Lake Louisa State Park, FL

Lake Louisa SP. 27 March thru 1 April.
Spot 33. Same area as Lake Griffin. Actually not too far away from Lake Griffin. We travel down route 27, mostly four-lane divided highway through miles and miles of new construction of condos and apartments. There has to be someplace where all those senior citizens from up north stay.

I started to get a little paranoid because I had not seen a Walmart. But we found the entrance to the state park anyway. Again we left the concrete world, and entered "the real Florida". Lake Louisa is full of rolling hills, short grass and trees and lots of water. (By the way, Walmart was only a couple miles beyond the entrance to the park.)

Our site was located in a nice secluded place, one of the few with full services. Funny thing about that. The sewer pipe stuck out of ground a little higher than our outlet port on the trailer. Think about it a little while and you will discover what I did not. We managed. 

Glen and Sue were going to join us for a couple days, so we pulled out the full camping complement of gear. Bug screen for the picnic table, chairs, firewood, and fire grill. 

One of the reasons we camped at Lake Louisa was this lady. 

Who loves baseball. 

We were obviously celebrating a birthday for a grand lady, Pauline, aunt to our sister-in-law Sherry. 

What I probably enjoyed the most was meeting the family and hearing their stories. I was really impressed with the family and how much they cared for each other and Aunt Pauline. We had a great day. 

Back at Lake Louisa, we tried our luck at fishing. My biggest problem was water access. They did have some fishing piers which I made use of. 

At this particular pier I met a couple that impressed me. First I flyfish. Not normal especially in a lake. So as I stood on the pier wishing for a canoe, this couple pulled off two kayaks, filled them with fly fishing gear and slipped them into the water. How cool. 

After Glen and Sue arrived we went site-seeing in the area. We got a couple pictures of the Lake from the beach. Pretty.       

Glen and Sue could only stay a couple of nights. So we pulled out the steaks for supper over the open fire at our camp and then met them for a delicious breakfast at their site. 

Have you noticed that good times with friends and family always seems to include great food?

Well we left on the first of April for Georgia. The trip was long but we were able to park the trailer at Sherry's place for the night. Plan was to travel across Georgia to Arkansas to see the kids for Easter.

We stopped overnight in Alabama on the Nachez Trail. And arrived in Arkansas on the third. 

Easter with the Kids

Well, we arrived in Arkansas on the night of the third. It was not dark yet, but would be soon and we needed to

setup. The campsite was new to us so we were coming in blind. 

The road to the campsite became very rolling with turnoffs hidden. As we got to the bottom of a steep hill our turn suddenly came up. And I missed the turn. 

By the time I got the rig stopped, I was past by 100 ft. I couldn't see behind me. The road made a drastic turn to the right, so I could not see in front either. But right next to my front tire was a dirt driveway to someone's house. That is when I made the fatal decision. I could just turn into the driveway and reverse into the road. 

OK, some of you are probably thinking right about now, "Why not just back up?"

My response would be "where were you then?"

There was not enough room in the driveway and I ran the trailer up on the edge of the driveway. The edge was high and I drove dirt into the bottom of the trailer.

Now I had to move back and forward to squiggle the trailer farther to the left. Connie got out to direct me. 

That is when it got exciting. A dog ran out from the house barking and yelping as it came. You should have seen Connie's face. But the Lord protected her. The dog only wanted to play. And I do not know why, but my next turn put the trailer perfectly in the road so that I could back up.

We tried to knock at the door of the house and apologize for digging up their dirt. But no one came to the door so we left a note. Can you imagine being the owner and reading that note?

Our site was located at Hickory Creek Park. An Army Corps of Engineers campground. We found the site as the sun was setting. Putting the trailer to bed was our next trial. 

This picture does not do it justice. The site was at the end of a circle on the side of a steep hill. In order for me to back the trailer into the site I had to back between two trees that were just wide enough for the trailer. And I could not see the trailer tires because of the hill. But The Lord was with us that night, because we backed it in one try.

It was a beautiful site. Check out sunrise. 

This was Easter weekend. And we went to Easter service on Saturday night because Phil was not feeling well. 

So on Easter the grandkids wanted to make him feel better. Got a pic. 

So we got them to settle down. 

Well, Phil had strep and stayed home from work until he was no longer contagious. Not a great way to enjoy Easter. But God was good and he was up and working by midweek. 

The site at Hickory Creek Park has electricity only. No water, no sewer. So after a couple of days, we ran low on water. So what do you do?  

I guess I could move the trailer, but remember it was hard to get it in. So we set up a bucket brigade. Got it done. Slow but done. 

By the end of the week, the black tank and gray tank were full. Ok, now we have to move. For some reason I decided to check the tire pressures. Maybe it was a tire that just didn't look right, but anyway we had a flat. 

We took the trailer to the dump and emptied the tanks and topped off the fresh water. As we were finishing, an RVer pulled up to dump also. I asked him about tire repair. What a God send. He suggested a dealer and told us to pull along side and he would pump it up. End of story: the tire was replaced. 

Due to the change of tire and dump, we requested a different site that was empty. This site was right next to our first site. Still pretty. 

Here is a picture from the opposite side of the water. You can make out our trailer on the left. Our first site was in the woods on the right. 

The grandkids are into sports so we had the opportunity to watch them swimming, playing basketball and singing in a group at church. 

We left for home on Monday. But the meal with the kids at the campsite before we packed up was perfect. I am still working on taking selfies.