Pure Paradise Lebanon station  

Our stay at Historic Lebanon Station was very different from the other places we had stayed. It was a very large piece of property, but it didn’t have many RV sites, and the sites that were there were fairly close together. Even though there wasn’t any security, we felt safe. The atmosphere felt a little like camping with an extended family or a biker community—everyone seemed friendly and comfortable around one another.

We were located close to the showers and laundry facilities, which was convenient. At night, it was incredibly dark, so dark that we ended up upgrading the headlights on our van. The darkness had its advantages, though. We had beautiful views of the night sky, with bright stars and an amazing view of the moon.

It was a long drive to get anywhere outside the park, but we eventually realized that if we stayed on that road long enough, it would take us to Caleb. We were able to have dinner with our son one evening, and he came to visit us several times. On our last night there, he even stayed over with us. We also got to go shopping with him in Crystal River, which wasn’t too far away.

While we were staying there, the weather started to warm up, and we also experienced another invasion from nature—this time, ants. We’ve learned that when we’re not parked on concrete, we’re likely to be invaded by one insect or another. At one campground in Georgia, all of our belongings ended up covered in spiderwebs from some very large spiders. At Lebanon Station, it was ants that seemed determined to move in with us.

Despite the ants, we really enjoyed our stay there. It was easy to get to nearby attractions, and there was a state park right next door. The area was heavily forested and beautiful, and we spent a lot of time enjoying the natural surroundings. It was a peaceful place, and one of the highlights of our stay was being able to spend time with Caleb while enjoying the quiet beauty of the forest.