Ooooooh!

[Cedars]

Well, we're on the road for the spring shakedown. Iowa to Key West, and now in Titusville, Fl, at a great county park..... Manatee Hammock. Reasonable, clean, nice.
Not like Sugar Loaf KOA, for sure! I hope none of you have the misfortune to use that place! Eight five bucks a night to be stacked in like cordwood! I bet our spot was less than 20 foot wide, and at best, maybe 42 foot long! For an exorbitant fee.
"Nuff 'bout that.
I need to try and get a picture tomorrow of a rig parked behind us.... a 34 foot excella 1000, towed by, get this, an Airstream conversion van! Painted the same colors, natch! Talk about overkill..... vbg!

Elizabeth in Iowa

[wheel interested]

Hope you get that picture. I agree with you about the parks that pack you in. I left Fort Meyers KOA for that reason, UGH!! Keep us posted. It's nice hearing first hand where to go and where not to go especially when the area is unfamiliar.

Originally Posted by Cedars

Well, we're on the road for the spring shakedown. Iowa to Key West, and now in Titusville, Fl, at a great county park..... Manatee Hammock. Reasonable, clean, nice.
Not like Sugar Loaf KOA, for sure! I hope none of you have the misfortune to use that place! Eight five bucks a night to be stacked in like cordwood! I bet our spot was less than 20 foot wide, and at best, maybe 42 foot long! For an exorbitant fee.
"Nuff 'bout that.
I need to try and get a picture tomorrow of a rig parked behind us.... a 34 foot excella 1000, towed by, get this, an Airstream conversion van! Painted the same colors, natch! Talk about overkill..... vbg!

Elizabeth in Iowa

[sovereignrwe]

Any chance we can get information on the route and overnights. Kimber and I would love to make that trip someday.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

Hope you get that picture. I agree with you about the parks that pack you in. I left Fort Meyers KOA for that reason, UGH!! Keep us posted. It's nice hearing first hand where to go and where not to go especially when the area is unfamiliar.

Carol, the next time you are aound here, PM me, and I will tell you where the really nice Federal campgrounds are nearby. I think the most we ever paid was $16.50/night,, with water, 50 amp electric, etc. Oh, and fully paved pads, too.
Terry

[wheel interested]

Will do. Thanks.

Originally Posted by argosy20

Carol, the next time you are aound here, PM me, and I will tell you where the really nice Federal campgrounds are nearby. I think the most we ever paid was $16.50/night,, with water, 50 amp electric, etc. Oh, and fully paved pads, too.
Terry

[DavidsonOverlander]

Originally Posted by Cedars

Well, we're on the road for the spring shakedown. Iowa to Key West, and now in Titusville, Fl, at a great county park..... Manatee Hammock. Reasonable, clean, nice.

Elizabeth in Iowa

I'll second that. We spent 3 nights at Manatee Hammock in December. The sites were a little smaller and closer than the Florida State parks, but still a very nice park.
If you're staying in Florida State parks something to keep in mind for your first night is that they lock the gates at dusk. We spent our first night in Florida at Walmart in St. Augustine because we arrived in the evening and the parks we went to were all locked up. If you have a reservation you can call ahead if you're going to be late and they'll give you the combination for the lock.

Grant

[Sav'h Steve]

Originally Posted by Cedars

Well, we're on the road for the spring shakedown. Iowa to Key West, and now in Titusville, Fl, ...
I need to try and get a picture tomorrow of a rig parked behind us.... a 34 foot excella 1000, towed by, get this, an Airstream conversion van! Painted the same colors, natch! Talk about overkill..... vbg!
Elizabeth in Iowa

Cedars,
That couple lives a few blocks from us in Savannah, GA.. Unless, of course there are TWO of those setups.

Steve

[uwe]

This is all very good information. You all should post this in the "campgrounds" section of the forum. You will have to post the basic unbiased facts of the campground first, and then go back in and write your own review of it. Might help the next traveller avoid the bad ones, or pick the nice ones.

[Anon]

I am a member of a Yahoo! group that is nothing BUT campground reviews.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/...ndonlinervclub
You can post where you are going and lots of times people will tell you the best places to stay.
Try it out. I like it.

[Cedars]

As promised, the pictures of the Airstream Overkill Outfit! LOL!! I'm not being mean, maybe a little jealous!

Elizabeth in Iowa

[rluhr]

I'll have to write up something about the place we stayed last night. Red Coconut RV Resort in Ft Myers Beach, FL. It's another "stacked like cordwood" place with absolutely no charm other than the fact that it is directly on the beach. And the Ft Myers Beach traffic has no comparison. 45-60 minutes just to get on the island, then 20-60 minutes to get off. For full hookups across the street from the beach, $52 ... but oh, the beach ! Beautiful ...

[Safari Streamer]

We hope to travel from Charleston, SC to Key West in mid-May. What are the reccommended campgrounds on the Keys. I hear there are some nice ones. How about military campgrounds?

[AYRSTRM2]

I heartily recommend, as a campground in the keys, Long Key state park:

Long Key State park

I have stayed there and all of the sites are on the beach. It's a little close to the hiway, but I don't think you can beat the campsites. Last time I drove by around Christmas, there was a 60's era Sovereign or Ambassador in one of the sites, too. This park is a nice park and is very close to Marathon and restaurants. Let us know if you stay and how it was.

John

[hotLAVA]

My hubby and I spent 2 nights at the Sugarloaf Key KOA 10 years ago before we were married. We were very young. We had budgeted $1,000 total for a 10 day road trip for two. We had a Dodge Colt packed with a cooler, our tent, and a couple of sleeping bags. We ended up at that KOA which, I recall, threw us way over our $100/day budget. Daytona bike week was in the near future and the place was packed with bikers and the tents were canvas to canvas. We grocery shopped in Key West and bought $80 in groceries for about 2 meals......

Despite the outrageous price tag, the cramped camping spaces, sharing our campfire with our new biker friends (and our beer!), and the raccoons that invaded our cooler, I remember it was a clean campground with a little beach that we enjoyed. The weather was so sunny and warm. We snorkeled, had a frozen drink in their bar, and washed the sand and salt from our bodies in very clean showers. It was one of the best camping experiences I can recall. Chalk it up to young love? OR - maybe- the double shots of tequilla we purchased at the little restaurant right across the road? Who knows. I hope to go back again some day in our Minuet. Thanks for jogging that memory.

[ALANSD]

I also recommend Manatee Springs SP on the west coast of Fla, its a pretty spot for a few days off the road.

[wheel interested]

That sounds loverly. Any one camp on the beaches in off season, May to October? Do the places really open up and give you a little extra elbow room? Is the weather prohibitive off season? When would an ideal time be to stay, barring that it's not part of the exodus to avoid cold and snow in the Northern states?

Reminds me of our racoon story from our leaner days. We purchased our first fold-down camper and took it to the nearest state park for a practice run. While we were yet unloading a very aggressive racoon ran up and grabbed our toilet paper and made off with it towards the bushes. I can still see my husband with arm extended as far as he could possibly stretch trying to retrieve the 4-pack by the corner while the racoon tugged on the other end, saying in a very stern voice,"bad racoon." He told me, "hey, that tp was expensive.!"

Originally Posted by HOT LAVA

My hubby and I spent 2 nights at the Sugarloaf Key KOA 10 years ago before we were married. We were very young. We had budgeted $1,000 total for a 10 day road trip for two. We had a Dodge Colt packed with a cooler, our tent, and a couple of sleeping bags. We ended up at that KOA which, I recall, threw us way over our $100/day budget. Daytona bike week was in the near future and the place was packed with bikers and the tents were canvas to canvas. We grocery shopped in Key West and bought $80 in groceries for about 2 meals......

Despite the outrageous price tag, the cramped camping spaces, sharing our campfire with our new biker friends (and our beer!), and the raccoons that invaded our cooler, I remember it was a clean campground with a little beach that we enjoyed. The weather was so sunny and warm. We snorkeled, had a frozen drink in their bar, and washed the sand and salt from our bodies in very clean showers. It was one of the best camping experiences I can recall. Chalk it up to young love? OR - maybe- the double shots of tequilla we purchased at the little restaurant right across the road? Who knows. I hope to go back again some day in our Minuet. Thanks for jogging that memory.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

That sounds loverly. Any one camp on the beaches in off season, May to October? Do the places really open up and give you a little extra elbow room? Is the weather prohibitive off season? When would an ideal time be to stay, barring that it's not part of the exodus to avoid coldand snow in the Northern states?

Carol, it does open up after April or May. In the Summer there is a sea breeze off the water that keeps things below the temp of molten lead, but make sure your awnings are retracted and secured before leaving the campsite for more than a half hour, it gets windy with those summer rains. They usually only last a few minutes, but they sneak up on you, and can dump a lot of water in a short time. We had six inches of rain here last Thursday...in about three hours.

[driftwood]

The Summer is Great, in the Keys!

Most of the out-of-state tourists are gone, road travel is much easier.

There is a mini-lobster (sport)season that hits before the commercial harvesters are allowed,that is crazy fun. And the season for taking them goes on thru the summer.

See: http://fishfloridakeys.com/lobster.htm for the dates. Camping spots are most likely already taken for that week but you can check.

Most of the RV parks in the keys are insanely expensive. You might try:
http://www.floridastateparks.org/bah...Activities.cfm

You can go through www.reserveamerica.com

Here the price is $25 - $30 + tax

The primary site for Florida is: http://www.floridastateparks.org/CampCabinLodge.cfm

Lots of lobster that you can find swimming from shore & an inexpensive short term license can be had at any sports store.

Key West is crazy ... any time of year. If you have never been there, it might be good for a day trip or even on overnight at a small B&B.

Enjoy ...