It's been a while since I have written in my travel blog! Of course, in the past 18-months most of the traveling we have done is working for Yankee. It's difficult to write a blog for them and write your own. This summer our only Yankee caravan comes in September.You get to enjoy our travel vicariously through our blog. We departed with Janet & Brian this morning. We enjoyed a fantastic "see ya later" dinner at Kathy & Jim's last night. Zephyrhills, the town We call home, has several monikers. The two most famous are 'Sky Dive City' and 'The City of Pure Water.'
More than 70,000 skydives happen annually at Skydive City. It was founded by Joannie Murphy and Susan Perkins Stark in 1990. “When we first visited the land that is our drop zone on the Zephyrhills Airport, it was accessible only by footpath. There were no facilities except an old World War II bunker and a taxiway to the runway,” state Susan and Joannie on the Skydive City website. The jump zone welcomes every level of skydiver, and supports all types of skydiving activity and regularly hosts major skydiving events, festivals, and competitions.
Zephyrhills is also known for its pure water, rolling topography, gentle breezes, and senior population. It is the headquarters of the Zephyrhills bottled water company. In 1961, Don Robinson took advantage of the area’s good-tasting water to establish the Zephyrhills Water Corporation. The company started bottling the spring water and shipping it all over the state, leading to the town being known as “The City of Pure Water.” We were lucky to tour that plant once in the almost 20-years we have lived here. The original spring from which Don began his business was bought by Nestle Waters USA. It is now the Crystal Springs Preserve, a 530-acre sanctuary that supports environmental education and the preservation of Florida’s natural environment.
We traveled along US 98 through Homosassa and Crystal River. We passed the remnants of the Crystal River Mall. It was opened on October 17, 1990, it included three anchor stores: Belk-Lindsey, Sears, and Kmart. It is now all torn down, except the Rural King that was the last anchor store.
Our first rest stop was in Chiefland. To understand the name of this historic Florida city, you need to go back in time. Before Spaniards arrived in Florida, much of this area was home to the Timucuan Indians. A chief is the leader of each tribe, and those chiefs answered to a head chief. The head chief owned the land where Chiefland stands today. Legends say that Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador, came to the area and wiped out most of the Indians. But their historical occupation of the area was commemorated when the town was incorporated as "Chiefland" in 1913.
We continued on the route Charlie and I have traveled so many times! We passed through Perry, FL. This town still shows the affects of hurricane Idalia. We were here just a few weeks ago with our friends, Gary & Sheryl to enjoy the Florida State Bluegrass Festival. These are a few pics from the fun we had that weekend!
We arrived at our destination for the night, A Stone's Throw RV Park in Lamont, FL. Debbie & Walt, Ronnie & Patty and Mary & Jerry arrived an hour behind us. We will enjoy fellowship of good friends, a meal together tonight and start out in the morning as a caravan of five!
Charlie got his own apple pie, from Patty. Patty is such a sweet lady. She bakes pies every week for her BINGO players at Majestic Oaks! Charlie did share it with everyone!
Stay tuned as we continue our #TwoLaneAdventures
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