Snagging last minute spots in the high season is kinda fun if you’re willing to go with the flow. Sometimes you score big time with an awesome site (like our last stop – Oscar Scherer State Park), and sometimes… well…
Lake Manatee State Park – Bradenton, FL
I was excited to be able to snag a reservation over a holiday weekend in a state park nearby. From the pictures and satellite view, it would seem the site that became available would be spacious and private feeling. A perfect spot to hide out before heading into the Florida RV SuperShow in Tampa.
But what I neglected to do before clicking the ‘Reserve’ button was check reviews.
Or look at a map, really.
For if I did, I might have noticed that the Bradenton Motorsport Park is right across the street from the campground. And they run all weekend long.
So first, the pretty – our spot really was quite awesome (as were most the sites in the park):
The park itself doesn’t offer too terribly much. A couple short walking trails and very limited access to Lake Manatee:
But what the pictures don’t depict is the constant sound of VROOOOOOOM VROOOOOM as engines rev up for drag racing at the motorsport park. Every few seconds from mid-morning until after midnight on weekends (and some evenings during the week).
At first, it’s kinda novel and fun. But after a few hours, it got quite old and annoying. Certainly undoing any tranquility around us.
We did all we could to shut the windows and run the AC to drown out the sound a bit while we tried to focus on projects or watch movies.
And when Tuesday morning came around – we were more than ready to leave.
So, if you’re like us and enjoy peace and quiet, you might want to skip Lake Manatee State Park (not to be confused with nearby Little Manatee River State Park, which we hear is quite nice).
But if you enjoy the sounds of motors, or are looking for a great spot in nature near a motorsport park – here ya go.
The one benefit of the park was the proximity to our buddies Leigh & Brian of Aluminarium (and founders of the awesome campground review site – Campendium). We were able to meet-up for sushi one evening and catch up.
What’s Up Next:
Since this posting we’ve visited the Florida RV SuperShow and then headed down to Ft. Myers for Looper-Palooza. We’ll get the blog caught up on those stops soon.
We’re currently camped in the area and will be exploring more of south Florida over the coming weeks while we continue the boat hunt!
Which brings us to…
Next Live Video Chat: Shopping for a House that Moves
We’ve scheduled our next live (and free) video chat:
When: Wednesday, January 25
8 pm EDT / 5 pm PDT
Topic: Shopping for a House that Moves
There are different considerations when shopping for a house that moves, such as an RV or boat, than a stationary home. Since we’re currently boat shopping, this topic is fresh on our mind. we’ll share some things that make the process unique.
Such as expanding your search beyond geographic locations, considerations for a small mobile space (does size matter?) and methods for conducting your search.
You will need to create a quick free account with Livestream to view the video cast. Just click the link and setup an account in advance… a couple minutes ahead of time should be sufficient, but you can do it anytime. At the end, we’ll be happy to field questions. And if you can’t make it, you can catch the archive later.
My Grandson races and I cant imagine trying to sleep through all that noise!
Thankfully they quit a bit after midnight, so didn’t impact sleep for us (we’re night owls).
URK! Thanks for the heads up! Would not enjoy the noise.
Love your blogs, love your site. We’re full-time RVrs for four months and you’ve helped us a lot! It’s good thing my husband is handy are 42 foot rig is seven years old! We had excitement over these last few months
Cherie and Chris, thank you for the recommendation for Campendium! This is my new favorite, go-to site for our full time RV lifestyle!
So glad Bri ran into you while scouting. Hopefully we’ll see you again on the east side of FL. (Thanks for the love!)
Love that serendipity!
Whew, thanks for the warning. We cringe when a kid rides a four-wheeler around a campground for 15 minutes, so this would drive us insane.
We’re definitely the peace & quiet type of folks too.
Missed you at the Super Show…so many people! We’ll say hi somewhere down the road.
It was super crazy there!
We stayed at a campground once next to a motor speedway and were told since it was off season, their would be no noise. What we didn’t know was that local race car “schools” used the track and it was constant noise during the daytime. It would have been cool if we were racecar fans but since we are not I found the noise pretty difficult to take lol.
Trace
At this one, we were told it was weekends only… at least we got some quiet hours on Monday. But in the evening? VROOOM.
Gunter Hill, Montgomery Alabama…. same thing… some sort of speedway thing about a half mile away
Hey, motorsports exists, and lots enjoy them. Just market the nearby campgrounds as ‘motorway camping’. 🙂
Yeah, have not been to that motorsport park in quite a few years now, but even 10 miles away it could be heard. Sorry we did not see you at the Tampa RV show, but we were only there for one day and then mostly in the vendor areas.
The SuperShow was crazy busy.. surprised anyone ran into us.
I started looking on google maps and see what’s in the surrounding area, we stayed at a SP in NY once that was close to a racetrack, not that you could hear the engines but when people came back from watching the race they felt like they had to drive fast followed by blasting music to celebrate…Also we check if the body of water allows motorized boats. We had a bad experience with boat speeding by all day long on Lake Champlain once.
We do try our best to scope out a location in advance… in this case, we were mainly happy to have a spot over a weekend.
Sorry you had a bad experience. I’ve stayed at Lake Manatee State Park and it was QUIET! Very Quiet! I wonder if someone publishes the VROOM VROOM schedule so others can avoid this.
If it had been quiet more of our stay, it would have been a much better experience. Definitely a pretty park otherwise, and great sites.
The thing is it is not every night and not every weekend, but definitely you know when they are racing. It is a close stay if you are going in to Sarasota, and nice when there is no racing. The other thing we did was went kayaking in the lake, which was fine until we got back and were getting out and they were telling us to watch out for the Moccasins. I know you were from Florida so you probably know that most snakes are scared of you but Moccasins are extremely aggressive and deadly – I am more afraid of them than I am gators. The sites were nice and it could have been quiet, but probably not our first choice, would rather stay at Myakka State Park, lots and lots of gators, but overall a bit more to do and quieter (no race track) – however I would not go Kayaking or Canoeing there because of the extreme amounts of gators – lots of people do but a little too close for my comfort. Myakka also has 3 camp areas 2 older for tents and smaller rigs, and a new site full hookups really nice big rig friendly and most of them are pretty private.
We had our eye on Myakka to stay at… seems like a great area too. The cellular signal is worse there, which for us would have been a plus as we have a bunch of new gear to test out.
Oh my gosh, this sounds like a place my husband would love…an RV park right next to a VROOM VROOM show. haha
We are stationary right now and currently have a transmission (among some other car stuff) under our 5th wheel. People are always asking him if he’s a gear head. Thanks for posting!
Definitely for those who enjoy the sounds of engines would love this place 🙂