Birthday, Bay and Bowl

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Hi Blog!

Super Bowl Sunday just happened to fall on Dave's birthday this year. During the Saturday Block Party, we were invited to the campground's Super Bowl Party. Since we had a good time at the Block Party, we thought it might be fun to watch the game with a crowd. Since we knew we would be sitting for several hours later in the day, we wanted to get out and stretch our legs a little before the serious eating and drinking commenced. 

Because of all the recent rain and cold weather, we decided a nice paved trail would give us the miles we wanted without being too soggy. We discovered the Withlacooche Bay Trail, a five mile multi-use trail that ends at the Gulf of Mexico. Dave found a trailhead two miles from the bay, giving us a four mile round trip. Let the Birthday perambulation to the Bay begin!

Bundled against the cold, we stopped to check out the Cross Florida Barge Canal.

The Cross Florida Barge Canal was designed to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean across mainland Florida. It was first proposed in the 1930s as part of an economic recovery program and again in 1942 as a national defense project. The project was finally granted funding in 1963 under President John F. Kennedy, and engineers completed some portions of the canal. Pressure from local citizens and environmentalist groups convinced President Richard Nixon to halt the project in 1971. In 1992, the Withlacoochee Bay Trail became part of the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.

The Cross Florida Greenway spans Central Florida from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Johns River. One of the nation's largest incomplete public works projects has been transformed into a unique linear park. Occupying more than 70,000 acres of land formerly known as the Cross Florida Barge Canal, the Greenway is a 110-mile linear park that is more than a mile wide in places. It hosts more than 300 miles of trails of all types — paddling, hiking, mountain biking, equestrian and paved multi-use.

There are numerous multil-use pavilions along the trail. There are also numerous warnings about no swimming with the alligators.

About a half mile from the bay, the paved multi-use trail criss-crossed with the lime-rock access road. We decided to hike the last half mile on the rustic road. Pictured below is our first glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico.

We didn't stay long at the end of the canal. The 40 mph winds and sideways rain pushed us back onto the multi-use trail. Click the link to this video of a windy Withlacoochee Bay 

Away from the gusty wind, we stopped at another pavilion to take in the expansive salt marsh.

A palm hammock is slowly being taken over by the salt marsh.

We finished our hike just in time to get Dave back to the rig for a birthday call from the Lithuanian Scrantons. After a yummy lunch of Cuban sandwiches, it was time to get ready for the big game. Kathy dug out the Camp Sharktooth arts and crafts materials and began preparing decorations for Buster.

Everyone in the park now knows who we are rooting for!

We learned a new way to bet on a football game. You buy a square. The numbers for each square are randomly chosen to represent the last number of the score for each team at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter. With such a high scoring game, the numbers changed several times. Unfortunately, we never came close to winning.

With TVs in the front and back of the Rec Room, there were no bad seats in the house. We made sure to come early and stake out the Eagles side of the room.

While the crowd was not as large as we thought for a campground of this size, we did have quite a few tasty treats to pick from. True fans know what's important for a Super Bowl Party.

We didn't quite get the fairy tale ending we were hoping for, but the Eagles stayed in the game until the very last play. 

That may be the end of this blog entry, but it is definitely not the end of the Eagles' Super Bowl ambitions!