A major reset after being excavated from our campground

Continued from Blythe Island left a literal hole in our travels

On the morning of Monday, March 31, we found ourselves exiting Blythe Island Regional Park in Georgia, trying to register the sheer absurdity that had just occurred. We were into our 5th year of full-time RVing, and that was a new one. And now we had nowhere to go, no campground reserved for the next 2 nights, and no real plan. This is where Year 5 comes in handy, though. We weren't concerned. We had mastered the art of pivoting. And whenever we've found ourselves stuck with nowhere to go, the RV life has always provided.

As we rode down the park entrance road, Anthony suggested we head to the nearby Walmart to park and regroup. Valid plan, but amongst the chaos, I had already been mapping out all the logistics of our escape. I may not be thrilled with trip planning these days, but over the years I have developed a sort of "internal map" of the country and our routes to get from one place to the next. Despite not getting great sleep that previous night, my mind was sharp. Sharp enough to wittily retort to the office lady. Sharp enough to prank the Excavator Dude and send him into a panic. And evidently, sharp enough to have planned out our next course of action – if campsite availability was on our side.

I counter-suggested to Anthony to head to I-95 South instead. We already knew we wanted to go that direction in general, so why not just start making our way toward Florida now? We were only 20 or so minutes from the border, and there would be a Welcome Center where we could stop off.

"We can stop at the Welcome Center and decide our next move. I was thinking, we should call Sportsman's again and see if our site is available. They were really nice last time we talked to them."

Sportsman's Cove was our next campground, and the final campground to fill our gaps between Assateague and Blueway RV, our Fort Myers park where we'd be spending 9 nights to visit family in the area. "If they have both tonight and tomorrow open, we could go early. If not, we could find a place for an overnight or two and then have a shorter drive to Sportsman's on Wednesday."

Our plan was set. We drove across the border into Florida and stopped at the Welcome Center.

In true Florida fashion, we had some entertainment at the rest area, like a Budget Truck that evidently skipped the agricultural inspection and got pulled over by law enforcement.

And later, this big boy came in to mock our recent experience.

Busy-bodying was a lot of fun, but we had stuff to do. Anthony got on the horn and made the call to Sportsman's Cove. This was the campground that we had to call after having a technical glitch with the website, so we hoped they would answer their phone and be just as accommodating as the last time.

Good news! Not only did Sportsman's have our site available for both nights, but no one was in it already, so we could arrive whenever we wanted! Such a huge win that we desperately needed.

You might be wondering how this was possible when Florida is notorious for being incredibly tough to find available campsites. We talked about it in the last post, how we booked Blueway a few weeks ahead of time, basically as soon as we knew we might be able to launch out of MA. Even then, finding sites for Easter week was like finding a needle in a haystack. That week was also April vacation week, and we were trying to camp in "The Land of Grandparents" during one of the busiest weeks for kiddos to visit Grandma. We really lucked out with Blueway. This isn't our first time talking about the lack of availabilities in FL. We also wrote this post 2 years ago.

This time, we didn't book ahead of time, nor did we opt for a Hip Camp, but we did choose the more obscure option. Distance-wise, we wanted to end up somewhere around Ocala in order to cut our travels halfway between Blythe Island and Fort Myers. Only, looking at Ocala was like looking at a map of dollar signs. The big RV parks that might have availability would cost us upwards of triple digits per night, and we were not in a financial position to afford sites that expensive unless it was for good reason. The area state parks were all full, too, which didn't come as a surprise. Ever since FL State Parks changed their reservation rules to allow state residents first dibs on campsites, it's been impossible to find anything, even on cancellation, because no one bothers to cancel.

I ended up looking further outside of Ocala, and that's when I came across Sportsman's Cove RV Resort – not actually a resort at all, but small RV campground at a fishing and boat dock, on the western shore of Orange Lake south of Gainesville. Full hookups and 2 dollar signs? This was worth looking into!

You can see that it only has 25 reviews, which cements its obscurity. The good thing about Florida is, most people are looking for the swanky RV resort sites or the state park campsites. Fewer people look outside those categories. This park offered the full hookups, but all the sites were on grass, and the location was tucked away in a residential neighborhood.

The online reservations system showed the specific site numbers available for my chosen nights. Most of the sites were small, close together, and backed up to other RVs. But one site, #407, looked like it barely belonged in this park. It was set apart from all the other RVs, on its own landmass, surrounded by water. It was a bit pricier than the standard sites, but still only cost $45. $45 for full hookups and water views in Florida? Now that's a price well worth it.

Booking here meant that the drive from Blythe to Blueway would not be split in half; instead, it would be 2.5 hours for the first leg and 4 hours for the second. We didn't care then, and we certainly didn't care now. In fact, it turned out to be an advantage. We were stressed out from the excavation and didn't expect a travel day, so a shorter drive was most welcome.

We almost left the rest area right then and there, but the pets needed to rest, and I needed to work. Now that we had 2 drive days in a row, my task list was getting scarily long. That Monday also marked the end of Q1 and the end of an enrollment period for one of my therapeutic music classes, so deadlines were looming. Pivoting work back to travel-mode has been incredibly difficult, after restructuring to fit a more stable life with a full office and studio. Needing to squeeze work in at every hour possible during a stressful day was so not the vibe, but it needed to be done. At least I had a better view out my window than the excavator!

A couple hours later, we packed up the pets once again and got back on the interstate...for about 3 minutes. The stress of the past 24 hours had exacerbated Tanner's dementia, and he ended up having an accident in the truck. We pulled off at the next exit and into a Love's Truck Stop. Also not the vibe? Trying to clean our elderly dog and our truck's backseat while parked between 2 semis at a truck stop.

It was then that we started getting nervous. Tanner is the one who thrives off the travel life the most, and he was looking like he had aged 10 years in 2 days. He was dehydrated from the heat and travel. The cats couldn't process all the moving fast enough. All of the pets were picking up on our stress. We needed our site at Sportsman's to be the tranquil waterfront getaway we hoped it would be, because none of us could handle moving again so quickly. The best part of our plan was, if we just sucked it up and drove the couple hours today, we would have 4 nights to breathe easy before another drive day. It doesn't sound like a lot of time, but every extra day makes a difference when it comes to recovery.

But despite the high rating, the reviews were polarizing. Both on RV Life and Google, the majority of the reviews were 5 stars complete with resounding praise, but then a 1-star would show up, with a person who had lots to say. "Nasty owners." "Cramped sites of junky RVs." "Permanent residents who aren't welcoming." Did we just make a huge mistake extending our stay?

The rest of our drive was uneventful, thank goodness...unless we want to tell the story of an excavator working on the corner of one of the intersections that swung around so fast, we thought it was going to swing into the street and hit us. Wouldn't that have been the epitome of irony? But soon, we turned down the residential street toward the cove, and it was exactly as we had pictured.

✔ A mix of transient campers and permanent residents in more "lived-in" rigs
✔ Cramped sites
✔ The boat dock
✔ The water
✔ The small office building
✔ The camp host who was welcoming but gave the vibe that we needed to stay on his good side

Our site was exactly what we had pictured, too, and it was magnificent. Special but wonky – and you know we like that. Described as a back-in online but definitely a pull-in. The camp host told us we could choose to pull in and leave room for our truck, or back in and drag our hookups under our rig. We chose the latter for easier maneuverability. Even though the site had full hookups, we didn't need to connect sewer, so we only had our water hose and electric cord run underneath the rig. Our back-in positioning left us with a pleasure-side view of the boat dock and a big moss-covered tree, and a business-side view of Orange Lake and our picnic/fire ring area. Except in this site, our pleasure side was our business side and our business side was our pleasure side. Never mind.

The price was good and the availability was even better, but we didn't come for the campground. We came for the campsite. If it wasn't available, we probably wouldn't have stayed. We don't boat, nor do we fish, so the main draw of the park is lost on us. We didn't want neighbors close by, nor did we want to mingle much with other campers. We took a risk by putting ourselves away from the rest of the campground, in what we hoped would be our own little sanctuary. The photos probably do a good job telling whether or not the risk paid off.

The sanctuary didn't stop with the views. With the water came the birds, and birds in FL are exquisite. In the evenings, we had over a dozen turkey vultures swooping over our site. One morning, black vultures had their morning committee meeting on our roof ("committee" is what a group of black vultures is called). We saw great blue herons, hawks, ospreys, ibises, crows, cardinals, and red winged black birds. We finally got to see the kitties enjoy this lifestyle. They had 4 days of the best views a cat could ask for. Tanner got his much needed rest and started feeling a little better, day by day. He took short walks with us and watched the sunrise and full moonrise.

And as for those 1-star reviews? We didn't have that experience. All the neighbors we spoke to were very nice, and no one bothered us when we stayed inside our waterfront perch for days. No one pressured us to integrate with the community, nor did they ostracize us. Campers and boaters came and went, and the residents mostly kept to themselves or gave us a friendly "hello" as we passed by. Most of the RV parks in FL are a combination of permanent, semi-permanent, and transient sites. Most of the campsites are close together. Perhaps we're used to this because it's the same situation at many New England RV parks. We're glad the low reviews didn't scare us away, because this little cove gave us the retreat we desperately needed after a very frustrating situation.

It turned out to be a great decision made from sheer chaos. We kept our cool (and our sense of humor) and pivoted our travels in a way that made sense – for our travel logistics and our morale.