Fort DeSoto County Park

downtown Naples, the newer part

It's only 2 1/2 hours from Naples..down I-75, then I-275, then a couple more turns and here we are! fort DeSoto is a chain of five interconnected islands or keys. It used to cost in the low thirties to camp here with water and electric. It's now a little higher. Many of the sites are on a bayou. You are much more isolated from your neighbors here because of the lush tall palms which have flourished here for many years. The older overgrowth is what can cause problems for bigger rigs if you are not careful..we started out in site 202 which we had reserved when we were still back in our smaller Challenger. We didn't realize what a difference almost three feet longer makes along with four slides instead of three, AND they come out farther...here is where teamwork is of the essence and patience or lack of, can make or break your relationship TEMPORARILY...Fortunately, I met Eldy in his later years, and according to his kids, he has mellowed a LOT. So we are still on solid ground after quite an ordeal getting into the site today.....(I wasn't worried, folks!) And by the way, I have mellowed a lot, too...so we're a good match...

Now Eldy and I make a great team when it comes to backing into a site....but site 202 had an overhead tree with an L shaped angle in the front that threatened to take out our side mirror or the awning topper,  and a palm tree sticking out on the other side that was going to do some serious damage to the roof, had I not stopped Eldy in time. I managed to guide him in but it was so narrow that if we had even tried to get our slides out, we would have had no room to get out and walk around. Back down to the office to sheepishly explain that we did not realize how little room we were going to have with a different coach. They were kind enough to offer us another site, #218. We drove around to it in the car, checked it out, it seemed to have LOTS more space on each side if we got the coach in. Back down we come, and we proceeded to work it, work it, work it together. In and out Eldy went with the RV....."Back up, WHOA!" Tree branch. Yikes! .."Go forward, go forward, turn, now forward, NO, BACK UP!" Uh-oh! "STOP!!" I'm frantically waving with my hands all over the place, pointing left with one hand, motioning to back up with the other which means, turn your wheels and back up at the same time...I need signal man flags like they have for aircraft carriers! Sometimes he can't see me in the mirrors. As soon as I disappear from sight (moving around to the other side to check for obstacles) he stops until he can see me again, which is a good thing, because we would not be "roughing it smoothly" as Tiffin says, if he ran over me! It was a very difficult half hour getting him into the site with room for the slides on both sides. We would get all the way in only to discover that the other side slide didn't have enough room...pull forward, back up, pull forward, back up...We finally got it! It must be very funny to anybody watching to see all the gestures and gyrations I go through to tell him which way to turn the wheels, but our little system seems to work well for us. We tried walkie talkies for awhile early on, but it took me so much time to figure out WHAT to tell him to do, it was easier to make hand signals instead. But I bet it's comical to watch! We are almost thinking that we've gotten too big for many of the beautiful sites that are on the water after today's struggle to get in and situated....Eldy's glad we aren't moving for 12 days! We'll have photos of the Fort DeSoto campground tomorrow...here are a few leftovers from Naples...sigh! I miss it already! And folks, it's 57 degrees with a stiff wind blowing hard today...br-r-r-r-r-r...but the kids back in Indiana say, "We don't want to hear any complaining!"

some kind of duck at Sugden Park, Naples

Tin City area Naples

ducks coming or going?  at Sugden Park, Naples

Hibiscus beauty on our Neopolitan Cove site