We spent a few hours at the Lee County Fair recently. We like county fairs. Yes, we gorged on unhealthy food (funnel cakes, sno-cones and a really tasty gyro dripping with dill sauce), checked out the farm animals (I liked the exotic chickens). We watched the one-man band. I even – at Jett’s urging – paid 50 cents to see the “headless woman”, ostensibly a real human being who was decapitated in an auto accident and was kept alive through a “medical miracle” (which, if true, makes one wonder who paid for that). She looked like a headless refugee from a wax museum. And she was fully clothed. Recommendation to carnival brass: pose her naked and charge a dollar.

But the real highlight was the Banana Derby. You have heard of dog-and-pony shows? Well, this was a dog-and-monkey show. Yes, monkey jockeys riding dogs in a race around a short oval. It really wasn’t a fair race as one dog was clearly younger and faster than the other. And the faster dog had the more experienced monkey jockey. But both dogs and both monkeys got treats, so I guess they didn’t much care about the blatant unfairness of it all. There wasn’t much wagering, either.

The race was preceded by a dog doing some high-wire tricks – walking a high beam and jumping off an elevated platform.

As Jett is a big fan of both monkeys and dogs (ok, so am I), it was a pleasant way to spend 20 minutes. Totally free, too – except for the $10 that Jett paid to have her photo taken with her favorite monkey (twice).

Good food, good weather and a dog-and-monkey race. Does it get any better?

After a breezy night in the marina we departed Thursday morning to explore the upstream portion of the St Johns river. My original intention was to get to Sanford, but decided against it because (1) there aren’t any good places to dock there, (2) we would need to go through a railroad drawbridge and (3) one of the marina staff said “Sanford is where George Zimmerman shot Trevon Martin.” Probably not my cup of tea.

So Plan B was to find a place to tie up near Blue Spring State Park and possibly take the jon boat there to look around. So our target was an island just south of the park, at the Snake Creek Cutoff – an intimidating name, but it didn’t deter us.

We left about 20 minutes after the departure of our neighbors, a group of octogenarians who were also first-time houseboaters, led by Roy and Millicent, a lovely couple that stopped by for a chat Thursday morning. We were traveling at 1800 rpms, which I regarded as a slow cruise, but soon caught up to them. As we passed them I was tempted to yell out “You’re blinker is on!” but held my tongue.

They were out of sight by the time we reached a smaller island just north of the park and swung into the inlet there to scope out the docking opportunities (there were none), then had to turn around when the water became too shallow. We re-entered the channel just as Roy, Millicent, et al, were passing. They were amused to see us again.

We followed them south to the second island and this time found a good docking opportunity. Not on the island, which was posted No Trespassing, but on the mainland. It wasn’t as pretty as Lungren, but was easy to tie up to two conveniently-spaced trees, and provided good, dry ground for walking Rusty. After exploring the site a bit we hunkered down (e.g., moved the jon boat to the side, to protect it from wind and passing tour boats) because the weather was deteriorating. Rain began a couple of hours after we arrived, turned heavy and didn’t relent until after midnight. So we had a cozy day on the houseboat, playing cards, reading, watching TV and looking for manatees (didn’t see any).

The tour boats – St Johns River Tours – left from Blue Spring and seemed to be filled with groups that were traveling together. Bus tours of central Florida, probably. In any case, I heard enough of their spiel that I knew there were almost certainly manatees in the area. But well-hidden, apparently. We did see some interesting birds, including what I think was a variety of eagle. No alligators. Which was fine by me.

Every time I took Rusty for a walk I kept an eye out for a lurking alligator. I think Rusty would have looked pretty delectable to a hungry gator.

Before the rain began I took the jon boat out to investigate the island and the inlet. It was a quiet, serene place, except for the occasional tour boat and some distant channel boating noise. I shut off the motor and drifted for a bit just to feel the serenity.

On Friday we headed south for about 2 hours, to marker 101. There was another recommended docking spot there which we checked out (very nice) but didn’t stop. Then back to the marina at a leisurely pace, with the current but against the wind, which again had whipped up. We passed three people in a canoe at the entrance to Lake Beresford who looked like they were struggling to make headway and to avoid getting swamped. It was certainly not a nice day for canoeing.

Jett took the wheel, briefly, on the way back, just to prove to her kids that she had driven a houseboat.

I docked without a problem – I was an expert by then. The staff was surprised to hear that we had not seen any manatees. They said they had seen some swimming by the marina earlier that day. The best news came when they checked out the boat and declared that we had done no harm, so there were no additional charges.

We dined out that night – the last night of our houseboating vacation – at JC’s Lobster Pot, a local recommended fish joint. I had the “Fish Trio” – salmon, mahi mahi and “catch of the day” (some kind of whitefish) which was very good. Jett opted for the prime rib which she judged to be good but not great. But the prices were very reasonable and a nice meal out seemed like a good way to end the vacation.

The trip back was boring. I tried to avoid the Orlando traffic but probably made things worse by avoiding the toll road that runs along the western edge of Disney World. We spent over 40 minutes on local streets, snaking our way to I-4. Then, when we got within 10 miles of home, the rains began. Again. So I had to unload in a steady rain while Jett went to pick up Grace.

Grace seemed healthy and relatively happy to see us. But once Rusty tells her all about the adventures she missed she will likely never forgive us.

I intended to blog every day during our week on the houseboat, but, alas… too much time driving, playing cards and having fun. Plus our wifi connectivity was not stellar. So it is being compressed into 3 posts.

Our plan for Monday was to travel up to the Silver Glen Spring Run recreation area on the west bank of Lake George, the second largest lake in Florida (170 square miles). But the weather forecast for Tuesday (80 degrees and sunny) was better than for Monday (75 degrees and mostly cloudy), so we decided to just hang out for the day at our private little island – Lungren Island, near Astor. Florida. So Day 3 was all about Lungren Island, Day 4 was about our (disappointing) trip to and from Lake George and Day 5 was about our trip back to the marina.

First, Lungren Island. We loved this place! As previously mentioned, it was tiny – just a few hundred feet wide and maybe a hundred feet across. But it was beautifully wooded and really felt like it was our private little enclave. Rusty loved it, too. The photo is of Rusty on the island, investigating smells near the mysterious stump with the shoot on top. Jett called it “Wilson” after Tom Hanks’ soccer ball in Cast Away. The photo also shows the campfire area left by the earlier squatter. The other side of the island had two rope swings (which we didn’t use).

It was a beautiful, serene place, except for the occasional outboard motor noises. I spent some time on the upper deck, grabbing some sun and reading. The photo is from our second docking, on the channel side of the island (more on that in a bit). I also took the jon boat out for a spin early in the morning, then took it out again in the afternoon, with Jett along for the ride. I got some nice photos of the houseboat from the river and saw some interesting birds. I also spotted two white-tailed deer on shore, but wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get their picture.

With Jett along we tried to find the deer again, but failed. We did, however, spot an alligator. Or at least we thought we did. Turned out to be a rock which we immediately dubbed “Alligator Rock.” But we continued on downstream a bit, then crossed to the other side where we did, indeed, see an alligator. Probably about 8 feet long and pretty chubby. Well fed, I guess.

One thing I didn’t mention to Jett: the large (and, fortunately, dead) spider that I found in the jon boat. It was about 3 inches and scary. I don’t want to find any live ones.

We grilled bratwurst and burgers for dinner and enjoyed a second very quiet night at Lungren.

On Tuesday we woke to dense fog which, fortunately, burned off by 10am. We undocked and traveled north to Lake George and then did our best to find the entrance to the Silver Glen lagoon, which was more difficult than I expected. The lake is so large that we could barely see the shore and had only a general heading to find the (small) entrance. I actually used the GPS on my cell phone to assist in the navigation. We did, eventually, find it, but later than expected. We probably would have had only an hour or so to explore.

Which turned out to be a moot point because I was intimidated by the shallow water (less than 3 feet a quarter of mile from shore) and had visions of grounding dancing in my head. It was obvious that the only way we were going to get into the inlet would be to anchor the houseboat and use the jon boat. But as we had no experience with anchoring, we feared that we would return to find the houseboat grounded somewhere.

So we gave up, turned around and headed home – back to Lungren. We had the same navigation problem finding the river entrance and I had to consult my phone again. The issue with heading east on the lake was that missing the channel and going too far east would put us into a naval target bombing area. As much as we disliked getting grounded, we disliked the idea of getting bombed even more.

But we found the river without being bombed and made our way back to Lungren for a third night. This time, for variety, we tied up on the channel side of the island, below the two rope swings (see the upper deck photo above). This docking area was tighter than the other side and, coupled with a brisker wind and a stronger current, presented more of a challenge. I made it, but only after several tries and several bumps into the roots and branches of the downstream tree.

All in all, it was a difficult day of navigation and a disappointing day in that we never got to our intended destination. I treated myself to a couple of beers and watched the sun set in the west. Then Jett, Rusty and I had a quiet third night at Lungren.

Day 5 was mostly cloudy and very windy. We fought our way – against both the wind and the current, back upstream to the marina. We had some thought of staying on the river overnight, at a recommended mooring location just north of the drawbridge, but four attempts to nose into shore to tie up failed miserably as I was unable to stabilize the boat to get a rope around a tree. After banging into a tree pretty hard, I gave up and headed back to the marina.

I felt better after Charlie, our marina dock hand, banged the houseboat pretty hard into a piling as he tried to dock it. The wind and the current were pretty tough for him, too.

The good thing about a night in the marina is that we were tied to shore power and didn’t have to use the generator. That made the evening quieter and allowed us to stay up late playing cards and watching TV. Just like being in a RV, but with more rocking.