Hillsborough River State Park

HILLSBOROUGH RIVERS STATE PARK

Ok, so this was our first "real" camping trip, that was a greater distance than 2 miles from the house and great than 1 night :) The crew picked me up from work on Friday, so around 1:30PM and got there around 4pm to site number 41. We were expecting a pull through site, but it was not, as it was a back in (in the rain) blocking traffic, while others had to patiently wait for us to get unhooked. The stress of helping get this monster backed in takes it's toll on both parties involved :) But we made it, Neil did an awesome job navigating it in, and then about 30 minutes later, we were set up, and under the awning in the rain. Starting the weekend off with, "No shoes in the camper, step on the carpet before going in, making sure your feet are dried of, etc...." We ventured out a bit before it got dark, to a trail by the water. Not sure where it would lead us, but in a big circle. We called it a night, as it was starting to sprinkle again, and started dinner, showers, and then a movie for the kids, while mom and dad relaxed outside...
Saturday
The next morning we hit the pool, after Neil and the boys tried their hand at fishing first thing in the morning. We met them out with some coffee and honey buns, to see a baby gator hanging around. The pool opened at 9am, and were the first ones in the gate to make sure we got a lounge chair. It is a nice older pool, but very big for the kids to play in... Love trying to keep a cast out of the water and dry!

Came back for lunch and a trip to Wal Mart to get the things we "forgot" and came back to Uncle David and Grandma Cindy and David joining us for the evening and dinner. Once they came, we were on the run. Uncle David brought the kids water guns, so that entertained them for about an hour, while Grandma and Mom went for a quick hike. Came back and got the crew and went for a longer one. There are lots of great trails for hiking at this park, along with a country store that serves breakfast and lunch. After the hike, we came back and started grilling, and after dinner under the awning ~it started to storm. Neil was working on getting a fire started to roast marshmallows to us quickly getting the shoes off the ground as they were floating away in the flood :) Once in the camper, lightening was striking and thunder was loud all around us. We felt for the tent campers near by :(
The next morning the whole crew slept till almost 9am!!!! I am liking this kind of camping :)

Sunday
After a few hours at the pool, and lunch we packed up our home away from home pretty quickly and hit the road. On I-4, about 20 miles in, we had to pull over as one of the kids, our invisible one named "Nobody" must have opened the fire exit window in our bedroom, as Neil had to fix it before we could finish our journey home, while stepping in a bed of fire ants.... When we got home, we booked our next adventure - to Salt Springs for next weekend :) So look for more camping adventures!!!