On the road to California

Well, we're finally back on the road, after almost 6 months.  Back in November 2015 we planned to stay in Florida 1 maybe 2 months.  Our special thanks to Shell and Claire, our gracious hosts for all that time.

We left Salt Springs on April 25 and our first stop on the way to California was Falling Waters State Park, just south of Chipley, FL.

Along the way we passed some beautiful wild flowers on the roadside.

Later in the day we went through a few storms that reduced visibility to almost zero, and Joan was driving.  Poor Joan, whenever we hit bad weather, Joan seems to be driving!

We arrived at Falling Waters State Park about 4pm central time to a dry campground and backed into site # 7 with no issue.  The campground is on “one of the” highest points in Florida, 322 ft.  The highest point in Florida is Britton Hill which rises an astonishing oxygen depleting height of 345 ft.  The claim to fame of the park is the water fall that plunges 73 feet into a sink hole. Falling Waters is the highest (or lowest depending on your point of view) waterfall in Florida.  

 

The next morning we headed down the “trail” to the falls.  The trail is not very long, passing by the swimming area before heading to a board walk that leads to the falls.

When researching the park, I noticed the website had a note that the lower observation deck was closed for repairs but the upper deck would be open.  Okay, I thought we'd just see it from the upper deck.  Long before we got to the falls, we could hear the noise for the generator used for the power tools.  This was not going to be a serene commune with nature.  The board walk that surrounds the sink holes had several blocked sections, forcing us to backtrack and go the other way around. We arrived at the “upper” deck to see a trickle of water falling past the “lower” deck some 20 ft. below.  I assume they had the flow restricted to keep from splashing the workers. 

Oh well, they had to do the work sometime and they did give fair warning on the website.  Besides, our main reason for being here was it's the first stop on our way West.  The highest falls in Florida will just go on our list of things to see next time we're passing through.

After lunch we headed into Chipley, FL to see what there was to see.  Nothing special, another small town with some interesting old homes. The most important thing we did in Chipley was get a full tank of fuel for the next leg of our journey, Gulf  Islands National Seashore outside of Biloxi, MS.

4/27

We arrived a Davis Bayou Campground, located outside of Ocean Springs, MS, without issue and got one of the best campsites in the park, #33. There's a big tree to the east, to shade us from the morning sun, and one to the west for the afternoon sun, with lots of grass all around.  Where the last campsite was very secluded and intimate, this one was very open and "park like" but still very pretty in it's own way.  We spent the afternoon lazying around. 

4/28

I awoke at 5:45am to the pitter-patter of rain drops and a LOT of far off lightning.  I knew there were thunderstorms moving through the area over night, so I turned the TV on to get the forecast.  That pitter-patter was the prelude to a large thunderstorm, with a tornado warning, heading our way.  The radar indicated circulation just north of I-10 heading east. We were just south of I-10 and the warning box was heading our way.  At about 6:00am I woke Joan and we head for the concrete bath house before the heavy rain started.  We walked into the mens room (aka Storm Shelter) to find other campers including a couple from Kansas, Odie and Janice, with their weather alert radio.  We had a nice visit, standing in the "storm shelter", telling traveling stories, while we waited for the threat to pass.  At one point we heard small hail hitting the roof but it wasn’t big enough to do any damage.   At about 7:30 all the tornado warning were over so we said our good-byes and headed back to our respective campers. 

We were in the lower right corner of the screen.

Back in the Prowler we checked the weather on TV to find the heavy weather wasn’t over.  The weather man called it a “Very Electric Storm” with Severe Thunderstorm and Flash Food warnings. Later in the morning the national weather service started referring to a “Flash Flood Emergency” because of the numerous water rescues occurring. At 10:00am the rain fall totals averaged around 10” in the area, we had over 6” around the park.

The campground is on high ground and we’re right next to the Halsead Bayou so there’s plenty of drainage.  However, there was standing water when the rain was coming down hard.

The bad weather was expected to continue for most of the day so we thought this would be an inside day!  As it turned out, the afternoon was pretty nice.  We toured the park (in the truck), did some shopping and filled up with fuel, ready to move on the next day.

 4/28

There were severe thunderstorms along our proposed route so we decided to hunker down here for at least another day.  This really is a nice park with great facilities and most importantly good drainage!

While the route west was stormy, it was a nice day in southern Mississippi. We went on a nice walk around the park and I played with a new Fish Eye Lens for the cell phone.
 

Halsead Bayou

Gary, throwing cast net.

4/29

The forecast was the same so we signed up for another two days, but our perfect site had reservations for the weekend so we'd have move.  After breakfast we walked the park to find an appropriate site.  Before coming here we read a review complaining about low hanging limbs and short sites for large rigs.  True, you do have to pay attention to the limbs and some sites are short but there's plenty of long ones.  We picked a few possibilities and got our first pick.  Since we had plenty of time, this was a good opportunity for Joan to practice her backing skills and even get some practice at the dump station.

Joan did a good job with a relatively complicated back in but we failed to notice a small tree, a tall bush really, leaning into a corner of the site.  While it was soft and would do no harm to just touch the camper, with heavy winds expected, the constant rubbing would not be good.  This being a national park, there was no possibility of trimming "the bush", so we had to try another site.  Site 22 was actually better, no overhead obstructions and 3 feet longer.  Joan got some more practice and did very well.

Coming soon, Crooked Letter Brewing Co.