At the end of April, it's time to camp again! This time, across the state, close to New Smyrna/Daytona Beaches. I took a half day from work, picked up Jacob, and we made our way to the campground, just outside Deland, FL, where we met up with Kathryn, Marti, and Leo.
Hontoon Island State Park is unique. You load up a ferry (i.e., pontoon boat) with all your camping gear. The ferry takes you across the river to Hontoon Island, where you unload all your gear. Then, you load your gear into a passenger van, which takes you to your campsite...and you unload all your gear, again. The five of us had two campsites right next to each other. All the sites are shaded by trees, and there is a group campsite tucked in at the back of the island. There are a few small cabins that can be rented, too. Because of the drought, NO open fires are allowed. Good thing we brought firewood with us. And sticks for marshmallows. And makings for S'mores. Because we planned to cook in the fire, we trucked all of our dinner makings out to the picnic area with the grills, and bought charcoal at the park store. The walk from the campsite to the picnic area, which is where the ferry dropped us all off, is about a 10 minute leisurely walk along a sandy path. We made chicken wrapped in foil with veggies, and after a long day of work and traffic through Orlando on I-4, it tasted so good. Our first night at "camp" was off to a pretty good start. Once we packed up dinner, we headed back to camp. Without a campfire, there isn't much to do. The mosquitoes were on attack, so our conversation was cut short as we all headed to the safety of our tents. We were of the minority, though, as the rest of camp consisted of more boisterous folks that kept the lanterns lit past 10, and kept talking as if they were the only ones on the grounds. Marti and I heard all about this guy's experience with Australian catering. He said the food they provided was good, but it was different from American food. All he wanted was a burger, and the burgers they have tasted different. Not bad, just different, so he didn't eat as much and lost weight. I know -- THRILLING conversation, right? I kind of wanted to smack the guy, not only for preventing blissful sleep from taking me away, but for being such an AMERICAN!! With the wisdom of the band 'Til Tuesday, I say: hush, hush...voices carry. Keep it down now!
The next day, I tried to sleep in. This is always hard when the sun starts streaming through the screens of my tent, and the rest of camp starts waking up to make breakfast. Plus, my make-shift sleeping pad of foam egg-crate and my sleeping bag did my body no favors. But Kathryn made her amazing oatmeal on her portable camp burner, and Marti made her amazing coffee in her French press, and I began to forget about my aches and pains. Breakfast is my favorite meal, any time, any place, and it is made all the better when you wake up from a night's rest in your tent. Because there is no swimming allowed at Hontoon Island (gators galore!), we decided to make a trip to
Blue Springs State Park, which is a lazy spring-fed swimming hole. You can float down the river in a tube, then jump from the swimming platform into the river. The water temperature stays about the same -- 72 degrees F -- all year because it is spring fed. We all ate our lunch after a quick trip around the park (for recon purposes). Then, Jacob and I took Leo floating a couple of times, but I think he's more of an underwater swimmer. I don't think he loved floating as much as he loved diving under the water closer to the entry stairs and the spring itself. Regardless, the day was HOT and the water felt great, once you dunked yourself.
[Sidebar: How OLD is this photo I took from the state park website? I feel like I stepped back to 1983. That's all I had to say.]
Back at camp, we got some ice cream, then I took a nap. Amazing how floating and a little walking can make one so tired! Before I knew it, it was time for dinner. We hiked back out to the picnic area to stoke up the grill and get our hot dog on. It was a beautiful sunset and we saw a big ol' gator push off the shore and go out to find some dinner. I don't think gators instill enough fear in me. I'm not going to go walking up within arm's reach of one today, or tomorrow, but I think I would consider going within the reach of a 10 foot pole. To be honest, those animals can MOVE, and that's probably not the safest mentality for me to have. Clearly, I digress...
Darkness brought us back to camp, and while one tries to read, the effort doesn't last long. Without a campfire, camping is not quite the same, and I don't have quite the same longevity to my camping days. I fell asleep without much trouble on this night, although I was sad to fall asleep with the knowledge that this was my last night at camp.
In the morning, we packed up our gear, loaded it into the van, then onto the ferry, and finally into our cars. We sad a good bye to the park, and to each other, then loaded into our vehicles and headed home. Jacob and I took the scenic backroads route across the state. We stopped in Brooksville for lunch, which is about an hour north of Tampa, and a pretty sleepy old Florida town.
As usual, it was great to get outside and out of St. Pete for a weekend. I always wish this weekend trips could last longer. It was definitely one of the last weekends one could camp comfortably in Florida, as May signals the start of the humid, hot, air conditioning season. Maybe next season, I'll be able to put my tent to use more than twice. Baby steps...baby steps. Until the next adventure...which is coming right up.
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