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| In front of Gregory House in Torreya State Park |
February 15-17. Paynes Prairie is a 22,000 acre preserve that is supposed to have horses and bison on it although we didn't see any. We spent most of our time dealing with RV repair. We had trouble with our jacks that stabilize the 5th wheel. They wouldn't go down to raise it off the truck so we had to take a ratchet to the top of each motor and raise it up and then back down to level after pulling the truck away. This is a long, slow process. We tried to get someone that did RV Mobile repair but didn't have any luck. We were here for only 2 days. We had to raise it back up by using the ratchet. Even after calling the RV manufacturer for suggestions on finding someone to repair, most were booking 2-3 months out. Randy had Joyce call the controller manufacturer and the tech talked her thru trying moving the back jack leads to the front jacks on the control board. Of course the control board was in the middle of the main storage area below bedroom so we had to unload 1/2 of stuff stored there. Then Randy was too tall to sit & with knee replacements can't kneel, so Joyce sat in storage area while tech directed her what to do. The process didn't help so then had to reverse all they had tried. So with our check-out time approaching and campsites all reserved for others, Randy used the ratchet while Joyce re-loaded storage area. So you see not all of our traveling is easy living!!
The park is located just south of Gainesville, Florida. So we did drive in to do some grocery shopping. Once it dawned on us that this was University of Florida town, we drove thru parts of the campus. We sent photos to the 2 oldest granddaughters of the campus, as it won't be long before they will be off to college, as one is 9th grade this year, and the other is 8th grader. Scooters were the favored mode of transportation as you can tell by photos.
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Paynes Prairie State Preserve
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| Low limb on drive in |
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| Not much clearance |
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| Lake Wauberg |
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| Road back into campgound |
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| Florida is a no helmet state unfortunately |
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| More scooters... |
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| Randy called Hope to tell her they were already playing softball at the college. |
On February 17 we drove back to the panhandle of Florida to Torreya State Park just about 50 miles west of Tallahassee, Florida. Some called it the "mountains of Florida". The area reminded us of the Ozarks. It was heavily wooded with pines and the logging is one of the main industries in the area. The park was named after the extremely rare Torreya tree which grows along the river. After our late afternoon arrival due to the traffic jam, Randy fought getting the RV level using the ratchet again. After all the work went to plug into the electricity and no power. Checking we our electric lead in another campsite we knew it was in their electrical box. Of course park ranger had left for day so put in calls to various off-hours numbers but not getting anyone to call back we resigned ourselves to functioning on battery power for night. It was too much trouble to try and move to an open campsite at night. After hour Joyce told Randy to try the last number on the list she hadn't tried, and that was the Parks manager who was out of town but he told Randy what campsite had the camphost and go tell him. By the time Randy walked over, the manager had already called. They tried the box again and breaker worked but they could tell needed replaced. Next morning they decided since was working they'd replace it AFTER we checked out. UGH! Was beginning to think a little black cloud was following us.
There was a plantation home sitting on a bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River. We went to take a tour of the home and looked at the time on our phones and we had an hour before the last one of the day started. So we returned to the RV and went back in 45 min to pay our $ for the tour. She said well the last tour is just finishing up. I told her we'd been told the last tour was at 4 and she said yes that's right, it's now almost 5pm. So I asked are we on Central or Eastern time here? She laughed and said "we're on Eastern, and you were looking at your phone for the time, right?" I replied, "yes". She took us out on porch and pointed to tower in distance. "That cell tower is in Central Time, but here we're Eastern Time, you are not the first to have time problem" as she chuckled. We told her we'd be back for tour next day and we would be on Eastern Time!
We did go back the next day and learned about the Gregory House. The was built in 1840s by a wealthy lumberman. It and several acres were later donated to the park but the house had to be moved from the west side of the Apalachicola River to the east bluff were it now sits. The CCC workers in 1930s dismantled and rebuilt the house on the bluff.
We drove into First Baptist of Bristol Florida on Sunday for church. (Joyce checked on-line to verify it was on EASTERN time after our tour time fiasco!) It was a small church but very nice. We both chuckled when pastor commented on how many more they had in choir... there were probably 12-14. Hated to see what "normal" count was!
The good news was Joyce was able to use the controller to manually raise the jacks when we left, so Randy didn't have to use the ratchet wrench!
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We got caught in a traffic jam from a wreck & construction that held us up for an 1 & 1/2 hour on Hwy 10.
Luckily we had a full tank of fuel! |
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| This park has the only yurt in the Florida State Parks that you can rent. |
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| Road into park shows the new pine trees planted on right, older trees on left. Lumbering is a huge influence in the area. |
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| CCC barracks is now the campground meeting room & Ranger office. |
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| We loved greeting our neighbor Bear. His folks Billy & Cindy explained he's a Dorkie. (A Dachshund & Yorkie) |
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| Foliage of the Torreya tree. (Looked similar to Bald Cypress) |
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| Randy in front of Gregory House looking down at river. |
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| View from Gregory House down to Apalachicola River |
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We walked the steep trail down to the river(note that's the Gregory House at top tree line).
The trail had spots showing emplacements that Confederates used to guard river during Civil War. |
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| Joyce tried to get sunrise pics overlooking the valley but trees blocked the best view. |
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| View of valley from campgound lookout. |
