A two-part video, with the route and photos, then a timelapse, of riding around Long Pine Key Campground within Everglades National Park.
map
Maps of travel routes and campgrounds.
Long Pine Key Campground, Everglades National Park
We stayed at Long Pine Key Campground within Everglades National Park, in Homestead, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A basic no-hookups campground within the national park. A little short for our coach, but we made it work.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-01-21
- Check out: 2024-02-02
- 12 nights
- We were going to stay 14 nights, but left early to avoid some nasty travel day weather
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 69-84°F, lows around 48-70°F
- Little wind, gusts to 23 MPH, fairly sheltered by trees
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
- Generators during the day
Site:
- #6, back in, asphalt
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- A little unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Asphalt driveway about 36 feet long by about 10 feet wide; had to back into shrubs
- Passenger side grass to hedge of trees between site about 30 feet
- Driver side grass to road wedge-shaped, maximum about 30 feet
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Clean site
Utilities:
- No hookups
- Used generator and solar for power
- Used water bladder and pump to refill fresh water tank
- Used dump tote and macerator to empty gray and black tanks
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 45-60 Mbps down, 16-22 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- AT&T: 145 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- Verizon: 25-41 Mbps down, 20-27 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 3 Mbps down, 35 Mbps up, 37-437 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- In Everglades National Park
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Basic campground in the heart of Everglades NP
Pros: Beautiful, large, private sites within the national park.
Cons: Most sites much shorter than listed and facing the wrong way depending on your configuration (motorhome or trailer) so you have to think creatively to get orientated.
Neutral: No hookups of any kind, so be prepared. We camped at Long Pine Key Campground in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Not really long enough for our coach:
I got my bike out, for the first time in months (we sold Jenn’s a while ago):
A path to the nearby bathroom block:
Dish washing sink:
Inside the men’s bathroom:
We were staying inside Everglades National Park, and did a sailing trip in Biscayne National Park (posts coming on those in the next couple of days), so we added those stickers to our coach:
A snake on the road:
Entrance and dumpsters:
Info sign:
There were some solar-heated showers:
An interesting way to park a coach; perhaps a bit against the rules, but a good solution to cope with the sites being too short for big motorhomes:
Other sites:
Tent sites:
The campground had a path to an amphitheater, where they did ranger talks (with my bike in the foreground):
The Long Pine Key lake:
A nice campground, despite the lack of hookups. We’d be happy to stay here again.
Travel from Clermont to Homestead, Florida
We drove our coach 289 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Thousand Trails Orlando in Clermont, Florida to Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south along Florida’s Turnpike:
An interactive map, showing potential stops:
Leaving TTO:
Toll plaza:
Sinclair Road:
Toll plaza:
Entering the Florida’s Turnpike toll freeway:
Service plaza rest stop:
Our coach in traffic cams:
Service plaza lunch stop:
Earl of Sandwich; it was a very nice sandwich:
We bought and activated a Sun Pass toll transponder for our truck:
Another traffic cam shot:
Florida’s Turnpike:
Fuel stop, alongside another Tiffin Allegro Bus (slightly newer):
Hard Rock guitar building:
End of the turnpike:
Entering Everglades National Park:
The entrance station, with a lot of traffic (other times we went through only had one or two cars):
The ranger in the booth loved seeing Paladin on the dash:
The turn to the Long Pine Key campground:
Campground entrance:
Our site:
Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort
We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)
TTO (as it’s commonly called) is the flagship Thousand Trails park, with over a thousand sites.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-01-07
- Check out: 2024-01-21
- 14 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy, some rain, mostly drizzle
- High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 35-65°F
- A little wind, gusts to 38 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Some neighbor noise, dogs and kids
- Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings
Site:
- #178, back in, asphalt
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Rather unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by about 18 feet wide
- Passenger side to next site’s driveway about 10 feet
- Driver side to next site’s driveway about 20 feet
- No picnic table (but apparently available upon request)
- No fire pit
- Steep drop-off next to rear of site
- Mostly clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, very inconveniently located; needed to use my extension cord
- 75 PSI water, inconveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 47 Mbps down, 6-14 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 24-30 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
- AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
- Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)
Our review on Campground Reviews:
The flagship Thousand Trails park
It’s good to know what’s what before showing up at TTO. Half the park is older, with rundown pads and a kind of state park feel, and half the park is newer, like a perfectly manicured RV resort. And if you’re used to the usual Thousand Trails “first come first served” rigamarole, you might be confused by how they do things here. I prefer the orderly check-in process with the rangers knowing what sites are available and guiding you to what’s there. This place is so huge, that you’d be crawling the lanes for hours before finding one on your own. I hate having to find a place at other TT parks. Our site was on the “older” side of the park, backed up to some trees, which was nice. There was a bit of a drop-off at the end of our pad, but it was long enough for our 40′ coach, and we were able to park our truck on the grass alongside it. It was kind of downhill in a hollow, so cell reception was not great but Starlink was just fine. We camped at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
A rather steep drop-off:
I needed to use my power extension cord for the first time ever (other than at Mom’s):
I had fun tossing a ball for this very good boy whenever I went to top up our water tank or dump our waste tanks:
The nearby bathrooms were closed the entire time, but they had portapotties for the few people who needed them (and I did use one once, as we sanitized our fresh water tank while here):
There were a few big storms that rolled through; here are a couple of screenshots of one (with a potential tornado southwest of us!):
Big checkers board:
Rec center:
Mail info; they charge $5 per package, and suggest alternatives:
Group fire pit:
Mini golf:
Pickleball courts:
Boat launch:
Hibiscus flower:
Tortoise:
Grasshopper:
A large crane-like bird:
There were several that roamed the grounds:
Other sites:
One section has buddy sites:
A massive campground. We’ve already been back again since this, and no doubt will be back more times in the future.
Travel from Carrabelle to Clermont, Florida
We drove our coach 263 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Carrabelle, Florida to Clermont, Florida. Our first travel day of 2024.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:
An interactive map, with possible stops:
We pulled our coach out to toad up:
Bye beach:
Look out birds; you can come back to your tasty roadkill after we go by:
We stopped in front of a gas station for lunch:
Gas station lunch; not ideal, but not bad:
Joining I-75:
A traffic cam, showing our coach:
A rest area stop:
Joining Florida’s Turnpike toll road:
The Villages:
“Florida’s Turnpike, The Less Stressway” (maybe if they improved the road surface a bit):
Another traffic cam:
Toll at the exit; our Freedom Pass transponder worked:
Arriving at our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:
Normally in Thousand Trails parks you roam around to pick your own site, but TTO is different; they have people guide you to a site. We were directed to this parking lot to await a guide:
Guided to site:
Arriving at our site:
Not ideal, but nice to not have anyone behind us:
Carrabelle
We didn’t really do anything during the three weeks we stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park over the holidays. That seems to be fairly typical for us, just taking some downtime to relax. Especially with some very busy times coming up after this (stay tuned!).
Ho-Hum is in a kinda out-of-the-way area, but near a town called Carrabelle (population 2,778). We did go to one restaurant, the post office, and the local grocery store; that was pretty much the limit of our exploring here. There are definitely a few more things to do and see, e.g. we considered going to check out a couple of nearby lighthouses, but we’ll save that for our next visit.
Here’s an interactive map:
We had lunch at Marine Street Grill:
Next to the post office is the world’s smallest police station:
The Gulfside IGA Plus grocery store is a little small, but had almost everything we wanted:
(There is a Walmart 45 minutes away, for people who use that as a marker of civilization.)
Clock and memorial:
We do enjoy cute little towns, and this is definitely one. We’ll have to make a point of exploring it more when we’re here again.
Ho-Hum RV Park
We stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice casual RV park, with the gulf literally feet from our front door.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-12-17
- Check out: 2024-01-07
- 21 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny, some cloud and rain
- High temps ranging between 52-67°F, lows around 33-60°F
- A little wind, gusts to 42 MPH
Noise:
- Highway noise
- No train noise
- Some neighbor noise, dogs, but few kids
Site:
- #48A, pull in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Rather unlevel, high on left and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel site about 50 feet long by about 30 feet wide
- Picnic table on gravel
- No fire pit
- Clean site
- Waterfront, facing the water
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 32 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 50 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 48 ms ping
- AT&T: 57 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
- Verizon: 26-42 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up, 160 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- Waterfront (gulf)
- Package delivery to office
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nothing ho-hum here
We spent three weeks here over the holidays and loved the laid-back vibe and beachfront views. Watching the birds along the shore right from the window of our motorhome was wonderfully relaxing. There is some road noise from the highway, but it is pretty nonexistent at night. Some of the waterfront sites are a bit sloped and could be problematic for larger rigs, but ours was fine enough that our leveling system could cope. The staff were all friendly and helpful and the amenities were well-kept. We loved our stay so much that we booked our stay for the end of 2024 before we left. We camped at Ho-Hum RV Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our waterfront site:
It’s been ages since I flew my drone, but this seemed a perfect place to get some aerial photos:
Now that we’d made it to Florida, it was time to add its sticker to our coach:
We stayed here over the holidays, so of course we did our 20th annual The Lord of the Rings movie marathon, watching the extended editions of all three movies (though like last year, we split it over two days; not quite as much a marathon, but more relaxed):
One of the other guests dropped off a little Christmas gift:
We really enjoyed having the beach right in front of our site:
A fishing pier:
As you can see, there was quite a difference between low and high tides; I liked to watch the tide charts; fascinating how the two tides (from the moon and sun) merge and split to create single bigger tides or two smaller tides:
Our neighbor moved from a oceanfront site to one further back:
Most of the RVs on the oceanfront were motorhomes, fronted in, but there were a few trailers, backed in:
I’m glad we didn’t have a trailer next to us, with their door facing ours:
Other sites:
We’re planning to stay here again for the next holidays; this is the site we’ve already reserved for next time:
Beach area:
Dog park:
Rec room:
Entrance and office:
We enjoyed our stay here, and are looking forwarding to returning at the end of the year!
Travel from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida
We drove our coach 257 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida. Our last travel day of 2023. (Yes, the blog posts are a bit delayed; we do things faster than I can post about them!)
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map, with potential stops marked:
Leaving the state park:
I-10:
Entering Florida:
“No stopping; photo opp in welcome center”:
We did stop at the Welcome Center rest stop for a quick break, though didn’t go into the Welcome Center:
Home of the Blue Angels:
Our coach at the rest stop on a traffic cam:
I had fun spotting our coach via other traffic cams too:
Bridge over Escambia Bay:
More traffic cams:
Another rest area stop, this time for lunch:
Sleepy Paladin enjoying the stacked dining chairs:
An interesting feature of the rest areas was a truck windshield washer:
We also appreciated signs that displayed the rest area truck parking availability (which was also available via the traffic website):
Speaking of, a couple more:
Then we exited I-10, for some highway travel:
Starting with a fuel stop:
While Jenn fueled up, I went in and got some Cokes (to help us stay alert) and snacks:
$284.62 for 77.787 gallons of diesel; we saved $22.17 off that with our discount card:
Paladin watching us from the dash:
Cotton field:
Blountstown mural:
The bridge where we entered Eastern Time Zone:
An uncomfortably narrow road:
A portion was also a little under water; not ideal:
Roadworks to alleviate the flooding; a tight squeeze:
Our destination for the end of the year:
A long drive, but then we were stationary for three weeks.
USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park
We explored the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.
It includes exhibits of various military planes, plus a submarine and the eponymous battleship.
Aircraft exhibits:
The USS Drum is a WWII-era submarine, the oldest American sub on public display:
The WWII-era USS Alabama battleship:
Fascinating.
Fort Morgan State Historic Site
We explored the Fort Morgan State Historic Site in Alabama, at the end of a peninsula between Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Here’s an interactive map:
Museum:
This fort had quite an interesting history:
Battery Schenck:
Battery Thomas:
The famous phrase “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” was (perhaps) uttered near here, something we previously encountered in Idaho at the Farragut Museum at the Brig:
The fort:
Tunnel into the fort:
Another battery:
A fascinating historic site.