first snowbird season in florida this winter 2014/2015-help

HappyKayakers wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:
My advice would be to ask the CG manager how many of the campers are 'permanent residents'. This will determine how pleasant of a stay you will have.

Does that mean all permanent residents are bad? Or all permanent residents are good? Or they're more/less demanding?

:R The term permanent resident will always bring up controversy.

Everyone knows what it is and what it CAN mean in a CG situation.

Week end campers have the time and they can drive to the CG and take a look first to see if it has affected the overall tone of a CG.

Those of us on the road do not have that luxury. It is thru years of experience that I have found that I do not want to stay a few days or even overnight in a CG that is populated with perm residents.

During the past rescission many CG's to try and stay in business turned to accepting local permanent residents. Many of my favorite CG's along my north to south travels are now on my do not stay list. :(

To each his own. But when I pull in after a long day of driving my MH? I don't want to have to listen to yelling, screaming, drunks, gun shots, and the like.

rockhillmanor wrote:
My advice would be to ask the CG manager how many of the campers are 'permanent residents'. This will determine how pleasant of a stay you will have.

I full time and found out that once I drove over the state line into Florida it 'did' make a difference how many permanent resident campers where in the CG I stopped at. It became my first question when calling to ahead to reserve.

Sometimes, this is true.

I have to add that the number of permanents is not a hard and fast rule nor necessarily as negative item

I have been in more than one park with over 30% permanents and I would dare you to tell the difference between permanent, seasonal or overnight.

Those parks had rules regarding outside appearance and enforced them. I believe that made all the difference.

We just spent 3 months in central Florida and had a wonderful time. The park was large and had lots to do in and around the park. The older folks living in the park models were friendly and active. The majority of folks were from southern Ontario and nice folks they are! The rest were mostly from Ohio or Michigan.

We were warned about fire ants, but the powder we used at the first sign of any Nest/mound took care of the problem. Regular ants were everywhere, but we never had a problem inside. We sprayed garden bug killer on the ground around our site and had no problems. Mosquitoes are a abundant when the sun goes down, but sitting outside until then is perfect!

There were plenty of ponds and lakes around us, with lots of alligators, but they are inactive in winter and provided plenty of photo ops! If you have a pet, of course you keep them leashed and away from the ponds, nor did we let our dog lay in the abundant grass all around us. Fire ants will bite dogs too, but we were careful and had no incidents. DH and I each got one fire ant bite, and they are nasty, but once we were aware it didn't happen again. (Watch your step)
We had no problems with mildew or humidity in our fiver, Florida weather in winter is delightful, and used minimal AC. We already leased our site for next year and can't wait to go back!

Just want to add that this park had lots of seasonal park models, and the permanent residents were few and in their own area. We found all the people,to be very friendly and welcoming, always with a wave or greeting. RV's outnumbered the park models, and so those were the folks you interact with the most. So, our experience with "permanent residents" was no different than with everyone else.

Please be careful with your pets around all that powder and spray for bugs. Also, fire ants don't aways have mounds. I was walking through flat grass once and immediately had them crawling up me. They are painful. That's why we love Arizona. Have a good trip!

Trish

A lot really depends on what your looking for in an RV park and the local area. Arcadia is RURAL. It is a small town. There is a Walmart, Winn Dixie, and a Publix (changing to IGA is the rumor) for grocery shopping. Plenty of fast food resturants. Other eating choices are limited. Seems to be plenty of golf courses near by. I am not a golfer so can't comment on cost or quality. You will have a bit of a drive to the ocean or major shopping, movies, etc (probably a little over an hour). Some people like rural areas others like a more urban environment.


Someone mentioned Sun N Fun in Sarasota. It is a very large park with tons of activities. It is also expensive and some of the sites are less than desirable. Very different than Big Tree which is much smaller.

Contact me if you have any further questions.

I live in Port Charlotte and it seems the bug problem depends a lot on your proximity to water or a lot of vegetation. In town or rural. Here we are not bothered by mosquitos, no seeums, palmetto bugs or ants, except for fire ants.For those we make sure we keep a bottle of bleach in the house. When you accidently step on a fire ant mound and realize they are on your feet you get a paper towel and the bleach and wipe the area of skin down where they were. If you do this within a couple of minutes there will be no after effect such as stinging or red bumps.The bleach does not hurt you. These mounds are small and when walking thru grassy area watch for them. The ants are tiny.

Wow, I think if we hadn't spent the Winter months in Florida the past 4 years I would give the State a wide berth after reading some of these comments.

First off, us old people act about the same here as we do anywhere else 'ceptin there is a lot more of us. You do have to drive defensively at all times I will admit that.

We have the same spot in a park on the East side of Tampa each year. It's close to everything yet it's in the country. We pay about $300/month (depending on electric usage), so there are some nice and economical parks to be had. Our park is populated with more than 3/4 permanents. There are definitely "clicks" but we all get along quite well with few wild parties and we've seen no excessive gun-play. All you need look for is the campground/Park owner that will not put up with the nonsense.

As far as ants go, we buy the gallon spritzer of anti-ant chemical at the local Home Depot, spray along under the edge of the trailer all the way around and also any anthills that might crop up. No ant problem period.

I too am originally from (the real)Upstate New York and after 60+ NY Winters, one visit told us this is the place to be before the first snowfall.

Come on down without fear, you are going to love it!

Wow, I think if we hadn't spent the Winter months in Florida the past 4 years I would give the State a wide berth after reading some of these comments......We have the same spot in a park on the

Tampa

each year. It's close to everything yet it's in the country....

It depends WHERE you stay in Florida! Staying in South Florida is way different than in the Central and North area. :W

I'm from up North Wisconsin and the CG where I stay during the summer months is divided equally with 1/3 seasonal, 1/3 permanents, and 1/3 traveling and/or snowbird RV's. That said, I LOVE it there! It is the only place I stay at. So yes I stay at CG's with permanents. But my comment on not staying at CG's with permanents still stands when 'traveling'.

Trying to be PC and trying to assist fellow campers where to stay in the North Florida is difficult at best. But it is what it is and a name is given to it, Redneck 'country'. They don't want you there and I'd rather not run across it in my MH. I am presently staying north and east of MidCentral Florida and I am here to tell you it isn't Tampa! You have to be aware of where you plan on staying.:B

Mid Central and North Florida is TOTALLY different from staying at a CG in the far south of Florida which is mostly inhabited by us tourists anyway! :W

As you say, it is what it is. We take our time and stay at a lot of campgrounds coming and going each year. We stumbled upon one in Western NY State that my wife calls "Deliverance"! We know of 2 we look forward to stopping at in Northern Florida that are great and also know of one near Stark, Fl where Anthony Perkins might have been scared to stay overnight. You have the same possibilities whether it's Florida, Ohio, or Mississippi. We stay at least 2 nights in a place to try and get a little feel for the campground and the area for next time. Whatever we find it's all part of our RV journey.