2020-04-19: Geocaching Florida From Fort White to Cedar Key to Find a Closed Island, a Ghost Town, and an Old House

Hello everyone! So after our quick couple of weeks at the Georgia project, we're back in our home state of Florida to start a new project in Fort White! We arrived mid-week and check into the River Run Campground. After working the remainder of the week, we had the first weekend off so it was time to go exploring and geocaching along the rural backroads of Florida. So hop on in the GeoJeep and let's go see what we can find...

First on the list for Saturday was driving on up to Discount Tire in Lake City. After two years and 100,000 miles on the GeoJeep, it was time to finally upgrade to some new tires and wheels. Because we do drive it a LOT, I didn't want to go too big and loose the 16-18 MPG. But I did want something that looked a little more off-road than the originals. I like it! What do you think?

On Sunday, we decided to take a drive on over to the Gulf Coast at Cedar Key. What a great way to spend a spring day but on a beach in Florida, Right? NOT! We drove all the way down here only to find that the island is closed off to non-residents because of the virus. Well so much for that plan. We head back towards Fort White grabbing geocaches along the way starting with two quick roadside caches on Hwy 24 on the way to Cedar Key (GC1AHDY, GC6FJWA).

Approaching Chiefland, we grabbed a roadside geocache on CR345 (GC4YP47). Then in Chiefland, we passed by Barnhill Landscape and they had a landscape display which I just had to stop and get some pics of. This one especially was my favorite of an old school bus crossing a rickety bridge. I give you two versions; the black and white photo below and the color photo from a different angle at the top of the blog post.

The next stop was for a geocache at the ghost town and Levyville Cemetery (GC44F5N). The history of Levyville is short. The Levy County seat for only a few years in the mid-1800's. The town slowly disappeared after losing its position to Bronson in 1870, and was virtually non-existent by the early 1900's. The railroad could "make or break" a town, and bypassing Levyville definitely broke it. There was a brief Civil War skirmish fought in the area as well. The "new" courthouse, built in 1867, which became redundant when Bronson became the county seat, was sold to the newly-formed Masonic Lodge #51 in 1870, and eventually moved to Chiefland. All that remains of this historic town are two cemeteries. This one has nearly 60 interments with the oldest belonging to Levi Wright who died in 1858.

Then there was "This Old House" (GC3HAY9) located in Bell, Florida. I couldn't find anything out about this house or when it was built. It does kinda remind me of the Jed Clampett house before he moved to Beverly Hills.

And finally, an Earthcache at the Suwannee River (GC679MY). This is what natural Florida looks like. The water level was a little high at this time. This is just one of the many public boat ramps to access this 246 mile long river which flows from south Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

That's it for today. Not a very big roadtrip, but a nice drive nonetheless. Until next time, see you back here soon...

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