It was a quiet uneventful evening at the CG. We did our usual multiple walks with Jewel and met some very nice people and dogs and some cranky people with their dogs.
The morning was overcast but there was just a small chance of rain. Off we went to seek out Ocala National Forest. The forest covers 340,000 acres of flat land with pine trees. Looks like the pine tree forest in our back yard.
We stopped at the Visitor Center for some information. Unfortunately they did not have a map of the forest available because they were sold out. Usually in national forests or parks they hand out free maps of the area with additional inf. Not here, you pay or no info. We have been to many national parks and forests, pay an entrance fee then peruse the area without additional fees. Not here. No entrance fee but a fee for everything else because each individual area is run by a concessionaire. The fees at each spring we wanted to visit was $5.00 per person so if we had visited the four springs it would have totaled $40.00 not counting parking fees. Just a little steep we thought.
We did stop at the Salts Spring and the ranger gave us a 30 minute free pass to look at it. Since it was a gloomy day and we weren’t planning on spending the day we took her up on her offer and viewed the spring. There were a lot of rules posted at the spring and Ron just had to take a picture.
The spring is fed from fissures in the ground and contains lots of minerals and salt. The Manatees love the springs because they are shallow and warm. There were several Manatees swimming around but we were unable to get a good picture because they stay below the surface and were some distance away.
The area was quite pretty but was essentially deserted. Everything is a good distance away and we had to drive 18 miles to get to this one spring.
The forest was nice but we decided that all the fees were over the top so headed back to the CG. We stopped for lunch and spent the remainder of the day enjoying the good weather. The plan is to move on to St. Augustine for a stop over. We really like the CG and beach there. They allow dogs on the beach so Jewel will be finally able to run free. We only hope that our previous visits to St. Augustine do not repeat themselves. We usually get there, settle in, get two hours of good weather, then the rain and cool down begins. The weather is calling for intermittent showers so we will take our chances once again.
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