First Big Trip - Sunny Florida

We are happy owners of a new 560 ultra that we picked up in Necedah last September. After a couple short tryouts we decided to make our first big trip to Florida in early December. We have always loved Florida in December as the weather is usually great that time of year, and it is relatively uncrowded as compared to January through March when all the snowbirds and vacationers head down. This trip was also that way.

My wife Joni, myself and our dog Gatsby (135 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback) all slept inside just fine. We absolutely loved this trip and had a great time with interesting sights and lots of good hiking. We even went golfing a couple days while Gatsby had fun playing with other dogs in day care. We used Pet Paradise in Daytona Beach and again in Naples and they were great. The first day they called a “get acquainted day” where they spend time evaluating the dog’s personality before letting them mix with any other dogs. He got a great report card and best of all the first day was free.

Starting from Illinois, we stopped at Land Between the Lakes Piney Campground in Kentucky on the way down, with a second stopover in Atlanta to visit my brother.

Once down south we stayed at Tomoka State Park near Daytona Beach, Koreshan SP between Fort Myers and Naples, Highlands Hammock SP near Sebring, and lastly Skidaway SP in Savannah. Our favorite was Tomoka - it felt like we were on Gilligan’s Island...While at Tomoka we made a day trip to Blue Springs SP to see all of the manatees gathered near the warm spring in the St John river. Also lots of fish in the amazingly clear water - highly recommend it.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so much helpful info on this forum, it helped us make this a great trip.
Our total for this trip was 13 nights and 3455 miles. Here are a few photo’s - all of the Florida State Parks were very nice.

Land Between the Lakes was very nice with only a few other campers. It’s a huge place so they only had a small part of the campgrounds open this time of year. The store at the campground was still open though and the people were very nice.

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Tomoka was our favorite:
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Manatees in St. John’s river at Blue Springs State Park:
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Hiking the trails at Koreshan through the tall bamboo:
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We added a few days at Highlands Hammock SP to wait for warmer weather in Savannah. It was a weekend and was a popular family campground. Sites were wide open side to side though plenty large. The rear of the sight was secluded looking into the preserve. Lots of great trails here too, including a big undocumented trail along a spring right behind our campsite.
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Zzz

 

We have camped at all those. Tomoka is only 10 miles from our house. We are having a big Teardrop Rally at Tomoka the first weekend in February.

 

Thanks for the info on the rally, sounds like a great time. I checked briefly but as suspected everything’s booked up by now. I’ll look for 2021 if you have it again.

It would be nice to take another winter escape in Feb/March though I know it’s too late to get much availability in Florida for this year.

 

Thank you Jenn.