On Thursday morning we headed south to a KOA near Hollywood Florida. Our sites were set on having a long relaxing weekend, visiting a casino, spending some time with friends and enjoying a fund raiser dinner.
Things went well. We were packed and ready. 5 hours later we pulled into our campground…
Everyone was friendly enough, but navigating the tight driveways was tough – but we did it. But not without noticing the many run down campers and obvious folks living in cars. We decided to grin and bear it. We had wine, cheese and dinner (our normal routine), and by the time we started cleaning up we decided it was not safe to leave anything out. Not the grill, not the table it was on – and for certain, not the brand new Starlink setup we just purchased.
Before our visiting friend left, we decided we were done – cost or no cost, we were leaving in the am.
And so we did. First thing in the morning we headed north to the Safari KOA (after getting a reservation the previous night). And wow! What a difference. This place was clean, plenty of space, super friendly – and connected to a Safari (and yes – you can hear the lions!).
We were able to fully setup camp and leave the Starlink out (FYI – worth every penny. Good speeds, great connection and we even streamed Netflix and Hulu).
In the end – it was a great trip. We re-connected with some good friends, learned about what it is like to be blind. Met a great musician, enjoyed good company and even had a great meal at Faradays Steakhouse.
I also want to say that the first KOA we went to – they were very nice and called us a day after we left to check on why we were not there, They refunded 1/2 of the reservation (which they were not required to do) and apologized. They are in a tough location, so not all their fault. But like dad always said “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, or in this case by its website.
