We ended our week's stay at Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park yesterday (Monday), and headed south to Torreya State Park in the panhandle of Florida. The rain followed us the entire way. We're getting used to being wet, since it rained every single day that we were camping at FDR. The rain never dampened our spirits at FDR though. Gary and I had a very memorable stay, and we were sad to leave. That week went by in a flash. Time really does fly when you're having fun. As I write this, it is now our second and final night here at Torreya. We won't be nearly as sad to leave here as we were from FDR. This was a decent stopping point about half way between FDR and home, but just not the same caliber of park. We had never been here before and didn't know what to expect. In general, a lot of the Florida State Parks are not on the same level as a lot of the Georgia State Parks. That's just our opinions. After spending a lot of time camping in both states, we just prefer the parks in Georgia. We have a handful of favorites in Florida, but Torreya is not one of them. As I said, outside of the campground, it's a nice little park. The roads and facilities are good, and everything is clean and nicely kept. The campground itself is not that great. The campsites are too close together, the dirt road is full of potholes, and it's a good thing there's a battery backup in this computer, because the power has been off throughout the campground for nearly an hour. The restroom is old, but Gary says it's clean. One thing he hates about it is that there's no private changing rooms in the shower area. Who was the idiot that designed that? There's a newer restroom for handicapped campers. It's possible to shower there, but if you lock the door to have some privacy, then nobody else can use the restroom. Not a problem for me of course, but I get to suffer by hearing Gary complain about it. We got here very late on Monday. There was just enough time to get me partially set up before daylight ended. The rain finally stopped, so Gary was able to get out and take these pictures this morning. There is no registration office or park office near the entry gate like 99.9% of the parks we have camped at. Camping registration is at the big brown building (pictured) inside the campground. The actual park office and gift shop is located in the wing on the left side of the Gregory House, the big white house that is located elsewhere in the park. That house was built in the mid-1800's, and moved here to the park in pieces and reassembled by the Civilian Conservation Corp. You can tour the house for a small fee if you desire. It has a nice overlook of the Apalachicola River behind it. There's also a small overlook deck here in the campground, but it was too foggy at the time Gary was on it to see anything. There are no camping cabins here, but there is one yurt available if you don't have your own camper or motor home. After all of the squirrels that visited me at FDR, I was hoping for more of the same here. Unfortunately, I haven't seen ANY squirrels (except for Gary, of course) Ha-Ha! At least TV reception is good here, and I was able to watch People's Court this morning. That's the first time I've seen it since we left home. Overall, it's better here than most KOA's, and at $16 per night, it's also less than half the cost. Would we stay here again? Maybe. Would we go out of our way to come back here, when Three Rivers or Florida Caverns State Parks (which we like much better) aren't too far away? No. If they made some improvements to the campground here, we think it would be much more appealing to everyone. There's no more rain in the forecast for a few days, and it's going to be very pleasant being pulled home on dry roads. I'm a real mess from all the rain, and so is Dodge. I am absolutely sure that we will get bathed before our next trip. I'll check in again after we get home. I gotta rest up for the long ride tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me. Goodnight!
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