Sonya's Blog - Day 196 - Driving to Hobe Sound

Sonya’s Blog - Day 196 - January 4th - Driving to Hobe Sound

Packing up day, hooray! This is our least favourite thing to do. We have never loved it, but it does get a little wearing. We do like going to our new spots, just not the packing up and moving part. Ah well, it is a necessary evil so we just get it done.

Once we got on the road, it was really easy to get onto the main interstate (2 turns) and then we were on that for the whole way. It was about a 3 hour trip to the next stop, Hobe Sound. Hobe Sound is 45 minutes north of West Palm Beach and 2 hours north of Miami. When I booked the campsite, I tried to get a spot in West Palm Beach. The problem was that we had waited too long to book and I couldn’t get anything. So I just kept calling campgrounds that were in the general area until I found one that had spots. There are lots of campgrounds around, but they are not always on the websites we look at, nor do they come up in searches of the area. We were told about an app that we can get (while we were in Savannah) that will show every campground in the area. This was too late for us to use in Florida, as we had already booked. The other issue was that we had booked our next stop, Marathon in the Florida Keys, way back when we were in Québec and we had to keep our timeline to that schedule. The Florida Keys book up really fast and someone warned us while we were in Québec that we should book right away or we would not get a spot. They were correct and when Blake booked it there were only 2 spots left for the week that we are going there (next week). We had to make sure to make that reservation, so we have booked all of the East Coast with the aim of making that reservation. The other thing was that we did not want to have a really long drive the day that we are going there, so we figured West Palm Beach would be a good area as it is about a 3 hour drive from Marathon. To make a long story short, that is why we are in Hobe Sound for our next stop.

We did have to stop for gas along the way and we chose the worst gas station, a BP. The pump was so slow, it was crazy. It took about 5 minutes just to get to $10 worth of gas. I know you are asking, why didn’t you just change pumps? Well, it is a huge hassle moving around with the trailer attached - you can’t just whip that thing around and try another pump. Plus, it would have taken just as long as waiting for the slow pump so we just waited it out. 20 minutes later the tank still wasn’t full, but we had enough gas to get us to our destination. We paid and got the hell out of there. Not only was the pump slow, but the station was really cluttered and messy. Just not well run.

The rest of our journey was uneventful and we found our campground without a problem. I was a little nervous about this campground because it was so inexpensive (the most inexpensive campground we have stayed at yet). It is cheap because it doesn’t have a pool or any amenities, it just has campsites. They are all full service and really that is all that matters to us. We did have a few problems getting into our site. They have a concrete patio at each site, but the parking pad for your RV is raised up and levelled. This is great, except that the other side was raised and blocked off with railway ties. This means that you have to back in the RV just right so that you don’t rub up against the concrete pad and wreck your tires, but also don’t come off the other side because that would be a mess. The angle was really funny and it took a long time to get it backed in perfectly. We managed and we didn’t even get pissy with each other (well not too much).

We got all set up, I made supper and then we settled in for the night. Not the most exciting of days, but the move is done and now we can explore this area of Florida.

Sonya