18 October 2022 – Tuesday
posted 30 May 2023
Heading from NC to Florida, we stop at three campgrounds along the way. Our goal is to be in Clearwater before mom flies down from New York. She’s recovering nicely from ankle surgery, but still could use some assistance.
0850 52,257 41° Leave home for Florida
1215 52,420 58° Florence, SC Stop at Pilot for fuel
1410 52,500 62° Santee, SC
Santee State Park Cypress View Campground
Cypress View is a favorite overnight stop for us on the way to and from Florida. Convenient to I-95, but far enough away to not hear traffic, it has nice lake views, and is easy to walk or bike around the park.
Site 25 with power and water, but not on the water. $37.80
2 bars of Verizon LTE service
If you don’t have a reservation, be sure to get there before the office closes.
One other Pleasure-Way, an XL model, was there from Pennsylvania, but we didn’t meet the owners.
Nor did we see any boats out on an October weeknight. Lake Marion is man-made covering 172 square miles, so there are lots of places to explore by boat.
,People launch here to fish for perch, bass and catfish. If a day is cool or rainy, the park has books and board games available in the octagon room.
19 October 2022 – Wednesday
0845 52,500 41° Emptied our tanks and left the skeleton canoe crew behind in Santee.
1055 52,622 54° Stopped for fuel at Costco outside Savannah, GA
1158 52,685 57° Georgia Rest Area #1 for lunch
1357 52,760 62° Bryceville, FL
Just outside of Jacksonville we stopped to check out the
Cary State Forest Campground for future trips.
There are six individual sites plus a group site and a campground host. No electric, water or sewer is available, though there is a sewer dump station.
Restrooms were clean, but open air, so you might encounter critters.
The state forest has lots of hiking and horseback riding trails. We may stop here on our way back home, but today we’re going to continue further south.
1522 52,814 64° Keystone Heights, FL
Site 13 was a nice large site for $20 + $6.70 reservation fee + tax = $29.20
I don’t like paying a reservation fee for a walk-up site w/o a reservation, but there isn’t a choice.
Walked 2.5 mile trail to a stream and lakes. The “lakes” were mostly covered with water hyacinth and algae. The pine forest was pleasant and we enjoyed seeing a family of bobwhite along the way.
Stream waters were crystal clear, revealing a sandy bottom.
Big log cut-offs provided a way to cross high water across the trail. Beth celebrated crossing the stream without getting wet.
Little Lake Johnson, in the park, had canoes available for rent. There is a swim beach, but no swimmers at the end of October.
20 October – Thursday
Nothing disturbed us here. We both actually slept ten hours.
0925 52,816 62° Leave Campground
1148 52,949 67° Wesley Chapel
Made lunch at the rest area off I-75
1325 52,987 71° Clearwater, FL Fueled up at Costco
1352 52,992 71° Largo, FL
We succeeded in beating mom to Florida! We even had a day to shop and get her condo ready. She’s now home and the ankle recovery is progressing with the help of a great physical therapist.
