Malueg's Camping Blog: Winter Camping 2012 Feb 6-10

Winter Camping 2012 Feb 6-10

February 6 was get away day. We motored down almost to Valdosta GA and spent the night at Reed Bingham SP. We stayed at this SP a couple of years ago and found it to be good ground. Our campsite was indeed level so we forwent the process of dismounting the Montana from the Ford. RBSP is known for its large vulture population as well as for it very long board walk that works its way down to the Little River. For a 2-mile trail it worked very well to keep up our daily exercises.

Wednesday morning we headed further south – our destination: Rainbow Springs SP, FL. We were within one mile of the Florida State Line when I felt “something”. I peered into the right mirror and to my dread; I saw pieces of “black stuff” flinging from the area of the rear tire. We had a blowout on the starboard side! I eased truck and trailer off to the shoulder and I reminded myself of the horror stories I had heard of travelers whose flat tire had destroyed the wheel well as well as the under carriage of their camper- I had to stop and stop now!

The tire was utterly destroyed. It was one of the originals – one that I had planned to replace before our “out West” trip - later this summer. (After 4 to 5 years old, trailer tires are not to be trusted, regardless of how good the tread may look.) This tire was done for. GEICO provided the emergency on-road service and within an hour we had the spare tire on the ground. There was however another problem. The spare tire was one that I had already changed out – and I felt it was equally unreliable. We headed northward on I-75 and returned to Valdosta where we bought 3 new tires.

Four hours after our initial shock, we were again southbound for Rainbow Springs SP. Arriving at nearly 6pm, we found the park to be one of those neatly arranged; campsites easy to get into! Jack & John White (and wives) met us and we had a lovely evening; eating a welcome dinner that Judy prepared.

The next morning we all rented canoes and paddled upstream on the river for which the SP is named. Along the way the clear water and the abundant wildlife awed us. My left shoulder (formerly dislocated) got the workout it needed. All was good!

In the next leg of our trip we landed at Cedar Key RV resort. This park was good for one thing; parking the rig and taking day-trips. I don’t have much to say about Cedar Key; mostly because Cedar Key doesn’t have much to say itself (or offer). This Key is trying to become an art community – and it may well do so one day. The seafood at the Pickled Pelican was well worth the short trip in to town though.

The next morning we decided to travel over to Manatee Springs SP. It’s known for its wintertime visitors. No - not the snowbirds - but the wintering Manatees. We stayed a half-hour and watched about 10 of them as they lounged and basked just under the water’s surface. Very nice, but there’s only so much you can watch a manatee do; so we next headed over to Homosassa Springs SP which also is known for it manatees and other wildlife varieties. This was really a neat park – very different as far as state parks go; it was a zoo in its truest sense. The short boat ride and then extensive boardwalks allowed for watching every winged animal common to FL. It’s even home to a hippopotamus, which we watched from about four feet away. Yes there were manatees here too, but the ones in there natural surroundings at Manatee Springs SP were actually more fun to watch.

Well, we are about half way through this camping trip – so, I’ll wrap up this posting for now. If we are lucky we won’t have any more surprises to talk about in the next post.

Happy days down the road,

Pappy & Grammy aka Ah-pa & Gigi

Brenda and Manatee Friend