Bill giving residents priority at booking FL state parks

padredw wrote:
We first stayed in a Florida State Park in 1962. It was then called "Fort Pickens State Park" but is now a part of the National Seashore. On that trip we traveled all around the perimeter of Florida with a tent--all the way down to the Everglade National Park on the Gulf side and back up on the Atlantic all the way up to Tomoka State Park. We were a young couple then traveling with a car and tent. We stayed mostly in Florida State Parks on that trip. We fell in love with Florida State Parks 60 years ago

Later, with our family, we spent weeks instead of days at our favorite parks with a larger tent: Fort Pickens, St. Andrews, Manatee Springs, etc. Upon retirement we became RV campers. Florida remained one of our favorite destinations. We have wonderful memories of staying in our trailer at St. Andrews and Fort Pickens.

I am now 90 years old; my wife is 87; but we have given up being able to spend even 4 or 5 days at St. Andrews--or probably any other state park in Florida. We are lucky to get 3 or 4 days at Fort Pickens National Park, and that is without such a law as this.

We don't blame anyone for this, certainly not the state of Florida or residents of Florida. The same thing has become true all over the country. It is certainly true of our popular state parks here in Texas. It is almost impossible to get a week at Tyler State Park here in East Texas, or in Inks Lake State Park in the Hill Country.

But for the state of Florida to take the step suggested by that Bill is an entirely different thing. The principle of reciprocity is important to "travelers" such as we still are more than it is to full timers. We travel from state to state with the feeling that we are guests, but we know that for people traveling to Texas we are the hosts. I suggest that should be the norm. I can just imagine if we get state after state making such distinctions and passing laws. I look back over 25 years of RV traveling (and 60 years of state park camping) with great appreciation of the hospitality of almost every state in the nation.

This law is not likely to affect the few years I have left to travel, but I think it would be a tragic decision and a terrible precedent for other states. Think carefully and remember to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."