For any given destination, we generally prioritize our campgrounds like so:

1. Military Campgrounds
2. State or County Parks we love or that come highly recommended
3. Passport America Private Parks
4. State or County Parks new to us
5. Other Private Resorts
6. Cracker Barrel or Walmart parking lots.

During our hectic tour of Southwest Florida this February we got to experience four of those six options, plus an entirely new category, during stays at eight different locations, with only private parks left out of the mix. Even for us “flexible” (i.e., often last minute) planners, this late winter jumping about is unusual. COVID continues to mess with our schedule (in past years we would likely still be in Key West) but this February’s game of musical campgrounds is more the result of ongoing drama with our Geo Tracker and the need to stay relatively local while awaiting completion of the engine rebuild and installation. Not knowing exactly when that would be forced us to continually seek out last minute options to remain in Southwest Florida.

PKM in her usual starting spot, on the dashboard, when we are on the road.

As we wrote in our January Report, Richard at Xtreme Zuks Offroad rebuilt an engine and even agreed to deliver it to our local mechanic in Fort Lauderdale, the place we had arranged for the Tracker to be towed the weekend after I blew the engine on Alligator Alley. While waiting for the thing to be installed and everything worked out we secured a week long reservation at South Bay RV Campground, the county park we discovered last November as a replacement for staying in Xavier and Joy’s driveway (which, if you recall past posts, was eliminated in 2019 by a visit from Coral Springs Code Enforcement.)

Without our tow vehicle, Loki, errands have to be done in the rig or by bike. Here we are dropping off books and videos at the Sanibel Library the morning of our departure from the island, bound for South Bay.

I remain a bit surprised that South Bay had week long, late notice reservations available for us twice this winter; it seems to defy my Law of Florida Winter Campground Reservations: affordable, available and local, pick any two. Seriously, if you had told me I could secure a last minute winter reservation for a week in South Florida (with full hook up services, in an attractive park with spacious sites, in a safe place) at just over $25 a night, I would have been quite skeptical. But we did. Twice.

After a few minutes on the dash, PKM demands her usual travel accommodations.

I suppose the main reason for this unexpected availability is the somewhat isolated nature of the specific location; sure it’s in South Florida, but unless you are a serious fan of boating on Lake Okeechobee, there are not many other reason for coming here. The region boasts a handful of small towns in the middle of farm and swamp land. There are no nearby beaches, major cities, or tourist destinations, and there are only so many locals likely to have snowbird relatives with RVs coming down for visits.

The pond between the two RV loops, complete with 6′ alligator.

Another likely reason for the unexpected availability: South Bay is West Palm Beach County owned and operated. During our more than six years full time RVing through 48 U.S. states and 5 Canadian provinces, we have found that county campgrounds are the “hidden gems” of RV parks, often not even known about by locals or considered by out of towners, which is why they are near the top of our list when researching options. This goes not just for new regions, but also for familiar areas where our usual places aren’t available, or when we want to change things up and try something new.

Out on our bikes along the dirt roads between agricultural plots

Now, not everything at South Bay is puppy-dog tails and glitter covered ponies. When researching the place back in November I ran across some reviews indicating that road noise was quite loud in the row of sites along US-27. Accordingly, during the phone reservation process I requested and received confirmation that we would be assigned a site other than that row, and we ended up with a great spot without significant road noise, at least none audible from inside the RV. I forgot this little nugget of knowledge when making our recent week long reservation, and we ended up in a site which thoroughly validated the noise complaints in those past reviews.

I would say that this place is one of Kitty Meow Meow’s favorites, but honestly, anywhere with warm sun, grass, and lizards is awesome for her. Throw in some particularly stupid chipmunks, moles, or mice, and you have heaven on earth for her.

If you examine the campground map, the even numbered sites between 76 and 88 along with 75 and 89, are the ones of concern, and for a week we were dead in the middle of that row. In all of those unfortunately positioned spots there is nothing more than a thin line of mangrove trees and bushes to cut the noise in the mere 100′ between the back of the site and US-27, which has a lot of large truck and tractor trailer traffic. We used head phones, ear plugs, television, and fan noise to alleviate things, but we were thrilled to move to the other loop for our two day extension at South Bay.

Our second spot this visit to South Bay. We could use a few more trees, but this is much quiter.

Without our tow vehicle we were a lot more limited than usual in our exploration of the area: there would be no geocaching or trips to Martin Tacos in nearby Belle Glade. We made the best of it with our feet and bikes. Miles of agricultural land, canals, and the big lake made for plenty of natural beauty, while a handful of nearby gas station bodegas and strip malls provided the essentials. Next up: our first Corps of Engineers park.