OT: weekend (camping) report

[Brian Krashpad]

Went camping with the boy at O'leno State Park about 6 miles north of High Springs, Florida. "O'leno" is an interesting name. The park is named after a town that used to exist there in the 1800's, which was originally called "Keno." If you've ever read US gambling statutes (as I have) you'll know that "Keno" is a gambling game. The town was renamed "Leno" under pressure from religious fanatics (uh, sorry, fundamentalists), and later became a ghost town when the railroad bypassed it. "O'Leno" is a contraction for "Old Leno."

This is us:

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[Brian Krashpad]

Saturday morning we collected seeds from ground cover for the state park service forest rangers, for a reforestation project:

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It was a couple hours of stoop labor, but not too bad (the paper bag above has seeds in it, you can see one lady stooping to strip seeds in the background).

The Cub Scouts like Jack were paired up with Boy Scout patrols from the troop that organized the campout (it's a requirement for last-year Cubs to camp with a Boy Scout troop) and all made their own meals:

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After lunch the scouts worked on learning knots and lashings and made a "monkey bridge" for practice, here's Jack climbing on it after it was completed:

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Before dinner, Jack and I went on a bike ride. Here's a pic of him on the 1930's era Civilian Conservation Corps suspension bridge over the Santa Fe River (a tributary of the famous "S'wannee River" that is the subject of the Stephen Foster song that is the state song of Florida):

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Here's Jack with a statue honoring the CCC workers who made much of the park's log buildings and structures, which still survive:

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Saturday night the kids played "Capture the Flag" after dinner, this morning we struck camp and took down the monkey bridge and had a short church service. We used the air mattresses I got as an early Christmas present, and they worked great. Also got a no-batteries hand-powered flashlight with an AM/FM/Weather radio that we used all weekend, it was great to use Saturday night around the campfire to check on college football scores (listened to the SEC championship from LSU radio on AM, from Florida!). Weather was perfect, warm days, cool night.

Good times.

[Algonquin]

Sure, rub it in Buddy... rub it in!

Glad to see you're out there taking advantage of the good weather. It'll be early June 2008 before I get back out there.

:beer:

[Brian Krashpad]

Sure, rub it in Buddy... rub it in!

Glad to see you're out there taking advantage of the good weather. It'll be early June 2008 before I get back out there.

:beer:

It is kind of cruel with all the Canucks on this board.

This time of year and late February-May are my fave times in north Florida.

June-September here is brutally hot and humid.

[Spudman]

That's just crazy...t-shirts in December. I'll still take the cold over all the creepy flying bugs and humidity you get.:)

BTW this is Open Mic so nothing's off topic.

[Brian Krashpad]

That's just crazy...t-shirts in December. I'll still take the cold over all the creepy flying bugs and humidity you get.:)

BTW this is Open Mic so nothing's off topic.

Yeah, I know, but this is so far removed from any kinda music stuff I always put OT on stuff like this. Just so as to not waste others' time.

And oh yeah, we gots us some bugs down here.

Reptiles too.

Got a lizard in our living room right now.

Think he came in with the Christmas tree.

[warren0728]

having grown up in High Springs i have spent a lot of time at Oleno....day trips and camping trips.

thanks for the pics....brought back lots of memories for me!

ww

[Brian Krashpad]

having grown up in High Springs i have spent a lot of time at Oleno....day trips and camping trips.

thanks for the pics....brought back lots of memories for me!

ww

Wow, small world!

:AOK:

[sunvalleylaw]

Very coool! Looks similar, but much warmer, to Boy Scout Camporee experiences I grew up with at Ft. Lewis, near Tacoma, WA. We did all that lashing stuff, route finding with compass, etc., and got to find both spend and unspent ammo out in the Fort too! (Generally, we turned the un-fired ammo in. ;-) ).

[Brian Krashpad]

Very coool! Looks similar, but much warmer, to Boy Scout Camporee experiences I grew up with at Ft. Lewis, near Tacoma, WA. We did all that lashing stuff, route finding with compass, etc., and got to find both spend and unspent ammo out in the Fort too! (Generally, we turned the un-fired ammo in. ;-) ).

I can remember camping up in Maryland when I was a kid, and camping in cold weather just wouldn't be fun for me. I've had real good luck this last month or so with camping and weather.