Florida Cavern State Park - Marianna FL

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Gainesville FL – Marianna FL

Stay-N-Go Campground



Days 14 – 15



Leaving Gainesville, we are heading to Marianna FL to explore the Florida Cavern State Park. We tried to get a camp site in the state park, but the website said there was not any available. We later found out the website does not work, and we should have called. Our second choice was the Stay-N-Go camp site. Stay-N-Go is really a great concept for quick stops. It is a bare bones campground, with full hook ups, and wifi but no other amenities. It is only for self-contained campers. There are no bathrooms or staff on site. The sites are well spaced out, and a concrete pad for the RV, but no fire pit or picnic table. It is good for a night or two, and at $45 per night the price is right.

Today’s trip did not start so well. Angel went to move the Jeep in preparation of pulling the RV’s out of Steve’s driveway, she turned the key, and got the dreaded click, click click. When Mark & I were out the day before It did take a couple of tries to get it started, but it did not seem like the battery was dying. Mark was able to jump the Jeep with his RV. (Note to self, add jumper cables or jump box to Jeep) Since we were towing the Jeep, it was easy to get it to a Walmart to get a new battery. It is nice having your own tow truck!!! Unfortunately this is not our last Jeep issue, more on this later.



Other than the battery breaking down and getting out of the driveway went very smoothly. Mark had a second set of “Marriage Savers” radio headsets that we borrowed (We left ours on the boat), making backing out much easier. The RV has both side view and rear view cameras but you still need guidance backing into and out of tight curving spots.



The ride to Marianna was very easy other than a couple of turns to get to the interstate the entire trip was on two interstates (I75 and I10). The Stay-N-Go campground was less than ½ mile from the interstate. To make it even better it was directly across from a Walmart, where we stopped to get a new battery for the Jeep.



Sunday we started our day going to Waffle House for breakfast. How can you travel without stopping at a Waffle House at least once.



After Waffle House we headed to Florida Cavern State Park. The first thing we did was to drive through the campground. (There were several empty sites, lesson learned always call) Florida Cavern State Park, is the only state park in Florida that you can tour caves. The park was built and the caves passages ways were enlarged in the 1930’s by the Civil Conversation Corps. The passage ways were enlarged so that tourist could walk through the caves. It was an awesome experience. It was amazing to see how the cave was formed, and the formations in the cave. In one of the rooms in the caverns our tour guide turned out all of the lights. Even with your hand touching your nose, you could not see it. There was absolutley no light. The other amazing part was to see the work that was done to make the cave accessible. The work was done by hand and the workers were paid one dollar a day, and most of that money was sent home to support their families.



After touring the caves we decided to head to the Marianna Civil War Memorial Park, sadly our Jeep had other plans for us. Pulling out of the parking spot, I realized I had no power steering. Checking under the hood, we found the serpentine belt had broken. Earlier in the trip the AC compressor had failed and we knew we were running on borrowed time, the AC compressor caused the belt to break.



Mark and I were going to take an Uber to the closest auto parts store to get a new belt to get us back to the RV’s. A fellow RVer who had seen us in the Walmart the day before, and also was on the cave tour with us, offered to take me to the auto parts store. I could not thank him enough. Mark and I were able to replace the belt allowing us to get the Jeep back to the RV. We have an appointment with an auto mechanic when we get to Nick & Ginger’s house on Wednesday. The mechanic assured us he would have the Jeep repaired in one or two days.



We ended our stay in Marianna cooking burgers on the grill. So far we are doing much better eating at the RV then we did on the boat while we were doing the Loop.



Our next stop is Perdido Key where we will catch up with fellow loopers Jim & Norma (Dorothy Gale). We will only be there for one day before continuing on towards Dutton AL.

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