Park #9 Fort DeSoto County Park

Today is Thursday and is our second day at this park - and what a gorgeous place it is! Unlike our other parks, this one is a county park, but is certainly not like any other county park I've ever seen. The park is actually on an island - in fact, the whole island IS the park. It's just off the southern tip of St. Petersburg. The park is probably 7 or 8 miles long and is shaped like a large capital letter "L". The campground is very nice, with about 200 sites. There are literally miles of beautiful white beaches, with sand the consistency of soft flour. There are a lot of little islands and bays so it is perfect for kayaking, and there are two big fishing piers, one 500 feet long and one 1,000 feet long. There is also an old fort - obviously called Fort DeSoto. But the best thing, for us, is the miles and miles of beautiful paved bike trails running the whole length of the island. The scenery is gorgeous - very tropical and lush - with great views of the Sunshine Bridge, Bradenton and St. Pete's. And the weather so far has been great - low 70's, clear blue skies and just a slight wind from the Gulf. Perfect!

We got up early on Wednesday in order to get across the Sunshine Bridge as early in the day as possible - the wind seems to pick up by mid-morning and crossing the bridge is a little intimidating, especially in an RV pulling a car with kayaks on top! But we had an uneventful drive over here and arrived about 10:30. We couldn't get into our site - the people in it hadn't left yet - so we pulled the RV into one of the beach parking lots, unhooked the car, and took my bike in to get repaired (...the flat tire that I got on Anna Marie Island). Then we came back and were able to set up camp. The sites are interesting - for one thing, there is a totally separate section for anyone with pets, including just cats - we've never come across this before. The sites are nice - they are kind of narrow, but very deep. We're amazed at some of the BIG rigs that are here - we canNOT imagine how the drivers were able to get into the sites! But we're not THAT big so we had no problems - Dave is really good at maneuvering the motor home. As soon as we got set up we went for a nice long bike ride, then later in the day Dave went fishing and I went for a nice walk. Today, we each went on a bike ride in the morning, but not together (Dave felt like doing one of his "hard" rides and I can't keep up with him when he does that). But I got in a ride of more than 10 miles, so I felt pretty good about that! After lunch Dave put his kayak in the bay and spent the afternoon fishing - he didn't get any fish, but he caught two CRABS! He had me in stitches telling me how he got them off the line. VERY carefully, apparently! In the meanwhile, I went to the BEACH and sunbathed for a couple hours - it's still unreal to be able to do that in January. It was plenty warm enough and the north beach was out of the wind and really nice. I snapped a couple pictures that I'm attaching. We both got back and took showers and then took the car over to one of the piers to catch the sunset - a pretty one, but not spectacular - the clouds weren't quite right - but I'm attaching a picture anyway! Tomorrow is supposed to be nice too so we'll spend the day outside, but it's supposed to rain on Saturday, so we definitely need to take advantage of the good weather. We watched the weather channel tonight and it looks like you folks in Michigan (and Ohio) are getting some pretty cold weather right now. SO glad we're not there (...sorry!). In the meanwhile, though, we are LOVING this park - more to follow.