1254 April 6, 2025 See You Later Alligator!
I walked laps at the Midway Campground. We packed up and left shortly after 9am. Today we said goodbye to Southern Florida. No more Everglades until next winter. Tim wanted to drive up through the center of Florida. We traveled through Big Cypress National Forest. Then we drove through panther country. We drove through farmland and arrives in a small town called Immokalee. We were looking for a place to pull over and take a break. We saw a park but we couldn’t find the way in. We drove a little further and found a large empty parking area near a tomato packing plant. We stopped. Outside the garage door, there was a large bin of free tomatoes. Tim picked out 3 beautiful, perfect, vine ripened tomatoes.
I worked on the blog while we were in an area with service. Tim went walking in the town. He came back excited. He said we had stumbled upon a huge Farmers Market. We drove across the street and found a large industrial complex with huge warehouses for sorting and packing produce. We didn’t see any retail sales and we were a little disappointed.
We turned back onto New Market Road and saw a nice produce stand. In the parking lot, several men were loading a pickup truck with hundreds of watermelons. The guys sliced one open and handed us a sample of the most delicious red and juicy watermelon. There were thousands of melons in boxes on pallets. We purchased a whole watermelon, corn on the cob, and mangoes.
As we walked back to the RV, we saw a small alley that led to more than a dozen other produce vendors. We had fun walking through and choosing some avocadoes and pepitas and Tim got a mamey.
We continued our journey. The smaller towns gave way to larger towns with all of the big box stores and fast-food restaurants that we see in every larger town across the country. We stopped and did a Walmart run for RV supplies and staples.
Tim asked me to start looking for a campground for this evening. I began making calls. I eliminated the resorts with 1-star ratings. The state park was closed for reconstruction and renovation. I called 8 RV parks before I finally found one that could accommodate us and then I was just really lucky! This place, Lake Glenada RV Resort doesn’t usually take phone calls on Sundays but she answered and she helped us!
We got settled and by that time it was late afternoon.
We both took turns walking around the park. It is a cute little place. We have a lakefront site.
We enjoyed a great meal…a fresh tomato, nice bread with fig balsamic and olive oil for dipping, and fresh mangoes. We haven’t had a tomato that delicious in years!