Beach or Bust!

Here we are on I-75.  Oh my gosh I cant wait to get home.  I just want to click my flip flop heels three times while saying “take me home” to see if I can actually get there like in the Wizard of Oz.  GGGRRRR!!!  It didn’t work.

We feel really bad that our cousin was not able to see the beach or spend the night near one.  While driving down 75, hubby asked me to look at Fort DeSoto in St. Petersburg, FL.  Every time I have looked at them for camping, I can NEVER get availability – and that was staying in a tent.  This would be the best of both worlds because it is at the beach!  http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_Ft_Desoto.htm  It is a State Park, but always really nice when we have just been to the beach there, well….except the public bathrooms.  But I think that is with any beach you go to.  I pulled it up on my tablet and was very surprised that there was availability for tonight.  No way!!  It was about $30 for the night and that was with a full hook-up.  Hubby says to go ahead and make the reservation and I say, OK!

This is where we remembered that our swim suits are at the house.  Luckily, we live near St. Petersburg.  This is where it seemed like it was the longest 2-3 hrs of the trip.  You are soooooo near home, but not near enough.  We decided that we would go by the apartment first, get a few things and pick up the car.  Hubby and son would ride in the truck while cousin and I would follow in the car.  We decided to take the car with us so that: 1. We would not need to unhook the truck  2. We would have transportation to the store.  3.  I had just had enough of being beaten up by that darn truck.

We knew that we would never get the camper and truck through the security gates at our apartments, so we pulled into the parking lot of Lowes and parked there.  From there, it is a short walk to the apartment.  Here we go!  Of course, son complained the whole time.  He can be so lazy sometimes.  When I was his age, I would have loved to have been outside and not in a car…..but its his games.  He wants to play those darn video games all the time.

This was Lowes and our apartment buildings.

We rush into the apartment, throw a few things together into the car and decided we would leave Leo at the house overnight.  He doesn’t go outside. He is 100% an inside dog.  He even uses potty pads in the house.  We knew that it was for less than 24 hrs, so we turned on the TV to Lifetime and turned on a few lights and then hit it. Yes – our little Leo likes Lifetime.  The noise just helps him not hear the outside world so he won’t bark his head off.

We get back over to Lowes and unload the car and put the boys into the truck.  Great, just great!  Its rush hour traffic and I-4 and I-275 are going to be a pain going from Tampa over to St. Petersburg.  I put on my headset, hubby puts on his and we make sure that we are in constant communication the whole way.  Cousin finds this a very funny ritual between him and me.  It just makes it easier when one is following the other.  If he wants to get over, especially pulling the camper, he just tells me I want to move to the left lane and I find a break then pull over and tell him to get in front of me.  It just makes less stress.  But the traffic!!!  This is a time frame that any person doesn’t want to be on the Interstate – much less pulling a big ole camper!!  People are rushing all around, trying to get home from work, HUNGRY!  These people are just mean!  Yeah, they kinda scare me.

We finally make it to Fort DeSoto and go to the office for check in.  CLOSED!!  Oh no.  What we gonna do now?  Then I see the list on the door.  We had to check it and make sure that we were on it and then could proceed to our site.  There we are!  Lets go.  But where?  The loop that we were in, there were no clear visible signs pointing us to the right location. After going the wrong way, turning around, and then finding a mom and older son team – we  were at our lot.  Perfect lot too!  The playground was right beside us and the bathhouse was behind us.  Son and cousin were able to go play on the playground while hubby backed the camper into the site while I told him where to go!! HEHEHE

After finally getting it into the site, we knew that we would not be able to make the beach today.  We load the kids into the car and head back out to the grocery store.  Publix has awesome chicken that is pre-cooked.  So the kids decided they wanted chicken for dinner tonight.  We had to get a few extra things for lunch, breakfast, etc.  Water!  YES!  24 bottles, buy 2 get one free. Score.  All I drink is water, so this was huge for us.  We also got Poweraid since we were going to spend the day at the beach.

We had dinner, outside, after we got back.  The bugs were kinda bad and it was HOT.  After eating we piled into the camper and watched one of our cheap movies I had bought the night before.  These kids were asleep before we knew it. HAHAHA We have worn them out every night we have been on this trip.

We wake up early the next morning and get ready for the beach.  Cousin and I use the bathhouse to change since we have more room to maneuver our swimsuits.  We get changed and head out to the beach.  This is one of my all time favorite beaches in this area.  I really like to go and park near it just to watch the cruise ships pass under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  We were the first ones on the beach today.  Oh my sandspurs.  They were going through our flip flop bottoms.  The water was very nice and we loved every minute we were there minus the sandspurs.  Our poor feet.  Cousin finally got to see the beach.  But the sandspurs were so bad that we decided to go ahead and leave when it was near lunch time.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge from the beach! Tallest bridge I have ever seen. Cruise ships go under it.

Before we left, there was two men there catching fish with a net.  I had never seen them fish like that before, so of course I had to go and talk to them.  The fish were beautiful and I would have loved to have had a few to take home for us.  Next time I go fishing, I just might have to try this method!

After talking with the fishing men, we load back up and head back to the Tampa area.  Oh my gosh, a night at home, finally!!  Or  is it??? Stay tuned for more.  Thanks for reading.

The Perpetual Campers