Monday January 25th 2021

Today began just like Sunday with fog. On a positive note it didn’t last as long. By 9:30 the sun was out. The temperature in the Tampa area broke the eighties, but I was one hundred miles to the north by the end of the day. In the Ocala area it was still in the high seventies. Tomorrow is forecast to be in the low eighties in this area.

I was up before eight to start the travel day. The big prep tasks inside were completed yesterday, but I still had the outside tasks and the little things inside to complete. Without pushing hard I was leaving Hillsborough River State Park at 12:30PM. I took a lot of breaks during the morning. Getting behind the wheel of the motorhome tired from packing is not something I like doing. It results in driving mistakes. Today was an OK drive.

The biggest issue getting ready to leave this morning was finding a place to hookup the car to the motorhome. My site was a back in so it wasn’t possible to hook up at the site. Most of the campground roads are narrow and winding. Not only would I block the road to other campers, but I really need a long straight section of road to easily hookup. I found a place near the extra car parking that had enough room, but it took some maneuvering. My second choice was in the day use area but that would have involved a lot of driving and walking to get both vehicles relocated for the hookup.

Traffic north on Interstate 75 was heavy. I had to stop once for gas. Since my last fill up gas prices have gone up over twenty five cents. For today’s travel route I chose to come right through the downtown section of Ocala Florida. It was a lot less route changes, but it was heavy and stop and go traffic.

I arrived at the Silver Springs State Park just before 3PM. The campground entrance is off of route 35 a few miles south of the old attraction entrance off route 40. This park was originally called Silver River State Park. When the state took over ownership of the Silver Springs attraction everything was renamed Silver Springs State Park. I’m not sure the two areas are connected by land on this side of the river, but I’ll find out over the next few days.