Wednesday, December 1 2021
Falling Waters State Park to Salt Springs Recreation Area
Actual time: 5:50
Our campsite at Falling Waters:
More driving. Ed said, and I agree, that three days of driving i in a row is too much. That's a good data point for future long trip planning--this time, I just wanted to get to Florida and not waste time idling around in the places in between. So I planned a 7-hour drive, a 5-hour, and a 4-hour. But the 7-hour stretched to 8 with the traffic issues in Baton Rouge, and the 5-hour seemed just plain long. So the 4-hour, which took longer because of gas issues, turned out to be murder.
The main problem was that a quick fillup at a BP/Petro truck stop took three tries to complete. First, the car pumps didn't have diesel, but we didn't notice that until we were stopped and ready to pump. Then the first of the truck pumps was out of order and of course nobody thought to put out a flag or speed cone to warn drivers away. Then the second truck pump required him to go inside three times--to get the pump started, to get a receipt, and then to get the correct receipt when they gave him another person's.
But finally we arrived. Salt Springs Recreation Area is awfully swank. More glamping than camping. Apparently I reserved a "premium site" without realizing it, which means we have sewer hookups. And they're not just a white pipe with a cap on it--they're stainless steel basins. Yeah, two hour showers! And although our neighbors are right alongside, it's not nearly as close as some of the RV parks we've seen. You can spit without first asking your neighbors to open an umbrella. And it's nowhere near full--I would have said half full, but three people came and went during the night so that would have put it up to five-eights.
It was getting late by the time we hooked up, and with evening descending Ed wanted to hurry up with cooking on the grill. So I fixed a quick few skewers of vegetables, got my salmon and potatoes ready, then took Molly for a walk. There were no cars at the springs and the lady at the gate had said "dogs not permitted in the springs" so I walked Molly over to the day use area. Later I read that that rules didn't allow dogs in the day use area at all, so I won't be doing that again.
Anyway, we didn't get close enough to the springs to see any manatees. If they were even there. The gate lady said they were. She also said there was heavy BEAR activity in the park and taht she'd been meeting one every morning and evening during her route to the entrance station. So Molly and I kept our eyes, ears and nose peeled and made a safe walk around and back to our Mammoth Home by nightfall.
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