Silver Springs, FL (12/1 - 12/8/23)

Moving over to central Florida, we stayed near the Silver Springs State Park where we were able to kayak down the Silver River to see the over abundance of manatees, gators, birds, and turtles. We stayed at the Ft. McCoy/Lake Oklawaha KOA in the huge and very rural Ocala National Forest.

These gentle giants roam this spring-filled river as they do in many other rivers in Florida. Click to see a video of them swimming through the water.

We did the 5-mile kayak trip twice while we stayed here. We paddled once on a crowded Saturday with cloudy skies where we knew we just weren't getting the true experience. On our second trip we enjoyed a more relaxed ride with very few people and sunny skies to make the underwater views tremendously clearer.

With less noise and a warm sun, all of the wildlife came out to warm up in the sun.

We probably saw three times as many gators the second time.

Even the birds were loving the sun. Here an Anhinga dries his wings between dives because he lacks the oils to keep them dry like other water birds.

This gator was on the move when we passed by about 20 feet away. Luckily he wasn't interested in heading toward us directly.

I have never seen so many turtles in my life. Almost every log and rock was crowded with them out sunning. I guess that makes it easy for the gators when the dinner bell rings!

We did manage to get a bike ride in by driving over to the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail. This fully-paved, 16-mile trail gave us 32 miles out and back with a stop on the trail in Gainesville at the Cypress & Grove Brewing Company where they were hosting a farmers market this day.

We also visited another Harvest Host location for a night between stops. The Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum was very interesting.

The museum had a couple of buildings, one focused on car racing and the other with historical cars. The parking lot was level and plenty spacious for our RV, so highly recommend a visit or stay if you are ever driving through on I-75 south of Ocala.