When we left Ocala, we were headed for St. Sebastian Preserve, but I finally got a return call back from them (I had left several messages trying to discern whether we needed to pick up water or if they had a spigot in one of their two horse camps), and learned that one camp was booked up and not available, and the other camp didn't allow travel trailers there, only live-in horse trailers and people in tents! They said there wasn't enough room for RV's, though I would have thought if they had room for live-in horse trailers, they could fit in a travel trailer. In any event, it was no go, so I pulled out my computer and started to look for alternatives. We even considered heading straight to my brother's, but a quick check with them warned us away, as they've had so much rain in that neighborhood that where we usually park is several inches deep with water, in other words, not really accessible. We also considered camping at Dupuis, which we love to ride but have never camped there, because they used to have a strict rule against dogs, though we learned from a camper at Doe Lake last month that they had changed that rule on July 1 this year. Finally, we decided to check out a new place that was pretty much on the way, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. We learned they had corrals, spigot water at every site, and even electricity! All for just $17 a night! We headed there with gusto, having had a very pleasant conversation with a ranger (unlike the previous one at St. Sebastian), and arrived in short order. It was a pretty straight shot, and only the last few miles were on a pretty good dirt road, though it could have stood a little grading. We learned that the horse camp was fully booked on Friday, so unless someone cancelled, we'd have to move out by then. No worries, at least it bought us a couple of days. The terrain here is incredibly flat, with horizons that just seem to go on forever. Both campgrounds, however, are nestled among absolutely gorgeous live oak trees, providing fabulous shade even in the warmer-than-normal temps we're experiencing this week. Hubby found a spot that was available, site 24, which he predicted he could get a satellite signal. My cell phone had one to two bars, so with the antenna on my jetpack, internet was not a problem. Despite the bumpy start to the day, we settled in quickly, and enjoyed a super quiet evening, as this place is WAY, WAY out in the boonies!

By the time we got moving in the morning, quite a few people had left already, and we had a quick bowl of cereal and started to get ready. Julie came by to say good-bye, as did Paula, before we headed out. Fifteen short minutes later, we were pulling into our new campground, and just in the nick of time, as another camper at the dump had his eye on Site 10, our chosen site, but even though they're not allowed to reserve sites, the campground host was kind enough to take this new person into going into another site, as 10 was simply perfect for us. Good thing we arrived only moments later! It didn't take long to get set up, with the corral in place, the RV settled and the satellite dish up. Shortly after that, our friend Dee from Palatka arrived, and we had a wonderful afternoon getting caught up, drinking wine, have a good steak dinner, and otherwise enjoying the beautiful weather. She left about 5:00, and we then fed the horses and settled down to watch the football that we had recorded during our visit. A beautiful day! The only drawback of this place is that the mosquitoes are really bad, even during daylight hours, and we both have been getting bitten like crazy, even through our clothes! Well, at least it's not snowing, like in the Rockies and the Midwest!

Remarkably, I managed to get a halfway decent night sleep (thanks, no doubt, to the ibuprofen), and once I got moving, albeit slowly, we managed to get out before noon, even though we slept in until almost nine.  Fortunately, it's a fairly short trip, less than three hours, and we've reduced our stops to just one, Tractor Supply, because I'm waiting for the delivery of a laptop in Ocala, and will pick everything else up tomorrow.  After a final mile-long stretch on a very bad, potholed dirt road, we arrived at a very nice camping area with a good-sized building in the middle, and half a dozen trailers already here.  There were many highline poles around, and after a quick review, we settled into a lovely area that overlooked the lake itself.  We got the horses up on a highline and the RV settled in, visited with some old friends for a bit, then settled down for the evening.