Free or Cheap (FOC) campsites are one of the four legs upon which our adventure is supported—the other three being:

The generosity of friends and relatives;
Looser standards for personal grooming; and
A willingness to embrace the whims of fate.

Either we've been very lucky or we've stumbled onto a secret that few people know, because to date, every one of our FOC campsites has been a stunner. It makes me wonder why they're not all taken. Seems like a no-brainer, right?

It was at one such site that we heard about the U.S. Forest Service's Ocean Pond Campground while comparing notes with a Canadian Roadtrek enthusiast. He couldn't say enough nice things about it, so we looked up Ocean Pond and put it on the schedule.

If at all possible, you want to time your arrival at a new FOC campground for daylight hours. This is for strategic as well as practical reasons. Poor or contradictory directions, hard-to-find road signs and no phone number are all hallmarks of the FOC genre. As if that weren't enough to weed out the weak, very few FOC campgrounds take reservations—so it's always wise to allow time for a plan b.

Despite an early start and the best intentions, we pulled into Ocean Pond just after 4 p.m. Fortunately plenty of sites were available—the camp host told us that during peak season, hopeful campers circle like sharks as they wait for spaces to open up. We eventually picked a waterfront beauty with sunset views. It set us back $6 for the night.

Stay: Located in the Osceola National Forest, not far from Lake City, Florida, Ocean Pond campground is an unqualified bargain offering 67 campsites (many waterfront, some with water and electric), plus amenities like a bath house, swimming area, outdoor shower, picnic pavilion and playground. Prices range from $8 to $18 per day. Holders of National Park passes receive 25% off.