Ahhhh…. Florida warmth. We zipped down I-95 yesterday and made superb time, arriving in St. Augustine early enough to buy a few necessary supplies at Camping World before arriving at the state park.

Florida greeted us the best way possible: with a warm front. In South Carolina and even half of Georgia, it was running about 66 degrees outside. But the frontal boundary was draped along Florida’s border, so as soon as we arrived the temperature became a balmy 80 degrees and the skies were clear blue. As Emma first stepped out of the car she inhaled deeply and said, “It smells like Florida!” And it felt like summer all over again.

Off with the blue jeans and on with the shorts! Tuck the shoes into the cubby and break out the sandals! Hide that fleece! We’re in Florida now! Let the weekend commence!

But first that stop at Camping World. Maybe you’re wondering what we bought. I bought a new sewer hose with a new fitting. The old one was beginning to leak a tiny bit at the fitting and my philosophy of sewer hoses is that you don’t mess around with marginal ones. Not worth it. I also bought another roll-up white water hose, 50 feet in length, because we’ve been courtesy parking so much lately. We’ve found that 35 feet of hose is not nearly enough to reach most people’s hose outlets.

We also got a new in-line water filter for the hose, since we accidentally left the last one in Jackson Center last August at the Terra Port. And, we shopped for a new shower head but didn’t find what we wanted. Our current shower head is plugging up due to hard water deposits in the jets and we have not been able to get it cleaned out despite several attempts.

Anastasia State Park is a really nice spot right along St Augustine Beach. The sand is white and the beach is broad and beautiful. (We were last here with our Argosy in March 2005.) The campsites are nicely secluded in among oak, palmetto, and mangrove, and very shady. No solar power here, but every state park in Florida has water and 30-amp electric at a minimum.

We were warned that the park was likely to be full this weekend. After all, this is peak camping season in Florida. But still we didn’t bother calling ahead for a reservation. There are multiple commercial campgrounds along Rt A1A that would have been suitable, and we’re happy to wing it. Sure enough, when we pulled in there was a prominent sign saying “CAMPGROUND IS FULL”.

We’ve learned not to take those signs entirely seriously. A big smile for the park ranger will often open up a site that was “taken”. This time, there had been a cancellation only a few minutes before we arrived, so we got that. Our record in this regard is just about perfect — I can’t recall a time we’ve been turned away from a full campground.