We had some misfortunes on the way to our new campground. I had called ahead to see if there were any spots and the lady said "a few". Since these are all first come, first served, we got nervous about getting one. So we separated so Missy could dash ahead and save a spot. Turns out that lady was being sarcastic? Because there were a lot of spots. Her joke ended up costing us $500.
The first mishap was that I couldn't understand the turn at a funky intersection only 5 miles from the campground. I turned the wrong way. And there was NO suitable side road, pull-off, parking lot or even wide shoulder for 20 miles. So I took a 40 mile detour. Grrr. Then when I finally got to our spot, the tire pressure system alarm went off. It picked up the Element again, and we had a flat! Goddamn it. Split inner wall, which the internets said happen if you drive on a low tire. Apparently today's tires run just fine when losing air, so Missy had no idea. If we'd been hooked up and driving together, the alarm would have gone off when we'd lost 5 psi, and we could have saved the tire. They only thing that makes this situation in any way bearable is that we've actually been needing new tires on the Honda anyway. So Missy went to Walmart and got us situated.
This park is in the Ocala National Forest. The campground is a former private RV park, and it's laid out like one. 100 FHUs. Many are quite close together. Missy got us the best one. It's on a corner and an end row. There's a fantastic climbing tree right in our yard. Too bad my phews are too far to visit. Actually, Oscar has been climbing the tree. His first tree climb. The first try he didn't use claws and it didn't go well.
The attractions of this park are 2-fold. One is the springs area. They've made it into a nice swimming area/picnic area. We went there on Friday when it was sunny and mid 80s. We had a blast snorkeling with large schools of large mullets. The second attraction is the manatees. Since the springs are 72 degrees year round, the manatees come up in the cold weather so they can survive the winter. Now, it's probably way too warm to see any this week. But, tomorrow is our last day. So we're going to get up very early and on the water just after sunrise to see if there are any in the channel out to Lake George. Wish us luck! Then we have to hurry back and break camp and get on our way before the fiercely enforced 1pm check out.
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| I can't believe I swam within inches of these beasts! |
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| One of the deep, bubbling springs. It's hard to capture in a picture. It's probably 1.5 stories. |
Beautiful springs. Reminds me of Yellowstone. That is a great climbing tree. Maxwell will be sad he missed it.
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