Still Gravity

There is an ancient graveyard on the rocks - License our images  here . Windley Key was two separated islands known as Umbrella Keys. The construction of the Overseas Railroad joined them in the early 20th century - the merging point is south of the state park. The small geological park was an old quarry. Some mining equipment is preserved and there are a couple of short trails to hike. The major attraction is on the ancient rocks. The eight-foot walls of the old quarry show fossils that remind of fractal carvings. What a prehistoric graveyard.  An old cutting machine from Keystone Rock Company.  These machines cut deep channels to extract slabs that, after polishing, travelled north to rest forever on buildings of New York and St. Louis. Some tropical decoration for the colder north.  

Building at the end of the Aerojet Road, Florida - License our images  here .          The access road to the abandoned rocket factory is close to the Homestead entrance to  Everglades National Park . This abandoned complex was owned by the company Aerojet General, now part of Aerojet Rocketdyne.  The Air Force paid for this place in 1963 to test solid fuel motors for traveling to the moon. It's said that Aerojet built the largest solid fuel motor of the world.  Old road sign engulfed by the vegetation.  The rockets were so big that Aerojet had to dig a canal to transport them on barges to the Atlantic Ocean -  this canal . This facility closed in 1969 when solid fuel was dropped in favor of liquid.  Exploring the rocket factory.     The trailhead of

Remembering a trip with the children in the 1990s. No Google Maps back then - web maps began in 2005 -. so, we found Dinosaur Valley State Park stopping by one of the old visitor centers along the main roads. The park is near Glen Rose, at the margins of the Paluxy River. The following photos were taken with 35mm film.  Dinosaur's footprints in the Paluxy River from the old camera - License our images  here . Locals discovered these footprints in 1908. The big ones are from Brontosaurus ; others are from the T-Rex looking Acrocanthosaurus . They are 107-million-year-old.  We crossed the river to see the spot where Roland Bird , the cowboy turned paleontologist, removed the footprints we saw in the American Museum of Natural History in New York - check the exhibit  here .  Sunset caught us wandering through the park. Signs warned of coyotes, but we didn’t see any. Wit

One of the new gas struts installed in the pop-up truck camper.          Raising the roof of the truck camper when we were tired was always a pain. Now, after 11 years, finally we got some help installing two gas struts - or gas springs, whatever you prefer.  We installed them inside to avoid drilling more holes to the exterior of the camper shell and to protect the struts from the elements. The best part is that they can be removed easily thanks to the marine  Bimini fittings  used in the installation - just need to pull out the pins and done. The strut attached to the Bimini fitting and hold by a pin.  The gas struts are of the Suspa brand , and we bought these Bimini fittings in Amazon - the link is affiliate. The idea came from 

Canoeing in the Silver River near Ocala, Florida. This was the "African jungle" of the old Tarzan's movies -  License our images here .         Ocala has many things if you like the outdoors. We've traveled the area many times and still find places for the bucket list. Let's share what we know - check the images at the end of the post.  Silver Springs State Park This park with a campground on the margins of the Silver River is close to the city of Ocala. We've camped here multiple times and hiked and biked the trails. Once, we paddled a canoe upriver to the springs.  This forest is a wild jungle. There are bears and even monkeys. The monkeys were the  rhesus macaques  freed in the first half of the 20th century. They were an attraction of the park on the springs, a popular destination since the 1820s. Alligators and turtles are common in the river. Hollywood shot six  Tarzan movies  here

We've camped multiple times in this Florida state forest. First thing to note is that this is not a continuous forest. It's divided in tracts as can be seen in the following map from the forest service.  Map of the Withlacoochee State Forest - Image: Florida Forest Service.  The hard to pronounce Native American name is rooted in Creek or Muscogee - from the spoken language of the Seminole Indians of Florida - their ancestors came to Spanish Florida from Georgia and Alabama.  On the shores of Silver Lake in the Withlacoochee River - License our images  here .  Withlacoochee meaning Defining the meaning of the word Withlacoochee is complicated because there are multiple ideas.  Some say that it means "crooked river". in reference to the many twists of the Withlacoochee River on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Others believe Withlacoochee means "little big water" or "little great water". In this case, this may refer to one of the many lakes in its