traveling

Silver Springs State Park Florida

We recently went on a slightly longer (5 nights) camping trip. Because our tow vehicle is older (a 2005 Explorer), we’re reluctant to go much faster than 60, maybe 65 if we’re going down a hill. So, we tend to travel only 200 – 250 miles a day. That puts us on the road for about 4-5 hours. I’m sure we could go farther, but we want to arrive with day light to set up and hopefully enough light to check out the campground (aka get the kids outside to burn off some energy). So, on our recent longer trip, we stopped at Silver Springs State Park for the night. We love staying at state parks in Florida – there’s hiking and normally geocaches.

The campsites here were huge! I purposely picked a pull through site since we were just staying for one night. The plan was to unhook and pull the car straight forward. Then the next day we could back the car straight back and hooking up would be easy. Except things never go as planned.

The camp sites are huge are Silver Springs State Park

Looks good, right?

The camp sites are huge at Silver Springs State Park.

No, Mom, we can’t put our bed down.

We were too close to the post to put one of the beds down.

The slide cleared the water hook up by about three inches!

With such huge sites we still managed to have inches to spare.

These are the things that happen when I’m in charge of where to park. Normally DH tells me where to go and things go much better! In my defense, having a slide and side pop out bed are new and I’m more concerned with getting us close enough to our hook ups! You should know that the above pictures happened after we hooked the camper back up and moved it a bit and after I got back from getting gas! Before we moved it, there wasn’t room for the slide. Of course I could blame it on the fact that we arrived at our campsite with 15 miles of gas left! One thing you must know about me is that I am absolutely paranoid about running out of gas! When the miles to empty gets down close to 50, I’m looking for a gas station and that’s when we’re not towing. I’m still not sure why we let it get that low while we were towing!! So, I was mostly wanting to get the camper parked so we could shut the car off and stop using up our remaining gas! Then, because DH does all the outside hooking up, it only made sense that I would be the one to go get gas. Did I mention that the campsite was almost two miles from the main road?? Did I mention my paranoia? I prayed the whole way to the gas station! When I pulled into the first one I came to, I had 9 miles left! I put 19.488 gallons into a 20 gallon tank. That was way too close for me!! On the way back from getting gas, I got a text from DH that we had to move the camper (DD was with me, I wasn’t texting and driving). Gah! So, we moved it. Got the slide out. Still couldn’t put the bed down. Didn’t care. It was for one night and the kids could share a bed (they normally do anyway – they each have a lightweight sleeping bag).

A few days later, on our way home, we spent another night here in the same site. Only this time we made sure to leave room for the slide and the bed. Then, we decided to go for a hike and see the sink hole. Off we went. The trail was wide and well marked.

Hiking trail at Silver Springs State Park

Hiking along a trail at Silver Springs State Park

I’m always amazed at the oak trees!

The picture doesn’t show it very well, but this is the sink hole. It’s fairly large. We walked down the side a bit, but there wasn’t really a path. Also, about here we remembered that we forgot to put on bug spray. We did so good the entire trip and then the last hike we forget. After we arrived home, we found ticks on both boys and me. No worries though- we went to see the doctor when we got home.
Sink Hole at Silver Springs State Park

Plus, there were spiders everywhere! Not little ones, but bigger ones hanging over our heads. Gah!

Golden orb weaver spider at Silver Springs State Park

A golden orb weaver near the center of the picture.

As we got to the end of the trail, we heard something moving around in the brush. We stood quietly for a minute and this deer came out. She wasn’t too concerned about us and even my camera clicking didn’t scare her. Then we got a little too close and moved a little too fast and she was gone.

Deer along trail at Silver Springs State Park

The one thing we really wanted to see was the museum and cracker village. It’s only open on the weekend because during the week it’s used for local schools. So Saturday morning before heading out, we headed to the museum. It’s $2/person and well worth it!

A Columbian Mammoth skeleton – the less hairy, larger relative of the wooly mammoth.

Columbian Mammoth Skeleton

A megaladon (great white shark relative) mouth – they could grow up to 65 feet long!

Megaladon Shark

I would hate to have to use a canoe like this – I’m leery of modern canoes!

Dugout Canoe

This machine looks almost exactly like the one my kids use except that theirs is electric.

Singer Sewing Machine

A cracker (early Florida settler) house. Once a month they have people who come in and bring the cracker settlement to life. All we could do was look at the buildings and peek in some of the windows.

One room school and church building. There’s a geocache there too.

One room school house and church at Silver Springs State Park.

There is so much more to do at Silver Springs! We didn’t leave the campground area. There’s a whole other section to the park that we’re hoping to check out sometime in the near future – more hiking trails, an ornamental garden, boat rentals, and a glass bottom boat ride.

Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park

We spent Labor Day weekend camping not too far from home at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park. We left Friday evening after work and although it’s just under three hours away, the drive took a lot longer due to accidents and traffic jams on the highway. We didn’t arrive until about 9:20 (late check-in ends at 10!). Backing in during the day is a process (we just don’t do it often enough). Backing in, in the dark is worse! The poor escort was so patient with me as I tried to get the camper going in the right direction. I know the logic behind how to back up, but it just takes me time! I just need more practice. We’ve got setting up pretty much down to a science. Good thing since we had to set up in the dark!

This is my happy view. I love looking in the side view mirror and seeing our popup following us.

The campsites were very long and wide enough that you don’t feel like you’re on top of the other campers. There are trees between the sites to give you some added privacy. They also had a pool and playground. It was pretty damp while we were there and since the playground is in the shade, it didn’t dry out very much. The pool was big though andÂ my kids loved it…me not so much – there were too many people in it so I couldn’t swim laps.

The one thing I did not like was the abundance of these spiders! I believe they’re a golden silk spider. The big one is the female and the smaller ones are males. I’m not fond of spiders and seeing them around just gave me the creeps! There was one that built her web on the swings at the playground…too high for us to reach and there was no way I was sharing a swing with a spider! I don’t hold that against the campground though. I guess it’s the season for them.

The one weird thing was that they don’t provide fire rings, but if you want a fire you need one. How can you camp and not have a fire? I found this cheapie one at WalMart. My kids have been wanting a fire pit for the house, so it’s not like we’ll never use it again, but I’ve never camped somewhere that doesn’t provide fire rings.

Despite the rain, we had a camp fire two nights. What’s camping without roasting hot dogs and making s’mores?!

We also did some geocaching (and my one son discovered some wasps and got stung). There’s Homosassa springs which does have an entrance fee, but it looks like a lot of fun. We didn’t go this time…maybe next time.

We enjoyed our stay here. The bathrooms were fairly clean – the building we were near had eight rooms – each with it’s own entrance. I’ve found that campgrounds that are part of a group (ie KOA, Good Sam Club, etc) are more likely to have decent facilities. If you’re self-contained, it’s not important, but with a pop-up, we need facilities. The closer the better with young children! Another plus was that all the sites are full hook-up. That means I didn’t have to worry about how much water I was using and how quickly our gray water tank was filling up. Also, all the sites are 50 amps, so we had to bring a converter so we could hook up (pop-ups are 30 amp). All in all, it was a good trip!

Have you been camping recently?

Interesting Rest Stop

We like to travel. We don’t do it as much as we have in the past, but we try to make time to visit new places. Recently we went to visit friends in Georgia. On the way back we stopped at a rest area we discovered a couple years ago when we were in the process of moving.

This sign greeted us…how nice.

The have a snake walkway that is modeled after a Florida queen snake.

The walkway starts out as a narrow tail…

…and winds up to the head complete with a forked tongue.

If you’re ever traveling on I75S in Florida, this rest stop is just south of Gainesville. Have you discovered any interesting, unique, or unusual rest stops?