5. DeLeon Springs - August 23, 2009

On Sunday, after our camping trip at Blue Springs, Tom and I packed up early in the morning and headed over to a site that doesn't have camping - DeLeon Springs. It is about 25 minutes from Blue Springs, so it is worth the trek. The most unique feature of this park is a "make-your-own" pancake house inside the Old Spanish Sugar Mill -- a great place to have breakfast. Tom and I arrived at the spring at 9:30 a.m., and the wait was already 30 minutes! Once we got seated, there was a griddle built right into the table. We were given two choices of pancake batter - one was a Native American recipe and the other was a whole grain. Both were all-you-can-eat for $4.50. We added chocolate chips, which were enough for both batters, for $1.75.

After breakfast, we took a walk through the trails. There is an old cypress tree that was more than 500 years old! The sign said the tree should have been cut down when the early settlers moved to the area because they used cypress to build things and for firewood, but for some reason this one was spared. There was also a trail that lead to Monkey Island, where monkeys used to live in the 1950's and 1960's (tourist attraction, more on that later). However, about halfway down the trail it was so flooded we couldn't walk past. Too bad!

Next we went swimming in the spring. This was the only part of the park I was not fond of. As I mentioned earlier, the area used to be a tourist attraction -- think roadside billboard before Disney. Same concept as Gatorland. Anyway, so the attractions included a water skiiing elephant, monkey island, and the Fountain of Youth, hence "DeLeon Springs" after Ponce De Leon. Well, the "fountain" was the natural spring water that most people had never experienced before, as most of the springs in the U.S. are in Florida, which was just beginning to experience its population boom (as Walt Disney later capitalized on). So, the spring was enclosed with a concrete wall that did not allow a lot of water to flow through. Therefore, since everyone was kicking up dirt, I could not see the spring even with my goggles. It was basically like a cold swimming pool instead of a spring.

It was a unique experience, but if I was a scuba diver I would have felt a little cheated.

Til next time,

The camping bug