When we found out our friends, Gary and Ellen, rented a house in Gulf Shores, AL for the month of February, we looked for a nearby campground. Gulf State Park is just down the street. Despite having 496 sites, there were no sites for a full week, or even three consecutive days. We did find five days in three different sites starting on Sunday.

Gulf Shores is about 814 miles from Marathon, so we decided to stop twice on the way. We booked two nights at Ortona South Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers park in Moore Haven, FL, and two nights at Manatee Springs State Park, in Chiefland, FL. We estimated that the first leg would take four hours, the second leg would take five hours and the last leg would take six and a half hours.

Ortona South

The day before our trip, we go to the RV to turn on the refrigerator and load some stuff. We disconnect the chassis battery when in storage, so we connect it and try to start the engine. It doesn’t crank. It won’t even jump-start. The battery is only year and a half old. We bought it at Walmart. We go to NAPA and buy a new battery for $161. We install it and it starts right up. The steps are not working again and the leveling jacks are giving us an alarm. We reset the leveling control panel.

We pick up the RV the next day at 9:00. Fran has a hair appointment so we drive to Winn Dixie parking lot.

After her appointment, we hook up the Honda CRV and take off. We stop at a service plaza, on the turnpike, and get to the Ortona South Army Corps of Engineers’ campground at about 5:00.

This is a very nice campground. It has 51 sites, with concrete pads that are large and spread out. It’s quiet and far from the main road. In fact, we thought we were in the wrong place when we turned in, because we could not see the campground. The campground is on the Caloosahatchee River. There are some nice trails to walk, you can fish and watch boats go through the lock towards Lake Okeechobee, or the Gulf of Mexico.

The camp host tells us that the water here is very hard. We hook up our On the Go water softener, but we don’t put any in our tank.
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The next day we cook breakfast outside, and walk around the park and watch boats go through the lock. I clean the electrical contacts for the steps and they are now working again. We have a nice campfire in the evening.

Manatee Springs State Park

Then next day we drive to the dump station and dump our black and grey water. We hook the Honda to the tow bar and leave at 9:10. The GPS suggests two routes. We take the second choice, which is shorter distance, but one minute longer. It takes longer because of all traffic lights.

We get to Manatee Spring State Park around 3:30. We walk around the park. There is a place that sells barbecue they smoke themselves. We buy a half chicken and a rack of ribs ala-carte and bring it back to the RV for later. Then we walk around and see some manatees. These are small compared to what we are used to seeing in the keys. We go to Walmart, we buy stuff to make cole slaw, because the cole slaw at the barbecue place is too sweet for our tastes.

This is a very busy campground. They have 92 sites, which are full. The sites are sand. We have a back-in site with 30 amp electric and water. The water spigot leaks, so we fill our water tank and turn it off. The Verizon wireless signal strength here is low. It’s good for text messages, but not phone calls or internet.

There are lots of trails here. We hike on the scenic trail, with a self-guided tour, about three and a half miles. We walk around the campground and see lots of deer. They are not afraid of us. We have a nice campfire.

Tomorrow we drive to Gulf Springs, AL.