February in Florida

 

Getting out of south Florida without using i-95 or Fl. Turnpike

February 1-10

We really hated to leave south Florida, even though the temperatures were running ten degrees lower than normal it was still better than South Carolina. It was still very cold at Myrtle Beach with many nights dipping down into the 20’s. That’s very rare, almost unheard of on the coast.  (At the time we didn’t know that the cold would linger through February and March. It wasn’t unit April that we started to see some spring time weather.) instead of meandering our way home we decided to stay south until the last minute and then scoot up home in time for my eye injection. 

A county park on the St. Lucie River

Phepp's Campground

We secured a three-day reservation in a county park near Stuart Florida. Phipp’s Campground sits on the bank of the St. Lucie River. The river runs horizontally across the state to Lake Okeechobee. There is a boat lock system adjacent to Phipp’s which is interesting to watch in operation. The east lock, along with another lock on the west side controls the lake Okeechobee water level while allowing boats to navigate across the state.

On the trail around the park

Corp of Engineers lock for boats in the background

Phipp’s Campground had been flooded during a hurricane a year or so ago and they had recently reopened after being rebuilt. It now has full hookup sites and all the riverfront sites have concrete parking pads. It is close to all the amenities that Stuart has to offer, we liked staying here a lot.

On our way to the Phipps campground, we passed thru the town of Pahokee which was to be our next stop.  The town owned campground sits adjacent to Lake Okeechobee and it sounds like a neat place, but it wasn’t very well kept. We found the town to be very old and run down, it had a very unsafe third world feeling. Surrounded by thousands of acres of sugar cane, Pahokee is also very secluded with nothing to do there and nowhere nearby to travel to. We decided to see if we could extend our stay at Phipps.  

Pahoke town Campground on Lake Okeechobee

I checked in at the office and they could accommodate us as long as we were willing to relocate to a different camp site in the middle of our stay. On the road we live like travelers without all the trappings of Campers who set up a semi-permanent homestead. Setting up or breaking camp is very quick for us, we were happy to move to the back street. Our total time here will now be six days.

We went to Stuart several times and made the usual stops, Walmart and thrift stores. During our stay we ate out once at Cracker Barrel and on another day, we got a chicken tender sub from Publix’s, both meals had leftovers for another sitting.

Publix Chicken Tender Sub.......good eatin!

On the road to town there is a large mobile home park where you own the lot your trailer sits on. We have no plans of moving to Florida but were just curious and drove up and down several of the streets. Although tightly packed on small lots, it would be a neat retirement spot if you were a fishing enthusiast. It wouldn’t work very well for us coming and going in the RV.

Mobile home park on the St. Lucie River

The Corp of Engineers has a small campground next to the lock, which it operates. When we leave here, we will stay in their companion campground next to the lock on the west side of lake Okeechobee. 

February 7-10 2025

On our departure day from Stuart Florida, we drove west back to Lake Okeechobee and then circled counterclockwise around the perimeter road. In the past every time we have passed the lake it was on highway 27 which passes by the southern portion of the 320,278-acre lake. We thought it would be interesting to see the environs on the upper side of the lake.

A new route for us around the top of the lake

A lot of the lake itself is hidden behind huge flood control berms, but occasionally we caught a glimpse of it. We did pass all manner of fish camps. Some right out of the fifty’s and some have had an influx of money and appear more modern but maintain the fish camp look. Seasonal or monthly rental rates were very reasonable by Florida standards, but like Pahokee on the east side, it is a very isolated area.

Many fish camp RV parks around the top side of the lake

On the west side of the lake near the town of La Belle our next stop was a COE (Corp of Engineers) campground called Ortona Campground. It is a top-notch campground, kind of like an oasis in the desert as its location is very isolated. No longer fields of sugar cane, the surroundings appear to be range for grazing cattle. 

Corp of Engineers Ortona Campground and boat lock

Sailboat leaving the lock after being lifted to lake water level.

swinging doors to the lock

We drove into La Belle one day; it has grown a lot since the last we passed by here. The new businesses seemed to be mostly fast-food shops; we didn’t see much of interest to us.

February 10 2025

We left Ortano Campground at 7am and drove halfway home, spending the night at Country Oaks RV Park in Kingsland Georgia. The next day we continued the journey home. A two-day total of 650 miles on non-interstate roads. 

It's still winter here in Myrtle Beach, but it's always good to be home!

630 mile route on local roads