Ah! Sunny Florida! Winter Quarters Pasco

The office/lounge with the shuffleboard court in front

Our first stop in Florida was in Lutz which is north of Tampa in an Encore campground called Winter Quarters Pasco. This was our first time here.

Entrance to campground

Our very first impression was that it was noisy with the highway being right there beside it. And yes, it is noisy. But the people here more than make up for this inconvenience. From the office staff to the annual and seasonal residents, everyone is friendly and happy. The staff is very helpful and tries hard to make everyone's stay here pleasant.

It is an old campground but the streets are paved and each site has a cement patio. They don't allow any campfires or even charcoal BBQs. Our site is close to the road which reminds me of our apartment in Hamilton sometimes. Our neighbours on both sides are very nice. One even took the time to make friends with Cheeka.

Paved streets lined with lights. Some permanent homes and some motorhomes or trailers.

The lounge area is quite nice and we go there often to take advantage of the free internet. Every Friday, there is Happy Hour from 4 to 6pm with free wine/beer and munchies. I have made quite a few friends there! They also have breakfast a few days a week for a very reasonable price. The food is good and the company even better.

The lounge building lined with golf carts which is the preferred mean of transportation here.

Inside the lounge

Our internet corner. We seem to be almost the only ones using this spot.

The small pool is lovely. Most times we have it to ourselves. We tried the hot tub but it was almost too hot to be enjoyable. Plenty of loungers line the pool and there is a HUGE umbrella providing shade in one corner. It is very comfortable and we also get use of the internet there too.

There are two off-leash fenced areas for dogs located at the edge of the park. One area is for small dogs and the other for larger ones. Poop bags and garbage cans are provided. The whole area is shaded by large trees. It's quite nice to sit on the benches in the shade while the dog sniffs every blade of grass and twig.

I forgot to mention the two small lakes and the pond. One lake is right behind the office where we can access a long dock that leads to a nice gazebo. The breeze can be a bit cool there so we have rarely gone there which is a shame since it is very lovely with the sound of the water fountain which sits in the middle of the lake. A lot of the mobile homes and trailers that line the lake have decks right on the water.

Across the road from our site is a small pond that attracts many shorebirds like Egrets, a Little Blue Heron, Ibis and a pair of Sandhill Cranes that have made the campground home. Around the corner, we always see the resident Tortoise that looks like a garden ornament until you see her blink. So cute!

Little Blue Heron

Sandhill Crane

An Egret with her catch

Our beautiful resident tortoise

Across the highway we have different stores, a vet clinic, a dentist and a medical center. We can walk to Lowe's and Walmart is just about 10 minutes away. Very convenient!

Our friend Michelle is quite enjoying all the attention her dog Sadie is getting here. Sadie, a lovely Greyhound rescued from the racetrack right here in Florida, is also a service dog for Michelle which means she can go everywhere with her. So she has become a favorite in the lounge area where she lies on her big cushion while we search the internet. Sadie has even become quite the social butterfly from all this attention and now gives kisses to anyone who cares to pet her.

Michelle and I

Sadie is never very far from Michelle

I must mention here that Sadie, being a boney Greyhound, must have a comfy cushion to lie on. While visiting our trailer, she had to make do with Cheeka's bed which was quite funny!

Everyone here keeps saying that we'll be back and I think they're right!

The trip to Florida

We made it! With some adventure of course.

We pulled out of our site at Bay Meadows without any problems and took off for the States. It was very windy which kept moving our trailer from side to side making the truck feel like it was slipping on ice. I kept having to correct our path and was hanging on to the steering wheel tightly. Then we were in New York and were met by a snowy area while hail was coming down. The wind was still blowing which made matters worst. We stopped at one of the many texting stops to gather our thoughts. There was a truck parked there and a police car so I decided to ask either of them if they knew how long these weather conditions would last. The trucker turned out to be a wonderful young French Canadian who told me how that area was known for bad conditions and that it was only for about 10 miles and then would be ok. So we continued our route going slowly and being very careful while I gripped the steering wheel with much more force than needed.

We finally arrived at our first destination, Highlands Campground, in Pennsylvania. The host/owner was really nice and we had a choice of sites. We pulled into one of the few pull-throughs since we were only staying one night. The campground was practically empty of people so Cheeka was able to roam free and explore the forest. Very quiet and surrounded by trees, this place feels like real camping. We will definitely go back on our way back home as they open April 15th and the fact that it closes Nov. 4th makes it a good stop on our way down.

Then we made our way to Chesapeake Bay Campground in Virginia where we stayed for 4 days. With the Thousand Trails zone pass, we can stay up to 4 days in one of their campgrounds and go directly to the next T.T. campground. We always enjoy our stays at Chesapeake Bay. The staff is very pleasant and it is a nice place even when most of the activities are shut down. There are trails where we can walk Cheeka off leash (not supposed to but nobody is ever on those trails).

Weird spiral tree

Entertainment during the seafood festival

Different vendors came to sell their wares

From there normally we go to The Oaks in South Carolina but they didn't have room for us so we booked at Carolina Landings which is further west. Our friend Michelle met us there to continue the trip down with us.

The first impression driving into Carolina Landings is good. The office building is cute and well landscaped and the campground is gated. At this time of the year they were decorated for fall and it looked really cute.

BUT, that's where the magic ends. As soon as you cross the gate, you see rows of RVs packed like sardines on the right (where Michelle ended up) and we went left down a terrible road to an area where we slid down the gravel hill as I was trying to keep our speed down to then trying to figure out where one was supposed to park the rig as the sites were so uneven and rough. We continued on to a flatter area where we finally found a spot. Each site has a cement patio so to be beside that patio we ended really close to our absentee neighbour. If that old motorhome had been occupied it would have been really uncomfortable. And.... there was no sewer connection. On a brighter side, the water pressure was fabulous!

Glen who likes to take showers in the public ones provided (don't understand why) couldn't get any of the showers to work as the faucets were all broken and half coming off the wall. I didn't check the ladies' room as I didn't care.

We did find a nice trail to let Cheeka run on. Once there it wasn't so terrible but it certainly will never be our first choice for a stopover.

Eastern Blue Bird

There was also a lake but it was such a hike to get there with lots of hills to climb that we took the truck. The beach was badly eroded but it was kind of a sweet spot. If we had stayed longer we probably would have spent more time there.

We decided to leave one day early and drive halfway down to Florida and stay at a rest area for one night. It's not the quietest place to sleep (a lot of large trucks run all night long) but it's safe and it's free. We were glad we did this as it made the next day so much easier.

So here we are finally in Florida at Winter Quarters Pasco. I'll tell you all about it in the next blog!