Tuesday, 5/2/06: It was really great to see Julie and John one last time before we left. After a pleasant breakfast with them, we left around 8:00 AM. If we had planned it, we couldn’t have had a nicer day. We’ve decided that we’re going to stick predominantly to major roads, but not the interstate. We started on 301 near Ocala, and took it and U.S. 1 today. We went through some beautiful country: horse farms near Ocala, then cattle ranches and woodlands with scattered southern towns. There was a lovely old frame church in Citra near the intersection of Hwy 301 and CR 18. It had unusual windows with arched panes on all four sides. Doves were etched on several panes. 301 was mostly dual lane and there was almost no traffic.

As we neared the GA state line, the wild flowers in the median were gorgeous—bright yellow, red, purple and orange. It sure looked better than shaggy pasture grass, and I’m sure they saved mowing costs! We went through our first weigh station at the GA state line. The signs indicated that trucks, pickups, trailers and 18-wheelers all had to stop, so we did. They waved us on, and we never did see how much we weighed. At some point we need to stop at a truck stop and weigh our truck and trailer and then both together to make sure we’re within the towing capacity of our truck.

As lunchtime approached, we came upon the Okeefenokee Swamp Park. We’d been there once before and taken the boat ride through the swamp (a neat thing to do, if you’ve never tried it). This time we decided to pull into the picnic area for lunch. They’ve added some old cabins and a gift store—very quaint. One of the cabins dated to the Seminole Indian wars (1835?), when it belonged to the Wildes family, who were massacred. What a great lunch break! We really feel like we’re on vacation now.

Another interesting stretch of road (I think we were on US 1 by now) was at Alma, which bills itself as the blueberry capital of GA. There were quite a few blueberry fields (groves? patches?) along the way. The blueberries were all green, which was interesting, because we know the blueberries in FL are ripe—Wiley’s sister, Cathy, picked some just before we left! The cornfields got progressively younger as we headed north, too. There was Zellwood (FL) corn in the supermarket when we left, and by the time we got to GA, it wasn’t even knee high.

We decided to call it a day near Augusta, GA, in a state park called Magnolia Springs. We’re camped beside a pretty little lake right now. We took a 1.4-mile walk on the nature trail before dinner. We saw a tiny little ring-necked snake. It was very pretty—dark red in color. I thought it was a fast-moving earth worm at first! There was also lots of sassafras. I have fond memories of my Girl Scout days when we plucked the young shrubs and chewed the root for its delicious licorice flavor. My grandmother made tea from it. We had a nice chat with the campground hosts. They’re workampers, like us, and this is their first assignment. They’re enjoying it a lot.

I made macaroni with tomato/meat sauce and canned asparagus for dinner. Not fancy, but it sure tasted good. We’d worked up an excellent appetite, and the lake view was as good as the best restaurants we’ve ever been to.

We’ve come roughly 400 miles so far. We’ve filled up twice--$59.29 in FL (20.5 gallons) and $52.67 in GA (18.8 gallons). That’s about 10 mpg, which is about what we expected. Hopefully, by avoiding the mountains, we’ll be able to keep it at that. We’ve budgeted $500 for gasoline for the whole trip (assuming about $3 per gallon). Gas was $2.89 in Orlando, and went down to about $2.78 in GA.

Monkey is taking it all in stride. We checked on her several times today to make sure it wasn’t too hot in the camper and that she was okay. She was usually either curled up beside the bed or on the couch. She’s eating and sleeping well. When we got to camp, I put her on the leash and took her for a short walk. She likes that!

We’re going to look at the spring head tomorrow, and then head out by 8 AM. We hope to reach the NC/VA border tomorrow (via US 1). Then we’ll be in Richmond for lunch with my cousin, Art, and his wife Ginny on Thursday. From there, we’ll spend a couple of days in the Baltimore area. After that… who knows? We’re on vacation!