Down by the Suwannee River is the best Florida State Park – Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park in White Springs. Large pretty sites with trees dripping with Spanish moss were right in the middle of a complex of buildings. One was the Stephen Foster Museum which was filled with dioramas depicting Foster’s songs and pianos he composed and played on.
Then there was the bell tower – the Carillon. It played on the hour and half hour and sometimes during the day it played Christmas Carols. We were there during the Festival of Lights so we walked the short distance from our campsite to see the light displays. During the weekend nights all the buildings were lit up and we walked through them – getting hot chocolate and popcorn, seeing craft demonstrations and a large model train display, watching the kids on Santa’s lap and listening to a guitar and hammered dulcimer concert. Our two nights in that park were wonderful and hopefully we can get back there some time. It helped to put us in the holiday spirit.
Christmas Lights
Christmas Lights
Christmas Lights
The museum
Diorama at Stephen Foster Park
Campsite at Stephen Foster Park
Our next stop on December 10th was at the Gainesville/Starke KOA. We had some quiet days there. I walked over to the small shopping center a few times. It was nice to get out and walk to pick up groceries.
On December 14th we got to Three Flags RV Park in Wildwood. This was the first Thousand Trails park we have stayed in. When we purchased our RV, the dealer gave us a one-year free membership in Thousand Trails. With this membership we get 30 nights free in their campgrounds and then it will cost us $3 per night. And there are discounts at other sister-parks. We met with the Thousand Trails representative here and found out more about this program. After looking at lots of information and checking out some of the parks in the Southeast and Northeast, we decided to extend our membership. We get a really good discount and we think it will be part of our adventure to check out more Thousand Trail parks.
Next stop will be Melbourne at Wickham State Park. There we will spend Festivus and Christmas and the start of Hanukkah. We will be in Florida until at least the middle of February. We have reservations in mid-January for a few nights in Key West. And then we have tickets for our first rally – the Family Motor Coach Association Rally in Lakeland. Eventually we will head to South Carolina to see family and then north.
The weather has been really nice the last few days with temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s. There is lots of humidity but with the little breezes it feels pretty good. We think about our friends and family in snow and freezing temperatures and check out the below-freezing temps in Montana and South Dakota and we count our blessings and once again know that this is the best life style ever!