After a lot of discussion last late May/June, we decided to “try” being a classic “Snowbird” in 2018. We drove down to St. Pete and stayed at the local KoA. The park was OK, but not as nice as others we have visited. We used that place as a hub to spoke-out from there looking for potential longer-term stay locations. We looked all around St. Pete, Tampa and Bradenton areas that we thought might be decent choices, since we didn’t have any great information on sites. Truly, a “Pig-in-a-Poke” as my mother would say. The further South we went, the more expensive the sites got. $1400/month+electric and the traffic was horrible even in the off-season. So, we all but gave up looking figuring we were way late looking for a good spot. Late on Thursday, we started gathering stuff up and getting it organized in the trailer basement for a Monday am departure. I saw an online ad that said there was a RV show in Tampa and we decided to go since it was close and was only $5 to get in!
On Friday around noon we arrived at the Florida Fairgrounds and walked into the show not knowing what we would see or find. Once inside the main hall of the show, there were the normal 10×10′ booths with everything under the sun being sold for RV’s. I spotted a booth that said “Encore”, and we had stayed at another Encore property before in New Port Richey and thought perhaps that the booth might have a brochure that would show other Florida properties for 2019, since we had given up for the winter for 2018. We talked to Lisa Ross who just happened to be the Property Manager for Topics RV in Spring Hill.
Spring Hill is just North of New Port Richey (Florida, West coast) where my Mom used to live, so I knew the area pretty well. And, the really funny part was she was from Oakwood, which is a competitor to our high school Alma mater! So, we had an instant connection. Lisa, explained that she had large lots (approx 35 x 80′) that were renting for $719/mo Jan-Mar. that included water and sewer
Pen and I mulled it over and decided to drive up on Saturday to take a look at the available sites. Fortunately, we found a great site for us! And signed the paperwork for February. It occurred to us that maybe they would rent us 1 night (Sunday) so we could check out the area for places to eat, groceries and Vet, etc. Sure thing, they had no problem with us doing that!
We scrambled back to the KoA and packed up and left a day early, thus avoiding the really nasty traffic that I was going to have to drive in on Monday morning. It was an easy town up US 19 (well, as easy as US 19 is on a Sunday morning) and we made it without any muss or fuss. The park is 8.5 miles East of US 19, on County Line Road making it fairly quiet and easily accessible and pretty much “bug free” too!
We checked out the area an found everything we would need or want within a 5 mile radius! A most excellent choice all around!
Monday morning, we left with a large sigh of relief since we were about 50 miles North of the traffic jams in Tampa/St. Pete and in 45 minutes we were on I-75 Northbound on our way home.