Beating our way West...

We rolled out of Lake Okeechobee with high hopes of a smooth drive and sunny weather. As we drove northwest the clouds rolled in and it started to pour. We have learned that being on the highway in driving rain is definitely not a pleasant trip so we made a conscious decision to take the local roads to maintain a slower safer speed. Our next destination was a quick overnight stay in a state park in Sopchoppy Florida a trip of about 400 miles. We drove through Bartow, Tampa and Spring Hill Florida. I have come to the conclusion that Central Florida is about the most boring ride I have ever taken, second only to I-95 from Miami to Jacksonville...Of course the driving rain doesn't help either. It seems rain is a reoccurring theme in this blog, hopefully once we leave Florida I will quit lamenting about the rainy days...blah...blah...blah! I promise!

One surprising highlight was the addition of Wawa stores here in Florida, we passed several before we stopped and scored diesel fuel for $3.69 which is a competitive price in these parts!  Wawa stores are all over Pennsylvania and Maryland and they have fabulous coffee and sandwiches. We visited them often on our trip to Maryland in the spring, cleanest convenience stores on the planet!

So after 10 hours we arrived in Ochlokonee State Park around 6:30pm. When I made the reservation I was assured that a 40ft motor home would fit with no problem, well, we pulled in took the car off the tow bar and Jay drove the coach into the woods and I mean the "woods"! Jay wedged the coach in between two trees in the dirt and everyone around us were in tents! I don't know how anyone could possibly sleep in the Florida woods in the summer because the mosquitos were out in force, yet families were out at their picnic tables enjoying a family meal. At that point we settled in, had some sandwiches and went to sleep. The only highlight of this stop were all the deer Jay came in contact with on his morning walk with Savannah.

We were out of the woods by 8:00 am and decided to take the coast road to our next destination which was Perdidio Key in Pensacola, Ahh...I had high expectations of this next destination. A Key West style park on a barrier island right on the inter coastal waterway, now we're talkin!