Alexander Springs

I took the family to Alexander Springs in the Ocala National Forest today. My youngest brother and his family, my mother and two of my older brother's sons came along as well. Florida has many springs like Alexander. The water stays 72 degrees year round and is extremely clear. We had a good time swimming and just lounging around in the shade under the oak trees.

It reminded me of when my wife and I were dating and went to another spring called Juniper Springs. For some reason a load of bikers decided to visit the spring that day and they were all over the place. We found an open piece of ground close to the bikers, set everything down on a blanket and made haste for the cold water.

After swimming a while we came back to find that our tin of chocolate chip cookies that had been made just for the occasion was missing. We immediately blamed the bikers. There wasn't a lot I could do about it. I was six foot tall and hardly weight 150 pounds and the bikers were... well, they were an assortment of leather clad, tattoed, overweight, long haired, furry faced men and women (no furry faces on the women though) and there were a lot of them. I might have been young, but I knew better than to start something with that bunch.

Later on, after bemoaing our lost cookies, we decided to take a walk on the nearby trails. On the way to the trails a movement caught my eye and I looked over toward the trees. To my amazement, our tin of cookies was rolling on the ground and there, running right behind it was the cookie thief. It was a brown, furry faced...  squirrel. We chased him off and took our cookies back. Thankfully, the squirrel never managed to get the tin open so we still got to enjoy them (they were a little crumbly though). I did feel pretty bad about blaming the bikers.