Back on the Farm Again

The campground of Indian Prairie Campground closed today at 5:30 pm and we had to move.  (A standard procedure for this campground on every Monday.)  So we moved to Hickory Hammock, a South Florida Water Management District north about 50 miles on the Kisseemmee River.  I mentioned visiting the place a couple of days ago and one reader felt that instead of burning gas to check it out, it would have been cheaper to use a commercial park for a day.   He felt that Sandy would have enjoyed the amenities of a commercial park more!

Okay, but what about the rest of the week?   She is getting plenty of "computer time", thanks to our 400 watts of solar.  Also, since we finally wired the TV into the battery, she gets to watch the first hour of GMA in the morning and 2 hours of evening news at 5 PM.

So we are here and we feel right at home.  After all, we're back on the farm again.   There is an old barn that is in outstanding condition after 70 or 80 years of being in use.  (They did put steel roofing on it recently.)  The interior is all horse stalls and they are built for tough horses. All of the walls are concrete block with heavy steel gates.   My first thought was that it was built for wild mustangs, not riding ponies for the ranch hands.   It has a large hay mow and is totally wired in conduit (very modern considering the era it was built in.)   I suspect that the lights were from a local generator, which the state disposed of.   Currently, the only electric is from 4 solar powered yard lights.   I haven't checked to see how well they work.

Again, as you can expect, the nightly camping fee was "zero", yes, FREE.   Just register to get the gate combination and if there is an opening, you're in.   When we pulled in, a Game Warden was behind us and he jumped out and opened the gate for us and waved us in.   But a mile down the road, he turned on his lights and a mild panic set in.   We pulled over on a very narrow lane.  He went zipping by like he was in a big hurry and disappeared in the dust.

We were greeted by a temporary host who gave us a run down of the layout.  They limit the campers to 4 Equestrian users, 4 regular RV users and 4 back-country users.  they have some marked parking sites, but the basic rule was "park where you want to".  We can handle that!  Also, they bring prison labor out to cut fire wood for us.  So we will have to have a fire while here.  (There is a big pile for us to work on.)

We haven't explored any of the trails yet, but we have 4 days to do that.   Also, we will return.

Gene