Ocala FL

Yesterday, we moved about 180 miles from Tallahassee FL to Ocala and into the Ocala RV Camp Resort.  This journey was on I-10 to about Lake City where we picked up I-75 south.  The traffic really picked up on I-75 on this Saturday morning.  Many semis and auto traffic as well.  Good thing it was three lanes in each direction.

Pat and I both noticed that our time in the Destin area provided a feeling of being in the deep south rather than Florida.  All the people we met and drivers were friendly and courteous.  Definitely it felt southern.

Also, there were many trees that were turning colors or had already lost their leaves.  They are well into the fall season in the north of Florida.  Probably never really into winter though.

Driving across the panhandle down to Ocala was a long drive along some very rural areas.  In fact all that I saw were forested lands and swamps.  Miles and miles of no development.  Strange for my perceptions of Florida that have mostly been along the east coast.

While driving I alternated between 60’s rock and classic Christmas music.  Quite a difference, I know.  Thanks to streaming Pandora on my iPhone and bluetooth connection to the truck!  After six months, my free subscription to Sirius expired and it was not in the budget.  Listening to some music helping the miles go by faster, but still concentrate on road signs and hazards.

The drive went textbook perfect until trying to locate the campground.  A combination of my RV GPS did not recognize the frontage road that the campground is located on and I missed the first turn thinking it was the entrance to a Cracker Barrel.

We spent maybe 30 minutes driving through narrow subdivisions and a shopping mall before deciding to just park the truck and camper and take the Explorer to locate the park.  It takes a huge road to be able to make a U-turn with the long truck and 40 foot fifth wheel, so had to end up making a 15 point turn in a parking lot!

After finally getting the rig set up it was about 4pm so we walked around the camp for awhile and then just chilled watching some college football.  We decided to stay here for two nights and would be able to attend a local PCA Presbyterian church this morning.

The church was located about 20 minutes away out into the Marion County countryside.  Through a continuous string of beautiful horse ranches.  This is a huge area for horse farms.

There were also many large piles of downed trees lining both sides of the back roads.  All from hurricane Irma.  One of the men from church stated that the hurricane debris is about 90% cleaned up and that Ocala has lost thousands of large majestic trees in this major storm.

After church, we went to the historic Ocala downtown and walked around the town square and had a cup of coffee.  A few blocks off the square were many stately old mansions from an old Florida era.

On Monday morning we are off to the Cocoa Beach area to help mom with her home sale and to prepare for moving.  This next month will be a lot of work I’m sure.

It should just be a short three hour trip across the state on the state highway Florida 40.  This is not an interstate and it crosses through a national forest and other forested land.  It will great to get off the interstate and see some more of the Florida back country.

We have now finished with the final season of Longmire on Netflix.  It was only 10 episodes.  That was mostly a well written and filmed TV show that we both really enjoyed.  Since the show is not planned to return, the last episode was kind of a wrap up.  No spoiler here.

Take care and God Bless.