Carefree Sams Invading the Alabama Rally – Day 1

A small contingency of our Good Sam Chapter, the Carefree Sams, are heading to the Alabama Spring Good Sam Rally in Dothan. We met up on the road out of Majestic Oaks RV Resort and headed toward Dade City on Chancey Road and Old Lake land Highway. We merged on 301N and began our mini-caravan.

As we got ready to turn onto 98N and there was lots of smoke from the wildfires in the area. These few pictures, just show how much these wildfires affect everyone. You could really smell it too! These pictures do not show just how thick the smoke was!

The smoke in the live oaks on this farm, is a bit eerie!

We passed by Blanches on Cortez Blvd, on our way to Brooksville. This place is rally old school Americana, if you love back road travel and small town charm this is the stop. What catches your eye, from the highway, is the holding tanks painted as over-sized soda cans … Coca-Cola products to be specific! Inside they sell classic Florida BBQ and live bait! Two great things that are greater together ... Okay, maybe not! LOL

Just before you get to the heart of Brooksville, you pass by the original Coney Island restaurant. If you are expecting a gourmet experience, you will be disappointed. I you are looking for a steamed foot long hot dog with awesome topping ... you are in the right place! We were overjoyed when their second location came to Zephyrhills! But watch out, there have been many Elvis sightings at both locations! 

There is a historical and possibly haunted house in Brooksville. The May Stringer house, a four story home, perched on top of a hill overlooking the city of Brooksville. John May brought the property in 1855 and built a four room house. He died in 1858. John May’s wife Marena, continued to live there and she ran the plantation. In 1866 Marena married Frank Saxon, a confederate soldier.  Marena died in 1869 during childbirth. When Frank Saxon remarried he sold the house to Dr. Sheldon Stringer. He expanded the house to fourteen rooms and practiced medicine from one of the rooms on the ground floor. Three generation of the Stringer family lived there before Dr. Earl Hensley and his wife Helen bought the house. They sold it to the Hernando County Historical Museum Association in 1981, it become the May-Stringer House Museum. The house is also popular site for paranormal investigators, and many believe its one of Florida’s most haunted homes. The most famous ghost, however, is that of Jessie Mae, a lonely little girl longing for her mother’s touch. Other ghosts rumored to haunt the historic structure include Marena May, Dr. Stringer’s patients, a shooting victim, and an angry spirit known as Mr. Nasty. Though there’s no proof of Mr. Nasty’s existence, he’s said to be a soldier who hanged himself in the attic after learning of his fiance’s infidelity. This betrayal reportedly caused Mr. Nasty to hate women, and one team of ghost hunters had to cut their investigation short after women in the group became violently ill. I think I will skip the ghost tour!

We turned onto 19N and picked up two more RVs from our chapter, now we have a convoy! 

In Homosassa, you can visit the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins State Historic Site, or take a side trip down Ozello Trail. You can also enjoy the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, where you can see West Indian manatees in the park's underwater observatory in the spring. The park also showcases native Florida wildlife, including manatees, black bears, bobcats, white-tailed deer, American alligators, American crocodiles, and river otters. Plus, there is a 57 year old hippo, named Lu!

Photo credit: Duke Energy

Crystal River is home to the Crystal River Energy Complex. The nuclear plant is located in this complex. The complex is home to four coal-fired units, a Mariculture Center (fish hatchery) and the new Citrus County combined-cycle natural gas plant construction project. The complex is more than 4,700 acres and represents the largest energy complex on the Duke Energy Florida system. The complex employs more than 500 people, not including contractors and security officers.The nuclear plant went into service March 13, 1977, generating on average 860 megawatts of energy and helping to supply reliable, affordable and clean energy to approximately 1.7 million customers in Florida. On Feb. 5, 2013, Duke Energy announced its decision to retire the plant instead of pursuing a first-of-its-kind repair to the plant’s containment building.In July 2015, the decommissioning Crystal River Nuclear Plant, reached its SAFSTOR condition. SAFSTOR is one of three decommissioning options approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and a common option selected by other retired nuclear plants. With SAFSTOR, the plant is placed in a safe, stable condition and maintained in that state until it is decontaminated and dismantled at the end of the storage period. The schedule for decommissioning activities uses the 60 years allowed by NRC regulation. The unit will remain in SAFSTOR until site restoration activities are completed in 2074. The 60-year timeline allows radioactivity to decay naturally over time. This provides a safer work environment for employees involved in the decontamination and dismantlement and reduces cleaning and shipping costs. 

In Chiefland, our convoy pulled into Walmart. It gives us ample space to park 6 rigs, plus some could run into the store for forgotten items. Others crossed the parking lot to grab a coffee and donuts from Dunkin Donuts. Did you know that if you show your AARP card, you can get a free donut? Yes, I have my own AARP card!

We continued on 19N, it is a great road to travel on, you pass through towns occasionally, but the road is good and the speed limit is mostly 65. Fanning Springs, is labeled as "the Gateway to the Suwanee River." It is also home to Fort Fanning Historical park. Fort Fanning was named after Major Alexander Campbell Wilder Fanning. It was constructed in November 1838, during the The Second Seminole War (which began in 1835 and ended 7 years later). The Fort was developed to protect the highly strategic and heavily utilized crossing of the Suwannee River. After Fort Fanning was built, Soldiers populated it for nearly 5 years, throughout which time around 31 soldiers died in or near the fort. 1 died from drowning; 2 died from a fatal wound previously incurred; 1 was shot dead and the other 27 died from contracting disease. It is assumed all were buried near the fort, just off Highway 19, although there is no marked graves. The original settlement of the town around Fort Fanning (now known as Fanning Springs) was named both “Palmetto” and “Sikesville”. A ferry service was setup, which connected one side of Suwannee to the other and remained until a wooden turnbridge and subsequently a modern steel bridge was built in 1935. Finally a four lane bridge made of concrete was added and remains there to this day.

Sabal Palm Tree - Florida State Tree

As we entered Cross City, there was a sign for the Annual Swamp Cabbage Cook-off. What the heck is Swamp Cabbage? If you eat it in a gourmet restaurant, they call it hearts of palm, but in a Florida Cracker kitchen, they call it swamp cabbage. It is called a unique vegetable, I am not sure if I would call it a vegetable. Whether you call it swamp cabbage or hearts of palm ... it has a taste all its own. Hearts of palm is served in good restaurants all over the country, but finding Florida swamp cabbage is a little more difficult. Swamp cabbage is taken from the cabbage palm tree, otherwise known as the Sabal palm, Florida's state tree. But once the heart is taken, the tree dies. There`s a lot of misunderstanding about whether it is permissible to cut down the state tree in order to obtain the terminal bud that cooks up into no more than a quart of vegetables. Recipes for Swamp Cabbage say ... the tree selected for eating shouldn't be too big, nor should it grow too near the water or the heart will be bitter. When you cut out the heart, which is in the segment just below the base of the leaves, peel back the outer layers with a knife until you reach the part you can break with your fingers. That's the tender part that is sweet and edible. Clean it right away and keep it in cold water until you`re ready to cook it or the dish will turn green instead of being white as it should be. Just like most southern recipes, you fry some hickory smoked bacon or fatback in a pot, then brown onions in the fat. Put in the swamp cabbage, broken into bite-sized pieces. Add water until it`s level in the pot with the swamp cabbage. Bring the water to a boil and cook the swamp cabbage until it's tender. Raw swamp cabbage also is appreciated as a Florida Cracker delicacy.

Entering the town of Salem, I am struck by the Salem Motel, a place that has sat, abandoned and remarkably untouched, for decades. Little information is readily available about the Salem Motel. This place has managed to stay mostly safe from the hands of vandals, with only a few signs of any serious or obviously intentional damage; everything else was the product of natural decay. The rusted, barely readable neon signs always attract my attention. 

We found another old motel sign, further up 19N.

 At the intersection of 19N and Interstate 10, we arrived at our overnight stop. A Stone’s Throw RV Park, seeing the location we now understand the name. 

We all got pull-thru sites and the staff was friendly and accommodating! A great place to spend a night!

None of us wanted to cook, so we ventured to the Arby's across the street! There was a table for 10 ... perfect for the number that ventured to dinner!