We were surprised to find out how it feels to actually get kicked out of a park… well, kind of anyway. We had planned to utilize overflow parking for one night that was full during our stay at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Florida but to our surprise they would not allow it. You see because we had to change our reservations at this park to delay our arrival at the Everglades National Park we ended up with a 3 day stay, a non-booked day and a 2-day stay at Jonathan Dickinson.
Since we had previously utilized staying in overflow parking at other Florida State parks we assumed we’d be able to just stay in the overflow area, have fun at the park the next morning and then check back in for our last two night. So, when we checked in we asked and were told, sure… if nobody cancels for that night we’ll gladly let you stay in overflow as long as you’re in a self-contained unit. Can’t get much more self-contained than our camper van so we were extremely surprised when we checked for cancellations and found none and were then told we could not use overflow parking since we had a reservation the next night there. What??? Yep! If you have a reservation coming up you can’t arrive early and use overflow.
OK, we’ll just find a place to stay the night and everything will be fine. Wow! Southern Florida is not very dry-camping friendly. In fact they are about the opposite of dry-camping friendly. We had to drive an hour further south to find a Cracker Barrel that allowed overnight stays. So, off to Boynton Beach for that night and then it was back to the state park where we got to actually get out on the Loxahatchee River on our paddle boards and actually caught a few fish! Yeah!
So all that said, that one night could leave us bitter and upset… but, nope! We just rolled with the flow and arrived back at the gate around 10am the next morning, found our campsite for the night already open, hooked up the electric and headed out on the water for a very fun day.
And, Maggie got to meet up with two of her biggest fans, according to Shawn and Dawn Kane of Michigan. They reached out to us to find out where we were since they were in Florida and quickly made their way to the park we were at so we could spend some time together. Well, more like so they could meet the famous Maggie and we tagged along. 🙂 We found a great Mexican restaurant and headed out for dinner together. It was great getting to know them and hear about their Travato van travels too. Maggie felt right at home with them too and even rode in Shawn’s lap on the trip. See, she is the star of the channel… but we’re OK with that. She is such a bundle of love and fun and we are so lucky to have her in our life.
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VAN TREKKING lifestyle 