Friday was our first day back in the Eastern Time Zone for
months. I completely forgot about the
change to standard time this morning. So
my 9:30 late wake up was really my 8:30 what I wanted wake up which is what it
would have been on Thursday anyway. My
internal clock is confused.
Our mission today was to have a look at the spring. White Springs was, in fact, the first major
tourist draw in Florida. The springs
were thought to have healing powers even among the native Indians in the
1700’s. They could come here and not
fear attack from their enemies. A number
of old photographs show the splendor of the spot in its heyday. There was a hotel and the river was kept from
flowing into the spring by means of some sort of batten system. The spring fell out of favor in the early
1900’s and White Springs became a quiet little town. There was a terrible flood in the area during
the 1970’s and all but the first level walkway and the spring itself were
destroyed.
This has been modestly kept
up but, in all honesty, the spring looks nasty.
Even with the old photos at hand it is hard to imagine it in good shape. It’s a
pity that we don’t have to funds to keep up all the special spots.
The Suwanee River has very dark water. I think it is tannin from the vegetation that
makes the color so. It is flowing very
quietly past the springs. Judging from
the bank, the water level seems very low to me.
The bike was in working order this morning so we pedaled over
to the spring. As it is on the river
bank, this was the only hill we encountered on our ride. It was enough on the way back to work up a
little pant. We did have to exit the
park for a bit to get there. While we
were down at the spring, Brett heard a kerfuffle up where we left the bike so
he decided to go up and keep an eye on it while I took a few more
pictures. The noise was from a pickup
truck that had managed to spill several cases of bottled water onto the
road. Brett was amazed to see the people
picking them up and tossing the bent ones onto a lawn beside the road. I had previously observed a bicyclist toss a
bottle onto the side of the road as well.
Littering seems to be the norm is this little neck of the woods.
As we came back through the park we stopped again at the
museum to admire the house and the landscaping.
We spoke at length to a ranger who gave us some more facts and figures
about the place. There are 97 bells in
the tower which makes it the biggest in the country. The museum opened in October 1950 and the
parquet floors are still the originals.
Our ranger knew a lot about the floors because she was the one who
manned the broom. As we were going into
the building we saw a body lying on the front porch. Fortunately, he was not dead but just waiting
for his wife to finish her touring.
There is a pretty fountain next to the house. We sat by it for a while, listening to the
sounds of the water. Brett would like to
have a fountain, the more ornate the better.
It would go with the Victorian style lamp that he chose for the front
yard. A neighbor, upon seeing it,
declared that it was the ugliest lamp she had ever seen. Maybe so but Brett loves it so he ought to
have a fountain to match.
We have found that the people at this campground for these
few days have not been the friendliest that we have met along the way. Most that we have encountered haven’t even
made eye contact. The one exception has
been an older couple just across the way.
The wife was raking up the leaves in our campsite when we arrived. She told us she isn’t a volunteer, she just
needs the exercise so goes to each site as it becomes empty and cleans it
up. Her husband is quite a talker and
visited with Brett for quite a while as he was repairing the bicycle. I can hear that the wife has just introduced
Brett to some other campers who want to go to the Northwest in their new
trailer. He is regaling them with tales
of our trip as I write.
We move on again tomorrow morning. I like moving days too. There is new ground to cover and new things
to see.
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