I had plans for today.

In fact, most of my actions of the past two weeks have revolved around my plans for the next few days. Instead of drifting north in Maine, I rushed south, making only quick visits to relatives before hurrying back to Florida. I was scheduled to help my friend Lynda with her table at the Orlando Indie Bookfest. We should be getting pedicures together today and then dressing up for the author dinner. I was even going to wear the only pair of high heels I’ve ever loved, which are currently living in my storage unit. And she had fun stuff planned for the event — feather boas were involved.

Alas, it is not to be. Hurricane Matthew is going to bash the east coast of Florida in less than 24 hours, hopefully not as hard as they’re predicting at the moment, but definitely hard enough that people living in camper vans need to run for safer ground.

I had a brief conversation with my dad on Tuesday about possible places in central Florida that might be safe for the van and if it was just me and Serenity, I might have taken my chances. Maybe. If you can move your home out of the way of a hurricane, it really is probably a good idea to do so. But it’s not just me and Serenity — Z and B need safety, too. That made it an easy decision, so yesterday morning I headed north and west.

When I was pretty sure I was out of the cone of the hurricane’s potential path, I found myself a campground, the Suwannee River State Park. It’s typical northern Florida forest, lots of scrub pines and spiky palmettos, on sandy ground covered with pine needles and leaves. Z and I had a good hike this morning, passing by the old sawmill equipment, wandering along the river until we saw the springs gushing into the river. It was like a mini waterfall, it was so profuse, but you can only see the springs when the river is low. When it’s high, they turn into a bubble in the water and when it’s really high, the river water starts flowing into the spring instead. I think I’m mostly out of range of the hurricane, but it’s predicted to rain for the next couple days, so it’ll be interesting to see how the river changes, if it does.

I didn’t expect to be here, I didn’t plan to be here, but this is one of the most pleasant campgrounds I’ve visited. Lovely, restful, with spacious sites and a serene peacefulness.

R would tell me that it’s not irony that my unexpected destination is delightful, it’s just a nice coincidence, but I’m not so sure.