Monday – January 28, 2013
We departed Naples, Florida on Monday at 11:55 p.m. We had an absolutely wonderful time visiting with my sister and her husband at their home in Naples the past two weeks. My sister is a marvelous gourmet cook and provided us with some outstanding tasty meals. We left a few pounds heavier than when we arrived, but very content. We will have to increase our exercise regimen a bit to work off the extra calories we consumed.
Our destination today is the Midway Campground located within the Big Cypress National Preserve in southern Florida. This area is located about 70 miles southeast of Naples. However, we took a slight detour of about 40 miles northeast of Naples in order to check out the W. P. Franklin North Campground near Okeechobee Lake. This is a beautiful C.O.E. managed recreation area with 45 campsites located by the water. The campsites have paved parking pads with electric and water hookups. The restroom facilities have flush toilets, hot water showers and a washer and dryer. This is a very popular campground that requires advance reservations of at least six months through Reserve America. There is excellent fishing at the dam located on the campground. There is very little privacy between campsites and for this reason we found this area not suitable for our style of preferred camping.
We arrived at the Midway Campground at 3:30 p.m. Due to our late afternoon arrival we were concerned that all of the campsites would already be occupied. If so, we were prepared to spend the night at the Monument Lake Campground located about 9 miles west of Midway. However, upon our arrival at Midway, we were surprised to see the number of campsites that were available. The campground host informed us they had never filled up so far this January. We selected campsite #10, which is located on the west side of the pond, out of six campsites left to choose from.
Midway has paved parking pads with electric hookups and a restroom with flush toilets. Monument Lake has gravel parking pads, no electric hookups and a restroom with flush toilets. Campsites at Monument Lake and Midway are arranged in a semi-circular pattern with each campground surrounding a large pond.
As dusk approached we were relaxing in our lawn chairs watching two alligators gliding through the water in the pond. When darkness finally settled in, the night sky was aglow with the numerous star formations seemingly floating through the blackness of space. The full moon rising added to the brightness of the night sky. The reflection of the sun on the moon’s surface was partially visible through a small patch of clouds gently floating through the night sky. The reflected light from the surface of the moon penetrated through the cloud cover producing brilliant shades of reddish pink colors. A fitting ending to our day.
Camping Fee: $10.00 per night with our Golden Age Pass.
Campsite: 10
Total miles traveled today: 147
Tomorrow another adventure begins.
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