Stormy Weather

We didn’t do much touring in our last two weeks at Nature’s Resort in Homosassa. As November arrived, so did cloudy weather with afternoon rain showers so we hung out at the RV park most of the time. Luckily the showers did not last too long but not knowing when and where it would rain discouraged us from going out for hikes. Watching the election results come in filled some of our time, but I could only watch so much of that so we had to find something else to do.

Luckily we had cable and discovered that the Hallmark channel started playing their Christmas movies. Lucky for me but certainly not Tim’s favorite. I know they are pretty cheesy movies but I always enjoy them. In between news and movies, we played some Yahtzee, our usual go to game. Tim usually wins but I get lucky every once in a while. I was really lucky one day and had a game with 4 Yahtzee’s. Unbelievable, right? I took a picture of the score to remember my highest score ever.

In the Citrus County book that my Aunt had given me, I read about a drive recommended for motorcycles. I suggested we take a drive in the convertible with the top down. Again the weather didn’t cooperate. We weren’t expecting rain on the morning we headed out but it was very windy so we still went but didn’t put down the top. It was a really pretty drive out through marshes although the bends in the road weren’t as sharp as described in the book. The road ended at a parking lot and boat ramp into the water. We had to get a picture of the warning sign that the road ended.

Love the Road Ends Here sign. Perhaps someone didn’t see the water!

We parked and enjoyed this view for a little while.

Last week, we started to get a little worried about Tropical storm Eta. It was out in the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to increase to hurricane strength and while they didn’t know the exact path, a few of the projections showed it coming our way. I started looking at options to move the RV inland since our location was very close to the Gulf, and below sea level. Nature’s Resort is located on a river only a mile or two inland from the Gulf. With the river and a canal bordering the park, flooding was definitely a risk in addition to wind damage. I talked to my cousin Janet who owns a home in The Villages about coming over her way.

A canal flows into the center of the resort to create this pond

She said they had space for the RV at another home they own in the area that they are remodeling and we could stay in either of their homes. It is wonderful to have family nearby. We decided to watch the storm path and let them know by Wednesday if we needed to move. That Monday night, it looked like the storm was going to head directly north and go into the panhandle area so we would not have any impacts except some rain. That was good news for us. So we drove to the beach on Tuesday morning before the rain was expected. It was cloudy and the beach was pretty empty except for a huge flock of seagulls. We enjoyed the morning at the beach and stocked up on groceries on our ride back.

That evening, my phone apps and our weather radio started alerting us that we were under a hurricane and flood watch. The storm path changed again and was now expected to make landfall very close to where we were within 24 hours or so. We decided to wait until morning and then determine if we needed to move. The prediction was the same in the morning so we quickly packed up the RV to bring in the slides and put everything that we had outside away. We talked to the staff to assess the risk of just leaving the RV and take off for the night for our personal safety. They said we were parked in the highest point in the park and while they were expecting flooding from the storm, they were moving other RVs to where we were.

That made us feel better so we took both the truck and car and headed over to Janet and Lew’s home. We slept well at their home and didn’t have any impacts from the storm. By morning, the storm was past us and was heading further east so we went back over to the RV park to see the impact. While they had some wind and the water rose a few feet, there were only some tree branches down and no flooding. We really lucked out with the storm.

Before leaving the area, I wanted to see Three Sister’s Spring. I had heard it was beautiful and a great place to see the manatees. Unfortunately, it is too warm so no manatees are in at the spring yet but we decided to go anyway to see the park. It was really beautiful. The water was such a beautiful blue and very clear in the spring. The park has 2 miles of trails so we spent a little time and hiked the trail around the park, in addition to walking the boardwalk around the spring. I am hoping to make a trip back over there in the winter when it is cooler and the manatees are there. I am sure you will be able to see them so well in that clear water.

So pretty as you walk around the boardwalk

The boardwalk goes around the spring and then ends at the nature trial

The nature trail is pretty but some of it comes very close to a residential area.

We moved over to Wildwood, FL where we will be staying for the next 4 1/2 months. We certainly enjoyed our stay in Homosassa but are happy to be settled in for awhile and to have a bigger site. Nature’s Resort was a little tight. Look for future blog posts on our stay in Wildwood, FL.

Tight site at Nature’s Resort - Pretty much only as long as the RV.

It felt a little claustrophobic on busy weekends

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