushnell the previous Friday, we wisely checked the Google Maps app on our smartphone before we headed toward the interstate this time. There was another backup indicated in the same vicinity as the week before, probably due to the same paving project, so we took US Highway 301 north instead of I-75.

Back at the motor home, we had big salads for dinner to offset all the carbs and sugar of our strawberry shortcake, then we relaxed the rest of the evening and weekend. Our scheduled time in Florida is winding down, but we want to squeeze in another sightseeing outing or two and a couple more meals out if we can. We'll have an update in our next post.

Rainbow Springs

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, March 10, 2014

Like Silver Springs we visited a few weeks ago, Rainbow Springs is another one of the "Old Florida" attractions that was not able to weather the rise of Disney and other theme parks of the early 1970s. Rainbow Springs was a roadside attraction that began in the 1930s, flurished in the 1960s, and closed in 1974. Fortunately, as with Silver Springs, the state of Florida eventually stepped in, bought the land around the springs, and made Rainbow Springs a state park. Rainbow Springs State Park is located in Dunellon, FL about an hour north of Blueberry Hill. We headed there for a visit on Monday.

The main entrance to the park is at the headsprings and is located off US 41 just north of Dunellon. The entrance road and the walkway to the ticket window are lined with azaleas. Pets are permitted in the park, so Freeway got to go.

Margery and Freeway along the azalea-lined walkway

Admission to Rainbow Springs is $2 per person at the headsprings entrance. There are two entrances on the other side of the park off SW 177th Ave. - one is for tubing and the other is for the campground. Tubing costs $10.60 per person; and campsites, which have full hookups, cost $30 a night.

Rainbow Springs, previously called Wekiwa Creek by Native Americans and Blue Spring by early settlers, is an artesian spring that produces about 490 million gallons of water a day. There is evidence of human habitation dating back about 10,000 years.

Right inside the entrance are nice views of the headsprings and the river from the terrace. There is a swimming dock at the headsprings.

View of the swimming dock at the headsprings

View downstream from the terrace

The area near the springs first attracted attention in modern times the late 1880s when phosphate was discovered. Phosphate is an important component of fertilizers.

In the 1930s, the area around the spring was developed into a tourist attraction and the name was changed to Rainbow Springs. They thought the new name was more distinctive.

To compete with the glass bottom boats at nearby Silver Springs, Rainbow Springs began to offer "submarine" tours. The boats at Rainbow Springs were not actually submarines, but "sub-boats" with deep hulls that allowed visitors to sit below the waterline and look out through glass windows. There aren't any sub-boats left at the springs, but they did have a model of one in the window behind the small gift shop. The blue portion with the portholes would have been underwater.

Model of one of the Rainbow Springs sub-boats

The real heyday of Rainbow Springs was in the 1960s. Bird and animal exhibits, riverboat rides, a rodeo show and monorail ride with cars shaped like leaves gave visitors plenty to do.

As with many other "Old Florida" attractions, Rainbow Springs began to decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The completion of interstate highways in Florida in the late 1960s began to divert tourists away from smaller attractions and toward major theme parks like Disney World, which was first opened in 1971.

Rainbow Springs closed in 1974, and the facilities fell into disrepair. In 1990, Florida purchased the land around the springs, and the state park officially opened to the public in 1995.

From the entrance, you can follow the walkway to the right to the swimming dock and to the canoe/kayak rental area or you go to the left to see some of the remnants of the old tourist attraction. All the main walks at Rainbow Springs are paved. We headed to the left first.

Back in the late 1930s, they built several artificial waterfalls on the rock plies left over from the phosphate mining days. Water is recirculated from the river by pumps.

Seminole Falls

Rainbow Falls

Aviary Falls

Paul and Freeway resting while enjoying one of the waterfalls

A side path loops past where the zoo for the old tourist attraction was located. There visitors can see the remnants of the old animal cages.

Remnants of old animal cages

The rodeo attraction was at the far end of the property. The pavement in the photo below ran through the middle of the stable that was used to house horses for the rodeo. The depressions on either side are where individual stalls were located.

Location of the old stables for the rodeo attraction

The rodeo arena has been converted into a butterfly garden. There was one lone volunteer weeding the beds and paths in preparation for spring.

Volunteer weeding in the butterfly garden

Since Florida is warm most of the winter, most people don't realize there is a dormant period here just like there is up north. Dormancy is triggered by the shorter days in winter. In the north, dormancy protects plants from cold; but in Florida, dormancy protects plants from the winter dry season.

We chatted a while with the volunteer, who was originally from Connecticut. He said within about a month, the butterfly garden would begin to come alive with new growth, and within two months, there would be flowers everywhere. Although there were a few flowers elsewhere in the garden, we had to be content with just a few blooms here and there in the butterfly garden.

Only a few blooms in the butterfly garden for now

From the butterfly garden, there is an unpaved nature trail through the pine and palmetto woods. Because it was getting late, we decided not to take the nature trail because we still wanted to see the swimming area on the other side of the headsprings. On the way back to the headsprings, we did follow an azalea-lined, side path that went past the pools at the tops of the waterfalls.

Azalea-lined path to the pools at the top of the waterfalls

At the headsprings, we watched the swimmers a few minutes, then walked a little farther to the canoe rental. Dogs aren't allowed in the water at Rainbow Springs; but there was no one around the steps that led down to the water between the swimming area and the canoe rental, so we let Freeway get close to see what he would do. He leaned down from the bottom step to sniff and taste the water, but there was no way he wanted to get wet. Maybe someday we'll be able to coax him into the water when we're at a place where dogs are allowed to swim.

Freeway checking out the water at Rainbow Springs

In addition to canoe and kayak rentals, you can also launch your own boat. We saw a couple in an old wooden kayak paddling up the other side of the river. Talk about Old Florida!

Old wooden kayak on the Rainbow River

As we said, there weren't many flowers blooming yet in the butterfly garden, but there were more flowers blooming elsewhere. The flowers in the photo below are as follows:

• top row - azaleas
• middle row - magnolia, salvia
• bottom row - iris, camellia

Some of the flowers blooming at Rainbow Springs

From Rainbow Springs, we took the back roads to Bushnell. After we dropped Freeway off at the motor home so he wouldn't have to sit in the hot car, we went back out to Beef O'Brady's down the road from the RV park for lupper. Although we were just there with Marilyn and Alan, it was Burger Monday at Beef O'Bradys, and we were hungry for a good burger. On Mondays, the "Build Your Own Burger" (regularly $7.99 with fries) is only $4.99. The burgers were yummy!

Paul with his "Build Your Own Burger"

We relaxed around the motor home the rest of the afternoon. We did a few chores, ran a few errands and relaxed over the next few days. We got a little lazy again, but there is bound to be more sightseeing in the near future, so stay tuned.