We visited Charleston on our way south into Florida.  It was a beautiful city.  We parked the van in an overnight public parking spot and walked around the downtown area.  It was pricy parking spot at $30, but it is still cheaper than most camping sites, hotel rooms, and police station visits.

Most of you know that Nic and I like to go out and have a good time.  With trying to get into shape we came up with a new regimen that cut beer out of our diet.  Mostly that is.  We allow ourselves a night of drinking every other Saturday.  Our visit to Charleston landed on that.  Since we had permission from ourselves to party and a safe place to sleep, we walked around Charleston and bar hopped.

We checkout out the bay and saw the sites.  We didn’t take a carriage ride which seemed to be the big tourist thing to do in Charleston.  The carriages were so prevalent that the parking lot we were parked at reeked of horse piss until they hosed it down at the end of the day.

No trip for Nic and I would be complete it seems without a stupid sign.  You couldn’t drown in this fountain if you were face down and someone was pushing your head down.

We rounded out the evening at a fancy restaurant.  We weren’t looking for an upscale restaurant, but pretty much everything in downtown Charleston was.  It had been a while for us so we decided to treat ourselves.  The place we went to was so fancy that they even had their own cookbook.

Yeah, the restaurant was actually named S.N.O.B. or Slightly North Of Broad.  The food was awesome and well worth busting the budget a little bit.

It seems Nic and I are finally slowing down a bit in our older age.  We were in bed by 10 and on the road the next day by 7.  Next stop, Osceola National Forest.

We’ve been here for about a week now and really enjoying it.  The campsite is posh for a free one.  We have running water, a flush toilet, garbage pickup, and even an outdoor shower.  The shower is interesting, but we shower at the gym.  The campsite location is another win.  It is only about 25 minutes to the gym and Lake City, FL.  Lake City is big enough that you can get anything you want there.

It also is really quiet here most of the time.  Not on Thanksgiving weekend though.  The campsite filled up with people who brought in SUV’s to ride on the many surrounding off-roading trails.  They (and a bunch of other campers) were up late playing loud music, drinking beer, and shooting of both guns and fireworks.   They kept Nic up late, but I’m had no problem sleeping through everything.  The holiday weekend crowd trashed the place, but the forest service was out promptly and cleaned up the area.  It is back to peace and quiet now.

It looks like we are going to be here for a while.  The location, weather, and amenities are better than we would find anywhere else.  The usual limit for this campsite is 14 days in any given 30 day period.  This time of year it is unlimited days until Jan 6th.  The unlimited time is for hunters, but there aren’t really any of those around.  Until further notice, Osceola National Forest is home-sweet-home.