#255a Don't ask don't tell dumping.

On the way to our next stop, we rode by but didn’t stay the night at Highlands Hammock State Park.

It was 11 months from next winter so it was okay to make reservations for next year. We saw Highland Hammocks was available and put ourselves in for 14 days there unseen. We wanted to ride by to make sure it was a good choice for 2 weeks. It was near Sebring

When we were at Wauchula, we would drive all the way to Sebring to go to meetings and larger box stores we knew what Sebring was a large lake community.

Highland hammocks were about 15 to 20 minutes away. As we got near we saw a lot of knee-high grassy fields. They had done a controlled burn so everywhere we looked it was blackened. I know burning is necessary just not particularly gorgeous.

We pulled up and ask the entrance park ranger if we might just take a quick look to see about camping next year.

They said okay and without asking permission I needed to dump our tanks. We did it in stealth fashion.

It was kind of a don't ask don't tell dumping. I remember pulling up to the dump area it was up kind of a hill just about the exact width of your rig. It felt like you were on a roller coaster so I kind of had to be careful, it was creepy.

We rode through the park and I can't say there was anything to clean negative about it except that there wasn't a ton of shade trees and folks were just crammed in there like sardines. There wasn't much vegetation between each rig and so no privacy to speak of. I had decided I didn't feel like this would be the right place for us. I canceled the reservation. I would have happily stayed here for a few days if you needed a place but for a 14-day wintering, it just didn’t feel right. I left the situation feeling good because this is exactly why were touring all these parks. Everything looks good online but it's such a pleasure to see it in person when making your decisions.

What's funny is a year later I was talking to someone at Hillsborough River and they said they loved Highland Hammocks. I guess I just didn't give it a chance but I didn't love it that much.