Thursday, January 5, 2012 - Move to Ross Prairie

Got up at a reasonable hour, packed up and headed out, first to a place due east to pick up hay, then south to Dunnellon to fill up the propane tanks, then finally down to Ross Prairie Campground, arriving just after 2:00 or so. A rather uninspiring campground, though it certainly has all the modern conveniences as a horse camp. High line posts abound, a couple of wash racks and lots of hitching posts, but the few trees are small so the campground has a rather open, parking lot kind of look. We were heartily welcomed by a camp host, a gentleman name Cornelius, who suggested the site I had booked online might not be the best for our convoy, so we moved to site #2, which was a better fit all around. We can see the horses out our door (our favorite view) and all the equipment fits just fine. Apparently it’s going to be a quiet weekend, so it was no problem moving. There are pretty bright lights on adding to the parking lot feel, and it’s just off a pretty major highway so the traffic noise is pretty continuous, I hope it quiets down a bit at night at least. Manure needs to be transported to a nearby dumpster, but the campground provides tubs if you need them (we don’t, as we always carry our own anyway.) Settled everyone in, then headed up the road to a nearby Walmart to go shopping (very near, about 2 miles). Got back, changed our clothes and headed out to a restaurant call Stumpknockers down on the Withlacoochee River to have dinner with some friends we hadn’t seen in years. Had a lovely evening, with lots of challenging debates, just like we like it. Got back about 9:00, wound down a bit before going to bed, hoping the trails here are more interesting than the campground or the map suggest.