After leaving Tyndall AFB, we stopped at Old Town, FL on the Suwannee River. We only stayed a few days at Suwannee River Hideaway campground. The owners are very friendly and very helpful. They had just reopened for the winter season so we were their first and only customers. Yep, we had the whoooole campground to ourselves. There’s a boardwalk built over a swamp that leads people to the Suwannee River. We took our time walking through the swamp since we have never been inside or near a swamp before coming here. From the road – yes, but never like this. We did not see any alligators, but we did hear some loud crashing deeper in the swamp. We think it was a deer or the Swamp Thing. You never know.
Since the campground was empty of people, we took three cats out at the same time. Squirrel and Dusty ran around on their own with their leashes dragging behind them. We knew they would not go far. We held on to our escape artist – Hitch. Max refused to go outside. We think it was the wide open spaces that made him nervous. Well, at least three of them had a few hours of fun and exploring.
We went to Manatee Springs State Park. The water is absolutely beautiful and so clear. We could see divers swimming around at the bottom. We did not see any Manatees, but we did see two different snakes lying in the bushes nearby thanks to an eagle-eye young man pointing them out to people. We had walked right by both and did not see either one. We did not do any kayaking during our short visit to the Old Town area.
Moving on to MacDill AFB in Tampa: We really like this campground, and the base is one of the best we have ever seen. Here, they still play Reverie at 6:21 am, a noon siren, the National Anthem at 4:30 pm as the Base Flag is being lowered, and Taps at 10 pm every day on the "Giant Voice System". That is going to take some getting used to since we retirees like to sleep until 7 am. Not to mention, we just went through a Time Zone change. Still, we are talking about coming back. We like this campground and the area.
The beach, the marina, and the beach club house are in the campground area. There is a residential Osprey living in the campground. The Osprey likes to perch on a lamp post near the beach boardwalk and watches the people as they walk to the beach. We also discovered Armadillos are not very scared of people. Well, at least the ones living here are not scared of us. The one in the photo in the webshots link below kept posing, but just as we would take his picture he would move. And Boy! Could he move and jump. We always though they were sloooow moving. Not true.
Pictures above are "clickable" and more pictures are in our album Florida - Going South.
