Camping at an RV Park or a State Park, some differences

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by to check out my blogs. I write about all kinds of things but this particular series covers my mini tour around central Florida. You can catch up by clicking these links:

A Florida Camping Mini Tour – Pit Stop in Gainesville

Mini-Tour of Central Florida – Juniper Springs State Park

Beautiful Juniper Springs – a Mini Tour Around Central Florida

After a great time exploring Juniper Springs, I moved on to the Ormond Beach area (north of Daytona Beach), this time staying in a real RV park. This is my first RV park ever. Between the two camping experiences, I stopped by Publix and Walmart to stock up on food and few other things. Then I made my grand entrance to the RV park. Hello everyone, I’m here!

Well as it turns out, no one really cared that I had arrived. The audacity.

They all had their own stuff going on and get this, no one high-fived me. NOT. EVEN. ONE. The audacity.

First thoughts: Crowded. NASCAR people. This doesn’t seem like my style.

I guess coming from a state park where there were such few campers (who also didn’t high-five me, to be totally honest), this all seemed kind of overwhelming. Add to that: my site wasn’t level, my trailer area was a super tight fit, and because of the unlevel ground, I had to return to Walmart to get some leveling blocks and more chocks. I was a little stressed and annoyed.

But everything settled down once I got back and got it sorted out. Now the camper is level, the truck is parked safely, so the dogs and I head out for a walk. I’m RV-parking it for four days so I want to get a lay of the land, if you will. We scout out the main office area with the pool and bathrooms/showers, and discover the dog park.

Sometimes it felt like an expensive vacation just to have a water, power, AND cable! The lap of luxury, I tell ya.

Some of the differences…

Water. At the state park, I used it sparingly and went to the restroom, shower, or dishwashing station as much as possible to conserve water in the camper. At the RV park you can pretty much forget monitoring everything because it’s all part of the amenities, generally speaking.

Power. Same thing here, state park power usage was rationed – only necessary lights, short use of the water pump, etc. By the end of the 4 days at the state park, I was nearly all out of juice. In the days before that, I turned on the generator sometimes just for the purpose of charging the battery. In the RV park, no such rationing was needed.

The grid. The state park gave me the feeling that I was off the grid. Weak Internet, conserving resources, it was fun each day to manage that stuff. In the RV park, one doesn’t need to think about those things and therefore is able to go sing karaoke or swim in the pool, play bingo or hang out with RV neighbors.

Wrap up. When you’re new (like me) and deciding between an RV park or a state/national park, I’d say try both to help you zero in on what it is you enjoy most. For my preferences, clearly the best spot was a quiet, secluded one. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. Actually I take that back, read some reviews of any park you choose to know if the parks are safe, clean, etc. Some of them might be a very wrong choice.

Thanks for reading this far. If you’re on the fence about RV park or state park, take a leap…one will fit right with your adventurous spirit and then you’ll have your answer. One good thing about this coastal RV park is that the beach was close by. So what did my dogs and I do? Of course, we grabbed our bikinis and hit the beach! Click here for all that beagle beachness.

Thanks for dropping in, chat soon.

-Out of the Wilderness

Favorite beach photos from the Daytona area

For most of January I’ve been doing a little tour around the central Florida area. It’s been a blast, with only a few hiccups. Mostly just getting called out by a lifeguard for having my dogs on a beach where they aren’t welcome, as well as staying at an RV park (my first ever) that seemed less than ideal. More on that later but I really want to show you pictures I took at that dog-forbidden-beach at Ponce Inlet, Florida… a beautiful spot for photos. The dogs were safely tucked away so I took my Sony A6600 (with a 70-350mm lens and a prime 24mm lens) to the shore. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed capturing them. Also be sure to scout out some of these in my portfolio on FineArtAmerica.com. My photography in your home? Sounds like a win/win 🙂

the Snowy Egret
Jetty Fisherman
waves crashing around “Jetty Fisherman”
Waves crashing on jetty
Daytona Beach hotels
The owner of this cat said he loves the beach and the ocean. Reminds me of the Chevrolet cat commercial.

Have you been to this area before? I thought the lighthouse and the jetty were the most picturesque things.

Thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

Ponce Inlet, Florida – Beagles at the Beach

Hello there! I’ve been writing about a mini camping tour around central Florida and so far, it’s been everything I was hoping. Check out more on my camping stories page and keep coming back as I’ll be posting about RV parks, Alexander Springs State Park, and more in the coming days and weeks.

With that said, and with me and my dogs being in central Florida, I took drove us over to Ponce Inlet, a dog friendly shoreline near Daytona Beach.

Did it all go perfectly? Of course not. In fact, and in my defense the boardwalk sign read “dog friendly crossover” (whatever that means?), I stepped on the the beach with my two beagles and within a few minutes, a lifeguard went all Mitch Buchannon on me.

I wish it had been CJ scolding me but “Baywatch” references aside, I was spoken to through a megaphone regarding the dogs being on the wrong beach. So I went to the wrong part of the beach, does that make me a horrible person?

OK, yes I’m a terrible dog owner. *shrug* We finally made it to the “dog friendly” part of the coast and it was pretty fantastic. I loved the sand and the sea, the dogs loved the sand (the sea, not so much).

It was relatively clean (I didn’t see any poop in the sand until my dogs changed that). As you can tell by the name of this area, Ponce Inlet, it’s is not on the real wavy, rough side of the beach. It’s on the backside, and that’s kind of cool. The water is more calm, with sandy and grassy areas to explore.

The dogs seemed to enjoy themselves for the most part. I think they would both rather be in the trees and brush, sniffing out squirrels and other wildlife. Actually, I love wildlife, too, and if you know me, you know I can’t resist an opportunity to get my Sony A6600 camera out to snap some photos of nature and skylines, especially when there are views like this.

I often feel like there are moments just waiting to be photographed. So after the dogs were pooped (figuratively, come on don’t be gross), I set them up in their bed in the back of the truck and went out for a bit to snap some photos. I’m so happy I did! There were unique moments I tried to capture, so check back tomorrow for a whole bunch of my favorite photos from this “Ponce Inlet Beach Photo Session.”

Thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

She married the right guy

Hello! Every once in a while I have these personal and possibly life-changing thoughts and I can’t not share them. This is one of those thoughts.

I was thinking the other day about a woman I dated many years ago. Our relationship was somewhat rocky, if I’m being honest, but when it was good it was real good. I always wondered how I’d feel when I found out she was engaged, and in fact, I never found that out. What I DID find out is that she has been married for a few years. I wasn’t as hurt as I thought I might be. In fact, I was happy.

At least for a month or two.

Then I started to have the nagging feeling that maybe she married the wrong guy. Could it be that I was the right guy for her, but because of my immaturity I left the door open for her to marry a guy that is good, but not great?

Well, the other day I realized something that is even more radical and a lot less arrogant-sounding, and it’s this:

I’m going to be married one day. How harmful would it be for any woman I date or become engaged to learn that I think I was the right guy for someone else. That would mean this woman is the wrong one for me. I envision that relationship ending very quickly, as it should! Who would stay with someone who believes someone else is the right one?

So this really crazy, yet simple idea was good for me. It’s like this message was delivered from a therapist even though I don’t go to therapy. Maybe it was a free session from the Lord, I don’t know. The idea that I would be in a relationship, still thinking an ex is with the wrong guy, thereby implying the woman I’m with must be wrong because I’m the right guy for someone else. Gosh, that would just be terrible.

I’ve graduated up to the idea that whoever I marry will be the right one. This means my ex was right all along! Just not for me. She actually married the right guy. What a relief!

Has this happened to you? Do you think an ex ended up with the wrong partner? What is there to learn from this?

Comment below, I look forward to hearing about your story.

-Out of the Wilderness

Beautiful Juniper Springs – a Mini Tour Around Central Florida

Hello and welcome back! This is my second post about Juniper Springs. To catch up, click here for yesterday’s recap of my arrival and a few of my favorite pictures.

OK, can I just say this real quick: I am not familiar with camping in state parks and the first night, it was very dark. You might think, “Yeah, it was night time.” No, no, I mean it was like Adam and Eve’s first night in the garden dark. That’s because there were only a few campers along with myself. No street lights, no city lights within dozens of miles, not even the moon was on.

One thought I had about me and the other campers: “I guess we’re all just gonna trust each other in this pitch blackness, huh?” I’ll be honest, it was a bit scary. It was just so, SO dark.

But anyway, nothing murdery happened the first night so that was good. If anything did happen, would I call it, “Only Murders in the Park”? OK, that’s a decent reference to the Hulu show I’ve started watching starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.

There I go again in a direction I didn’t plan on going!

OK, so let’s get to the beauty of this park. There are two main springs within the park. Yesterday I tried to build up for you the anticipation for what I saw that first day. It wasn’t anything I remember seeing in my entire whole life, and here it is:

Technically these are called “boils.” Crazy, aren’t they?

Being in nature, tucked away from city lights and city noise, barely any internet and no TV… I could really get used to this. As I explored the area, I found the springs the area is known for – Juniper Springs.

I loved getting to this “swimmable” spring early in the morning to see the steam coming off the 72-degree water.

I camped here for four days and I’d say that was just about enough. I had time to check out everything I wanted to, take the dogs on a million walks (and pick up all their poop, and yes, they pooped near a few campsite entrances :/ ), and ride my bike around the entire area.

The drawbacks. There are only two drawbacks I can think of… 1. On the third night, in the middle of the night, I got up to pee and when I flushed, the camper started beeping and the water pump wouldn’t shut off. No pun intended, I thought, “Oh crap.” I knew it was because the battery was really low but with it being the middle of the night, I felt terrible about what I was about to do. I had to turn on the generator to get full power to the trailer. It was only for a few minutes and I really hope I didn’t disturb the two campsites that were sorta near me. I’m thankful I have a quiet generator, and also thankful this resolved the water pump issue. I also just went ahead and shut off the refrigerator, but turned it back on in the morning, with the generator support. Yikes! The second draw back was that, unfortunately, the canoe run was closed off so if you come out to stay, that might still be the case. I think taking a canoe down the nearby river would be interesting too, once they open it back up.

Entrance to the canoe launch

Next stop on my mini-tour is near Daytona Beach, Florida. I’m really excited to get coastal for a few days. Check back soon for my experience at an RV park and how it differs from a state park. I will also answer these questions: Did my dogs poop on a beach? Did a lifeguard use a megaphone to get my attention? What kind of bird has bright yellow feet?

-Out of the Wilderness