Monday, January 9, 2012 - Travel Day to Alafia State Park

Had a good night sleep, woke up with the alarm, and several snooze buttons later, finally crawled out of bed. Had breakfast here since it’s only about a two hour drive. Packed up and moving by 11:00, a straightforward drive down I-75 with just a couple of misdirections, thanks to my Verizon GPS, which hasn’t been working very well since their workers went on strike a few months ago, though I’m sure there’s no linkage there... Received a hearty welcome from the ranger at the main gate, and was all settled in, including satellite signal, by just after 3:00. Here there are two campgrounds next to each other, a regular one and the horse camp next to it, with 11 sites designed for horses. There are posts for highlines scattered around, and they’re in the process of building a barn nearby, so obviously they have an active horse community here. Looking forward to seeing what the trails look like. Went out to dinner at the Outback in nearby Lithia with an old high school friend and his wife, had a great conversation until 9:00, before heading back to camp. Looking forward to our first ride here tomorrow, feel they must be pretty good to be such an attraction! Fingers crossed!