#342 Lake Griffin State Park

As we were wrapping up our Florida Snowbird Adventure for the winter season our last stop was Lake Griffin. We didn't know anything about the area but we had ridden by near there about a year prior because we went to a Methodist seminar that pertained to the nomads Folk. We had signed up to be Nomads and we were going to participate in a project, it was in Alabama. It overlapped a little with our reservations and we didn't feel like leaving early. I spoke to the person that was in charge of the project and said we would be a few days late but we'd be there with bells on. I was a little disappointed but she kind of reacted with if you're not in a hundred percent don't come at all. I told her we want to be there and we can even stay a week longer but we are kind of like already reserved at a place in Florida and we'd like to finish that up and then be just a few days late. She didn't feel that it was appropriate. I guess I let this bother me too much but then I'm also was going through a transition where I no longer want to be involved in evangelical types. As I started listening closely I started realizing the UMC Nomads are pretty Evangelical. I guess after this visit and our connection with The UU we just kind of fizzled out of the nomads without ever actually participating. The meeting was at a place called Fruitland Park which was close to Lake Griffin, then of course a year later here we are at Lake Griffin, Fruitland Park, and The Villages.

At the time we didn’t know anything about the Villages. It seems to be where a developer created a retirement community with all the amenities and lots of gates with keypads. Over the years they kept sprawling so now this development has become a small city. Interconnect that neighborhood with about a hundred neighborhoods and everybody's in the club and outsiders are not welcome and it's a little bit persnickety. If you don't like HOAs this is a nightmare of a place to make your new home. To keep it simple everyone seems to use a golf cart so thousands are zipping this way and that. So far so good but soon enough I seemed to realize it like the HOA thing on steroids. Lots of golf courses with lots of rules and apparently very Trumpy. The right-wing wacky part made me kind of sad. Whenever we wanted to do any town stuff it would always be up the road from Lake Griffin at the Villages. It was the hub for things like Home Depot, Walmart, and all of the above and even our recovery meetings were at The Villages. There's nothing wrong with The Villages it's just not my lifestyle. The whole area of Fruitland Park, The Villages is a subculture.

Happily, Lake Griffin state park is the opposite. It's just a nice little place, it's not paved except for the entrance so all of the places that you would be on are dirt roads. We had picked potential good RV sites when we were scouting a year earlier so when it came time to make the reservation we hit yes on one of the sites we had marked as favorable. It was a nice large site with trees all around us and it was all good. We went on a nice hike every other day for about 2 miles and although we did use a lot of the same trails but you can't have it all. On the main trail, we used there was something called the swampy trail. I kind of got a kick out of it because we were already halfway in it by the time, we realized it was quite a challenge.

At first, I thought it was just going to be quick portage across a wet area. It seemed to go on for like an eighth of a mile. India and I did it and she was a little uneasy but she managed. I kind of got a kick out of it and took a fun video.

Video here

I was able to use my sail on the kayak very well at Lake Griffin. I would watch the wind direction and I might find myself paddling out towards the big lake and then I could sail all the way back. Sometimes I would reverse it because you can't control the wind. I had the best time but unfortunately, sometimes there were some whitecaps. The lake is somewhat shallow and when the wind starts picking up and gets rough pretty quick.

Now that I've learned more about alligators, I know that they're typically not out to get me and they're fairly harmless if you stay out of their way.

I was paddling out one day and I saw one that was a pretty big one at least six feet long just kind of slowly sauntering away in the S shape using his tail. It was a little creepy as it was only maybe 30 feet away. He, she just kind of went up the river a bit and went over towards the water's edge I assume to do some stalking of some kind of prey.

We enjoyed ourselves at Lake Griffin. Next, we would leave Florida and Go West Young man towards the Ecovillage where I had met Marcus.