We decided to make a little campsite on our property for guests who stop in to visit in their RV’s. We had an electrician wire a 50 amp box, and we already had water there. There used to be a house on this property and there was a septic tank. Al figured out how to rig up a “dump station.” We had to trim a few tree branches but we now have a pretty private, shady campsite. We are calling our little campground, Mockingbird Hill Campground.
We have friends coming next week to test it out.
This park is located on the Gulf coast (west) of Florida in Sarasota. It's a beautiful area with a lot of beautiful beaches nearby. The campground is located right in the middle of civilization so there are plenty of restaurants, and grocery stores very close. It’s a very popular campground primarily due to the location and close proximity to the beaches. We liked the park but we had a very bad experience with the rangers at the park. They made us wait to enter a vacant spot because they had to “clean” it. We weren’t able to check in until 3:30pm. A few of them had bad attitudes and it affected our view of the park.
We stayed there in April of 2003. We had a great time but had a few bad experiences with the campground staff and never went back. Hopefully things have changed. It's an older park and the sites can be a bit small. The sites we liked best are: 51, 54, 48, 47, 49, 45,56,62, 58. The sites cost $24.42 per night.
There are 15 miles of trails through Florida "Scrub" and you WILL see the beautiful Florida Scrub Jay, especially if you put a peanut on top of your hat!
Hawk
This was our pet squirrel, Stumpy. Notice no tail!
One night after dark we kept hearing a very loud bird making an unusual noise..and lots of it. We finally were able to spot him with the help of a flash light. He was on the ground right in front of our campsite. He sang for a long time before he finally went to bed. It was a Screech Owl. We found him, or another like him the next morning and were able to get a photo from a good distance as he was high up in a tree by the bath house.
My tradition is to buy some cut flowers to bring while we are camping. I can’t have flowers at home because the cats can’t seem to stay out of them. These are some that I found for this trip. They lasted over 2 weeks and were the prettiest I ever had.
