Ginnie Springs

North Florida- September

'We wake up early on Saturday and take the old camper van 200 miles North to Ginnie Springs.

We have a lot of happy memories of camping and swimming and partying this place over the years. The Santa Fe river is edged with beautiful clear springs that pump out 20-30 million gallons a day of clear water...visibility hundreds of feet..

It's full of college kids...they hoot and holler and play loud music until 3 AM and later...We find an isolated camping spot and watch the skies as darkness falls...Mars and Saturn are up...the skies cloud over and we amuse ourselves with a smart phone app that shows us the invisible stars.

All the college  kids have tubes and floats...Mrs. Phred and I are the only one actually swimming in the river to the get out point...it's a little cold...but we love it...

I forgot my C-card so I don't dive the caves or caverns...I do have all my SCUBA gear...but I really came up to just float...in the caves, they don't like you to have flashlights unless you are cave certified...I'm a Dive master, but I've never cared for the underwater cave concept...three lights...a safety line to follow in and out...go in with 3,000 PSI...start out at 2,000 PSI..yada..yada..what's the point? You came out and you didn't die? Duh!

The water is really high because of all the summer rain...many of the campsites are underwater.

I cook salmon and warm up cans of spinach and  beans on the charcoal grill...we sleep in the van..

The Santa Fe disappears underground for three miles...this area is relatively unspoiled It's Old Florida at it's best. If you read Trip Advisor you get some really bad reviews by people who show up on the weekend and get pounded by obscene music all night long by drunken college kids...the trick is to pick a remote campground away from the river and watch the stars and wild turkeys.