All the best laid plans, of course. We were up and out of the campground before 9:00, with only a few stops and a four hour drive, but, of course, stuff happens. About two hours into the drive, on I-75, we had our last original tire on the RV lose it's tread, and unfortunately, it badly bent the panel of the RV by the wheel well. It's not the greatest design, the wheel wells on this Open Range, as any time a tire blows, it takes out the lower panel as well. At least it's a separate panel and not the entire side of the RV, but it's an awkward shape. Last time we wanted to repair it on the other side when the same thing happened, the cost of shipping was going to be almost twice as much as the actual cost of the panel! We ended up ordering it and making arrangements to go to the manufacturer in Indiana to just put it on for us to keep the costs down. Well, we were headed that way anyway that year, so it didn't matter. This year may be different, we'll see. Anyway, we pulled of onto the shoulder and got busy changing out the tire, and were back on the road in about 20 minutes. Our next stop was supposed to be an RV dump, but we could never find it, but we picked up lunch at Wendy's while we were stopped. Our next stop was at a little Walmart near Lake Talquin, just west of Tallahassee, and a gas station nearby that was very difficult to maneuver around in. Finally, we went to the ranger station to check in and discovered the place where I had intended to spend the night was just a day parking area, and that the horse camping area was further back into the woods, which was fine, though the ranger said it might be hard to maneuver our big unit around back there, which gave me pause. The clincher was that it was a group site, and in spite of the fact that we weren't a group, we would have to pay the group rate of $20 a night. Well, I don't mind paying $20 if there are some amenities there, but this had nothing! Well, it did have corrals, apparently, but no water or anything. We considered staying for one night, but it seemed like a lot of work to get into a small site for just one night. Finally, we all agreed the best course of action was to go to the High Bluff Campground on the north side of the lake (which I had been wanting to check out anyway, because it's pretty close to I-10), which wasn't technically a horse camp, but they did allow horses to stay. Again, no water, but it had designated sites, a vault toilet and a nice fishing pier. I wasn't worried about water so much, we filled our new 100 gallon tank in the back of the pickup before we left brother Jeff's, so we should be good for a week of use on that, and Hubby had been filling up the RV at the ranger station while all these discussions were taking place, so we were good to go. We drove around the lake, through a rather dubious neighborhood with multiple speed bumps (my heart went out to a puppy on a leash that was being beaten by a black boy for no apparent reason while his two friends looked on), until we finally reached the wide dirt road that was the edge of the forest. A couple of miles later we reached the lake and the campground. Maneuvering was still a challenge among the many beautiful trees, but we managed to slip into a site with our picture window overlooking the lake, framing a gorgeous view. At High Bluff, there's an iron ranger so we didn't have to pay at the office, and it's only $10/night, which is more reasonable for a more primitive site. By the time we got set up, we were exhausted! We opted for the electric fence today, as there weren't really any trees for a perfect highline, and there was some grass, though we could have made a highline work if we had to. I took a walk with the dogs down to the pier, and saw a gator floating nearby. At first I thought it was a gator, but then it didn't move for a long time so I thought maybe it was a log after all, but when I got to the end of the pier and looked again, it had turned 90 degrees to face me, so then I knew for sure! I made sure Lola didn't stay in the water for very long! Finally settled down for the evening, no satellite signal here, but we have lots of stuff recorded. Weren't long out of bed though, it's been a tiring day!
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