Beeline to Florida

After our slow meandering through Missouri and Arkansas, it was time to kick into gear and make some serious progress towards getting to Florida.  I had my hopes on getting to see the Space Shuttle launch that was scheduled for November 1st, and to see it, I’d need to be in Titusville a few days ahead of time to get a camp spot.

So, the next morning, I made my way to the Interstate to get a move on.  It was slow-going through Memphis, but I made good time through Mississippi and Alabama after that and spent the night at the Flying J in Birmingham.

The next day, I made it through Georgia and down to northern Florida.  I found a great little RV park for the night, Oaks-N-Pine in Lake City.

That night, I heard the first reports of NASA postponing the shuttle launch an extra day, so I decided to spend a night in St. Augustine as I’d never been there before.

I snagged a spot at gorgeous Anastasia State Park, but could only get 1 night there as they are usually always sold out.  Still, 1 night was better than nothing.  While dogs were not allowed on the state park beach, a ranger told me that nearly all other spots on St. Augustine Beach allow dogs just south of the park, so Millie got both an evening and a morning swim in the Atlantic.  She had no problems sleeping that night!

The next day, I learned that the shuttle launch had now been postponed again, but I decided to drive through Titusville anyway.   Stopping at some of the boondocking sites to check out the view, you could certainly see a small spec of something out in the distance that looked like the launch tower, but it was indeed pretty far away.  I decided I had better just move on to Naples since I’d already paid for a month’s rent there and might as well use it.

Driving from one coast to the other, I finally discovered what exists in central Florida between the coasts--- orange groves!  Lots and lots of them!