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 My suggestion is: If you don't love water,  don't come here! This beautiful park is mostly used by locals.  So consider yourself lucky that I am sharing the top notch goods with you. Just kidding. http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/camping.htm   This affordable jungle-like campground is literally surrounded by water on all sides. It has approximately 236 sites and books often months in advance. There are many water sites to choose from, many of them very spacious.  You'll be by mangroves on some sites.  This is literally a Florida experience at its best.  There are separate sections of the park:  1. If you own or don't mind being around people with pets. The pet section.  2. You guessed it:  Non-pet section for rigs of all sizes and tents.  3. Tent sites that can only fit tents or very small trailers. No pets here.  There is no lighting at night except for the entrance to the park and bath houses. Speaking of bath houses. There are plenty somewhat open concept ones, al

         Fort Desoto PAW PARK This large grassy dog park can be found inside the Fort Desoto (Pinellas County) Park in the greater Tampa Bay area of Florida.   If you happen to visit the nearby Fort Desoto campground or are just visiting the county park, it is very dog friendly. Adjacent to the dog park is the dog beach that attracts dog owners who want to treat their dogs ( and often themselves) to a day at the beach and a dip in the beautiful turquois Gulf of Mexico.  The PAW Park is separated by  small and large dogs areas. Both have a nice tall fence and some shade along with benches for the humans. What I like is that there are water bowls, faucets and hoses.  So on a hot day ( and there are plenty in southern Florida) you can hose down your hot dog or rinse him after a swim in the ocean to get rid of the saltwater or just to cool down your furr baby.  Pros : - well kept  - lush green grass -  benches - water stations  -

  It's the middle of July. 9 months ago we arrived in Florida.  Time flies when you're having fun, right!?  One that does not live a full time RV life could assume that we're just kicking back every day, sipping on our margaritas.  One couldn't be farther from reality!  Reality check: Since our move to our current location at Fort Desoto campground we spend 3 half days working in order to receive a free stay at said location.  We switch duties weekly: One week we clean camp sites.   Where we get to cruise around in a non-shock absorbent golf cart and prep sites for the new campers.  On other weeks we get to clean the campgrounds bath houses.  This is where one finds out really fast that we mostly live in a culture where people think it's okay to leave their mess behind for other people to clean. I'll spare you the details of what that could look like but you're welcome to let your imagination go wild at this point and even then, you probably won't come c

  Growing up in Germany 🇩🇪 I can't say I was an Elvis fan.  But I am certain generations before me were! If you would have told me back then, that one day I would be walking 🚶‍♂️ on Elvis's property I would have called you delirious! Well on that beautiful day in October I did, accompanied by my wonderful husband. What an honor to visit "HIM"! From his humble beginnings in Tupelo, Mississippi, to his rock & roll megastardom   Elvis Presley lead a truly larger-than-life existence. When I think of Elvis I always think of the song "walking in Memphis ". I wasn't sure what to expect.  For today's standards, Graceland is not as grand as I thought. Todays mansions have entrances made for a king with huge staircases; with kitchens the size of 10 kitchens put together, where I grew up. Not to forget the walk-in pantry, dual range and a fridge big enough to store food for an entire football team.  His kitchen was dark, with carpeting. But for the era i

 As we continue our journey and are now slowly making our way across the US from California to Florida,  it couldn't be more obvious how different each state is from another.  There are the obvious COVID19 safety standards.  In California people obey the 6 ft. distance rule inside stores.  In Arkansas,  not nessesarry!  In New Mexico we got to finally enjoy some dancing; outside at our favorite winery. It was wonderful!   Amaros Winery in Las Cruces,  NM Seeing familiar faces             The one way isles in stores don't seem to exist in Arkansas at this point. Leaving me feel almost normal, if it wasn't for the dreaded face mask. In Oklahoma people mingled mask-free at the RV park and helped us with our broken down truck, Covid or not.   Our spot at the famcamp in OKC Enjoying a walk around the adjacent pond  We just heard that Florida lifted its face mask mandate.  Can't wait to see what the new but also old normal of seeing faces will be like. Wait! Lipstick 💄?   I

Workamping  At one point or another, whether you are an RV'er or not, you might have heard of the term workamper or camphost. If you are NOT familiar with either one, let me briefly shet light into this mystical word, because I am nice or because its Thursday! Often when you live a full time RV life you need or want to find a way to either offset your cost for living expenses or to entertain yourself  or socialize or all of the above!  Often when you camphost, you work at a campground and you help check in guest, do basic maintenance work,  some cleaning, sell firewood and shower coins etc. in exchange for full hookup.  The lovely internet provides tons of options to look for jobs all over the world and that's how we found our camphost job in Napa Valley. We were looking forward to meeting lots of people,  hanging out with the other camphosts, while sharing stories with each other of how RV life really is. And then life happens... The fir