Bill has driven our motor home just over 1,300 miles since we left Fredericksburg on January 4, 2017. In just one month, we’ve now stayed in six different RV parks in Florida: start) Sunny Pines, Jacksonville; B) Ross Prairie State Park, Dunnellon; C) Country Oaks RV Park, Zephyrhills; D) Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park, Micanopy (just south of Gainesville); E) Three Rivers State Park, Sneads; Current) Emerald Beach RV Park, Navarre.
We’re here from January 26-31, 2017 and continuing our journey to stay warm this winter and to discover new places! It’s easy sometimes just to return to the same old place, but we are trying to resist. Since we are returning to familiar areas to see friends and family, it’s been a bit of a challenge. We’ve really enjoyed our travels so far. But we feel we scored a touchdown at our next stop, Three Rivers State Park, Sneads, Florida. Everything went about as perfect as could be. We had a perfect travel day from Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, but one of our longer trips so far, at just over 200 miles and taking us 3 1/2 hours.
We needed to have our mail forwarded to us, so we picked this park to receive it. We always call first and ask for the proper mailing address and make sure it’s OK. We ended up calling the park about 3 or 4 times before we arrived for various reasons. WOW, every time it was so pleasant! Has anyone else noticed calling various places can be very frustrating – from it taking a few minutes or even tries for someone to answer the phone? Or the person is preoccupied? Every contact with this park, up to our arrival was met with great refreshment! It’s so pleasant to have a cheerful welcome and to offered maps and whatever other information we might need. We just never know what we are in for, but this sure set a tone for a fabulous time.
There were a number of signs leading us to the entrance of this park. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. It was rather dreary most of the time here, but still rather pleasant weather! Just didn’t make for very good pictures.
This park is very easy to access and once in the park, it’s an easy drive without many trees or obstructions. We always unhook the car, then I drive ahead, find our site and get ready to guide Bill in. Our spot was so perfect to back into, and we were greeted by the camp hosts who arrived to clean out the fire pit. The site was HUGE, so we were a bit fussy in parking it so we could easily get the satellite antennae to work. Some parks it is a given, we won’t have satellite TV or even local TV. Which is always OK, but we do like to stay up with the weather, and of an evening, a little TV helps us unwind after a vigorous day outside.
Very quaint. We never know what we are in for when we arrive. There isn’t much parking area for the staff. It was a bit tight pulling up to unhook our car. But they were so nonchalant about it, we didn’t stress much, thinking others would be soon pulling in behind us.
It was a mile from the Ranger Station to this brick wall entrance. Very impressive. It’s another mile to the campground…but then….
Your first impression as you pull into the campground. I wondered if this was actually the right place! It was.
Spacious sites! Camp host pulled into the empty site next to us to clean out our fire pit. Someone soon moved in here!
We practically disappeared into our site! I never took a picture of us after we opened the slides. But this was plenty spacious.
Hiking map. This time, we were sure we took the map with us. We ended up hiking on every trail and even the bike trails, contained on another map.
The weather was much cooler up here, so we bundled up. We also weren’t sure if we needed our polls, but took them since we hoped to get in a long hike. They help with your cadence and as it turned out, there were a few places where they provided stability.
We always know we are in for a treat when on a Great Florida Birding Trail. We talked to a number of “birders” but it didn’t seem any found all the species they hoped to see. But the trails were excellent.
Decisions, decisions. Before we left, we pretty much decided what route we wanted to take. But then you get to a cross roads and need to make a decision.
Educational poster on the trail. We hoped to see a variety of birds. Mainly saw cardinals and even a few blue birds.
Day one, our arrival. Not a bad hike after our drive here. You can see the terrain is a bit hilly, which is always good in Florida if you want a good workout.
The only downside was that there was no sewer hook up. Thus, we limited our stay as that was about our limit before we needed to empty our tanks. We hiked around 30 miles while here and loved every step of the way. The rest of our pictures are really pretty unremarkable. One trail is called the Eagle Trail, but we never saw her or her chicks. We did find her nest and others we fortunate to spot her.
On Sunday, we attended First Baptist Church of Sneads. Again, we never know what we are in for, but small “country” church can be a bit intimidating. We like to just “blend” in and sometimes the smaller churches make too big of a deal about “newcomers.” Not this one. We were so happy we decided to stay in this small town as this was one of the warmest and friendliest churches we have experienced. The sermon was wonderful and the worship unforgettable. While we want to keep visiting new places, this is a place we will want a return visit!
From the Town of Sneads website:
Nestled in the Florida Panhandle and located on the southwest shore of Lake Seminole, Sneads has the perfect small town charm. It may be small in size (approx. 4 1/2 square miles), but Sneads has a great deal to offer. The locals have long understood and appreciated this rural area rich in outdoor recreation. Uniquely situated on the southern shore of Lake Seminole and near the Apalachicola River, Sneads offers unparalleled outdoor activities such as fresh water fishing,boating and hunting. Known mostly as an agrarian region, many farms and ponds dot the landscape among vast forests of tall pines and oaks. As the Easterly most town in Jackson County, Sneads, population 2000 (2002 data) finds itself neighbors to Grand Ridge to the west and Chattahoochee (Gadsden County) to the east just across the Apalachicola River. We are located 20 miles east of Marianna, 40 miles west of Tallahassee and about 70 miles north of Panama City.
While we would have loved to have stayed longer, but it was time to move on. Our next destination is to Navarre, Florida. My mom is now living near there with my oldest sister. I haven’t seen mom since August. She’s 93, still active and is just remarkable. Visit our public Facebook page to catch up with us and look for a picture of my beautiful mom! Next stop, Fort Pickens!
“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:2-3
Follow the Tumble Lees! 
Not only are you an inspiring author, you have an eye for capturing the moment in your photography!
Great post, as usual!
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Aw, you are so sweet and kind, Kat! We took all the pictures on day one then I quit carrying my iPhone so I could take more so I could concentrate on the aggressive hikes! We actually had some beautiful sunshine days! I just looked at the pictures for this blog post and was sad I didn’t have better pics to showcase this sweet park.
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That is a gorgeous state park! We used to live in Jacksonville before we started full-timing and our favorites were the state parks in Florida as well as Georgia. You picked a peach, because it is beautiful. Love the sites. Dawn
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Thanks for stopping by and commenting Dawn! We are loving these parks, too. We hope to see more in Georgia. The few places we’ve seen in Georgia are top notch, too.
I’ll check out your blog!
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Thank you. 🙂
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[…] to our next destination, Emerald Beach RV Park, Navarre, Florida from Three Rivers State Park (post about it is here). We stayed here for 8 days. This was the perfect place for us to have our mattress shipped, as […]
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