Interstate 75 is too busy for my taste. I like serenity, and I-75 is more frenetic. It's not as crazy as I-95 around Miami, but US-41 and US-98 let you appreciate the towns and properties that you're driving through. They seem more real and less corporate efficiency.
Our meandering from White Springs went South through Lake City and Chiefland and Crystal River and many other towns before we found ourselves in Tampa, driving past a USF campus where Sharon took some classses, and Busch Gardens, where traffic was clearly more concerned about parking lot access. We finally got on I-75 to avoid city traffic, which just isn't fun in a van 24' long with a 20+' trailer.
We arrived at Oscar Shearer just as we finished a book on tape, perfect timing! Their records still had our Volvo from years ago, a nice little memory jog. We were last here in 2011. We drove to our site, but the numbering was confusing, it was later determined Sharon guessed wrong, to the consternation of a later arriving family from Ontario, but not enough consternating for them to want to move to their assigned site from our assigned site. C'est la vie.
We weren't around when they arrived, since we took off on our bikes for a nice ride. We started off on the park's mountain bike trails, but they proved to be an overwhelming slog through endless sugar sand, so when we found the adjacent bike trail, we chose to put in our miles on it. It was a Rails to Trails, as straight and level as the train tracks it replaced. It was a pleasant ride, free of traffic except for a few road crossings,and mostly undeveloped scrublands.
It was too dark to eat outside for dinner, so we ate in Ernie for the first time since the Summer. A after dinner walk around the campground reminded me how crowded this campground really is. Boondocking is much more serene, but perhaps not this trip, as South Florida seems to be the most popular place to be, and there aren't national forests to take advantage of.
Before leaving the next morning, we put our kayaks in at the boat launch area and got in a nice 6 mile paddle. The waterways in the park have a tree canopy and quiet water. When we ventured out to the ICW, the Sunday morning boat traffic was non-existent, and the water mostly calm.
Pictures are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/aGGJ9cXxTkNzNDkZA
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