Salt Springs Here We Come

It's 30 degrees and windy here in New Jersey - time to pack up the trailer and begin our annual winter journey to where it's warm and sunny (hopefully).  Yesterday Bob and I took down the Christmas tree and decorations, and today the kids are helping us put the canoe on the truck.  We have to get some food and a few more articles of clothes in the trailer, and we're ready to roll. We're leaving January 3rd.

Salt Springs Recreational Area in Florida has become our winter home for January and February.  This will be our third year of camping there, and we are really looking forward to it.  The federal campground at Salt Springs is a real bargain at $16.00 a night for full hookups.  The campground is nestled in the beautiful woods of Ocala National Forest, which covers 383,000 acres, so there's plenty of hiking.  The Salt Spring Run is perfect for us to take the canoe with either the gas motor or our electric motor, and since the water stays at a constant 72 degrees, you can usually swim by February.  This year we're staying until the middle of March, and then we're moving on to Top Sail Hill Preserve State Park which is on the panhandle of Florida.  From there we go to Gulf State Park in Alabama for a month.  Bob wants to check out two historical sites - Vicksburg and Chattanooga - on the way home, so that should be interesting.  We'll finish out the trip in Virginia Beach so that we can attend my Grandson's graduation from Old Dominion University in May.

So it should be an good winter.  Right now all I can think about is getting away from this cold New Jersey weather and hoping that Florida has a warm winter this year.

Our campsite in 2012 - Salt Springs Recreational Area

Salt Springs Recreational Area

Well, we made it down to Salt Springs Recreation Area in Ocala National Forest, and are having a great time so far.  We had one mishap on the way down - our slideout failed to come in on our second night's stay in South Carolina.  Bob used a wrench to bring it in and to put it back out once we settled into the campground.  We got a mobile RV repairman to come out and determine the problem and order the part, which ended up being a broken gear box. (This is the second one that went on our trailer).  He'll be back next week to install the part.  We still have the trailer under a service contract, so everything except $100 should be covered.

The weather here has been wonderful - it will be in the 80's all of next week.  This makes us very happy, particularly since it is in the 20's and 30's back home, and they just had snow.  We're glad to be here instead of there.

We got the canoe out a couple of days ago and tried to take pictures of the manatees.  They were swimming all around the canoe, but it was hard to get any good shots of them.  They come up for such a short time, then go back down again.  The picture below is of one on his back with his nose and whiskers sticking up - pretty funny looking!

We love this park - it's one of our favorites.  It is very quiet, and there is so much room on your site.  The woods are beautiful to hike through, so we've been getting plenty of walking in.  I think that is will be warm enough to swim next week.  The spring is always a comfortable 72 degrees, and is crystal clear.  There are some springs within the pool that are 20 feet deep.  You can see striped bass, mullet and small fry as well as crabs in the pool.

The only problem with this area is lack of internet access.  We get a feeble signal sometimes in the morning and at night, but cell phone and internet service is usually hard to come by here.  Right now I'm writing this post from the local VFW hall which generously provides free internet access.  As a plus, they serve some pretty good food.  Tonight is Rock Cornish Hen with rice, so I think we'll hang around for dinner.

We'll be here until March 10th, and so are happily settled in for awhile.  I'll post either when we go up to the VFW or when I'm lucky enough to grab a decent connection in the trailer!