W.P Franklin
August 7th to August 13th, 2019
After three months at the same campground, we needed to move and get some different views. First stop, the other side of the state. The W.P. Franklin campground is located on the Caloosahatchee River adjacent to the locks operated by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. We stayed at site 2 with water and electric service (no sewer, but a dump site on the grounds).
The site was a little tight, but manageable. There is a bathroom/shower facility that was old, but kept very clean. This is one of the shower facilities without a locking door though, just a shower curtain. Those always creep Laura out a bit.
We were only staying a week and knew that we were coming back to Fort Myers in September – so we didn’t spend much time in Fort Myers itself. Laura spent the week enjoying NOT working, and we enjoyed our walks and bike rides in the surrounding neighborhoods.
At the end of the week we had to head back over to CB Smith Park, another Broward County park for a week so we could get our last physicals from our doctor of over 20 years. We’re not sure what we will do for a doctor going forward, but we know we can’t come all the way back to South Florida just for doctor appointments.
C.B. Smith
August 14th to August 20th
Back to the east side. C.B. Smith is another park in the Broward County system located in Pembroke Pines. It is also large with picnic areas, trails, a water park, golf driving range, and a 83 site campground in the back.
$30/night with full hookups, and an amazing park to spend time in right outside the door. Laura was was able to meet up with a few friends for a relaxing lunch. All in all, a nice stay – but we were seriously ready to be done with the area.
St. Lucie South
August 21st to August 26th
At the east end of the Caloosahatchee River is the St. Lucie South Locks. Similar to W.P. Franklin, there is a small campground adjacent to the locks. We really enjoyed this site with some nice sunsets and lots of boat traffic to watch.
A beautiful park, well maintained, but no water/sewer. We spent 6 days this time, which was totally manageable (water wise) and even had a great visit with Jay and Maria from our time at TY. The park was $30/night, but is half that price if you have the senior or access pass from the national parks.
There are only 9 RV sites at this campground. We were lucky enough to get one with a river view. There are also boat docks/campsites that are available, but we only saw one boat using them overnight.
The locks are open to visitors during the day and you are allowed to walk onto them and across to the other side to a primitive park and trails. It’s interesting to watch them lock a boat from one end to the other.
We really enjoy staying at Corps of Engineer campgrounds. They are well maintained, economical and usually have interesting features.