Tuesday August 9th 2022

I was up early this morning to book my last reservation for next winter. At the eleven month mark, last March, I tried to book a Florida State Park reservation for the two week period starting February 9th 2023. I had no luck, so I decided to switch my focus for that period to the Army Corp of Engineers campgrounds east of Fort Myers Florida. Federal campgrounds have a booking window that opens 6 months from the start of the reservation. That was this morning.

Over the last few days I’ve monitored the availability at my two target campgrounds. As of yesterday it looked like only three sites would be available. This morning there were only two available. I set my sights on the campsite I thought I’d have the least competition over. At 9:59AM approaching the 10AM opening of the booking widow I clicked my mouse on the appropriate field and no dice. Someone else out clicked me. The campsite at the other campground was also gone.

It looks like the number of available sites will increase over the next few days. I’ll try again and again as necessary. The middle of February seems to be a very popular time this coming winter. I will need to make a reservation at a commercial park for a few nights starting on February 9th. A quick check at a few of my standard backups in the central Florida area showed one campground with no availability. Two others had sites available, but the rates ranged from very high at $78 per night to ridiculous at $168 per night. It was less than $70 at the campground expecting the ridiculous amount when I stayed there last May. Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground had available sites for less than the $168 price, so it is a possibility as well. At least Fort Wilderness gives you enough things to do that you can believe your getting your money’s worth. The bottom line is I have some work to do to book the last two weeks for next winter.

School starts in this county tomorrow. I wish I thought about that before deciding to go to Walmart for some grocery shopping. It was very busy. Many of the shoppers included several kids in the party. The shopping carts were filled with back to school supplies and a few cloths. I avoided the special area of the store with back to school supplies, but it looked like a feeding frenzy at an aquarium in that area.