After a week of awesome family time in Spring Hill, and two back-to-back social dates with dear friends in the Tampa area – we were ready for some serious re-charge time.
With an upcoming vacation, we desired being some place where we could super focus on getting work projects caught up, and get some peace & quiet to ourselves.
We have to admit, it’s become a touch difficult to do at times – after all it’s not like our bus blends in at a campground.
We did our best to not pre-announce or give clues as to where we were heading next – which tends to minimize the social temptations. It’s not that we DON’T want to meet up with people (that’s part of the problem.. WE DO), but we sometimes just have to have a break and honor our introverted ways.
Hillsborough River State Park
Despite the Spring Break season being past us, state parks in Florida are still a tad difficult to snag reservations for over weekends. And we wanted a solid multi-day stop somewhere pretty with ample activities for breaks.
We kept a watch on several state parks between Tampa and Orlando for cancellations, and when a site became available at Hillsborough River State Park (our review) – we grabbed it. We’ve stayed at the park before, and found it delightful – so knew it would fit the bill.
We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and got settled into our site – with hardly any neighbors around at all.
The first few days were exactly what we needed – quiet time to just be.
We knocked out several work projects, including filming & producing a brand new Mobile Internet Overview video for 2016. We got in our final round of extensive head-to-head cellular antenna testing, and will be pouring over the data on our upcoming cruise to write -up our analysis for our premium members over at RVMobileInternet.com.
We also hosted our Sucky RVing live video cast and our monthly mobile internet Q&A with our members, which are always a ton of fun.
As the weekend encroached upon us, the neighborhood surrounding us filled up.
But never fear – we totally anticipated this.
When pulling into a site, we do our best to optimize our privacy by finding the perfect angle. In this site, we were able to point all of our passenger side windows into the woods – giving us at least the illusion we were alone.
Of course, we weren’t. But it certainly helped!
We did join the crowds on the Friday Evening ‘Rockin Ranger Tram Tour’ to get more of an introduction to the history of the park which was build by the CCC in the 1930s.
When the hustle and bustle of weekend campers became too much – that’s when we’d go out exploring. We enjoyed some long hikes and bike rides along the river, which nicely put our minds and bodies at ease.
And while there is fantastic kayaking throughout the park, we just weren’t inspired to unpack our inflatable. We’ve kayaked here before (and loved it!), and just had too much else on our plates.
The little town of Zephyrhills is just 12 miles north of the park entrance, and offers dining and shopping. We discovered two gems of local eateries – Little Ninja Thai & Japanese and Mayoor Indian. Both were lovely escapes from the weekend noise, and impressed us with their authenticity.
All and all.. a fantastic stop, and pretty much what we were craving.
What’s Up Next?
With any luck, we should still be out at sea, meandering around the Canadian Maritimes on our way to Montreal via cruise ship. We’ll land later this week and spend a few days exploring the city before returning to Florida.
We’ll have limited connectivity until then, so our apologies if replies to comments are slow to come.
Great park, we’re less then 15 minutes from there off 39 (Paul S Buckman). We love reading your blog and watching all your youtube videos, we’ve learning so much.
That looks like a beautiful park! We stay in a lot of State Parks (for exactly the reasons you mentioned) and have been in quite a few of the Florida State Parks. We’ll put Hillsborough River on our list for next winter. Hope you’re having a grand adventure in the Maritimes! Looking forward to reading about it.
I think I stayed there overnight 30 yrs ago-the campground pest species was: armadillos.
Enjoy!
We didn’t see too many armadillos this visit, but lots of raccoons. But apparently armadillos have become quite prolific in Florida in general.
So close and yet so far! I live close to the I-275 marker on your map, between Lutz and Wesley Chapel. I understand your need for quiet time, but it would have been great to meet you both. Hillsborough River State Park is a beautiful place to visit even if you’re not camping. We’ve tried eating at the Little Ninja Thai & Japanese restaurant, but we either showed up on a Sunday or between their closed hours before dinner. Good to hear it’s worth the try again in the future! Safe travels!
Definitely recommend giving Little Ninja a try sometime… I’m still salivating for their massaman curry 🙂 Maybe on a future visit of ours through the area we can meet up there. Sorry we missed you this time around.
Looks like a great spot to re-charge. Since you have been doing this for a long time I was wondering what your take on the prices for state parks is. It seem that they have been increasing it over the last years.. I just booked a spot in Mount Blue State park in Maine and am paying $30 for a site…no water or electric ( plus $24 registration fee and tax ) for $37 I could stay in a good sams with pools, laundry and water/electric….
OK.. i prefer the state parks but they seem to get more expensive every year.
thanks for all the good tips, vids and blogs
In some states they have been increasing in price over the years due to budget cuts and funding issues.. and they vary quite a bit from state to state. In general, we prefer state parks to tightly packed commercial RV parks (our favorite amenities are hiking, biking, kayaking and big private sites.. we rarely need all the other stuff). So, we read reviews and research as best we can to decide what type of park will suit our desires best.
Some states still have some GREAT rates and offer a fantastic experience.. such as New Mexico, Texas and Florida (rates have been pretty steady in all of them for years, and in our opinion, are bargains for what they offer.)
Hi,
Sincerely enjoy your reviews of parks, boon-docking, travel and overall lifestyle for RV full timing. Your generous sharing of your life is a joy. Our home is on the market, packing is occurring, yard sales will happen (when the weather starts cooperating) craigslist posts, home-state decisions, etc., etc., etc. are ongoing as our Itasca Meridian 36M is patiently waiting for OUR full time adventure to begin. Thanks again.
Thanks! Best wishes in these final stages before your next chapter begins.