The State Parks
Most of our doggy adventures are in Florida’s state parks. According to tripsavvy.com, 50 of Florida’s 161 state parks offer camping facilities. And nearly all of them have some great sniffing aromas – squirrel, rabbit, armadillo, bobcat, turtle… All kinds of good stuff!
I could swear I saw a squirrel!
Summer in Florida is off-season. Weird, huh? From June through October, RV sites are usually available. Even spur-of-the-moment. Just give the parks a call.
Look Out in Snowbird Season!
From December through early April, when it gets cold up north, everyone and his brother-in-law wants a spot in Florida state parks! Like everyone else, our dad has to book sites 11 months in advance and be one of the first people on the ReserveAmerica website to grab them before they’re gone.
In the winter, we see license plates from every cold place in the country and Canada. And we even see a few brave people staying in tents when the night-time temperatures dip into the 30s. Brrr!
Camping in the Florida Heat
Summer camping in Florida is a totally different matter. The summer sun here is brutal and, if the air conditioning goes off for some reason, the inside temperature can escalate in minutes. So, take it from us. If you have pets, try to book a shaded site!
If we know we’re not going to be hooked up to shore power, we make sure our generator is in excellent working order to power the air conditioning. In fact, our dad’s biggest worry in the summer is the A/C since we have to stay alone from time to time. When it’s cool we let dad leave us for a good while, but when it’s hot we give him a 2-hour time limit. He whines about it, but our safety comes first. (If he’s gone longer than we like, we have been known to pee on the rug. Our dad’s not dumb. He gets it.)
God Bless Air Conditioning!
How we love our den in the RV! Especially since we negotiated some perks. We prefer a temperature of about 72 – not too cold and not too hot. We like to cuddle under our velour throws and peek out to guard the fort.
Always at the ready to take the arm off an intruder
Keeping the temperature right in the Florida heat can be tricky. We’ve seen the flickering lights and heard the gasping generator sound when something cycles on that draws extra power. In our current RV the generator has shut down when the refrigerator compressor cycled on. It even decided to shut down when we’ve put out a slide. So, we’ve decided to keep our refrigerator switched to propane. That way only the only draw on the generator is the air conditioner. That seems to be more dependable.
Well, that’s about all our doggystyle camping tips for the day. Time to curl up and rest. We’ll need our strength in case a Florida critter walks by.
Mandy, Anya, Rico & Binski
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