What a day. After our great visit with the Seale's, not much else went as planned.
We decided to visit the sites of our old schools. Three Bears Nursery School is now Gainesville Country Day School, and has K-5th grade. Took a little work to find it, and it doesn't resemble its predecessor in any way. Then we went to PK Yonge. We recognized some features, but I think it is much bigger. We got lots of pictures.
By then it was lunchtime, and way past my noon deadline to leave. We stopped at Steak and
Shake on the way to I75, as we already mentioned. It was 2 by the time we left Gainesville. We changed the already modified plan, and decided to just do St. Pete on the way north, so we could get to our next campsite in daylight. Good thing we did. The Fort Myers campground office closed at 4 pm. There was a number to call after hours, but Barb's phone didn't find a network here. So we drove around until we found a pay phone. We tried the number three times, and all there was was dead air. No ring, no message, no nothing. I am furious, because they are prepaid. I will FIGHT to get that money back. Now we have nowhere to stay. Again. We decided to drive around for 1 hour, and if there was no result, just set up on an open area in the yukky place we had a reservation. We would not have been able to shower, because they lock the bathhouse.
It was really a gross place. VERY senior population, campers and trailers for the whole season, smashed together with no landscaping at all. Just gross.
We started to pull out of the Winn Dixie parking lot, and I asked Barb to check something on Google. Didn't we leave the iPad at the phone booth??????? We whipped around and rescued it, thank the heavens.
About the second turn we came to after we left had a sign to Sanibel and Captiva, so we just took it. We asked the toll taker if there were any tent campgrounds, and she wasn't sure but said to go right at the first stop, and try Periwinkle campground. They were SO friendly and nice. They have 8-10 primitive sites, and she gave us a really nice one, surrounded by vegetation. We don't have many neighbors, and it is nice and quiet. We are just a few steps from a nice bathhouse (had a cool shower). It is so much better than what I found online.
We drove around for about an hour, to the lighthouse and beach, picked up a few shells, and had dinner at the Lazy Flamingo. Hoppin' place!! 30 minute wait to eat, but the food was good, and reasonable price. And I had a piece of Key Lime Pie. It was a really nice followup to all our near disasters. Fortunately, all our disasters have ended up working out for the better.
Tomorrow is going to be a hard day. We will take another loop around Sanibel, then head for St. Pete. We have to hustle through our stops in St. Pete, because we have a reservation in
Georgia tomorrow night. It will be one of our longest days.
Time to hit the tent, so I can get up a little earlier tomorrow, and get a good start.
Till then! Pleasant dreams.
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