STN Hop 1
230 miles, mostly on I-75.
Last dog park walk
I gave the dogs one last walk to the dog park, then, after waiting for our neighbor to pull out first, we were on our way. It was 11am – about an hour later than we planned – and we paid for our tardiness in Citra by getting caught in a downpour while setting up.
About 210 of the 230 miles were on I-75 and about half of those were construction zone. The scenery consisted of orange barrels. Lanes were dropped or narrowed over long stretches. If it had been the weekend – or even Friday, I think – it would have been very unpleasant. But midday Thursday wasn’t too bad. Even Tampa, which is seemingly always backed up, flowed pretty well.
We stopped once. We didn’t really need a break after just 2 hours, but we had some difficulty in entering our destination into the GPS. I guess the “NW 45th Ave St” (sic) made as much sense to the GPS as it did to us. Entering the name of the campground (Grand Lake) made the GPS happy and got us underway again.
The hop, with GPS stop, took just a few minutes under 4 hours.
Ready to leave Seminole
Our home for the evening, as previously mentioned, was the Grand Lake Golf and RV Resort in Citra, FL. This is a very large (estimate: 500 sites) RV park with many park models and long-term residents. But no trashy long-term residents. All the RV units were newer and in good repair. But many sites had landscape improvements and quite a few had permanent steps and/or wooden decks. I think sites could be owned as the reception desk was labeled “Sales Office”.
The weather was terrible – a downpour while setting up and brisk winds that prevented us from deploying the awning. We also had a tree in close proximity that brushed against the RV, which affected the quality of our sleep. But despite these negatives, I thought the place was very nice. Having a golf course on site was a plus, but there was also a very nice rec hall, a laundry with new machines, a very large dog park and a restaurant, right on the shores of Orange Lake with a lakeside patio (which would have been great had the weather been better), that served surprisingly good food. Their fried green tomatoes were tangy and crisp – just the way we like them. I had a shrimp basket that was very tasty and filling. I didn’t really need dessert but had to try the “peanut pie.” It was like a slice of peanut butter cheesecake. A bit disappointing in that it didn’t have chunks of peanuts, but good enough to finish.
The park also has cable TV – 44 channels. Most of them were either news or sports, so the number of entertainment choices wasn’t a big improvement over our 8 over-the-air channels at Seminole. But it was a relief to not have to deal with a weak signal.
After the downpour
Grand Lake street
Grand Lake patio
Grand Lake restaurant and tree