Second Lesson in Camping

We have been going round the Northwest part of Florida and have visited 6 different state parks so far. We will be heading for the next one on November 1st. In all this time we have only been able to fishing two times, didn’t catch anything, and have yet to start a fire or tried to cook anything outside. We have walked along some trails, taken lots of pictures, visited a few places outside the parks such as the National Naval Aviation Museum yesterday. More on that in a minute. It is difficult to see everything at any one park or visit more than one or two interesting places outside of those parks. With one thing and another we have run out of time before we can do all those things we really wish to do. Either we have set our sites too high or we are just too unorganized to get things done. Now when you are traveling you want it to be as stress free as possible and enjoy ourselves when we can. Or otherwise what is the point really?

This is our second lesson in camping. You never really have as much time as you want to get the things you want done. So, you try and get the things you want most done in the time you have. That usually means that you have to leave some things undone and occasionally you will miss out on things that you will just have to come back and do later, if you are able that is. Traveling as we are we have tried to line up as many state parks with RV camping facilities as we can in a row. We are trying to save money and gas. This is difficult as we are juggling time, money and internet service. As you we will read in our reviews some of these state parks have very limited or even no internet service. The State of Florida Park Service prefers that you make a reservation online prior to arrival to assure that they have a space that fits your needs. The weekends and holidays are extremely difficult to get reservations and you do not want to show up at a park and not be able to stay the night because they are full up or cannot accommodate your rig. We have had to skip over one or two or even parks and had to give up some days at one park or stay longer at another just to keep going.

Now the holidays are coming and we have decided to head back towards home to take care of some family business, take stock of our current travel plans and to try and line up our next leg of travel. We are still determined to visit each of the state parks with RV camping facilities and writing our reviews. And on the back burner we still have plans for the Southern Women’s Camping Cookbook. If we ever catch any fish we will even try to cook them on a grill outside of the RV. In the meantime we are hoping to get some cooler weather to maybe start a fire in the pit outside. We may get that chance pretty soon as the weather seems to be cooling off pretty well.

We thought you might to see some of the pictures we have taken this month. These are from Pensacola Beach, Florida area. Just as a side note. The Santa Rosa Area down from here was closed off still. And you have to pay a $1 toll to get into the beach area.