Set the alarm for a little later this morning, as our trip is a lot shorter today. Out of camp by 8:00 anyway, though, as Hubby hadn’t bothered to put up the satellite dish, and everything else was stored last night. Stopped for breakfast at Denny’s along the beltway, then a straight shot down to the Tiger Bay Wildlife Area, stopping at a gas station to pick up water, because apparently they only have a hand pump there, and to top off with fuel. Then, my Google Maps app on my smartphone failed me. It tried to take us onto a very minor forest road that had a locked gate on it. I should have looked a little more closely at the map, but I knew there was a south entrance that seemed to have more facilities around it, so we detoured back to the freeway, south an exit, than REALLY got lost as my navigator tried to first take us through a middle school, then through a correctional institution, both of which were the dead end at the end of their respective roads. Finally I pulled up the map of the park I had downloaded, and that wasn’t too helpful either, because the name of the roads seemed to be mostly different. I finally found one in common and set out sights from there, finally finding the entrance to the park. Unfortunately, it was four miles from there to the campground, two of which were so wash-boardy we had to travel at about 5 mph just to keep from shaking our teeth out. The last few miles were better, and I confirmed with the office that the road, did, in fact, lead to the north road we had originally planned on coming in on, apparently we just didn’t go far enough west to find it. In any event, we finally arrived at the campground, which was actually quite a quaint little place, with lots of huge trees, new wooden corrals at every site, hitching posts, mounting blocks, the whole shebang. The trails looked typically Florida as we came in, lots of squash palms, sand and a few taller palms, along with the live oaks, but mostly like narrow forest roads. Our plan had been to stay two nights, riding tomorrow before moving further south, because we had ordered two special batteries for the new RV which we had to pick up on the way down, and they were supposed to arrive tomorrow. I decided to call to see what time they would be in, thinking maybe if it was early enough we could actually finish the trip tomorrow, and lo and behold, the batteries had ALREADY arrived! That made the decision, we would save riding here until another time, and get out good and early tomorrow so we could progress this plot. Since we had full tanks of gas, no highline since the horses were lounging around in corrals, and no satellite dish, we knew we could get out in a hurry in the morning and make good time. Having made that decision, I spent the rest of the afternoon settling some banking issues and researching for cabinet-makers for the remodeling we were set to do in the new RV. A relaxing afternoon, despite the little directional snafu earlier. Had a nice dinner and settled down for the night.
Set the alarm for a little later this morning, as our trip is a lot shorter today. Out of camp by 8:00 anyway, though, as Hubby hadn’t bothered to put up the satellite dish, and everything else was stored last night. Stopped for breakfast at Denny’s along the beltway, then a straight shot down to the Tiger Bay Wildlife Area, stopping at a gas station to pick up water, because apparently they only have a hand pump there, and to top off with fuel. Then, my Google Maps app on my smartphone failed me. It tried to take us onto a very minor forest road that had a locked gate on it. I should have looked a little more closely at the map, but I knew there was a south entrance that seemed to have more facilities around it, so we detoured back to the freeway, south an exit, than REALLY got lost as my navigator tried to first take us through a middle school, then through a correctional institution, both of which were the dead end at the end of their respective roads. Finally I pulled up the map of the park I had downloaded, and that wasn’t too helpful either, because the name of the roads seemed to be mostly different. I finally found one in common and set out sights from there, finally finding the entrance to the park. Unfortunately, it was four miles from there to the campground, two of which were so wash-boardy we had to travel at about 5 mph just to keep from shaking our teeth out. The last few miles were better, and I confirmed with the office that the road, did, in fact, lead to the north road we had originally planned on coming in on, apparently we just didn’t go far enough west to find it. In any event, we finally arrived at the campground, which was actually quite a quaint little place, with lots of huge trees, new wooden corrals at every site, hitching posts, mounting blocks, the whole shebang. The trails looked typically Florida as we came in, lots of squash palms, sand and a few taller palms, along with the live oaks, but mostly like narrow forest roads. Our plan had been to stay two nights, riding tomorrow before moving further south, because we had ordered two special batteries for the new RV which we had to pick up on the way down, and they were supposed to arrive tomorrow. I decided to call to see what time they would be in, thinking maybe if it was early enough we could actually finish the trip tomorrow, and lo and behold, the batteries had ALREADY arrived! That made the decision, we would save riding here until another time, and get out good and early tomorrow so we could progress this plot. Since we had full tanks of gas, no highline since the horses were lounging around in corrals, and no satellite dish, we knew we could get out in a hurry in the morning and make good time. Having made that decision, I spent the rest of the afternoon settling some banking issues and researching for cabinet-makers for the remodeling we were set to do in the new RV. A relaxing afternoon, despite the little directional snafu earlier. Had a nice dinner and settled down for the night.
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