Okeedokee Okeechobee

I’ve said it before, but moving day is tough.  And since we’ve been in Florida its been harder and harder to find the next spot to move to.  It can be stressful.  All the state park campgrounds are booked up and RV parks aren’t our favorites (plus they are pricey and don’t have many other young families).  Like the irony spoken by the Ancient Mariner: home home everywhere but not a place to park.  So once we land in a new spot we begin trying to find the next spot to stay.  But after a busy several days in Orlando I went to bed late on our last night in the city still with no idea where we would stay next.

And after a restless night of sleep I woke up early the next morning to continue the search.  We wanted to stay a couple more nights at Bill Fredrick park in Orlando but they had no room.  We had reservations in Ft Lauderdale starting Sunday but couldn’t get in any earlier.  So we had two days we needed a place to stay.  There were a few places with availability but they were either way too expensive or 55+.  We tried for a private residence via BoondockersWelcome but hadn’t heard anything from them (I contacted them several days before).  I contacted 2 churches along the way thinking they might let us camp in their parking lot but sadly I never heard back from them.

Then Steph finds this place in Okeechobee for $25 a night (thats a bargain in these parts).  And they have plenty of room.  The website says 55+ but he assures us it’s no problem.  Okeedokee, Okeechobee it is then.  It’s only for 2 nights….if it’s bad we’ll survive 2 nights.

We showed up and it was really nice. Lots of seasonal guests staying long term and even some manufactured homes on the property which give it that trailer park feel.  But the spaces were spaced out, kept nice and it was in a country setting.  The transient RV sites were laid out a little goofy and hard to figure out where hookups were but after nearly taking out a sewer pipe with the truck and getting yelled at by a toothless grump on a lawn tractor we got ourselves situated on the site.  A lady walking her dog came by and said, “I hope you are planning on stayin’ through Monday…we’re having a biiiig potluck at the club house and everyone is welcome”.  Sadly we’d miss it, but her hospitality made up for the grump bug who yelled at me.  It was a very quiet park and we had a river right out our door with gators in it!!  The park is run by a young family who run a concessions business (there were corndog, popcorn, cottoncandy, etc trucks and carts scattered around the property).  They were SUPER nice and attentive.  We actually wished we could have explored the area a bit but we’ll have to save it for some other time.