Sherman134
Observer
Part One:
After searching for a little over a month for a campsite at a state park in Florida we finally found a site available for two nights at Anastasia State park. My family had become accustomed to camping in a pop up, sadly, our pop up has been sitting for quite a while and is in need of some repairs before it can be used. We decided to get the tent out of the attic and try tent camping. After becoming accustomed to the luxury of a pop-up, this would be the most rustic camping most of my family has done in a while. I have been camping in a tent twice with my friends, once with electricity and water, and once without (on an island).
This trip was more of a gear check before heading off exploring into places where deficiencies in a setup are much larger problem than at a state park. I loaded up my 1995 2 door Jeep Cherokee with food and supplies for five people for two days. I reasoned that if I could transport this much gear for this many people, I should be more than capable of carrying gear for two people on a multi-day trip.
Id say its full...
Anyway back to the trip,
The trip down to the park composed three vehicles, my little brothers freind and his father in their Chevrolet Silverado Z71, followed by my mother and my little brother in my fathers 2003 Nissan Frontier, with me and my freind in my Jeep Cherokee bringing up the rear. The ride down took us along A1A providing a beautiful view of the beach the whole way. Sadly fog soon moved in, changing our beautiful view into this:
The driving conditions changed an hour and a half long drive into nearly a two hour venture through stop and go traffic.
We finally arrived at the sate park and stopped to check in
While checking in a blue Land Rover Discovery TDI drove past. It had a large black roof rack and seemed to have its bumpers removed or replaced with lower profile aftermarket versions. I shouted out "NICE LAND ROVER" however I doubt he heard me as he clattered off into the campground. I drove past almost every campsite in the park for him, but he was nowhere to be found... so if your rig matches the description above, you sir, have an awesome rig.
While the other two vehicles headed towards the campsite my friend and I went to try and purchase some fire wood which we had left at home
The Camp store was closed so we headed back to camp and got setup.
The scenery in and around the park was beautiful. A small bay was separated from the ocean by mounds of untouched sand dunes, while palm trees live oaks, cedar and cypress trees hung over the road.The only downside was that the park was almost entirely paved. I tried searching for some dirt which would at least allow the use of four wheel drive, however, this park caters more to RVs than four wheel drive vehicles so my search was unsuccessful.
on the hunt for a dirt road
As night fell my mother left to try to see if there was any firewood for sale at the gas station up the road. meanwhile we searched the woods for downed branches and were able to get a small fire going. My mother returned with two duraflame logs which we opted not to use.
Our small fire
Once my mother returned my brother set to cooking frozen hamburgers on a mini propane grill we brought along. We had planned to cook over the fire, sadly after testing it out with two hot dogs, it was simply not hot enough to cook our food.
While cooking the hamburgers, flare ups were quite common
Looks more like a hibachi than a grill
We settled down around the fire while we ate while discussing our plans for the next day. My friend and I wanted to explore the park a bit while my brother and his friend planned to fish from their kayaks. Though the park was on the beach, we were definitely not camping in anything close to "beach weather".
After eating we bedded down for the night...
After searching for a little over a month for a campsite at a state park in Florida we finally found a site available for two nights at Anastasia State park. My family had become accustomed to camping in a pop up, sadly, our pop up has been sitting for quite a while and is in need of some repairs before it can be used. We decided to get the tent out of the attic and try tent camping. After becoming accustomed to the luxury of a pop-up, this would be the most rustic camping most of my family has done in a while. I have been camping in a tent twice with my friends, once with electricity and water, and once without (on an island).
This trip was more of a gear check before heading off exploring into places where deficiencies in a setup are much larger problem than at a state park. I loaded up my 1995 2 door Jeep Cherokee with food and supplies for five people for two days. I reasoned that if I could transport this much gear for this many people, I should be more than capable of carrying gear for two people on a multi-day trip.
Id say its full...
Anyway back to the trip,
The trip down to the park composed three vehicles, my little brothers freind and his father in their Chevrolet Silverado Z71, followed by my mother and my little brother in my fathers 2003 Nissan Frontier, with me and my freind in my Jeep Cherokee bringing up the rear. The ride down took us along A1A providing a beautiful view of the beach the whole way. Sadly fog soon moved in, changing our beautiful view into this:
The driving conditions changed an hour and a half long drive into nearly a two hour venture through stop and go traffic.
We finally arrived at the sate park and stopped to check in
While checking in a blue Land Rover Discovery TDI drove past. It had a large black roof rack and seemed to have its bumpers removed or replaced with lower profile aftermarket versions. I shouted out "NICE LAND ROVER" however I doubt he heard me as he clattered off into the campground. I drove past almost every campsite in the park for him, but he was nowhere to be found... so if your rig matches the description above, you sir, have an awesome rig.
While the other two vehicles headed towards the campsite my friend and I went to try and purchase some fire wood which we had left at home
The Camp store was closed so we headed back to camp and got setup.
The scenery in and around the park was beautiful. A small bay was separated from the ocean by mounds of untouched sand dunes, while palm trees live oaks, cedar and cypress trees hung over the road.The only downside was that the park was almost entirely paved. I tried searching for some dirt which would at least allow the use of four wheel drive, however, this park caters more to RVs than four wheel drive vehicles so my search was unsuccessful.
on the hunt for a dirt road
As night fell my mother left to try to see if there was any firewood for sale at the gas station up the road. meanwhile we searched the woods for downed branches and were able to get a small fire going. My mother returned with two duraflame logs which we opted not to use.
Our small fire
Once my mother returned my brother set to cooking frozen hamburgers on a mini propane grill we brought along. We had planned to cook over the fire, sadly after testing it out with two hot dogs, it was simply not hot enough to cook our food.
While cooking the hamburgers, flare ups were quite common
Looks more like a hibachi than a grill
We settled down around the fire while we ate while discussing our plans for the next day. My friend and I wanted to explore the park a bit while my brother and his friend planned to fish from their kayaks. Though the park was on the beach, we were definitely not camping in anything close to "beach weather".
After eating we bedded down for the night...
