It was cloudy, sprinkled a little, but that made for a good driving day. We had spent 38 nights in Florida, 5 of them over at Long Point Campground near Melbourne Beach, and 2 more at Disney World at the Caribbean Beach Resort. But the important fact here is that we spent 38 days with Andrew -- and his parents. He is a great little guy, and we will surely miss him. It was hard to leave him behind, but we plan to come back in the fall, before we return to Arizona, so that made it a little easier.
Our goal today is to get out of Florida, and we decided to head to the Okefenokee Swamp and Wildlife Refuge near Fargo, Georgia. We took I-75 to Lake City, then cut over to US 441 and started angling northeast. We took a short lunch break at a rest stop here at Lake City about 1:00 p.m., and crossed the Georgia State Line at 2:15.
It was only 45 miles from Lake City to Fargo, and our turnoff to the Swamp was just a mile before Fargo. Then it was a 17 mile drive through the swamp to the campground, the Stephen C. Foster State Park, which was a very nice campground/park. It was a pretty drive into the park, nice forests and grass, little swamp ponds occasionally.
We got there about 3:00, got checked in at the Trading Post (cost of $28.00), and got set up in camp just before the rain storm hit. So we took a little nap and waited out the storm, then had dinner. We went back to the Trading Post after we ate to walk a nature trail there around the little pond/lake/river, but it was closed. Apparently, it is only open during store hours (closed at 5:00). We had suited up in all our mosquito gear (zip off pants, repellant, net hats, 2 bottles of water, and walking sticks) but didn't get to make use of them. So, instead we went for a "WVD" (wildlife viewing drive), the first one we've been on in a long time, and the first one of this trip. 
We lucked out, we saw another turkey pretty quickly, then Joe took a side road (no surprise) to the Sill Recreation Area, which was like a canal, with a very narrow and shallow stream of water. We probably spotted a dozen gators in this canal, and a bunch of buzzards or vultures seem to be expecting dinner at any moment.
On the way back, we spotted another turkey, then a deer. And two more deer right outside the campground. And we saw a few squirrels. And shortly after we got back inside the RV, it started raining again.
Mazie had called us this morning and they had run into some trouble. (They are in northeastern Missouri) They took a road that dead-ended, and Dave tried to make a U-turn with the RV and car and wasn't able to keep it all on the road, so he got stuck in the mud. They had to call for a tow truck, and we talked to Mazie two more times, but they finally got out, with just some minor damage to the RV (a plastic strip on the back). We always hate to hear about any of us running into problems because we all know it could happen to any of us at any time. Hopefully, that will be the only problems they encounter.
We don't have much of a phone signal here, not enough to make a call or get on the internet. Since we didn't have phone or internet here, I did my blog in the "notes" section on the computer and pasted it in later. When I do that, sometimes it leaves large blank spaces where I have had to move pictures around, so if that happens, it's just part of the process.
We traveled 226 miles today, stayed in a state park, saw some wildlife. We are finally back in "RV mode travel." Joe's foot seems to be pretty well healed, and we got out of Florida one day after the official start of hurricane season. I think we are back on track.
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