Holiday Campground - Ochlockonee, Bay FL

Holiday Campground - Ochlockonee Bay, FL 

We are taking our time traveling the Florida Coastline- this is our second stop after Gulf Shores (technically in Alabama, but on the state line).  We are slowly learning how to slow down and smell the proverbial roses.  We decided Tuesdays will be our travel day.  We picked Tuesday as a travel day because its a day with the least amount of other people traveling. The days of the week are pretty irrelevant to us- we try to do the opposite of what people on vacation typically do. When the masses are on the beach, eating out, or shopping on the weekends, we try to steer clear of tourist attractions. We can make a mid week day be our Saturday.  We are still determined to keep our travel limited to a 5-6 hours maximum- which equates to 250-300 miles at a time.  Keeping it under 300 miles is very important to us. This not only makes the travel much easier, it also helps control costs. By traveling this way, we are able see and do more in more places with less travel costs. Another huge benefit of staying each place a week, you get a big price cut for a full week (often one day is free). We also feel less rushed to see and do everything in a few days. It is much more enjoyable to take our time and spend as long or as little time at a place as we want. It was wearing me out being in tourist mode, so rushed, busy and in perpetual go mode. I had COVID for over 6 weeks and it kicked my booty. Mark was only mildly sick for a few days. We started slowing things down after the COVID ordeal.

When we first started our adventure, we said it was more about the journey than the destination. This has proven to be more true than we ever imagined. Many of our best stays have been in little places we had never heard of before that are not typical tourist traps. We are not fond of the resort campgrounds- they tend to be cramped, crowded, treeless concrete parking lots and are always incredibly expensive. Our favorite campgrounds are COE property or state parks. We have even stayed in a few city parks. The campgrounds are radically different from the resort style. We can stay in COE campgrounds for over a week significantly cheaper than one day in the resort parks. The place we stayed in Key West cost more for one week than a month in the very best COE property. The other differences are even better than the cost savings- they are typically water front and the sites are exponentially larger with shade trees. We have stayed in several "nice/upscale resort campgrounds" but none of them are even in the same league as our worst COE park. We are always surprised at the number of people who know nothing about COE parks. We wish there were more COE parks in more areas. I definitely would love to stay in them exclusively every stop if we could. We cannot stay in the majority of national parks- our rig is literally too big and we do not fit. We no longer even look at campgrounds inside the national parks.

The Gulf fritillary, or passion butterfly, is a bright orange butterfly. They are referred to as "longwing butterflies", because they have long, narrow wings compared to other butterflies.

The Gulf Fritillary is most commonly found in the southern areas of the United States, specifically in many regions of Florida and Texas. We saw hundreds of them at that park. We are getting to be very good detectives curtesy of Google.

The St. Marks Light is the second-oldest light station in Florida. It is located on the east side of the mouth of the St. Marks River, on Apalachee Bay.

In the 1820s, the town of St. Marks, Florida was considered an important port of entry. The town served as a port for the prosperous planting region of Middle Florida and some counties of South Georgia. Growers hauled their agricultural products down to the port town in wagons by way of an early road which connected the former territorial capital of Tallahassee to the town of St. Marks. Later, this road would be widened and improved upon by the Tallahassee Railroad Company and would become the state's first railroad. The route was so critical, they named the road Tamiami (short for Tallahassee to Miami). That road is still a main thoroughfare through town. 

Once the agricultural products reached the new port town, they were loaded aboard boats for shipment to New Orleans and/or St. Augustine. However, there were problems in navigating both the Apalachee Bay and the St. Marks River. In many places both bay and river were shallow, and it was not uncommon for boats to run aground and/or get mired in the muddy shallows.

In May 1828, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act which authorized the construction of a lighthouse at St. Marks and appropriated $6,000 for its construction.

After a survey was completed of the St. Marks area by Robert Mitchell, the Collector of Customs at Pensacola, and a site chosen for the lighthouse, it was discovered that the initial construction sum of $6,000 would be insufficient. The appropriation was increased to $14,000.

Calvin Knowlton was brought in to build the tower. He oversaw its completion in 1831. That same year, the tower's whale-oil lamps were lit for the first time by Samuel Crosby, who had been appointed the first Keeper of the St. Marks Lighthouse the previous year.

The lighthouse was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1960, and in 2000 the Coast Guard spent $150,000 to stabilize the lighthouse. In 2000, the lighthouse's fourth-order Fresnel lens was deactivated and a modern solar-powered beacon was placed outside the lantern room. The historic Fresnel lens remained in place in the tower for over a decade. In July 2005, Hurricane Dennis broke a window of the lantern and flooded the inside of the tower.

In October 2013, the Coast Guard deactivated transferred ownership of the lighthouse to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. In October  2019, a replica of the original fourth-order Fresnel lens was lit in the tower. The light is now maintained as a private aid to navigation and is lit seasonally.

You have seen a lot of lighthouses when you can identify the type of Fresnel lens by sight in the various lighthouses.

We had such an amazing view from our campsite which backed up to the bay. We love sitting outside, drinking coffee, listening to the waves and fish splashing around, while watching the yachts come in and out of the locks on the dam. This morning "coffee break" ritual has become our favorite way to start our day.  There was an incredible number of fish jumping out of the water. I squeezed in some great rock polishing time while watching the fish and the boats and rocking in my rocking chair. Anyone who has known me more than 5 minutes would never have predicted me happy as a clam, sitting in a rocker and grinding rocks with rock dust head to toe. I find the tranquility of the water to be the world's greatest Prozac. It relaxes me and gives me a sense of peace and calm that I cannot adequately express in words.