Right past the river sink

First, I’ve heard from several people asking about my dead water heater.  Just want you all to know it resurrected and I’m enjoying steaming showers in my little Casita again!

A tiny cypress island surrounded by rushing water.

I don’t know what the problem was.  Earlier I had noticed the stove burning erratically with a lot of yellow in it.  I told Ron, “We’re running out of propane.”  Then I noticed that the red light on the water heater was on, meaning it was not operating.

So I switched propane tanks and the stove lighted beautifully… but the water heater still wouldn’t come on.   Ron insisted there was plenty of propane still in the first tank.  He was right.  It was way too heavy to be empty.  I shook it and it felt like it was just shy of half full.  So we put the original tank back on.  And the stove still lit beautifully.  But the water heater still wouldn’t.

The little museum for the town of Leno. I’ll check it out tomorrow.

I punched (or tried to punch) the reset button outside to no avail.

I knew there was a temperature regulator that prevents the heater from coming back on until it reaches a certain threshold.  So I waited.  Then I checked the water temperature at the overflow valve, and it was very comfortable on my skin.  I figured the heater had to be below the temperature it needed to relight itself.  But still no luck.  So I waited a couple more hours, ran a little warm water, then turned the water heater switch on just to see if it had miraculously healed itself — and it lit!

The Nature Center, open Fri – Sun.

It’s been purring away the past two days.  Maybe there was water in the propane line?  Anyway it has recovered from whatever ailment or condition that was bothering it!

Today Sheba and I took the River Trail to the sink while Ron napped.  The weather was perfect for a walk — sunny and cool, but warm and breezy while we were walking.

The river current is really fast.  Swimming is only permitted in a carefully roped off area, with big Swim at Your Own Risk sign.  So we followed the river toward the sinkhole where it disappears.  There were occasionally big black rocks in the river.  Interpretive signs said they had been dams to regulate the speed of the river for the mill that was once here.  But over the years the dams have washed away, leaving the scattered rocks we saw today.

Rocks remaining from the old mill dams.

More signs informed us that the 3-1/2 mile land bridge between where the river goes underground and reemerges was crossed by Florida’s first federal highway, the Old Bellamy Road.

In the 1990’s another sinkhole area opened, but I can’t remember where.  It did make me hope that yet another one didn’t open up while Sheba and I were on the trail!

Anyway, the Santa Fe River flows 44 miles from Santa Fe Lake to here, 900 million gallons of water per day flow underground from this sink, and the river reapppears 3-1/2 miles away at Santa Fe River Rise.  Then it continues 35  more miles until it merges with the Suwannee River.  I photographed that merger when we were staying at Suwannee River State Park before Christmas.

Natural levies built up by repeated river floods.

It sounded so exciting!  I pictured the sink would look like a big whirlpool — kind of like flushing a giant toilet, especially since the current was so rapid upstream.

So I was a little puzzled and underwhelmed to see perfectly-looking calm water, that looked like a big peaceful pond.  Nearby there was another much smaller round sink with clear water, and next to it another one of green scum.

The Nature Information Office  is only open Friday-Sunday, so I guess I’ll have to wait until then to ask how it can look so calm when 900 million gallons a day are disappearing there.  The water level can’t be dropping or we could hear it falling.

Our underwhelming destination. This calm pool is where 900 million gallons a day disappear underground… without a whimper, I might add!

That means there must not be a very thick layer of limestone over the water.

YIKES!

I missed visiting the museum for the town of Leno today.  It will be open tomorrow, so I’ll look forward to seeing it then.

One of my readers commented that big ugly gall I photographed yesterday was a burl that would make the most beautifully colored and patterned bowl.  So I’m posting another photo for you today, Ron.

This photo is for woodworker Ron. 🙂

And the Lazy Daze picture is for Judie.  🙂

This Lazy Daze picture is for Judie!

And if you ever wondered how we fit 2 dogs in a Casita….