After a summer in New England where I suffered extreme low back pain after my Washington trip, I headed south the second week of October, staying at a Pennsylvania rest area the first night of my trip. Then in Virginia I stayed at Elizabeth Furnace Campground, which was open despite the government shutdown. I only stayed one night because there were tons of annoying gnats in my face. On to North Creek, one of my favorites. The weather was perfect, but I was all alone and this time there was no camp host. I enjoyed the day I spent there, with the amazing bubbling small river, but too many guys in trucks drove through checking it out. I was anxious about being alone overnight, so I left late afternoon, drove into the setting sun and stayed at a rest area in Statesville, NC.
I then stayed one night at Sedalia Campground, the small hunt campground in South Carolina, and moved on to a favorite, Parsons Mountain Campground where I stayed for eleven days, moving from one site to another because the bathroom had a raunchy odor due to no employees because of the government shutdown. A friendcamped there a few days on the way to his sister’s house. The weather was perfect, sunny, 70s, no mosquitoes. I actually set up my computer outside my car and managed to get a few things accomplished with my new hot spot tethered from my phone to my laptop.
One day as I sat on my site eating supper two black gentleman walked toward me, and I soon realized one was the man I had met at Easter at Sedalia with his wife. This time he was with a very nice pal who talked a lot about natural health.
I met a family across from my site, and the patriarch gave me his business card in case I had any problems, as he was on the city council in Abbeville.
Toward month’s end I headed to Florida. I had been very worried about my back pain flaring up like it had after the long drive to Washington the prior summer. During this trip I was applying a DMSO roll-on to my back, and taking high doses of curcumin per my doctor’s orders.
My favorite campground in Florida, Hopkins Prairie, was now reservation only, no more cash payments. I opted to stay at ForeLake Campground for four nights until I could reserve my favorite site at Hopkins Prairie, where I stayed two entire weeks, despite being bitten by many chiggers like at ForeLake. I ended up wearing plastic bags over my socks inside my sneakers.
Then I stayed thirteen days at Indian Lake Campground, which had become another favorite. No chiggers. I finally managed to convince a couple of my male friends to try out this campground and it became one of their favorites as well. Especially site 1 which was the only site with a view of the lake.
Then I stayed five days at Potts Preserve, a free campground which I had never been to. A woman friend stayed there also, and we met a school teacher who was camping in a small van with a sweet old dog and a bearded dragon and was working at perfecting all his power sources for a future summer cross country road trip. I checked out many other campgrounds in the area and got to explore quaint downtown Inverness, with its historical courthouse with an Elvis movie connection.
I then stayed at my childhood friend’s house in Orlando while I waited for a check to arrive from my mother’s estate, as she had gone into a nursing home. This was an incredible turn of events because I would now have seed money to publish my books, start my website, buy a van, and pay off my medical bills.
Then for eight days I stayed at Hickory Hammock, another free campground. This campground was in the SFWMD (South Florida Water Management District. Potts Preserve was in Southwest Florida Water Management District, which had the same acronym of SFWMD. Very confusing.) At Hickory Hammock I met the very nice host couple and their autistic teenage son. They were from Cuba and Puerto Rico. I so enjoyed the female host, who wants to be a writer, telling stories about home schooling her son and being attacked by a long-horned cow on the road to Hickory Hammock. The cow must have had rabies and was put down. My new friend was very well spoken in English as her second language and so willing to learn more and admit what she didn’t know.
I loved Hickory Hammock with its large gorgeous campsites and beautiful views and places to walk. The negative was the tons of mosquitoes this time of year. I must have gotten a dozen bites a day and was swarmed at sunset. Horrible.
I then stayed at Panther Pond seven days. Mosquitoes were a huge problem here as well. Also, I was alone without a host for four nights, without another camper even on the nearby overflow and hunt campgrounds. And one morning at 9:00, two men with hunting rifles passed right by my site, even though it was posted as a safe zone. I laughed nervously when the white man walked by with his gun pointing down and I said “hunting?” Then a black man in camouflage followed. I asked the female ranger a day or two later and she thought maybe they were going after the alligators in the pond. But why were they in the campground? A friend thought they might be going after pythons. Anyway, I was hardly in a relaxed state at this campground this time around.
Thereafter I booked seven days at Walk in Water Campground, and that was one of the worst weeks of my nomadic life. I was there alone a few nights with no host. My favorite site smelled heavily of dog shit for most of the six days I was there. There was a posted burn ban due to draught but the only other campers, a couple in an RV, on one of the windiest days I had ever experienced, had a blazing campfire. I was afraid to say something directly to them or report them because I didn’t want retaliation. Instead, I called a friend telling him I thought I was going to lose my car and possessions because I would be trapped in a wildfire in the campground. I knew I could walk or run further into the woods, though.
Two days in a row a local guy pulled up to the large recently emptied dumpster and managed to fill the entire thing with his personal items. I could hear dishes breaking and I later saw boxes and other household possessions. The lid was bulging and I had to throw my little bags of trash on top. Again, I was afraid of reporting a description of the pickup truck because I was the only camper and didn’t want retaliation.
One late afternoon the very same man who had approached me the previous New Year’s Eve, a wealthy man with owning a $100,000 camper, a local house and a house up north, or so he claimed, walked directly onto my site. Since there was another camper on that particular day, I felt somewhat safe enough to get this man off my campsite by having him walk with me to the dumpster so he’d be back in the parking lot near his camper. He wasn’t camping but nevertheless remained in the parking lot for a couple hours seemingly trying to make line-of-site eye contact with me. Each time I moved right or left to be hidden behind foliage he altered his stance. Creepy!
I had some very nice drives through the orange groves and past gorgeous lakes. I took some hikes and saw a large tortoise hurrying through the brush, instead of the usual slow methodical traipse of a tortoise. I also heard a loud thrashing and as I turned my head, I saw something as large as a cow running deeper into the woods. Probably a wild hog as this was the area where one had crossed my path the year before.
The mosquitoes weren’t quite as bad as the last two campgrounds but weren’t absent completely. My friend had planned to camp there a couple nights but changed his mind due to work. The female ranger had planned to camp there with her sister but the high wind cancelled their plans.
I started feeling ill on December 19th and seriously thought I might have come down with an insect borne illness. I was at my wit’s end. On the 20th I received a message from the apartment manager in South Carolina that a Perfect timing. unit was coming available in January. Was I interested? Of course, I said yes.
I left Walk in Water Campground a day early and headed to Lake Dorr three hours north in Ocala Forest. Then I stayed at Hopkins Prairie with friends through Christmas. I felt wobbly and had hardly any energy until January 2nd. No medical professional nearby or long distance was willing to test me for a possible tick illness. My blood pressure was high for a few weeks and my anxiety level was through the roof.
Over New Year’s Eve I stayed in a motel in Ocala for two nights during a colder spell. I planned to sign a contract for my children’s book and pay thousands up front, but the publisher did not receive my email by the midnight deadline for special pricing due to her email address change. I watched movies and rested despite the cell tower across the busy intersection and loud fireworks going off. I ended up going to the ER with chest pain, in addition to my other weird symptoms.
My apartment took several weeks longer to become available. I went from River Road CG to Indian Lake CG waiting to find out the timing of my move. Near my birthday mid-January I met friends for lunch in Mt. Dora and camped at Lake Dorr again this time not alone. On my actual birthday I hiked with my new young intelligent banker friend from New England at Indian Lake and finally knew all the trails and saw the historic cemetery.
During another cold snap I stayed two days at my friend’s house in Orlando. Then went further south to Hickory Hammock, where I encouraged my Spanish speaking host friend to begin her writing career. Then I went to Panther Pond where almost every site was filled, unlike my last solitary stay there. When the weather warmed up, I drove four hours north to Ocala Forest to Hopkins Prairie where I enjoyed camping near with friends. Then to Forelake Campground alone where my camp host friends said there might be a coywolf around. Finally, it was in the eighties again after over a month of mostly cold temps. I actually kind of liked staying at a different campgrounds every three days instead of a week or two. If there was a bothersome event or group, I knew I wouldn’t have to put up with it too long.
I drove to Savannah the end of January, stayed in a motel and briefly drove around downtown. Then on to my new apartment where there was still ice on the ground and roads from the rare snow storm. I had to stock up on supplies due to several more inches of snow arriving. Very rare!
So, after five years and two months, instead of the thirty days planned, I finally was in a permanent residence. Thank God for blessings!