Getting to Crescent City from Titusville was largely forgettable outside of a trip to every RVer’s favorite gas station – Buc-ee’s! Although Buc-ee’s is always a little crazy these days, it was especially busy this time, probably because it was Daytona 500 weekend, and the Speedway was less than five miles away. Even then, we were still able to find a pump that could accommodate the rig relatively easily. Seriously folks, if you haven’t been to Buc-ee’s by now, do yourself a favor and check one out, it’s an experience!
Speaking of the Daytona 500, we actually considered going to the race and camping out in the infield… for a hot second. That was before we remembered that we aren’t racing fans and realized that camping in the infield was a bit more than we were willing to bite off for our first NASCAR experience. We also realized that Sam probably wouldn’t be able to work too well with near constant races going on in the days leading up to the big race on Sunday.
Ultimately, we decided to go down the responsible (boring) path and stay at a normal RV park, the Cherry Blossom Campground, in Crescent City which is about 30 minutes inland from Daytona/Flagler Beach. We would’ve preferred to be a little closer to the beach, but as I’ve mentioned before, getting reservations near the water in the winter is damn near impossible without booking a year-plus in advance. Fortunately, this turned out to be a good campground and served us well for the two weeks that we were in the area as it nice and quite, cheap (by Florida standards), and came complete with a pool!
They also had some fun animals around the park – from the adjacent farm to the huge tortoises that called the RV park home.
The one downside of this park was the site situation. This turned out to be our third straight difficult back-in (clean it up, Florida), but even more strange/annoying was how unlevel the site was, which took all our blocks, and even then, we still had to push our jacks to the limit to get the camper level. Of all places, I never expected the flattest state in the union to have the country’s most unlevel site!
Although we normally move every weekend, it’s always nice to sprinkle in a longer stay here and there, and this stop was one of those occasions where we decided to stay for an extra week and have a nice travel-free weekend. The first activity of our full weekend was a trip to the nearby Walaka State Forest where we enjoyed a nice, easy little hike complete with hot springs (thumbnail), lakes, and wildlife.
The next day, we made our way over to the ocean via Flagler Beach – a fun, easy going little beach town that was the perfect level of “touristy” for our taste. Although the sand wasn’t nearly as pristine as the white sands of the gulf side, we thoroughly enjoyed our day at the beach and made our way back to the camper tanned and recharged!
Our last activity in the area was a casual e-bike ride through the nearby Blue Spring State Park. Sadly, we forgot to memorialize this outing with any photos. I know, I know “pics or it didn’t happen” but you’ll just have to take our word on this one!
Tune in next time when we begin our trip back West and recount our last (and strangest) stop in our Florida winter adventure!