Weeks ago, while in Utah, discussion regarding the final month of the trip began. Call it a bucket list for our bucket list. At one point, my husband asked where I wanted to be on our wedding anniversary in October. Tired of slathering on moisturizer and gasping for air due to lack of oxygen, my flippant answer was, “Florida.”

To those who would call driving from Utah to Indiana by way of Florida crazy, I say, “have you read the rest of this blog?” We ran the numbers and learned that the Florida panhandle was a reasonable-sounding 30 hour drive from Cheyenne, WY, our last scheduled Western stop. The weather also looked promising. Freezing mountain mornings and the looming scepter of a midwestern winter made 80 and sunny sound like a stellar idea. We agreed on a plan to head back to site number 22 at Grayton Beach State Park, where we’d had a memorable stay in January.

Thrilled with this new plan, and full of anticipation for the next adventure, I went online that very night to make reservations. Site 22 was not available. In fact, nothing was available. Not one site. I was incredulous but philosophical. We’d find someplace equally wonderful to spend our anniversary. No prob.

The next morning, we started talking about alternate plans. But I am nothing if not thorough, so I gave Grayton Beach one last search before moving on. And, believe it or not, one site had opened up over night: number 22.

That seemed like a pretty solid sign, so I booked it. For weeks, I told myself that we were definitely NOT driving all the way to Florida, it was just a whim, or possible contingency plan that I could easily cancel with minimal penalty. But now that we’re here, in Florida, it seems like a stroke of genius. I’m only sorry that we left the surfboard and SUP at home.

Explore: Located south of the touristed areas of Branson and Table Rock Lake is one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the lower 48. The Buffalo National River offers several small campgrounds along 135 miles of scenic waterway. We were one of perhaps a dozen campers at the riverside Tyler Bend campground, which had the distinction of being our first national park campground offering free hot showers. Woot.