Ideally, we would have continued south along the Gulf Coast following our stay in St. Pete. However, despite booking our accommodations nearly seven months beforehand, we were disappointed to discover that basically all of South Florida was booked up for RVs from January through March. I searched far and wide to find a site in the Keys during the month of February only to come up short time and again (and even got laughed at a few times when calling RV parks)! Because of this, we were forced to cut our trip down the coast off around Fort Myers and make our way inland.
Following a hectic drive through Bradenton and the southern edge of the Tampa metro, it was only a couple hour drive to our next stay, the Ortana Locks Campground, located in the middle of farm country about halfway between LaBelle and Moore Haven
As the name suggests, this neat Army Corp of Engineers campground is located right next to navigation locks on the Caloosahatchee Canal which connects Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. We enjoyed watching the locks open/close for boats passing through and exploring the paths along the canal, which featured a good view of a shipwreck!
Given that we were in the middle of nowhere, it was a largely uneventful week around the campground, so Sam took the opportunity to drive over to Naples for a few days to visit her friend, Emily, who was staying in her family’s condo!
Welp, that’s all for this one, folks. Tune in next time when we make our way over to the edge of Lake Okeechobee and continue our glamourous trip through inland Florida!