South Bay RV Park

I am writing this from the East Coast of Central Florida. We have started our migration back to the north and then west. It will take about a month and a half to be back in Missouri if everything goes to the plan we are on now.  But for now I will write about a time a few weeks back.

We left Fisheating Creek WMA on Sunday, January 6. We were ready to leave the WMA and get to a quieter park. We did love the hiking and paddling, but the camping was a bit tight and noisy. We drove along on Highway 27 south of Lake Okeechobee to a park called South Bay RV park. The trip was 46 miles. This is a county park that had an interesting rate structure. The daily rate is over $30 per night, but the weekly rate is right at $25 per night. There was not much of a break from that for monthly. The sites are very large and there are lakes all around the park. We had great Verizon Cell signal and OTA TV. We stayed for 7 nights.

Site 74, close to the front of the park.

 The only problem was highway 27 was just behind the pond that was out our back window. We ran the fan most nights that did an excellent job to drown out the noise. After getting set up I noticed a few local residents. I really enjoyed watching these guys from the kitchen window.

Can you see the Alligator in this picture?

Maybe you can see him better in this shot. This is about 30 feet from the rig. 

Kim walked over to the activity center in the middle of the park to see what they had in the library to read. It is a very large take one/leave one type library. She met some ladies in the center. I was shocked when she returned to the rig in just a few minutes to get a mat and headed off to do yoga. She has never done yoga before. She also told me she would be walking three miles with the ladies each morning while we were there. Kim does walk with me some, but this was not normal for her, but I loved it. We both took advantage of the paved walking/biking trail that runs along the dike on the southern end of Lake Okeechobee. We would each walk about 3 miles each day.

The view from the dike walking trail. You can't really see the lake. You walk along the canal that is the same canal that we camped by earlier in this trip that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

One night we were at the park we went up to the top of the dike as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful evening.

Looking down at the boat ramp and the canal

South Bay RV park on a beautiful Florida evening

Lots of fisherman on this lake

There was lots of wildlife in the park including the gators and very cool birds.

I did plan a trip to Fort Lauderdale while we were at South Bay. Why?, to see a boat of course. I was a bit surprised when Kim told me after seeing this boat that she really liked it. If we were in a position to do it now, we would probably be moving the purchase process forward, but for now we can only dream.

"Kairos 2" a Cabo Rico 38 Pilothouse under full sails

We did go to the beach while in Fort Lauderdale. It was actually very affordable at only $3.50 for 2 hours parking and was very nice.

We really enjoyed our time at South Bay RV park. So much so, that we decided to come back. This park is 150 miles from Flamingo Campground in Everglades NP. That was our next stop and a place we have been looking forward to for a while. This is the perfect launching point for a visit to both Everglades and Big Cypress. I will write all about our amazing visit in the next few entries.