StatCounter

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Winging it . . . somewhat



Ah, the joys of on-line camping reservations. Some people plan their camping reservations a year in advance. My lovely wife and I pretty much just plan on having a landing zone when we get to the right area. From there we figure it out as we go.

On the plus side, we are open to new adventures as they present themselves. We also have the flexibility to adjust to changing conditions. For example, right now Southwest Florida is experiencing some issues with red tide. It’s a good thing we don’t have any reservations in that area. With my respiratory issues, the toxins would be very bad news indeed.

Of course, planning at the last minute has some downfalls. As soon as we check out of this campground Friday, we don’t have any place lined up for the next week. However, there are some first come, first served places within reasonable driving distance that should fill the bill. Right now there are enough openings that we should be able to get into one of them. We’ve stayed there before so know what we are getting into.

After that we are booked through the rest of the year. One of the things we are looking for is boat launches near where we will be camping. After all, we did bring our sailboat.

I would like to lock in a week at the start of the year. That’s when my lovely wife will need to do the medication refill dance. It should go better this next time. However, we need both good cell service and a nearby CVS. After that, we hope to so some extended salt water sailing for a bit. Lots of interesting places to take a small sailboat in southern Florida.

One big plus for us is having a 105 watts of solar electric power sitting on top of the Blazer. It’s powerful enough to run our small cooler style fridge and a 440 watt inverter. That takes care of our basic needs. We save a fortune by being able to stay in more basic sites.

The little compressor type fridge has been amazing. While the fridge is small, none of the interior is taken up with ice. I really really really hate using ice. It’s a constant hassle finding it and food is always in danger of getting soggy.

I’m feeling better and better the longer I’m down here in the warmer climate. Life is looking up.

-Sixbears

10 comments:

  1. Just wondering, do you sleep in the boat or your tent?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right now we are in the tent. Later we plan on using the boat.

      Delete
  2. As you know, I live about 30 miles north of Houston, TX and it got down in the upper 30's last night. Brrrrr...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, the life of vagabonds... Love ya!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good to hear that you made it to Florida and are starting to relax more / lungs recover.

    Just curious if you have tried or thought about those Internet sites to find individuals that allow camping out on their property? I ran across one a few years back that had many locations in Michigan etc (would have to search to find the site name again).

    Years ago there was the Escapees group that did that sort of thing. Seems like they have maybe gone more commercial, with dedicated campgrounds. But I had the feeling that if you hung around with them for a while, you might get offers from individuals to camp on their property. Or maybe Florida is just too packed in the winter?
    -justjohn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Florida is pretty busy in the winter. However, we did get info on some lesser known campgrounds from fellow campers.

      Delete