24th May 2019
Being houseless, jobless, and roaming around, you can very quickly lose track of days (very feeble excuse for my lack of blogs recently….). It was only when we tried to extend our stay at Bill Frederick park and the lady on the phone very bluntly said ‘All Full’ that I realised everyone would be heading out in their RVs and making for the same places we were trying to go.
We wanted to see some springs and Connor had recommended Alexander Springs in the Ocala National Forest as being some of the best in the area. As this was on our route we had hoped to stop here for a night or two but realising what weekend it was, we were sceptical they would have any spaces. On realising they had walk in camping, we hustled up from Orlando to try to get there as early as possible to secure a spot.
Unfortunately, Brucie had other plans…. Not long after we left Bill Frederick Park, she started juddering when we were idling at lights and a signal came up on the dash which, worryingly, Asa hadn’t seen before. We pulled over and Asa pulled out his magic device (it’s a code reader – a computer that lets us interface with the Engine Control Module, ECM for short) to figure out what was wrong. Turns out our crank speed sensor wasn’t reading properly. After pulling in to a parts shop car park and Asa fiddling around under the engine, he realised that a chewed wire was causing the problem, probably from the family of mice that had taken up residence before we had Brucie! He moved the chewed wire and painted it with some enamel spray paint to insulate it and Bobs your Uncle (he actually is!) the problem was solved.
It is amazing how much Asa can do with what he has lying around – it really takes a creative mind in my opinion to be able to find a solution to a problem you’ve never had before (plus a bit of luck!).
With this delay, we thought we’d be out of luck with camping spots, but there was one spot left, one spot!!! The attendant thought we might be able to fit and told us to go and check before paying for the night. Well, there was hell no way we weren’t fitting that’s for sure! Turns out it was easy as pie to park and the camping spot was beautiful! We had some friendly neighbours who were super interested in our conversion and wanted to do one themselves one day. Aaron, we hope you enjoy your first summer in Florida and thanks for the hiking recommendations near Portland!
We were back in our happy place, beautiful shaded forest, place for the hammock, a stones throw from natural springs. It was idyllic, and being Friday evening, the springs were relatively quiet. Either people had left to go home or hadn’t arrived for the weekend yet. Saturday morning was another matter… it was like wildebeasts at the watering hole but with inflatables! We did a quick swim and rinse off before being chased out in search of a more secluded spot.
As we left, the queue to get in to the park was mental along with every other park, creek and springs we saw after that. We’re glad we got our one night of quiet before the rush!
Feeling refreshed and with a full water tank, we headed out to continue North in search of cooler weather and more clear water.