We rose early….naturally. I guess we were thinking about our departure today. We packed up and were on the road by 8:30. Morning traffic was a little heavy getting out of the city, but after that it was light. We took I-75 (Alligator Alley) across the state to Naples and up the west coast to Bonita Beach where we crossed over San Carlos Pass.
We have never been to Bonita Beach before, but it reminded us a lot of Anna Maria Island back home. From the bridge over San Carlos Pass, we could see the beautiful powder sand beaches we are so famous for over on this side of the state. People were already taking advantage of the 95 degress, blue sky day by boating or sunbathing.
We continued north on the island to our destination… about halfway up the island to Red Coconut RV Park.
The park is divided into two sections—the landside and the beachside in Ft. Myers Beach. We couldn’t get reservations on the beachside (1st row) which is the prime location facing the water. They were all booked up. You can see they are tightly packed in.
The beachside has 4 rows and we could have had a spot in the 4th row but it backs up to the highway. We settled for a spot on the landside–on a corner, for easy in-easy out access. It was a good choice. This arrangement is very different than the county parks we have frequented so far on this trip, but it’s all about location, location, location…… to the beach.
This RV park is a combination of mobile homes, park models, and RV sites mixed in and it is very tight. For most people they actually have you unhook your travel trailer and they will park it for you. We had an easy spot to get into, so they let Bob drive it in himself. (He’s also very good at it.) Every other type of RV gets an escort to their location. We were parked and set up by 12:30. Now the fun began. We had a good spot near the back of the park for seeing all the “parking action”. We checked in at the office and got all the lowdown about everything going on.
We relaxed and had lunch after our 3 hour drive. Auggie took a nap while Bob and I went to check out the beachside area across the street.
We took the short walk to the beautiful sugar-sand beach. It’s very wide like the beaches in Miami and Daytona.
It seems the campers set up tents or canopies on the beach in front of their RVs on the beachside. I can see why people like to be in the first row. What a view!
Since it’s turtle nesting season, everyone has to remove their tents/canopies and turn off their lights so as not to interfere with the turtles who might come ashore to lay their eggs. (We decided that it might be fun to be in the first row right on the beach, but it’s less crowded and more quiet where we are! ) After our walk, we sat outside in the shade and relaxed with Auggie. More and more RVs arrived all afternoon. We were told that the place would be full this weekend, so it will be interesting. The party atmosphere has already begun. We took Auggie for his evening walk around the park and into the surrounding neighborhood. Our neighbor in the next site finally arrived at 8:45 PM. By then it was dark, but he did ok getting set up. We put on our porch light for him so he could see better. Tomorrow we’ll take a walk around the RV park to see everyone who is here for the Memorial Day weekend. It’s a special time for Bob and I. We will celebrate Bob’s 60th birthday tomorrow!
