Winter Trip to Florida

January 1st – 19th

We celebrated New Years with the campground host and several campers. We had a blast celebrating with them. Such nice people at Barton Springs Campground in Normandy, TN.

Ladies at Barton Springs Campground

While Ed finished up finalizing his mom’s estate, I spent some quality time with our granddaughter, Zooey. I alway have so much fun being with her. She has a way of reminding me that life is simple if you allow it to just be and to enjoy each precious moment. Zooey is such a lovable, talkative, and joyful being. I will miss that little munchkin when we start traveling south.

Zooey and I having fun

January 15th was Ed’s birthday. He got a wonderful gift from mother nature that day. He saw a pair of bald eagles on Normandy Lake. What a beautiful site to see. Later, we went out to dinner with Trevor to celebrate Ed’s birthday. It is always so nice to spend some quality time with our son. He has been very busy with work and playing disc golf and taking care of Zooey. We will miss him while we are gone traveling around the country.

Ed, Trevor and I celebrated Ed’s birthday

We did have a little snow while we were in Normandy. The snow was pretty to see but dang it’s cold!  It was 9º F three mornings in a row.

Site #65 at Barton Springs Campground

January 20th – 22nd

We left Barton Springs Campground and headed south to Lake Guntersville State Park, AL. It was an easy drive and only took us about two and a half hours to get there. We had been to this park in 2015 with the 30ft travel trailer and loved it. We picked a site by the lake with full-hookups.

Site #E-35

Lake Guntersville State Park has over 300 campsites. They only had about 15 rigs staying there not including the long terms. It is nice to be able to pick your own site.

I like the view of the lake from the inside of our rig. It is so beautiful here.

I met up with my life time childhood friend at Lake Guntersville State Park lodge for lunch. I love how we can catch up from where we left off. After lunch we went out on the balcony and enjoyed the beautiful view of Lake Guntersville.

Shelly and I on the balcony at the Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge

The lodge is located on top of the hill 600 feet above the campground. They have schedules for bringing in birds that live in their area. We saw a Red Tail Hawk and Shadow Owl.

Later, I showed Shelly our rig and hung out until Ed came home from his hike. Then we went to Shelly’s home to see all of the wonderful remodeling work she had to done to her house. It was a nice spending the day with Shelly.

On our last night staying at the park a strong storm came through from the southwest and headed up to Georgia. (The same storm that hit Adel, GA with tornadoes and killed 7 people.) We had heavy winds and rain all afternoon and evening. I did not like hearing our toppers flopping up and down and feeling the strong winds against our rig. I was so ready to leave the next morning and move on to our next destination. That was not fun. It was still windy in the morning when we hitched up but it wasn’t as bad as it was the night before.

January 23rd – 25th

We drove south east for four and a half hours to F.D. Roosevelt State Park, Pine Mountain, GA. That was a long drive for me. lol We chose site #301 by the creek. This site felt very serene to us. I guess we were ready to just relax and chill after a long night of rain and winds. It was so quiet and peaceful here. We slept good that night.

FDR State Park offers wooded 140 campsites, 21 cabins, pool, 7 hiking trails, and horse stables. The park is located near Callaway Gardens and the town of Warm Springs. President F.D. Roosevelt frequently visited the Warm Springs for treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.

The next morning we went for a short walk on the Delano Trail. It was an easy trail but not much wildlife to see though. Later in the afternoon we toured FDR’s vacation home, the Little White House, the guest house and servants quarters, and the Secret Service Sentry posts and saw the famous “unfinished portrait” and the therapeutic pools which drew him to the area, and his hand-controlled 1938 Ford convertible.

We enjoyed the museum and the white house.

The next day we went for a 2 mile hike on the Swimming Pool trail.

Again, not much wildlife. It was a nice walk though. Ed went for a longer hike while I stayed home and did laundry and relaxed.

I picked out a combination of three trails that formed a 6.9 mile loop; Mountain Creek Nature Trail, Pool Trail and the Pine Mountain Trail. This combination is used so much that they list the loop as the Long Leaf Loop Trail on the trail map for the Pine Mountain Trail. The Pine Mountain Trail runs the entire length of the F D Roosevelt State Park from the west to east covering 23 miles. The park is not quite that long as the bird flies but the trail meanders around enough to add several extra miles. F D Roosevelt State Park is the largest state park in Georgia. With all my stops to look at scenery it took just under 3 ½  hours.

January 26th – January 27th

We got up early, packed up, hitched up and got on the road by 9am. We headed south to Reed Bingham State Park, Adel, GA. We had to reserve a campsite online the day before because they were filling up fast. We got their last pull-thru premium site #38. We have been here before with our 5th wheel. For more information about this park check out our 2016 July blog post. We like this park because of the wide spaces between campsites and lots of oak trees.

We went for a hike on the board walk trail. We didn’t see any wildlife due to the rise of the lake from the storm this past weekend. Here is a picture of the comparison from last summer to this winter.

2016 July                                                         2017 January

January 28th – 31st

We left Reed Bingham State Park by 10am and drove south to Ocala, Florida. We parked at Ocala Sun RV Resort in one of their overnight pull-thru sites. Their pull-thru sites are at least 60 feet long on grass. We had full-hook ups and free Wifi.

Site #114

We stayed there for four nights to give us time to find a place to stay in central Florida for a month. I know, we should of reserved a spot months ago especially during the winter season in Florida. lol This campground has very nice bathrooms, pool area and clubhouse. We would keep this campground in mind for an overnight stay next time we come down to Florida.

It took us a couple of days of driving around and luckily we found a place to stay for a month of in Bowling Green. Stay tuned for the next months blog.

See ya later!