SKP then Koreshan

February 3 –February 13, 2023                                  Most Recent Posts:
Koreshan State Historic Site                  Hiking at Lake Kissimmee State Park
Site 48                                                                  Lake Kissimmee: Kayaking
Estero, Florida

Koreshan was hit badly by the hurricane and has been closed ever since.  I was quite worried that I would be stuck in Florida in February with no campsite.
My reservation was supposed to start on the 31st of January for 2 weeks.

Luckily in playing the Florida Lottery I had overlapped my reservations at Lake Kissimmee and Koreshan.  Usually I cancel these overlaps but also “fortunately” I forgot about this one.   Hmmmmmm

Anyway, the park sent me an email saying they would reopen on the 3rd of February.   My reservation at Lake Kissimmee ended on the 2nd so I only need a one night overlap.

I had been on a FHU site at Florida SKP park before going to Kissimmee and had asked them then if I could come for one of their over night or boondocking spots.   When I arrived February 2nd they had a 30 amp grass spot so that’s where I spent the night before  moving on to Estero.  I love Escapees.

I had other RVs on passenger side and the fence dividing me from the next door orange grove which is patrolled by a crowing rooster and some Rhode Island Reds.  Same birds we raised for years.  I felt right at home.   Never saw the rooster but I heard him loud and clear.  The hens were busy working over the area around the orange trees.

Hens busy at work

On February 3rd I moved to Koreshan State Historic Site which has a very interesting history that I’ve talked about in previous years’ posts.  You can find those by typing Koreshan in the search box on the top right of this blog.  I’ll also include a link to a fairly good video in my next post about the grounds.  It’s an intricate and pretty amazing story if you hear it all.   And of course I have a book if you are really interested in this unusual “community” and it’s even more unusual founder.

I really do love/hate this park.  Their Friends group is so active.  They do tours of the historic area and have demonstrations, they have an annual “ghost walk” that happened the week-end I arrived but was sold out.  They have musical performances and lectures in the Art Building, have ranger talks on butterflies and birds and tons of other things, lead a guided kayak trip on the river and there is a farmer’s market on Sunday.

What I do not like about it is the campground whose sites are very narrow.  I thought I’d picked one with a wide opening and it was fine.  I got Winnona in but I was too close to the pine tree on the driver’s side where the site narrows.  When I went to pull out and move over, the wheels must have been turned and I clipped the tree.  No damage to the tree but here’s what happened to Winnona.

Luckily the lights all still work but I pretty much spent the 9 days I was at the park trying to get this repaired at least enough to be driven.   Unfortunately when I went to leave the park the connection between the lights on the RV and the lights on the car no longer work.  I can’t help but think it’s something in the repair since it had been fine for over a year.  Now I have no turn signals or brake lights on Ruby.  Pretty sure that’s illegal.

I definitely hope bad luck doesn’t come in 3’s because right after I had this problem and got the RV positioned correctly and went to level up I found the passenger side was quite low.  The site was too narrow for me to try to reposition again and I wasn’t in any mood to so I thought I would just use enough blocks to take care of it.  

When I went to put the jacks down, they all came down but the passenger’s front which would extend only about an inch.  I’d had no trouble with it at Lake Kissimmee, up and down with no problem.  I hadn’t used the jacks at SKP the night before.   What is going on?

No amount of storing them and putting them out would get me level.  Without being level, I couldn’t put the slides out.  I called the office for a recommendation of an RV Tech.  No they don’t recommend but they could give me 3 cards.  I asked the camp host.  No he did all the work on his RV himself.  Yes that’s what David did, but I don’t.  So I started googling and reading reviews.  Luckily I had gotten here in time to find someone and call them but more on that later.

In these 9 days, I did hike the trails numerous times and kayaked the Estero River once on my daughter’s birthday February 7 to celebrate one of the best things in my life.   I also went to the farmer’s market both Sunday’s I was there.

So I’ll start with the Farmer’s market  on Sunday and return to the Friday I arrived problems later.

This is the hike from the campground to the Settlement Grounds where the Farmer’s Market is held.   it’s a lovely riverside path through pines and palms and the dreaded bamboo.  More on it next post.  That’s the river on the left of the picture to the left.

The Settlement has two lovely bridges.   This is the one I crossed on my way to the market.

There were many booths selling everything you could think of.  I’ll highlight 3 of my favorites.  

Artisian Bread is my downfall.  He makes fabulous bread and pastries.

Both weeks I bought some of his wares and I didn’t take one picture of them>

The name of this booth was Sea Glass Collections.  She’s made lovely jewelry and whimsical signs.  My friend Pam collects sea glass on the beach in Duck North Carolina and I know she will love these things.

And finally the produce vendor with I’m pretty sure every fruit or vegetable that grows in Florida and that’s nearly all of them.  Well maybe no peas.  Too warm now.  But plenty of ripe red tomatoes as you can see.

Definitely a great setting for a farmer’s market.  And WALKABLE!!

After I dropped my kayak rack off for repair, more on that later, I took the kayak to the boat launch and locked it so I could come any time and take it on the river.

Unfortunately because of my shortened stay and the number of chores I had to take care of,  I was only able to kayak the Estero river once.   Then, when I got what problems I could fixed I couldn’t get the high and low tides to make it possible for me to go back.

At the time the community was founded, this river must have been much wider and less over hung since they and later all their goods arrived by boat.  There were no roads here.

There are two directions to go,  east or west.  Meaning turn right or left out of the boat launch.  I turned right, went under route 41 and continued on as the river got smaller and smaller going toward its source.  This has always been my favorite direction to paddle her.

There are many fewer houses facing the river than going east toward the gulf.

As you can see the tide is going out so I can’t stay terribly long but on subsequent days the times were even worse.

There had been several obstacles in the river from the hurrican including what looked like a downed power line which I carefully avoided though I later learned that of course it had been turned off.   I wasn’t able to go nearly as far as I usually do when I met with a complete blockage of the river.

I had no choice but to turn around.   I was going to pass the park and continue on east instead.

I passed the ruined steps that once led from the dock at the store for those delivering or picking up goods here.

Back behind the trees is the  cottage of the original owner of the land Gustaf Domkoller.

This is the Bamboo Landing which was the entry way for all guests and visitors to the site.  Not a great look from my low in the water kayak but I understand that at the time, from a passenger ferry or other boat it was quite impressive.

The river is getting lower, the mangrove roots are reaching down.

This Great Blue Heron was the only bird I saw on this paddle.  I continued east and the river widened and there was a housing development along the shore.  The wind picked up and I wasn’t terribly interested in fighting the wind to see just how much development there was along the section of the river not protected by the park so I turned back and thought I’d come back on another less windy day and see what happens when you paddle west to the gulf, but that was not to be.

Back to the Friday I arrived problem.   That was the day I learned my lesson the hard way to ask a campground volunteer host or a ranger to guide me into the

narrow sites here.  After my research, I called Affordable Mobile RV Service and of course with such good recommendations they were booked out for a week.  I pleaded for them to fit me into their schedule.  After the accident, but before I called them I had discovered that my right passenger’s jack would not extend beyond and inch and thus I could not fully level the coach in this site that was very unlevel side to side.   If you aren’t level, you can’t put your slides out and it may damage your refrigerator.    The woman who does the scheduling, Karen, was one of the nicest people I’ve ever dealt with.  She understood my situation completely.  She said despite the fact that they were slammed and were one technician short,  she would try to send someone today.  It was 2:00 in the afternoon. 

As dark approached I’d decided it wasn’t going to be able to be today.  I hadn’t extended my slides but I was worried about the refrigerator.  Then there was a knock at the door.  I wasn’t expecting the owner Kevin to show up with his 30 years of experience but there he was that very day to help me with the jack problem. 

First he looked under the hood, checked the panel, listened to the hydraulic motor as we ran the jacks up and down several times but to no avail.  He’s thinking the solenoid is the problem.  Notice that he just leans over and looks in the hood.  For me to do that requires a two step stool.  Kevin is 6 foot 5.

He doesn’t have a solendoid but he does have a plan.  He says we’ll just use a bottle jack to hold that side up.  David had a bottle jack and I know it is in one of these compartments but I check and cannot find it anywhere.  Did I take it out thinking I would never use it?

No problem he’ll loan me one of his.  And down on the ground he goes to set it up.

One problem solved temporarily.  But by the time he leaves we’re working by flashlight and I’ve lightened the picture so you can see it.

The next Friday, seven days later he’s back to fix my damage.  As you saw in the above picture of the damage, it had to be repaired before I could leave the campground.  I was leaving on Monday.

And here’s my hero with the finished job.  I need to get a little paint but everything is working.  I sure hope this repair was not the cause of my lights problem on Ruby when towing which is my latest problem.

Next problem, I can’t give him his jack back right now because I’m not leaving until Monday and it’s only Friday.  I ask if I can drop it off on my way North.  He says “don’t worry about it.  You’ll need it until you can get it repaired”.   A nicer more knowledgeable technician and company you will not find.   Boy am I lucky they were so willing to work way overtime to help me.

And now to a problem that I did get solved.

I have had my hullivators on top of my Honda since the year after I bought the car.  David gave them to me that Christmas because they are hydraulic lifts.  But after nearly 20 years, one of the feet that support them had too much Florida Rust so I took the whole thing to Estero River Outfitters which I had used before and knew they were great.  I was right.  Justin did the impossible.

I had taken them to several other outfitters selling kayak/canoe car racks.  All of them told me that style was no longer made by Hullivator and I’d have to buy a whole new system for $1500 or $1600.   Justin on the other hand thought he had some old parts and could fix me up.   He said the hullivators themselves were still fine though I should try to mitigate the rust.   He took them off, kept the rack itself and in the picture above he’s reinstalling it with some new feet and new bars. Justin’s parents opened this store in the 70’s and their 3 sons co-own it now.  Justin is a wealth of information and knowledge.  What he doesn’t know isn’t known.  Can’t recommend him enough

Here it is all redone and ready to go.   I am a seriously happy and now unworried kayaker.  

And that’s about it for the things I did at Koreshan other than daily walks around and two tours of the grounds.  That will be in my next post.

I’m sorry to fill this post with so many problems but that was what happened over this time.  Yes it’s true I seem to have a lot  (maybe more than my share) of problems and they do cause me stress and worry.  We are all getting older.  Winnona, Ruby, and the hullivators are 20 years older.  I am many more years older than that.  We have our aches and pains but still,  we’re going to stick together as long as we can. I Love this way of life.