#337 Wekiwa Springs State Park

We arrived at Wekiva Springs and got settled in it was good to be back to a place we were familiar with. I had mentioned once before the outflow of spring water was amazing at 40 million gallons a day much less than Manatee Springs. Last year we had some wild turkeys walking along the side of the road we hope to see them again this year.

We had been discussing meeting some friends named Jeanne and Tom from Kissimmee when we got into town. We first met them back at Lake Louisa the year before.

We settled in and they said they had company for a day or two so we visited with them a little later in the week. We are back into our routine of walking so we walked at least two miles every other day. One hike is a loop down by the springs swimming area.

The other hike that we did was where you leave out of our campsite and walk down a dirt road trail toward something called the Youth Camp which is a bunch of cabins. I believe it's summer camp set up for week-long camping with cabins circling a lake. We would alternate the two routes every other day.

Ever since we were in Franklin North Carolina I've been having a problem with the microwave that came with the RV. Whenever you close the door it would blow a fuse and I have no idea why.

I have replaced the fuse several times. I remembered an old trick that some people used to do on a car stereo. You wrap the glass fuse in aluminum foil and put it back in just to bypass the fuse for testing and troubleshooting purposes. I did this but sadly there was a puff of purple smoke and a little pop sound. Now it's just dead. I took it apart and replaced some of the blown thermistors but kept on having problems so finally it was time to give up. We went to Best Buy and we went back and forth on whether to get a convection combination microwave at $600.We have a gas-operated stove so we decided to just get the $250 version of a good microwave.

About the last week we were there it was nice out one afternoon at like 75 degrees and a couple of days and I wanted us to try kayaking again. I had wanted to make some progress on patching a hole in the two-person kayak that we own.

I spoke to a guy at a hardware store and he seemed to think that the J-B Weld 2 part epoxy designed for underwater would be the way to go. I ground off the damaged plastic and begin to put this epoxy in the hole much like you would if you were patching a sheetrock wall. It was a pretty big hole bigger than your thumb. A couple of days later we planned to go on this excursion down from Wekiwa Springs to a place called Wekiwa Island.

I thought it was interesting that the state park is called Wekiwa but pronounced Wekiva, yet the island is just spelled Wekiva.

We had done an excursion the year prior when we took the kayak up to a place called Rock Springs and paddled seven miles downriver with the crazy lady. It took about all day and we didn't get done until about dark. When we got finished we /I had to drag the kayak up of reasonably steep hill that seemed to go on forever. It was more like 400 yards of dragging it up a hill. After that event, we decided to get a roller caddy to put under it as it weighs about a hundred pounds. This time we were more prepared and the caddy worked great. The Wekiva River is very beautiful and untamed so we got lots of pictures of birds and turtles and things. It was about 1 mile down to Wekiva Island and then they tied the kayak off and started exploring. They had an interesting little set up there. There were food trucks and a nicely decorated bar and a lot of Adirondack chairs facing the river. You can watch the people go by watching the water flow by. There were some cool statues and sculptures. We had a nice meal from the food truck and just had a nice afternoon together. We paddled back and it was just a nice day on the water. India said as long as it's uneventful and we don't sink it's a great day.

One night some folks about 100 ft. away had auditory control problems after 10 pm. They were just talking but normal for them was like 80 decibels. I walked up in my robe standing in the shadows on the road. All they could see was maybe a silhouette but I said, Hi guys it's 11:30 and you're loud and we'd really like to go to sleep now so can you just kind of like turn it down a little. I think they either didn't know it was so late or they thought I was completely insane and after a bit of a pause they said okay and surprisingly it got rather quiet from then on. I want to think they were just absent-minded about how late it was or they just didn't realize that they are annoyingly loud. I told my son Ben about this and he said I was going to get shot when these days. I felt like I had to say something people are just not as polite as they should be and it's my job apparently to help him with that.

I met with a lady named Christina who was the caretaker of all things mechanical at the UU up in Eustis Florida. I had been helpful with some flickering lights the year prior and I let her know I was going to be in town. She said I don't have anything at the fellowship but if you have some time I have something at the home that I need a little help with. We made arrangements for the Tuesday after we arrived. I looked at her problem and it was a fan speed controller. She said it hadn't worked in about a year. While I was there it worked fine. She also had sort of one of those rather large 10 ft. High gas-powered heaters that would make your patio comfortable in winter. It had a bad anti-tip switch and I was able to fix that for her. At the UU they have what is called a science and philosophy discussion at 10:30 a.m. every Thursday and I went and enjoyed the lively discussions. On the way home I went by McDonald's and I thought I’ll get a single cheeseburger or something just because I haven't had a burger in a while. They had a special where you can get two normal sandwiches for $5. That's a good deal I'll buy one and maybe save one for later or see if India wants it. I went with the quarter pounder and the second sandwich is a Big Mac. I'm sure these are about a thousand calories each. I sat down and had a nice visit with the Big Mac and everybody knows that should be enough. Then that quarter pounder just started looking so good and so I ate it too. Then I had eaters remorse and said that was kind of dumb. After that, I went back to the house and I remember feeling a little sluggish, I can't imagine why.