Camp Reservations, Truck Upgrades, The Blue Parrot, Parade & Day Trip
This last week was filled with us planning our spring and summer travels, researching routes and campgrounds, and then finally calling the parks to make reservations. We have found this part to be quite tedious and time consuming. But necessary to be get into the area and into the RV parks that we want. There have been so many new RVs produced in the last few years that any RV park in desired locations are getting booked up well into the future.
There were over 500,000 new RVs shipped in 2017 representing a 17% increase over 2016 and this was the eighth year of serious growth. Link here. And more folks are becoming full-time RVers and that is creating even more pressure on the campgrounds.
We currently have booked our spring and summer reservations up through the end of August. I will detail the locations planned to visit in my next post. We usually travel for about 150 miles and then stay at each location for a week. There will be some exceptions to this like the stays in Florida over the winter have been a month or more in our locations.
We have 23 different reservations made to get us booked through August. Each one requires some degree of due diligence to investigate. Can they accommodate a large RV, what are the amenities, location, etc. etc. So with the spring and summer booked, it was time for a few days break to do some other things.
Truck Modifications
I was not real happy with the truck tool box, so I placed an ad on Facebook’s marketplace and sold it within a couple of days. I’m replacing it was some heavy duty storage bins and a new bed cover. More on that later.
I also ordered mud flaps for the front and rear from WeatherTech. The dual wheels were bad for throwing up road tar and road debris to collect on the front of the camper. These should help that situation. The front ones were super easy to install. The rear ones were a real pain due to having to remove the original fender fasteners. Hard to get to and difficult to remove.
The first one took about 3 hours to figure out and get installed. The other side was much quicker at less than an hour.
The Blue Parrot
Trish’s aunt Judy lives locally and we have visited her a couple of times. At 88 years old, she is remarkable in the weekly activities she participates in. One of the things she does is to attend Monday nights at the Blue Parrot for their jazz night. This is a bar/restaurant located in St. Pete Beach.
You need reservations a week in advance to book a table. This place is a little rustic and is an open air venue with a roof and canvas side panels they can lower in bad weather. The night we were there the weather was perfect.
The band was a 17 piece big-band type of music popular in the 40’s and 50’s, and evidently today based on the standing room only crowd. It was a fun night and a lot of good music. Live music is one of the things that we like to seek out in our various locations. Although we have done little of this until this month.
Parade
This is a very active 55+ RV park. Orchid Lake RV Resort. They have a council that acts as a government of sorts. They plan activities and organize most of the place. One event near the end of the season is the parade. It includes a few classic cars, but mainly golf carts decorated in some theme, many with some comic actors. It was fun. All the park residents had their chairs lined up along the roads.
Day Trip to Cortez & Anna Maria Island
On Wednesday, we picked up fellow RVer friends (Bob and Lois) for the two hour drive southbound to the Cortez-Anna Maria area to meet another RVer couple that we met in Louisiana. They are Mike and Bj, from central Illinois who travel in a beautiful Tiffin motorhome.
The traffic was bad as it is now into spring break travelers as well as the snowbirds. Finally, after riding for 2.5 hours we arrived and were greeted by our friends. After some getting caught up on our activities, we simply walked across the highway to a well known and popular restaurant.
The Star Fish Company is a quaint little rustic fish house located right on the water with shrimp and fishing boats docked all around it. We actually ate on the floating dock setup with tables and umbrellas for shade. This is my kind of place! They bring in the daily catch, clean it, then cook it to order. My brother-in-law, John, says this place has been reviewed by some of the TV shows. Very cool.
From a late lunch it was back to the park across the street for happy hour margaritas, then off to explore the Anna Maria Island with a stop at the Rod ‘n Reel Pier. This is another must see place in town. It was a great time visiting with our friends we made on our travels. That is one of the great benefits of this type of travel, the friendships made when having met at RV parks.
Meanwhile, the weather has been perfect during our stay here in February.
Add a comment or question if you like. We enjoy the feedback. You can also sign up for automated emails to notify of updates in the section below. This blog has no commercial links and you will not be added to any mailing lists. A communication hobby only. 🙂
Take care and God Bless.
We were looking at mudflaps for our F350 too. How are your weather tech doing? Are the keeping the fifth wheel relatively clean? Can’t wait to hear about your toolbox solution. We are looking into that as well for a low profile under our cover.
I have not actually driven the truck yet with the new mudflaps, so will have to let you know after our next move. They do seem to have the right coverage. I’ll post something on how well the bed cover works versus the toolbox.
I look forward to seeing your travel plans for this year. Maybe I can cross tracks.
The east coast plans for 2018 will be out soon and for the winter of 2018 we are looking at the valley area of Texas.