1-9-2009 Capital Reef National Park Utah

Today I drove 3 hours to Capital Reef National Park. I was feeling ok, and the knee was getting better. Either that, or I was taking enough pain killers to be able to walk. I decided to do a hike and look for a good back country place to camp for the evening. I hiked to a natural stone bridge. You have to see the pictures. This place is amazing. Utah is pretty much filled with several different kinds of rock formations to look at. While on my hike, I found a perfect camping spot right next to the natural bridge. It was till early, and I didn’t have my gear with me so I had to head back to the car. I heard that one of the rangers (astronomer) was giving a demonstration that night. I really wanted to hear what she had to say and see what she wanted to show us, So I decide to set up the campsite in the dark and go to this first. I had some time before sundown, so I drove the 10 mile scenic drive. The sun was just setting so this was an amazing experience. I made it back just in time for dinner and then off to the stargazing. The ranger had some pretty interesting things to show us. Capital Reef is one of the darkest and best places to stargaze. They have very little light pollution which made for a great experience. After the viewing, I had to make it back to my campsite. I got pretty lost trying to hike miles into the total darkness, but I eventually found my way. I set up the tent and stargazed a bit more.
The next day I woke up before sunrise to be able to experience the whole thing. It’s pretty amazing to be able to camp right next to a national monument. Especially for free. I caught the sunrise and then headed back to my car. Later that morning I decided to do another hike to the top of the rock formations to see what the view was like. Just at expected, it was amazing. I hiked for a few hours and then headed to my next destination, Canyon Lands National Park Utah. I made it about an hour away when I decided to get a night of R&R and heat, so I purchased a campsite with power. This is a pretty shady campsite, So I hope I make it out alive.

10-8-2009 Red Canyon National Forrest, Bryce Canyon National Park Utah

Today I drove to Bryce Canyon Utah. On my way, I noticed signes for Red Canyon National Forrest. I decided to pay it a visit. I hiked to the top to a scenic overlook spot to take some pictures. This place is a pretty good warm-up for Bryce. Later I arrived at Bryce Canyon. This is one of the premier national parks in Utah. It consists of thousands of Hoodos. Hoodos are rock formations formed by the freezing and thawing of rocks. This is possible because the canyon freezes over 200 nights a year. The rock thaws every day and pieces of it fall off forming the sculptures. They are like little sculptures each significantly different from the other. You have to see the pictures. I decided to hike down to Queens Garden. This is where the majority of the Hoodos are. There are thousands within a couple hundred yards. Once again, the pictures speak for themselves. I hiked for about 3 hours then packed up my gear to do an overnight back country hike at the swamp canyon inside of Bryce. The night got pretty cold (down to the 20’s). I pretty much froze. I need to get some better gear. The following day I hiked down the Navajo trail for about hours. This trail was amazing. It was a pretty steep decent and accent, but was well worth the effort. Later that day I headed over to my next destination, Capital Reef National Park.

10-6-2009 Glenn Canyon, Zion National Park Utah

Today I visited Zion National Park in Utah. On My way, I noticed signes for Glenn Canyon National Park. I decided to pay it a visit. This place is pretty sweet. It is made up of some large red rock formations followed by a gorge of water. I hiked around for an hour or so before heading to Zion. Zion park was pretty amazing, and I was very excited to get explore it. I did however have a problem. I was physically unable to walk. After my hike at the Grand Canyon, I had some serious knee pain. So, I had to drive around the park for a bit. The park is absolutely beautiful. You definitely have to hike it, so I will put this one on my short list of places to return to. I took the shuttle buss around for a tour as well. Later that night, I was determined to find a sporting goods shop that sold the kind of overnight camping rig that I needed. I was shocked to find out that after driving over an hour, there still were no shops that had what I needed. So I once again slept in a Walmart parking lot.
The next day I set out to find a way to get a camping pack that suited my needs. I also needed a day of R&R so I got a campsite at a local KOA. They had some pretty nice facilities and laundry services as well. I spent the whole day tying up some loose ends and looking for a pack. I actually found the same one that I used at the Grand Canyon online from an outdoors shop in Texas. I decided to have it shipped to an address in Moab Utah as I will be passing through there on my way to Arches National Park. It’s pretty tough not having an address where you can get things shipped to. After my day of R&R, I am pretty excited to head to my next destination, Capital Reef National Park Utah.

10-4-2009 Grand Canyon National Park Arizona.

Today I arrived at the Grand Canyon. I am getting pretty mixed up with the changing of time zones, so I actually got there at 6:30 in the morning. I was actually fine with that because I was able to see the sunrise over the canyon. That was absolutely amazing. I stared at the canyon for about an hour before I decided that I must hike it. This was going to be the longest hike of my life. Usually my hikes are about 2-3 hours. Well the ranger informed me that this one was going to be an overnight hike that could take up to 20 hours. I was a little nervous, but totally excited to take the adventure. I had some time to kill before I left for the hike, so I did some more sight seeing. I needed to leave from the top of the Kaibab trail by 2:00 to make it to where I could camp before sundown. Well that totally did not work. I did not have the right gear to make to hike, so I tried to daisy chain two backpacks together to make one large enough to carry all of my gear. I was on the bus to the trail when it dawned on me that if I actually used this rig, I would possibly die. Hiking the Grand Canyon is pretty dangerous. The Kaibab trail is extremely steep and has no water. You have to carry all of the water you will need on your back. I decided to check out the local general store to see if they sell any hiking rigs. They only had a crappy selection and none that were large enough. They did however rent them. So I checked one out and made it to the trail at 3:30. This was way too late to start my decent, but I was determined to do it anyway. I had to run down the trail to make up for lost time. I did not have any light source so I had to move fast. I was going so fast that I blew out my knee on the way down. This was quite a predicament because you have to hike out and I was unable to take the shorter way up because there was no water. I had to go the extra twelve hours up the other side so that I could get water. So I lost the light and lost the trail as well. I had to set up the tent wherever I could find a spot that was flat. I set up shop for the night and went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be pretty intense.
The next day, I had twelve grueling hours ahead of me. I woke up before sunrise to get an early start. After my tuna fish breakfast, I started my way back to the actual trail. The made my way to the Bright Angel Trail that started at the bottom of the canyon. There was water there, so I was in good shape. I had to take a ton of ibuproferine to be able to walk, but I was getting around pretty well. Along my journey, I met many nice people, and had some pretty interesting conversations about traveling. Everyone is pretty interested in my journey and has some good advice about places for me to visit. I made it to the top around 5:00. This has to me one of my biggest accomplishments next to the 160 mile bike ride I also completed this year. After the hike, I started on my way to Zion National Park. Once again, I slept in a Walmart parking lot. They are pretty RV friendly out here, so I haven’t been kicked out yet.

10-3-2009 City of Rocks state park and Gila National Forrest New Mexico

Today I made the drive to City of Rocks state park. This place is gorgeous. It had 3.5 miles of natural rock formations. The pictures say it all. I hiked around for an hour and headed out to Gila National Forrest. The drive to Gila was the most incredible drive I have ever made. At some points you could actually fall off the cliff and down seven thousand feet. I had to be very careful considering I had the trailer behind me. Once I made it to the forest, I set up the tent and worked on my blog for a bit. The sunset was pretty nice. I am very excited to explore the cliff dwellings and hot springs tomorrow.
Today I made the hike up to the cliff dwellings. These are ancient ruins from Native Americans many years ago. The hike was pretty cool. What was better was what I experienced next. After the hike, I headed down to the car and drove 3 miles to the natural hot springs. When I got there, I red the sign that said “clothing optional”. I thought nothing of it and proceeded to the springs. When I got there, I started talking to a couple that was soaking in the hot spring. We chatted for about 20 minute before they arose out of the water. Yep, they were completely naked. They then continued the conversation for about 30 more minutes, still naked. They gave me some good advice as to where to go next and headed on their way. I decided to spend the rest of the day driving to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. I made it to about an hour out when I stopped in at a local Walmart to sleep for the night. There were plenty of RV’s there, so this place looked safe. Tomorrow I will hike the grand canyon.

10-2-2009 White Sands National Monument New Mexico

***Some of the images in this blog are pictures I found on the internet. I do not claim ownership of any of this photos in any of my blog posts. They are only examples of where I have been****

I made it to the park about 3 hours before sundown. Today I will experience my first back country camping trip. I checked in with the ranger and got my pass to hike/camp. I headed to the campground parking lot and notice some people dune surfing. Since I had a trailer full of all of my sporting equipment, I just so happened to have a boogie board that I could use. I surfed for about an hour before I had to hike to my campsite for the night This place is amazing. I have never seen so many pure white sand dunes in my life. I hiked about a mile out to my spot and set up the tent. The sunset came next and was incredible. It seamed to last for hours. While enjoying the sunset, a nice family came up to talk to me. The were asking about my trip and had some suggestions as to where to go next. I seem to be leaving my travels up to people advice that I meet along the way. He was raving about Gila National Forest. He told me that there was amazing cliff dwellings and natural hot springs. Since he chewed my ear off about the place, I decided to pay it a visit. Camping was going well until the sandstorm hit. I was awakened by my tent flipping over with me in it. I feared that I was in the middle of a tornado. You have to see the video attached. After packing all of my gear in the collapsed tent, I hiked my way back to the car only to beet the rainstorm that was headed our way. The good thing about being homeless, is that you can simply pack up and head to good weather. Today I will head to City of Rocks state park and Gila National Forest.

10-1-2009 New Mexico Carlsbad Caverns National Monument

After a long drive and a bad nights sleep in the shadiest gas station parking lot I have ever been to, I arrived in New Mexico. My first stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Monument. This place blows away any cave I have ever been to. I thought Lurray Caverns in VA was good, this place was amazing. The great room inside was over 14 football fields big. After touring the cave for about 2 hours, I decided to check in with the park rangers and get my back country camping permit. Here you can go on a hike and camp out in the wilderness for free. Considering my tight budget, this was pretty appealing. I went to Rattlesnake Canyon for the hike. I really prayed that the canyon didn’t live up to its name as I was planning on sleaping there. Luckily I didn’t get bit by a snake. I had an amazing view of the sunset from my car. I had to sleep there because I had some issues with my tent. I made my way a mile into the hike and found the perfect spot., Only to find out that I left my poles in the car. I left all of my gear and sprinted back to the car. I was in a race against the sun as it was setting in only 20 minutes. I made it back to the car only to find out that my poles were nowhere to be found. So then I had to sprint back to the campsite and gather my gear only to sprint back to the car. I made it just before I was too dark to seee. You have to be very careful where you walk out here because the place is covered in cactus plants. After enjoying the sunset on the deserted desert, (unfortunately) slept in my car. It actually got down to the 30’s that night. I was absolutely freezing. The next morning I spent 2 hours rearranging the trailer and finding my poles. Being homeless is pretty difficult, but it sure is fun. I then headed off to my next location, White Sands National Monument.

9-28-2009 Austin Texas

Today I finished my drive to Austin Texas. I since this is a big city, and parking would be limited, I decided to stay in a Hostel right outside of downtown Austin. The people there were very friendly. Everyone was introducing themselves to me. After I got settled in, I decided to ride my bike into the city to explore for a bit. It was raining, but that didn’t stop me. I rode from the hostel to Congress Blvd. This is a main road where you can pretty much access all of the highlights of Austin. I first toured the State Capital building. I believe this one is even bigger than our nations Capital. Like they say, everything is bigger in Texas. I then rode down the famous 6th street. This street is absolutely packed with bars and restaurants. You can hear live music starting as early as 5 o’clock everyday. I returned home to the hostel to get cleaned up for the night. After about an hour of working on my blog, I met a girl named Eve. She was very nice and talked to me about her move to Austin. Since I planned to live in a hostel in Denver until I found my way, this was a pretty interesting person to talk to. Shortly after I decided to head back into the city for some live music. This place is even jamming on Monday night. I went a blues/Jazz club called Maggie Mae’s. They had an incredible band playing for about an hour. Then they opened it up to an open jam session. People can bring their instruments into the club and play onstage with other random people. This sounded like a recipe for disaster, but the people who played were amazing. I even say a 11 and 12 year old brother combo play some of the best guitar riffs I have ever heard. This truly is the live music capital.
Tuesday I decided to ride my bike into town again for some more sight seeing and hiking. I went to Zilker Park (home of Austin City Limits). I really wanted to go to this show, but with a limited budget and a race against snow, I decided to pass. My favorite band Dave Matthews Band is actually headlining right now. I traveled into a mountain biking trail inside the park. I was able to see some pretty amazing rock formations and canyons along the trail. Check out the video attached. The trail had so many rocks that at one point I had to abandon the bike and hike the rest. After about a 3 hour hike, I made my way back to Barton Springs. This is a natural spring right in the heart of Austin. The view was amazing. I swear this was the biggest swimming pool I have ever seen. After I returned back to the hostel, Eve invited me to go out with a group of other hostelers to go to a swing dance club. They were offering an hour of free lessons. We all did pretty well with the lessons and continued to use our new found skills on the dance floor to some live salsa music. We then went out for a few more drinks and then headed back to the hostel.
Wednesday I wanted to ride the Lady Byrd trail around town. This is a very famous trail. You can find President G.W. Bush, Matthew Mcconnohay, Owen Wilson, Lance Armstrong and many other famous people on the trail. Earlier that morning I made plans with Eve to go to the Barton Springs pool after my ride. I was cutting it pretty close as my back tire on my bike went flat about 4 miles from the hostel. I made it back on the rims. Eve and I headed off to the pool for some swimming and relaxing in the sun. This spring is known for topless girls, but I didn’t see any. But what I did see was pretty darn cool. Eve and I were just talking shop about cycling as she is a huge cycling fan and even bigger fan of Lance Armstrong. She left to go to the bathroom only to be stopped by security. She was informed that LANCE ARMSTRONG was doing a photo shoot for Oakley sunglasses in the woman’s bathroom. She absolutely freaked out and ran to get me. We stalked outside the bathroom for about 15 minutes until he came out. We both got a picture with him and she got his autograph. This was so cool. I have only been on this trip a month and have already met a celebrity. And not only a celebrity, but the best cyclist in the world. After the spring, I decided to head to my next destination, New Mexico.
10-1-2009 New Mexico
After a long drive and a bad nights sleep in the shadiest gas station parking lot I have ever been to, I arrived in New Mexico. My first stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Monument. This place blows away any cave I have ever been to. I thought Lurray Caverns in VA was good, this place was amazing. The great room inside was over 14 football fields big. After touring the cave for about 2 hours, I decided to check in with the park rangers and get my back country camping permit. Here you can go on a hike and camp out in the wilderness for free. Considering my tight budget, this was pretty appealing. I went to Rattlesnake Canyon for the hike. I really prayed that the canyon didn’t live up to its name as I was planning on sleaping there. Luckily I didn’t get bit by a snake. I had an amazing view of the sunset from my car. I had to sleep there because I had some issues with my tent. I made my way a mile into the hike and found the perfect spot., Only to find out that I left my poles in the car. I left all of my gear and sprinted back to the car. I was in a race against the sun as it was setting in only 20 minutes. I made it back to the car only to find out that my poles were nowhere to be found. So then I had to sprint back to the campsite and gather my gear only to sprint back to the car. I made it just before I was too dark to seee. You have to be very careful where you walk out here because the place is covered in cactus plants. After enjoying the sunset on the deserted desert, (unfortunately) slept in my car. It actually got down to the 30’s that night. I was absolutely freezing. The next morning I spent 2 hours rearranging the trailer and finding my poles. Being homeless is pretty difficult, but it sure is fun. I then headed off to my next location, White Sands National Monument.
10-2-2009 White Sands National Monument
I made it to the park about 3 hours before sundown. Today I will experience my first back country camping trip. I checked in with the ranger and got my pass to hike/camp. I headed to the campground parking lot and notice some people dune surfing. Since I had a trailer full of all of my sporting equipment, I just so happened to have a boogie board that I could use. I surfed for about an hour before I had to hike to my campsite for the night This place is amazing. I have never seen so many pure white sand dunes in my life. I hiked about a mile out to my spot and set up the tent. The sunset came next and was incredible. It seamed to last for hours. While enjoying the sunset, a nice family came up to talk to me. The were asking about my trip and had some suggestions as to where to go next. I seem to be leaving my travels up to people advice that I meet along the way. He was raving about Gila National Forest. He told me that there was amazing cliff dwellings and natural hot springs. Since he chewed my ear off about the place, I decided to pay it a visit. Camping was going well until the sandstorm hit. I was awakened by my tent flipping over with me in it. I feared that I was in the middle of a tornado. You have to see the video attached. After packing all of my gear in the collapsed tent, I hiked my way back to the car only to beet the rainstorm that was headed our way. The good thing about being homeless, is that you can simply pack up and head to good weather. Today I will head to City of Rocks state park and Gila National Forest.

9-4-2009 New Orleans LA

Today I made the 5 hour drive to New Orleans. I stopped off in Mississippi to check out the golf coast beaches that I have heard stories about. The beaches were amazing. They had the purest white sand that I have ever felt. I had some difficulty staying out in the sun, as the poison on my legs began to get worse. As soon as I go outside my legs feel as if they are on fire. I swear that Ocala National Forrest almost killed me.
I am meeting a friend of mine from Philadelphia today in New Orleans. She is flying in to spend the weekend with me in downtown New Orleans. I picked her up from the airport and we headed into our town to our hotel. Once I parked the car ($90 for 3 days) we headed into the St. James Historical Hotel. For $79 a night, we were not expecting too much. We were very suppressed to find out that the hotel was very well renovated and in a great location. The room was spacious and clean. We were in one of the balcony rooms that had a great view of the city skyline. We washed up and headed to the bourbon street area for some dinner and late night shenanigans. We ate dinner at the Acme Cajun restaurant. We both had po boy sandwiches. They were delicious. Afterwards we headed to bourbon street for some drinks. I have to say that this street is the craziest place I have ever been. The streets are completely packed with bars, strip clubs, restaurants and people. We hopped around for about 3 hours that night. You are highly encouraged to carry open containers in the streets of New Orleans. We frequented the “Big ass beers to go/ Huge ass beers to go” stores. Here you can get a 32 ounce beer for $5. What a deal. Friday we walked around the French Quarter. We had lunch at a restaurant rich in the Cajun culture. I had the Crawfish gumbo. I once was afraid of crawfish, until I went to NO. Now I love them. We then walked around Alexander Park and Jackson Square for a bit. Later that night we decided to go to Mulates Cajun restaurant. I heard that they have a great Zydeco band. Zydeco is classic New Orleans music played with some brass, strings, accordion, and a washboard for instruments. On our way there, we noticed a great Zydeco band playing about 3 blocks from our hotel. This was actually the Louisiana Seafood Festival. The event featured some of the best Cajun food from New Orleans. I really wanted eat there, but I knew that Jamie wanted to go to the restaurant. So we decided to go to the festival on Saturday instead. While at Mulates, the couple beside us had a gift certificate for $200 to spend and were not quite there. They told us to spend the $25 bucks left on whatever we liked. They also had a enormous appetizer that they wanted us to share with them. Considering that I am homeless, and this restaurant was extremely expensive, this was quite a nice surprise. I tried alligator for my first time. I realized on this trip that I absolutely love crawfish and alligator. Now I see why they sell so many alligator heads, its because people actually eat the meat in New Orleans. So Mulates actually cost me nothing so I was pretty excited. We then headed over to Bourbon street for some more nightly festivities. While strolling bourbon street, we stumbled upon a really cool 40’s bar. They was a live 40’s band that consisted of a stand up bass, clarinet, banjo, and drummer. The band was awesome. Everyone was in costume and really gave us the feel that we were back in the 40’s. We hopped around for a few more hours after that. Saturday we headed over to city park for a bit. We found the New Orleans Botanical Gardens along our journey at city park and decided to pay it a visit. We saw some pretty cool plants and trees there. Then we headed over to our hotel to freshen up before our ferry boat trip over to Algiers Island. We wanted to catch the sunset and see the skyline over NO. We struck gold and took the ferry at the perfect time. We were able to see the entire sunset and get some great pictures too. We then headed over to the Seafood Festival for some local favorites. We had some amazing crawfish stew and fish tacos. There was a great Spanish band, followed by an awesome brass soul band. Post festival, we headed over to bourbon street for one last night. Sunday we headed over to a famous coffee and beignets place called Café Du Monde. The food, atmosphere, and service was amazing. Beignets are like little funnel cakes that are covered in powdered sugar. We then headed over to local cemetery. They have over 45 cemeteries where people are stored above ground. It was quite a site to see. We then headed over to a local park to feed some turtles and take a walk. Lastly, we decided to head over to the ninth ward to see the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The ninth ward was one of the areas that was well over 10 feet submerged under water. The houses were completely destroyed even four years after the hurricane. They say that only 20% of the people remained in the ward post Katrina. I would say that estimate was generous. The place was a ghost town. The sight was devastating. We then headed to the airport to drop off Jamie. I decided to drive as far as I could toward Austin Texas for my next stop. I made it to about an hour out before I had to stop at a local Walmart to sleep for the night. This one actually let me stay the night.

9-23-209 Alabama

Today I visited Auburn University in Auburn Alabama. I decided to park my car at Chewacla State Park which is about 3 miles outside of Auburn. I originally wanted to do a 40 mile bike ride that started from the library on campus, but there was no parking. So I decided to take a tour of the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. The campus is pretty sweet. The best being the football stadium. I cant wait until JMU gets a stadium like the D1A teams. I rode about 18 miles then returned back to the state park to get my car. I needed to shower, so I snuck into the campsite facilities and washed up. From there I decided to go to Montgomery AL. This city is very rich in history. I’m not the biggest history buff, but I am pretty interested in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the home of the “Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement” era. Parking and touring the city was actually pretty easy. I simply paid $1 to ride a tour bus as long as I wanted. The people were very friendly and excited to show an outsider their town. On the tour I saw the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The church where he was a preacher for four years, the state capital buildings, and most importantly the Rosa Parks Museum. I decided to actually pay to go into this museum. I would have to say I was well worth the money. I learned so much about the Civil Rights Movement and Rosa Parks involvement. After the museum, I wandered around town until the sun went down. Some random security guard noticed that I was not from around AL, and he decided to show me all of his favorite spots around town. He was pretty shady, but very informative. I never knew that Montgomery used to be called Philadelphia. Once the sun went down, the town complety shut down. I then went to the local Walmart to sleep for the night. I was immediately kicked out of the parking lot. The security guard told me that you cannot sleep in cars in their parking lot. I actually parked next to an RV that was there for the same reason. He told me that they were fine, but I was not. So I had to go to the local truck stop to sleep for the night. After about an hour at the truck stop, I was awakened by a gentleman banging on my window. I freaked out until I realized that he was a security guard. He simply wanted me to turn my car around. Tomorrow I will head into New Orleans, LA for the weekend.
http://montgomery.troy.edu/ROSAPARKS/MUSEUM/
http://www.dexterkingmemorial.org/

9-21-2009 St. Augustine

Today I visited the St. Augustine Alligator farm. This place was amazing. I was able to see every one of the 26 species of gators in existence. I also pet a baby alligator. I watched a live feeding of the gators that was pretty interesting. Parking is St Augistine is pretty tough with a trailer, so I asked the people at the Alligator farm if I could leave my car there. Then I biked over to the lighthouse for a bit. From there I went over the bridge back into downtown St Augustine. I rode all around town and saw the fountain of youth, Mission of Nombre De Dios, Castillo de San Marcos, and Vilano Beach. Vilano beach had some great body surfing and very warm water. You are allowed to drive your trucks on the beach here. When I arrived to Vilano, the beach had a sign that said “very dangerous water conditions”. I decided to go anyway and had a pretty good time. That night I tried to say in the hostel again, but once I got there, the reception desk was closed. So I decided to break into one of the rooms and steal a shower. From there I had to sleep in my car on the street. I will be heading to Auburn AL tomorrow for some biking and sight seeing. I hope to stay in the Chewacla State Park right outside of Auburn.
http://www.staugustineattractions.net/map.php
http://www.vilanobeachfl.com/
http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

9-20-2009 Ocala National Forest

Last night I decided to sleep in my car at the local Walmart. I swear that was the biggest Walmart I have ever seen. I headed into Ocala National Forrest for some mountain biking and hiking. My lovely gps decided to take me and my trailer off on a dirt road into a swampy ATV trail. I got about 2 miles into the forest and realized that despite what my GPS was telling me, this was not the way to go. My car and trailer were wider than the path and were both getting severely scratched by the tree branches. It took me about an hour and a half to finally cut down enough tree branches to turn around my car and trailer. Once I noticed the damage on my car and trailer, I decided to use everything possible to cover the car and make an armor to plow through the trees and return to the main road. Finally I made it out of the forest and headed to Alexander Springs. I had originally intended on mountain biking the trail, but once I parked I notices some signs about diving at Alexander Springs. I asked the forest ranger to tell me about the place and come to find out , this was a natural spring that had some decent cave diving. Best of all, it was free. So after the frustrating commute, I decided to do some surface diving at the spring. The cavern was pretty cool. Since it was only 30’ deep, I was able to dive without a tank. I just grabbed my mask and snorkel and dove down as many times as I wanted. After the spring, I decided to go ahead a do the mountain bike trail. This was a very hard trail that consisted mainly of a sandy/pine needle covered path. After about an hour, I decided to turn around and head back to the spring for an evening swim. On my way back, I got lost on the trail and ran into some pretty crazy looking spiders. Come to find out they were Banana Spiders. While swimming at the spring, I met an old man named Bob. He was a park ranger and was making sure that everyone exited by 7:30. I talked to him briefly about the park. He kept telling me to behave my self and to have a good night. I responded for him to do the same. He replied, “at my age son, there is not much I can do to misbehave”. I told him to just be creative. I then headed to St Augustine FL. Since the Walmart’s in St Augustine are not RV friendly, I decided to head into town to stay at the Pirate Hostel in downtown. This was actually a very nice hostel. The beds were comfortable and the room was spacious. They even gave me an all u can eat breakfast in the morning.
http://www.floridasprings.info/2006/08/alexander-spring-part-of-ocala.html
http://www.stateparks.com/ocala.html
http://www.piratehaus.com/