Leaving Sebastian/Vero Beach

We had packed up our lawn furniture last night and loaded the bikes on the car. It was a good thing we did, rain was pouring down this morning. Eldy was bemoaning the fact that he was going to get all wet --he doesn't have any decent rain gear, can you believe it? So Sparky whipped out an early birthday present, a brand spankin' new rainjacket, guaranteed to be waterproof! Eldy's birthday is April 14th, but hey, he needed it early! So out it came......in handy!

We are going to miss the Sebastian/Vero Beach area....Sunshine Travel RV Park (Encore Park) was a great park to stay in to visit the local state parks, and all the free beaches along the coast. You could get to everything within a half hour's drive or less. Sunshine Travel was a little bit aged, but it had nice facilities, a nice pool area and a very nice laundry. When we come back, we might be a little more picky about our site. They didn't give us a very nice one, even though we requested a second site...The state parks are wonderful in the area, but we didn't stay at the state parks because it was cheaper to use our Thousand Trails membership for a "free" stay at Sunshine. A cautionary word....if you read the reviews about Sunshine Travel, you'll see a complaint about the gate bar breaking on somebody's rig. We saw the gate bar broken at least five separate times while we were there. The office said it was because people were trying to "tailgate" each other in after unhooking their tow in the parking lot or visitors were crashing through the bar to get to the site. !!!!  Really?  The gate bar is a wooden bar wrapped in foam so that tells you something. So be careful when you go through the gate bar entrance. The office recommends unhooking the tow AFTER going through the gate bar entrance. They give you a key card to use......


Manatee Encore RV Park, Bradenton, FL
On the road again...we traveled across the state back to the west side, over to Bradenton, FL to the Manatee RV Park, an Encore park...We are here for one week, while my daughter, Kelly, comes for a visit. This is another old RV park, but the facilities are nice, the sites are farther apart than at Sunshine Travel back in Sebastian. The park is VERY close to I-75, so the noise can be quite loud on some sites. It's a HUGE park! About 400 sites. There are many park models but there is plenty of room for RVs as well. Two pools, and one hot tub, fitness room, large dance floor in the 6,000 square foot clubhouse, and lots of activities going on, even for this time of year when the snowbirds are leaving. We are backed up against the river, but with our little portable fan running at night for "white noise", we don't hear the road noise.

Here is our site.....#1113....We just arrived yesterday afternoon, and they are having water problems...We're not sure why the water problems, but we're glad we have our water tank 2/3 full coming into the park so we don't have to worry about not having park water! Sites are old asphalt drives, on the small and short side. We have to park our car on the grass which is what everybody does.

The larger of the two pools here at the park....

And there's shuffleboard....but we're just not into that sport!  There are nice laundry facilities and very friendly people here....We've met our neighbors already! Nick and Ritchie, who were our neighbors in Webster, are our next door neighbors.

We'll be here a week, and tonight, Sparky's daughter Kelly, flies into Tampa to spend a few days with us!  It's wonderful to see everybody again, and to have family visiting.........Life doesn't get any better with friends and family near when you are a full timer. We treasure the moments with family and friends when we get to have those moments, that's for sure!