Downtown St. Petersburg Florida

 St. Petersburg, FL

The suspension Bridge in Hillsborough River State Park 

New Counties and St Pete!

This morning we woke up in Hillsborough State Park and packed up.  On the way out we stopped by the suspension bridge.  The State Park had a lot of work down by the Civilian Conservation Corp in 1936 including this suspension bridge.  Also the picnic area seems like it was frozen in time.  It's a very cool place to visit and has a 50s vibe even if it was built earlier.

The view from this toilet is amazing!

Imagine taking a wee here!

After our stop off in the state park we went on to finish the peninsula of Florida by visiting Manatee and Sarasota Counties.  Once we hit Sarasota we turned around and crossed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge into Tampa and then went on to St. Petersburgh.  We are staying the night at Tru by Hilton in Downtown St. Pete.  St. Pete is a great pedestrian friendly place in Florida.

We ended up at Green Bench Brewing for drinks and we got dinner and brought it back.

The Beer was great

Kitty at the brewery!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and did laundry and all sorts of other chores.  We are on the road camping until Nov 5th.  

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Hurricane Ian Causes a Pivot

Baltimore, MD

The "Probable" path took Ian right over our camping sites

Another Change in Plans

Today we got an email that one of our camping stays in Florida is cancelled due to Hurricane Ian damage.  Change is inevitable.  We had to change our plans once due to an Airbnb cancelling on us, and now we have to change plans because Hurricane Ian has damaged Highlands Hammock State Park.  In both cases things are going to turn out for the better.  We were concerned about our 13 night stretch of camping.  We usually only do 5 to 7 nights before staying in a hotel for a night.  We had decided to not book a hotel because the list of Florida State Parks we wanted to stay at was long.  This morning we considered what to do with our cancelled night and decided to book a free Hilton Hotel right downtown in St. Petersburg Florida.  We didn't have enough points to book it when we were booking all of the camping but we got our dump of Hilton points at the end of last month and this put us over the threshold for a mid ranged hotel room.  We are excited that 1) we will be getting a refund for our camping reservation and 2) we don't have a 13 night camping stretch.  We also know we already like downtown St. Petersburg because we went there in 2017 for a day trip.  

The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg FL in 2017

Salvador Dali Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln-Homage to Rothko

There was also really great Cuban food there in 2017!

Our stay at Oscar Scherer State Park is still up in the air.  We have heard they are reopening October 17th and haven't gotten a cancellation email.  We are crossing our fingers that it reopens in time but if it doesn't, we have a few options in mind that will probably be just as good or better.

The more I think about the change in plans, the more excited I get.  When you are on the road indefinitely, you have to try to be flexible to the unknown and to changes that have to happen.  This is probably the hardest part for us.  As planners, we want everything to go according to plan and that just isn't always possible, and that's okay.

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post about The Maryland State Flag you can find it here.