Back on the road... finally!

Evenin' Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here. Writing tonight from Dunnellon, Florida and Rainbow Springs State Park.

Finally! On our way to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't a travel day that will be remembered in the “family travel hall of fame”. We got off a bit late, leaving was less than graceful, we hit rain and made a wrong turn (the GPS did it… but I was the one who wound up piloting a 14,000 pound vehicle out the entrance road to the wrong half of the state park we were seeking) but we are now three hours from home and that means three hours closer to Arizona and Utah. It seems like a good time to quote Neil Armstrong (“That's one small step… ) or Lao Tzu (“A journey of a thousand miles… ) since our modest journey today is hopefully the start of a much bigger adventure.

So... Rainbow Springs… Dunnellon… what's that about? Well, geographically we are about 100 miles northwest from Orlando. Said another way, we are 20 miles west-southwest of Ocala. The springs for which the park is named and around which it is built are in the other half of the park (the part that clearly needs a different name on Google maps and better “one way” signage). We are 2 miles down stream from there camping near the Rainbow River. There is an unseen, but dominant, geologic force in this part of Florida. It's the Floridan Aquifer. Essentially an underground lake that gets its immense supply of water from the abundant rainfall in this area. The water moves through cracks, channels and vast openings in the limestone that underlays this part of the state. It is crystal clear water in unimaginable quantity and it is slowly flowing through a Swiss cheese matrix of stone. This moving water is ever so slightly acidic. That acid erodes the limestone and every once in a while that erosion pops through the surface of the earth to form a spring. Unfortunately, that same phenomenon occasionally forms a sinkhole that gobbles up a home, busy intersection or fast food restaurant parking lot with the same intensity I use to attack a hot, gooey s'more. But let's look at the bright side. This area is dotted with natural springs that roughly form a pattern like a lower case “h”. It's a big “h” with the top of the tall stroke in southern Georgia, the bottom north of Tampa and the bottom right near Orlando. We are just about where the arch joins the tall stroke. Rainbow Springs itself is the fourth largest spring in Florida based on water flow. It emits between 400 million and 600 million gallons of crystal clear water at 73 degrees Fahrenheit every day. Hey, California! Need some water? That steady flow produces the Rainbow River that moves pretty quickly for about 5 or 6 miles before joining some other river with a Seminole name that I couldn't pronounce or remember… I think it ends in “…ahatchie”.

Anyway, that's where we are as the geologist sees it. What may be more interesting is where we are as the sociologist sees it. Do you remember the movie “Cars”? I do. I always will. I can still quote lines from it. It hit DVD at precisely the time when my little buddy Gavin (grandson #3 and my frequent companion) was ready to declare it would replace “Gone With the Wind” as the greatest movie of all time. He was 3. If you are not acquainted, it's a Pixar animated story about a hotshot race car who falls off his 18 wheeler en route to his next big race and lands in a podunk southwestern town called Radiator Springs. Now, Radiator Springs wasn't always the capital of podunk. It was a hopping place once when Route 66 ran down its main street. That changed when the Interstate went through and diverted the lifeblood of Radiator Springs along a different artery. No lifeblood, no life. Dunnellon is the Radiator Springs of Florida. Even its main attraction – Rainbow Springs – recalls the setting of the movie “Cars”. Eerie. From the 1930's onward, traffic along US 41 passed right by Rainbow Springs. It was developed as a tourist attraction including glass bottom boats, watersports and even a sightseeing submarine… a frickin' submarine! Then came I-75 and a new attraction to the south – one with a famous mouse. The lifeblood was gone from Dunnellon. The attractions eventually closed and the state parks department took over where commercial ventures had folded.

Signs of this history are all around if you look for them. I took a walk around and went down to the river before dinner. Here's a single frame from the dock about ¼ mile from the campsite:

Just to drive home the point about the past versus present of Radiat… er… I mean… Rainbow Springs, here's a pic of the swimming pool:

I could continue, but I'm ready to crash. Suffice it to say that our hotshot race car in “Cars” underestimated the power that Radiator Springs and its people had to inform and transform him. He came out the better man… or car… or car-man… for the experience. Hopefully this place has that power to illuminate us and all who visit and connect with it.

I hope to get a better set of pics of the Rainbow River in the morning light. The flat gray sky this evening just wasn't what I needed to capture the place and share it with you.

Oh, one last thing. Every now and then I see something that just calls out to me. As I was walking back from the river I saw this mound of chain with some padlocks in it sitting by the edge of the road near what looked like a bus shelter. I wondered how it got there, so I took a pic. I think I'll call it “Houdini was here”.

After months of planning and prep work, a few hours on the road and a bunch of relief to be underway I'm ready to call it a night! Tune in tomorrow when we'll be at Ochlockonee River State Park in Slopchoppy, FL (no… seriously).

Later,

SC