New Year's At Lake Griffin

Happy Belated New Year's, my friends. I hope you all are well and excited about the year ahead. Gary and Dodge and I are fine, and hanging out here at Lake Griffin State Park in Fruitland Park (Leesburg) Florida. Today is actually our final day here for this visit. I tried to complete a blog post earlier, but Gary's phone has been malfunctioning. His phone has the mobile hotspot we use for our internet connection, and when it doesn't work, we are lost. It's amazing how dependent we all have become on modern technology. The phone is working okay at the moment, so I'm going to try to get this post done before it fizzles out again. I guess there's going to be some shopping for a new phone when we get home. This is our seventh time here at Lake Griffin, and the fifth time we've camped in this particular campsite. This park is far from being on our list of favorites, but our campsite is. It's secluded and cozy, just the way we like them. The only reason we have stayed here at Lake Griffin as often as we have is because of the park's location. It's close to several events that Gary likes to attend. This time, he has gone to two events in nearby Webster while we've been here. You may have noticed in the pictures that my air conditioner is attached. Except for one day, the temperature has been a nearly steady 83 degrees, and that's much too toasty to be without something to cool my innards. That air conditioner is a blessing. I didn't remember TV reception being all that bad here, but we've had a lot of problems with it this time. With my antenna in it's usual location, we couldn't pick up any channels. Gary bought a 10 foot piece of conduit, and mounted my antenna to it. With the antenna out from under the trees, we're getting four channels. Not great, but good enough. The roads through the park are unfortunately not paved. The dust in the air is pretty bad, especially in some of the campsites that are closer to the road than ours is. There's a boardwalk from the road closest to our campsite that leads to the restrooms. Gary says they are older, but are quite nice. They've always been clean and well maintained during our visits. For long-term campers, there are washers and dryers available for use on the south end of the restroom building. As for things for you humans to do here at the park, your possibilities are very limited. There is no access to Lake Griffin without some sort of watercraft. Heck, you can't even see the lake from the boundaries of the park. There's a boat ramp and kayak rentals, a picnic area with a playground for the kiddies, and two very short trails. The nature trail leads from the campground to the picnic area, and has a small amphitheatre along the way. The other trail, known as the Live Oak Trail, is even shorter than the nature trail. Along it's path is what is supposedly the second biggest oak tree in Florida. I'm not so sure about that. Campers are warned about black bears in this area, but in seven visits, we have never seen any. All in all, Lake Griffin isn't a very memorable park. As I said, we just come here for the convenience of being close to certain events that Gary enjoys. We'll be back, but not sure when. Tomorrow we head home. There won't be any more camping for about a month, but I'll try to keep you posted on the latest happenings at the Green Acres Garage. As you know, there's ALWAYS something newsworthy happening from there. Until next time, have a safe and happy 2017. Bye!