Highlands Hammock

Our first campground in Florida is Highlands Hammock.  I had started to really worry a couple months ago, because I had no reservations.  All the campsites in FL that I checked seemed to be full.  So when I finally found a couple that had spots open, I made the reservations.  Having reservations is a blessing and a trap.  Knowing where we're going to rest is a wonderful thing.  Knowing we have to be somewhere at a given time means we have to keep to a schedule, no matter if things become challenging.  We left CO a day later than we had originally intended, which meant that if we wanted to stop at Hot Springs on our way to Highlands Hammock, we had to have a hugely long day one day.  And then on our way to Highlands Hammock, we had to have two long travel days.  Busting your butt to make it somewhere is exhausting.  Plus we've missed out on parts of our country that we've not really spent time exploring.  But I knew I wanted to go from Florida through Maine on this part of the trip, so we blew through parts that didn't help us do that.  I'm hoping on the way home in August that we have enough time to check out places like Minnesota and Wisconsin.   Back to Highlands Hammock....  

We saw a gator!!!!!  We decided to go hiking while Bill was working (ok, I decided, and got much pushback from kids, but I dragged them along anyway).  The trail that the rangers told us would be a good place to see alligators was closed, but the family who told us that also told us of an alligator hanging out on the side of the road near the CCC museum (another cool feature of the park).  We saw a guy looking out into the stream near the side of the road, and sure enough, we was checking out the gator.  Pretty cool!  And I'm sure we would not have spotted it if that gentleman weren't there, because we were on the other side of the road.  So thank you to the anonymous sir.          

We got to see some amazing landscape.  This is very different from what we've been surrounded by for the last several months.  While the humidity isn't truly welcome, the lush environment really needs it, so we'll suffer through it.  Simply amazing.  We'll be here for another day, then we'll head out to the Everglades and Biscayne.