Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas, FL

Do not drive to Fort De Soto without a reservation for a campsite or you will have a big backtrack in your future. We were lucky in that we got the last site available on a Friday afternoon. This is a magnificent camping venue that should no be missed! The sites are just barely isolated from each other by the thick vegetation. The island of Tierra Verde forms an inverted  "T" with each segment running about a mile and a half. The camping is on the central shaft and the beaches and fort are on the cross bar. The huge Tampa Bay Bridge is the main visual element from the eastern portions of the beach. There is a small museum commemorating the quartermaster operations at the fort.



The afternoon temperatures are creeping into the mid eighties, but relaxing in the shade is still very enjoyable. I'm hopeful that the evening will cool to the mid sixties, or else we will be running Morty's A/C. We are in the pet area, and the ranger says that is good because the raccoons are much less aggressive here.
This is the first time we have had the opportunity and space to fully unfurl our new patio carpet, and it is fully up to handling the job.

Pinellas County, Florida

We have spent four days here relaxing and recharging. We ventured out to nearby parks a couple of times. One park has an agricultural extension service, and a historical venue named Heritage Village. It also has a defunct art museum with magnificent buildings and classrooms which closed its doors permanently in January, 2009. A very depressing sight -- the building complex was worth over $5 million at the time it was abandoned to the county.



Heritage Village is a much happier place, although its attendance seems too low to maintain its viability. We had a personal tour by Deborah the Docent. The pictures are mostly self-explanatory. We saw a Common Moorehen come swimmin' by.