Lake City, FL - 12/12/13

Thursday – December 12, 2013
Lake City, Florida
Oceola National Forest
Ocean Pond Campground

We wrapped up our stay at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida with a hearty breakfast at "The Egg And I" restaurant with my son and his wife. Today is Sharon’s birthday, so we had a mini-celebration at the restaurant.

It is a cool, windy, sunny day with the temperature in the low 60’s. A good day to travel to our next destination near Lake City, Florida. We departed St. Andrews State Park at 12:25 p.m. (Central Time). We decided to take route US-98 east out of Panama City Beach. This route would take us by the Tyndall Air Force Base, home of the awesome F-22 Raptor. We were hopeful to see if any were flying today. Upon our arrival there, we were fortunate to see five of them taking off, one after the other, within seconds of one another. This fighter aircraft is a sight to behold. The ear-piercing roar of their jet engines sends a shuddering sensation through one’s body. Within seconds of their takeoff, they disappeared from sight. It is a humbling and comforting experience to see the power of America’s air defense up close and personal. Thank you for your service, to all of our men and women serving in the military.

We continued traveling east on US-98 to Port St. Joe where we picked up FL-71. We traveled north on FL-71, then east on FL-20 to north on FL-12 to Interstate 10. We arrived at the Ocean Pond Campground in the Osceola National Forest at 6:10 p.m. (Central Time). This campground is located about 17 miles east of Lake City on US-90, north of the town of Olustee. We had stayed in this campground in January and March of 2012. It was nice to be back again.

There are 13 campsites with electric and water hookups. They are all First-Come-First-Serve campsites. We lucked out on this visit, there were three campsites left. We selected site #11 (the same site we had in March 2012) and settled in for a well-deserved evening of rest. The temperature is forecast to be 36 degrees tonight. It will be nice to have the electric hookup so we can run our electric heater.

Camping Fee: $18.00 per day ($12.00 with Golden Age Pass)

Total miles traveled today: 272

Tomorrow another adventure begins.