Crystal River Trip - The Good, The Wet & The Ugly

[stefa70 205]

Just back from an exhausting weekend at Crystal Isles Resort in Crystal River, Florida. I'm going to get this first installment done today with at least an explanation on my title. Then I must do some laundry and get some rest before going back to work tomorrow.

The title of this report should have been The Wet, The Ugly & The Good, as that was the order of events, but that just didn't have the same ring to it.

Here is a quick glimpse into the reasoning behind it:

The Good:

The Wet:

The Ugly:

Let me backtrack for a minute. Saturday & Sunday were absolutely beautiful (The Good) The weather was fantastic, the water was amazing, and we had some pretty "once in a lifetime moments" which I will explain later.

Friday was The Wet part. The second picture above was heading down Fort Island Trail towards the campground. The weather was not pretty, but for those of you who live in Florida, you know that storms like this can come on strong and be gone in a matter of minutes. I was optimistic that this was going to be one of those storms.

The Ugly may not look so ugly to the naked eye. I was trying to capture the crowds by the number of carts, vehicles and boats along the sides of the roads. Now, I knew it would be abnormally crowded this weekend because of the holiday and the start of scallop season. What I was not expecting was the way the resort handled (or should I say NOT handled) this type of crowd. While there were Citrus County sheriff deputies patrolling all weekend long, they were on the lookout for law breakers and NOTHING else.

Because this is the Fort Fiends site, and most of us are die hard Fort lovers who remember the good old days, we do our share of complaining about Fort "things" e.g. Security, locals in the pool, underage cart drivers, late night inconsiderate guests, cutting through sites, and other legitimate complaints.

If and when, you hear me voice any complaints, I want all of you to remind me of this Crystal River trip, and I promise to shut my mouth immediately!

While I was given the standard rules when we checked in, I found it not worthy of the paper it was written on, as they didn't enforce a single one of them.

Carts racing around what is essentially a one way street, music blaring, people partying hard til 1:00 am, vomiting in the streets and docks.....it's ALL good at Crystal Isles.

So this was my experience in a nut shell. I can tell you the good outweighed the bad, and I will go back again, but it surely made me appreciate the effort the Fort does do in making our stays enjoyable.

I have a bunch of pictures which I will get sorted out, and give you the rest of the gory details. Stay tuned!

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great start Stef, I can't wait to hear the whole ugly story. Well I want to hear the good part too :rofl2: Don't worry I will be the first to remind you of Crystal River should you feel the need to complain about the Fort. :popo:

Go rest up and I will wait patiently for more :popcorn:

[anolefan 8]

I can't wait to see how this plays out!

Although gory details frightens me a little. :bugeyes:

:popcorn:

[stefa70 205]

Great start Stef, I can't wait to hear the whole ugly story. Well I want to hear the good part too :rofl2: Don't worry I will be the first to remind you of Crystal River should you feel the need to complain about the Fort. :popo:

Go rest up and I will wait patiently for more :popcorn:

Thanks Cherie, I know I can always count on you!

I can't wait to see how this plays out!

Although gory details frightens me a little. :bugeyes:

:popcorn:

Don't worry Tom, it's not too bad. Now, if you had asked me Friday night how it was, I would have given you an earful and then some. But things turned out great so I've kind of forgotten how bad it was at the moment.

[ftwildernessguy 778]

By college standards, it has all the requirements for a great weekend! Loud music, late night rowdiness, alcohol and vomit!

[stefa70 205]

I am going to try to get this report going, so we can all concentrate on the good reports (TCD) to come this week. I just took a nice shower (is it just me, or does everyone REALLY appreciate their big, good pressure, home shower after a camping trip?) So let's get moving............

If you've read some of my other reports, I've always said that even when I'm gone, the fiends are not far from my mind. Something will always make me think of someone. First up is our Queen Fiend, Jen.

Friday ~ I have to pass this thrift store (I think?) every time I head to Crystal River and wonder what kind of chaos Jen could create with some rope and a few dozen cans of spray paint.

What you can't see in the picture, as I took it while driving, is on the left side is a whole pen full of flamingos. Would that be a flock? A gaggle? I don't know, but there's a ton of them! If you look at the sky to the left, you can see that we should have had an idea what was headed our way.

We stopped at West Marine so I could run in for oil and a couple of other boaty things. This has become one of my favorite stores, and I love the smell in there. By the time I came out it was pouring rain, and the campground is about 2 miles from there. Along Fort Island Trail, the rain just kept getting harder and harder. All the ditches on the side of the road were full and the real estate signs were under water. Still I wasn't too worried. Crystal River is a very low lying area and floods at the drop of a hat. One of the worst storms our county has ever seen was the "No Name storm of 1993." Most of the city was underwater. If they even hint at a tropical storm or hurricane now, Crystal River goes into storm mode. Since that big one, most everyone rebuilt their homes two or three stories. A little rain won't keep me away!

When we pulled up to the office, the lady came to the door and gave us our check in papers so we didn't have to get out of the truck. COOL! We tell her Nathen will be in later with the boat, so we will need another parking pass. She tells us he will have to stop at the front and get a boat and trailer pass or they will be towed! Okie dokie then. Her famous last words? "It's probably going to be wet!" DUH!

We pulled into our site and I put my life jacket on. Just kidding, I sat in the truck while Trevor ran about 5 sites down to visit friends that were already there.

The orange blob you can kind of see is Trevors shirt. I sat in the truck with Mason waiting for the rain to at least, let up. After about 30 minutes, to combat boredom, I started reading the rule packet they gave us. The front office is open from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. If you check in later than that, they leave your papers in a black box outside the door. There was no way Nathen would be there by then, so we knew we had to go back to the office and straighten that out....and yes, it's still pouring! I'm starting to get a bit frustrated. Trevor comes back and suggests that he get out and hook up electric so we can at least get inside the rv. He did that, and we waded (literally) inside. Now I'm inside, drenched, with a soaking wet dog, the rv is full of stuff that usually goes outside or in the screen room, but the ground has about 8 inches of standing water! Needless to say, I am NOT a "happy camper"

It finally stops raining and we take Mason for a walk. This is what things looked like around camp.

Sorry I don't have site pics, as it was a bare minimum set up. No signs, no Mickey lamp, no screen room. As we walked the dog we found two sites that were using pumps to try to pump the standing water out of it. The roads in there are wide enough for one vehicle, yet there is no traffic "flow" so you have golf carts, vehicles, rv's, boats and bicycles all trying to squeeze by each other, all while each site had 2 or 3 vehicles and a boat parked on each sides of the roads. It was chaotic and dangerous!

The first thing I noticed is with all those people hanging around, no one spoke or waved or even gave a nod. We're definitely not at Disney! Just as Mason does his business, Trevor leans over to pick it up and a lady...uh, let's just call her a female says;

"Good for you, pickin up that poop"

Trevor: "Yeah, that's part of owning a dog"

Female: "Naw, I would've just kicked something over it"

I won't tell you what I was saying under my breath as she walked away, but I was starting to realize the class of people we were camping with. So we carried the poop filled bag, and carried it, and carried it....Surprise! There are no garbage cans! No wonder they don't clean up after the dogs. We finally found 2 in the front of the resort, so I put it in the one at the office door so everyone could share in some eau de Mason >:D

At this point, I'm seriously considering heading home. This is not the kind of start I had hoped for. Trevor knew he better get me out of there before I hurt someone so he suggested going into town to get something to eat. I had decided this trip we would eat dinners out since we're so close to some good restaurants and it would cut down on a lot of packing. Nate still wasn't there so we went to Arbys for some roast beef sandwiches. I've never been so happy to leave a campground in my life!

While waiting outside of Arbys, I was feeling a little better. I was dry for a change, Mason was excited about a roast beef sandwich, and this was in front of the truck.

I thought of TCD. If you read his latest report, you will know his Grandfather loved the "crepe moytels" and this plaza had them all the way down the side of US 19, and they were all in full bloom. His Grandfather passed away at 95, my Grandfather just passed on June 14th at the age of 92. I thought of my Grandpa and said, "If you're looking out for me, please make this weekend better so Trevor and Nathen can stand to live with me!" :)

TCD, if you read this, your Grandfather would have given his thumbs up!

Trevor asks me if I want to go home and I say no, I will at least get through the night and see how tomorrow looks.

We stopped back at the office on the way in and got Nathens parking, boat & trailer passes and made our way back to the site. Nathen got there around 7:00 and backed the boat in.

I go to bed around 8:00 to watch a very fuzzy Nationwide race. The other thing I found in their rules:

"There is no charge to connect to our cable fed satellite. However, the reception can be less than perfect and channels are limited, if any."

I think we had 10 channels, 6 of which were clear! I drifted off to sleep to the sounds of speeding golf carts, remote controlled trucks, radios cranking and two pre-teens who were skim boarding in the mud puddles in front of our truck. Oh happy times! I was comforted by the fact that home was only 15 minutes away....................

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Well I guess your first day could have been worse. I can't think how but I am sure it could have. Good for you for toughing it out, you are big girl and I am proud :banana: I would have been out of there in two seconds flat :rofl2: And look at it like this, at least you knew you would have water to float your boat >:D

Oh, how hard was to drive by those flamingos and not whipping out the purple spray paint :rofl2: One more thing, I hate it when people don't clean up after their dogs :argh:

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Can't wait to read about the good!

[anolefan 8]

I was watching those storms move through while we were at the Fort. There were several red cells with it. We were lucky to miss the heavy stuff. Unfortunately you took the brunt of them.

Can't wait for the next update!

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Geez Stef sorry to hear your weekend started off so ruff. You loaded your first post with so many bad things it's hard to even comment. I give you credit though for not going home. If I lived less than 2hrs away I'd have gone home. Well now that the ugly is out of the way I'm looking forward to the good.

Did you set up the Roo in the rain or wait it out?

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

:suspense:

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Bless your heart, I'm glad to know that it does get better!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

:suspense:

[Otter Spotter aka Debbie 58]

Channel 13, Fox Tampa Bay, was cautioning people in Citrus County about the storm you sat through on Friday. It was a pip that had some pretty severe cells!! I don't know if I would have had your patience & courage. But as us Floridians know, these summer storms pop up quickly, wreak havoc, and move on.

All weekend long Polk County was threatened by storms but nothing of note until last night (4th). Around 5:30p the heavens opened up to the point I thought fireworks shows would need to be cancelled. Silly me. By 9pm all was good and people everywhere were shooting off fireworks. One family across a small lake from my development put on a spectacular show that lasted 30 minutes. I enjoyed that as much or maybe more than Disney's fireworks!

Can't wait to hear more about your weekend! :popcorn:

[stefa70 205]

Thanks everyone! It was one of those days that I can look back on now and laugh at how upset I got. Thank God, I toughed it out as we will get to the good stuff soon.

Steve, we only opened the front bunk as Amanda was not with us this trip. Nate slept on the couch so we never opened the back in case of another downpour. Made for a much easier cleanup though. 1 bunk down, no screen room, or outdoor furniture.

Deb, I'm glad I didn't know how bad the weather was (though I could SEE it ) Add tv warnings to the mix and I probably would have had a breakdown. Glad you got to see some good fireworks after the rain passed.

Hoping to get another installment done soon.

[stefa70 205]

I promise you all, my bitch fest is over! I got a little sleep that night, praying that when I woke up things would be looking up. I strolled outside around 6:00 am, with coffee in hand. It was QUIET (I'm sure everyone was hung over ) and the sky looked clear. Trevor and I joked about driving around in Nate's truck and giving everyone a "Good Morning Honk" >:D

Nathen's truck is equipped with a nice set of train horns that will literally make the hair on the back of your neck stand up if your not prepared for it! Ahh, the sweet smell of revenge!

We got the boat ready to go, packed a lunch and went to the boat launch.

Heading down the canal to the channel:

Mason prefers the front bow of the boat with me, unless we're going fast. He loves the wind in his hair, but he doesn't like the bouncing. The channel was pretty rough that morning as a lot of the bigger boats were headed out to the gulf to go scalloping.

We made it out to the shallows and anchored out.

Forewarning!! Since I don't have cute little kids to take pictures of anymore, Mason is now the shining star. A lot of thought and planning has gone into making our boating trips "Mason friendly" There are a lot of dog pictures, as he had a blast. For those of you who know and love your dogs, you know can actually see them smile when they are having fun. When we first let him off the boat, we put his life jacket on. We weren't sure how he would react to being able to only walk so far before having to swim.

Once he was used to the water we took him into the island to the spring:

He liked the cold water! Then we came back out and him and Nathen played. Even in the pool, Mason does not like you to go under water. You really have to watch him or he will be over your head clawing at your back, or biting the back of your head. So Nathen, of course, like any older brother, had to torment him!

Once he figure out the deep vs. shallow situation, we took off his life jacket. Nathen got the kneeboard out to further aggravate him.

By now, I knew he was getting tired:

So Mason and I got in the boat and put the top up.

While I made us some lunch, Mason did this:

He was exhausted!! Nathen has a buddy that lives on Kings Bay, so Nate called him so he would bring out his new boat. This is his 19th boat! He buys them cheap, fixes them up and sells them at a nice profit. This is Jarred, coming into the shallows (Well, as close as he could get to the shallows)

By now, Mason has woke up and is ready to check out Jarred's boat too!

I have now reached my photo limit for this post, and ya'll have probably seen enough Mason for now. I have some nice water/scenic pictures coming up next. Crystal River is really a beautiful place. We forget sometimes (because it's so close) that people come from all over to enjoy the bay and the springs.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I love the pictures of Mason enjoying his boat ride and playing in the water :banana: Crystal River does look beautiful, I'm so glad the weather cleared up for you.

I have been to known to get my revenge on loud obnoxious neighbors. A couple of times when visiting the SC kids and staying at a hotel we had people walk down the hallway knocking on doors and acting stupid. I peeked out and saw what room thewy were in. We left at 4 in the morning but not without giving our neighbors a quick wake up phone call. Wouldn't want them to miss a plane or anything :rofl2: :rofl2:

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

Loving the pictures of Mason! Dave's not going to like no pictures of roast beef sand. I would have let the Train roll through too! >:D Maybe even a big pack of firecrackers! :rofl2: Keep it coming! :suspense:

[stefa70 205]

I love the pictures of Mason enjoying his boat ride and playing in the water :banana: Crystal River does look beautiful, I'm so glad the weather cleared up for you.

I have been to known to get my revenge on loud obnoxious neighbors. A couple of times when visiting the SC kids and staying at a hotel we had people walk down the hallway knocking on doors and acting stupid. I peeked out and saw what room thewy were in. We left at 4 in the morning but not without giving our neighbors a quick wake up phone call. Wouldn't want them to miss a plane or anything :rofl2: :rofl2:

:rofl2: Why does it not surprise me that you would seek revenge on your neighbors?

Loving the pictures of Mason! Dave's not going to like no pictures of roast beef sand. I would have let the Train roll through too! >:D Maybe even a big pack of firecrackers! :rofl2: Keep it coming! :suspense:

I did think of Dave and his love of food, but I was in a pretty crappy mood at that point and Arbys isn't too exciting. I do have some food pics coming up soon though!

I would have loved to blow Nate's horns but to be honest, I was kind of nervous about doing that and then "living" with these people (cavemen :laugh: ) for the rest of our stay. I was uneasy even leaving any stuff out since we were gone in the boat all day.

More coming soon!

[stefa70 205]

Moving right along..........

On a side note: Before I left for the weekend, a good friend of mine loaned me her waterproof camera so I wouldn't have to worry about taking my good one on the boat. So I put my smaller memory card into it, and charged it up. Whenever I upload my pictures into the computer, I ALWAYS check the "delete from card after loading" option, so I know the next time I use it, it's empty. After taking all the pictures of Mason and Nate, I reviewed what I had taken and this popped up: :bugeyes:

Yes, that's Stacktester from my day trip to visit fiends! It was like he was haunting my vacation! Why that didn't get deleted, I have no idea. It was kind of spooky! :laugh:

Any who, after playing in the shallows we tooled around the bay.

Taking straight pictures in a boat with tides and wakes is not so easy.

The backside of the shallows:

Tiki bar:

This is my Uncle's house. They bought a small flooded house after the no name storm, then tore it down and built this. You can still see the old boat house on the right.

THIS is my dream house! It doesn't look like much, and it can use some fixing up.

Here's a shot from the other side:

It's on an island! Talk about privacy! No one dropping in unannounced, no salesman coming to the door. It's not for sale (like I could afford it :laugh: ) but we talked about how my newspaper delivery might be a bit difficult, grocery shopping would be interesting, and when they built it, all of the materials had to be floated in. Pretty cool!

Around 2:30 we thought we'd head back to camp, clean up, rest and go out to eat. We knew we were going back out later that night for fireworks. On the way back we passed this house:

The spiral staircase goes all the way up to a deck across the whole roof. Nice view, huh?

Here's my navigators heading back down the canal:

We made it back and Mason and I went and slept for about an hour. The sun and water will really wear you out. Then we cleaned up and went to Cody's Roadhouse Grill.

We ate WAY to much food! We should have skipped the onion tower appetizer!

The boys ordered this. 24 oz. prime ribs!

I had chicken tenders, pretty boring, so no pics. We went back and sat around camp trying to digest all that food. We were one street over from the pool and they were having karaoke that night. While a few singers weren't too bad, most of the time I was begging for the song to be over.

Mason reaped the benefits of the prime rib!

Around 7:30 we jumped back in the boat for fireworks. As soon as we got out of the canal, I took this, which turned out to be one of my favorites.

As we got closer we could see TONS of boats lined up.

I won't bore you with too many firework shots, but here's a few. Keep in mind that all the lights you see underneath are boats!

By the time we got back, it was 10:30 so I turned on ESPN to see the race recap. :argh: I was glad I had missed it. The boys stayed outside doing their thing while I tried to drown out the chaos going on outside. Our plan was to take the boat out a bit later the next day to avoid all the fishermen and scallop people in the channel.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Another great update. That area is just beautiful. I wouldn't mind living in your dream house. No nosy neighbors and a great view.

That's the one thing I miss about not having our boat, we used to love sitting on the river watching the fireworks. Keep it coming :banana:

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Day two looks awesome. I wish we had places like that nearby to spend a weekend.

Stef a life jacket for the dog to swim?? :rofl2:

[stefa70 205]

Stef a life jacket for the dog to swim?? :rofl2:

Yes, a life jacket for the dog! Believe me, being a Retriever, he is a great swimmer. The main purpose of the life jacket is it has a handle on the top, so when we are out in the middle of the lake (where no one can touch) we can toss him overboard to cool off, then just lift him back into the boat with the handle. He weighs about 90 lbs. so there would be no way to pick him up unless we were standing on bottom. We also ended up using it on Sunday.....which I will get to soon!

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

That looks AWESOME!!!

BACON wrapped filet mignon!!!

[stefa70 205]

That looks AWESOME!!!

BACON wrapped filet mignon!!!

:rofl2: You fruit loop! I thought to myself Did he even read the report? They had PRIME RIB! Then I realized that you were reading the card on the table. I should have known, you can spot bacon a mile away!