On the Road Again

January 2nd, 2023

After ten weeks at The Tides RV Resort in Palmetto, we hit the road again on New Year’s Day. It was nice to take a break from driving the RV place to place, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t travel.

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks in Aurora, IL with our girls and came back to the RV in between. Luckily we booked on American and so we were not hit by the Southwest meltdown. In total we were delayed 2 hours over four flights….not too bad!

We will remain in Florida for another month in hopes that the rest of the country will warm up a tad and we will not have to worry about cold weather/RV challenges.

We are now at Lazy Days RV Park in Tampa. The campground is clean and they have a nice pool/laundry and other amenities, but it’s more “urban” than I like. The sites are pretty close together and small and our view is of the Lazy Days sales lot filled with row after row of rigs for sale. While not perfect, it is close to many area parks and activities, so we will be spending our time exploring the area.

Our first park visit was to Eureka Springs Conservation Park. We found this little gem on the Bring Fido app. We would have never found it otherwise. If you travel with your pup, I highly recommend checking out Bring Fido for restaurants, activities and accommodations on your route.

This incredible park was donated to Hillsborough County, Florida by botanist Albert Greenberg. He established the property in 1938 as a botanical gardens of rare tropical plants. When he died, the property became a county park for everyone to enjoy.

The 31 acre park has a mile long boardwalk walking trail that takes you over wetlands and gorgeous wilderness filled with ferns and other plants that northerners have potted in their homes. However, these versions are gigantic!

The hike was only about a mile, but we packed in so many gorgeous sites!

The greenhouse is filled with beautiful and unusual orchids.

The park includes a lovely rose garden and flowering bushes. While they were a little rough due to the recent hurricanes, several were still blooming beautifully.