Thousand Trails Peace River Campground – Wauchula, FL

We left Rose Bay in Port Orange, FL about 9:30 on Friday morning December 11, and headed southwesterly toward Wauchula. Acey’s mileage 69,623.4 and Thor’s 76,390. We made a stop in Lakeland to have our captain’s chairs looked at. Jim found Emo’s in Lakeland from discussions on the online American Coach forum. The chairs need to be re-upholstered as the foam in the seats is about worn out, plus there is a rip on the back of the passenger chair. And, a previous owner must have had a pet that chewed on the passenger seat belt which makes it hard to adjust and retract, so we may have the seat belt replaced as well. We have an appointment to return with the seats on February 16th to have them re-padded and re-upholstered.

It rained last night, and continued to rain a bit Saturday morning. About 11:30 it seemed to be stopping, so we drove up to Lakeland to ride our bikes on the Fort Frazier Trail. Its another rails-to-trails path running from Lakeland to Bartow. We started close to the Lakeland end and rode to the end where Jim noticed this plaque in the ground.

Being that this was a “rails-to-trails” it seemed appropriate that they had these signs warning of a road crossing ahead!

There were many signs along the way telling of Florida history. Here are a few:

There were power poles along part of the trail

and many of them had quotes on them; here are some of them of them:

And once the power poles and trail separated, there were some smaller signs next to the trail like this one:

The trail was well maintained and was rather scenic at spots,

This covered bridge was at the Bartow end of the trail.

Some nice foliage along the way too!

These lantana blooms are like mini bouquets – Linda recalls seeing these in Gainesville when she lived there.

We rode nearly 16 miles today. It was a good day after all to go for a ride!

We walked around the campground – here is the Peace River

A few cranes were along the shore – signs warned us not to swim in the river; alligators and snakes also like the river… but we didn’t see any.

We found a little 9 hole putt-putt course, The arbor welcomed us to Peace River Puttersville!

The course needs some work, but it was nice – watch out for the turtle and alligator on the first hole!

Most campers that have pets have a dog, but we have seen lots have cats and also birds. This sign is typical cat philosophy!

…squirrel!

On Tuesday Dec 15 we headed back to Lakeland again and met up with one of Linda’s former co-workers! Gail and Linda worked together for 3 years in Fort Lauderdale before Jim’s company transferred us to Nashville. We reminisced about those days and caught up on each other’s lives since those days so long ago! Gail was decked out in Christmas attire to deliver gifts to friends.

Afterwards, we rode the Fort Frasier Trail again.

These large birds watched us as we rode by!

You know you are in the south when trees are full of Spanish moss!

A word from Warren Buffet

It was another good day to be out for a ride!

Linda spent some time working on the blog and composing a Christmas letter while Jim washed Acey and did some other maintenance jobs. WOW – Christmas is coming fast!!

On Friday we rode over to Pioneer Park to check out the Baldwin Engine we noticed when we drove by.

It reminded me of the 576 Steam Engine that sat in Centennial Park in Nashville for so many years and is now being restored! Our boys loved going to see it when they were young, especially Chris! He was so delighted when they recently decided to restore the old engine — and he had helped work on it before the virus hit… You can read about the restoration project at https://www.nashvillesteam.org/

Saturday morning we left for South Florida – Chuck and Chris are both flying in and we will spend the week together with Linda’s brother Rob.

Merry Christmas 2020 from the Compsons!