Merry Christmas from Park #4

Well, Christmas is over - and a belated Merry Christmas to any of you who I didn't contact. I have to admit, I am always happy after Christmas Day is over. It's the hardest day for me of our whole trip, because I feel bad about not being home with family and friends. I remind myself that we get a full month of traveling in exchange for that one day, but I still do hate being gone. It was great, though, to talk to my mom and my kids and grand-kids and tell each other Merry Christmas.

So, now, we continue on for the rest of our trip. We are now at Seminole State Park, which is on the northern side of Lake Seminole, a 37,500 acre reservoir right on the Georgia/Florida border. We're probably less than 50 miles north of Tallahassee. The State Park is on the north side and then next week we'll be moving to the Army Corp of Engineer Campground on the south side of the reservoir. The State Park is really pretty. We have a beautiful site right on the side of a little lake-like inlet off the reservoir. It's just a short paddle out of the little "lake" to get into a bigger channel that then leads into the main body of the reservoir. Dave did some kayaking yesterday and got two nice bass right off the bat, so he's a happy camper. He actually threw them back after I took a picture - I guess he's optimistic that he's going to get more and we only have so much room in our little freezer. The park actually encircles the little "lake" with the office and day-use area on one side and the campground on the other side. There's a nice 2.2 mile nature trail that I took on Thursday, with a boardwalk over the wetlands portions of the trail. There's also a "treehouse" camping site, which is something I havent' seen before - it's just kind of a square shelter built up on some pilings with a bunch of benches inside, but what a fun place it would be for camping with a group of kids, like Scouts or something. I even want to sleep up there!

I met an interesting couple yesterday - the woman's name is Linda and she's about my age - 61 but going to be 62 in a month. She is with her ex-husband, who is 15 years younger. They are divorced but only live two blocks away from each other, someplace in Indiana. She is traveling in a little camper, basically a conversion van, and he followed her down in his car for the week. He's headed back home tomorrow and she's headed south to parts unknown. She has no reservations and no idea how long she'll stay gone - probably a few months. The three of us chatted for a half hour or so and we talked a lot about just traveling in an RV, especially alone. She asked my opinion about staying at Walmart parking lots on the road (I told her she absolutely should do that!) and we talked about how you make the choice to give up certain little things at home in order to be able to pursue your dream of being on the road. She said her kids don't really want her to do this - they'd rather she stayed with them (she has one son who lives in Nashville), but I can tell she has an independent spirit and she is VERY excited about her adventure. She is, of course, an avid reader - you almost have to be if you are going to travel alone for weeks on end. I was surprised to find out she doesn't have a laptop, but she said she just goes to libraries and uses their computers for paying bills and staying in touch with people. We agreed that we might bump into each other again over the next few months (although we undoubedly won't), but she's just an example of the many types of people we cross paths with at the campgrounds - always fun to talk to other "campers" on the road!!

It's fairly mild here today - low 50's - and I'm going to throw the kayak into the water and do some exploring and then we're splurging tonight and going out to dinner AGAIN! More to follow....