A Dead Body Will Slow You Down!

<- Tampa from across the bay.

After our maintenance, we drove to the South Sarasota Elks Club for the night. They have 2 RV spaces, with water and 30 amp electric for $10.00/night. We had dinner there... the food was good but the wait staff was overwhelmed and service was poor.

On Thursday, 1/18, we drove back down to Venice to work on a computer for a friend of ours from Rochester, MN. The computer was at his parents place in Venice, and it had been subject to the service call from hell by a local repair shop. They had re-installed the OS, without having all the necessary Dell driver disks for the machine. Little was working right. I was able to download the drivers from Dell and get it up, and reconfigure their wifi and get it connected. Consuelo visited with them while we were there. They were very nice folks, and we enjoyed our time there.

We got a few groceries on the way back, then packed up and left for Ruskin, our next destination. Since we can't tow our rental car (see "Bam!"), Consuelo left first, about 5 minutes ahead of me in the motorhome, right around 3:00 PM. Just as I was about to get on I-75, she called to report that traffic was jammed up, moving at about 15 mph. We decided to stay the course, and we were both soon stuck in 15 mph traffic. As we progressed slowly along, I listened to the CB radio, and Consuelo got off at the next exit to get gas. A Sheriff's deputy was in the gas station, and he reported that a dead body had been found on I-75, and that was the reason for the backup. We've all seen CSI on TV, and we know that they can take hours examining a crime scene. Truckers on the CB were reporting a 10 mile backup, and we did not know how far ahead it reached.

I decided that it might be quicker to take the exit Consuelo was at and drive over to US41 in Sarasota, then take 41 up to Ruskin, which we did. Traffic near I-75 was thick, but we were able to do the speed limit after a couple miles, except for all the traffic lights. Even so, it was slow going on 41, as it goes through downtown everything along the western shore of Florida. We finally decided to take 301 in Palmetto back over to I-75, which was now clear. We cruised up I-75 to Ruskin, and made our way to the County Park.

<- Our campsite at Simmins, with our rental car

E. G. Simmins County Park is one of many Hillsborough County parks. It is located on Tampa Bay, and has 2 nice campgrounds in it. We had visited it 2 years earlier when we were here, one of those rare finds we made while out driving around. Other campers had told us is was nice, and a couple next to us in Collier-Seminole had just come from Simmins. It's no secret, but it's not well known, and because they don't take reservations and have a 2 week limited stay, the snow-birds don't frequent the place.

But our dead body had now held us up beyond closing time. It had taken us over 3 hours to travel 45 miles, aybe 55 with our detour. When we arrived, the gates were closed and locked. No problem, we can park outside the gate all night, but many parks like this have camp hosts who can register late arrivals and get them into sites for the night. I decided to walk into the campground and find out if there was such a person, just as a camper arrived at the gate going out. I stopped them, and asked them is they knew of a camp host. They said no.

Just then, a junior park ranger arrived on hos way into the park. So I asked him if there was a way to get in tonight. He asked a couple questions, then made me promise we would go to the desk and register first thing in the morning. Then he said we could go in and find a site, and close the gate behind us.

So we went back, got the MH and car started, and proceeded to the gate. As we're moving in that direction, another park vehicle drives up, closes and locks the gate. Huh? Well, it turns out that this is the park manager, and he thinks we're trying to sneak in. No way!

And at this point, it's a bit like playing 'post office'. I talked to the junior ranger, and the manager ends up talking with Consuelo. The manager has his hackles up, and isn't listening. Consuelo was not privy to the details of my conversation with the junior. So we end up sleeping outside the gate for the night. That would not have been so bad if the manager had not suggested that it might not be safe to sleep outside the gate. And we were still thinking of the dead body. Needless to say, we didn't get very good sleep that night, though nothing happened. The 11:00 news had reports about the dead body on I-75, and the huge traffic jam it caused. The body was found in a river, under a bridge. It was so badly decomposed, they didn't know if it was a man or a woman.

The next morning, the park opened at 6:00, but the office did not open until 8:00. At 7:15, we took the car and cruised through the park to see where we might like to camp. At the end of one of the camping areas, we were followed by a park vehicle, so I got out and talked to the ranger, who turned out to be the manager. I told him we had been given permission by one of his staff to enter. While he tried to tell me that the rules were the rules, I rebuked him for not training his staff properly to enforce them. Then I told him I accept his apology. Somehow, the chip fell of his shoulder, and we continued looking for a campsite. In a few minutes, he came up again and offered to open the office for us and register us early to try to make amends for the last night. We accepted. But he did not get away without Consuelo giving him a piece of her mind for his attitude. He finally showed his good side, offering tips on which campsites were best and advising where to get a fishing license in town.

Thumper likes this place. There are places she can swim off leash (not at the swimming beach). Her only complaint is that there are sand burrs that get caught on her toes. Here she's trying to get one out. She learned quickly, though, that I'm pretty good at finding them and removing them, so she cooperates when I lift her paw.

We might just come here again. But next time we'll skip the dead body, thank you very much.