EG Simmons Regional Park, Ruskin, Florida

Thursday, August 7, 2014

After leaving beautiful Fort DeSoto Park and Campground, we headed to Clearwater for an appointment to have our crazy microwave looked at by a Venture RV dealer.  Yes indeed, the service technician agreed, our microwave was malfunctioning.  It came on by itself a couple of times and the key pad could not shut it off.  Since it was still under warranty, all we had to do was make arrangements with Venture RV to have a replacement shipped to our home.

With that task out of the way, we headed to Ruskin, Florida.  E.G. Simmons Regional Park is located just a couple of miles north of Ruskin, on the southern shore of Tampa Bay.  The park was developed from 250 acres of native mangrove and open land areas surrounded with waterways.  It's an ideal place for bird watching and kayaking, and offers a small beach on the Bay for sun bathing and swimming.

The friendly gate attendant allowed us to drive through the campground and pick out our site.  E.G. Simmons Park does not accept camping reservations and only accepts cash payment.  The majority of the campsites were on one of the many waterways, but shade was our priority with temperatures in the low 90's.  The camping area has several trees, but they weren't positioned to offer much afternoon shade.

We finally settled on site #17.

This waterway ran through our back yard and we had access for kayaking.

Kitty, Kallie, and me with the Bay behind us.

That is St. Petersburg across the Bay.

Here's some of the many waterways that intertwined the Park.

There were several small piers like this one that are great for bird watching, fishing, or just relaxing.

We spent two nights here hoping the temperatures would ease a bit so we could do a little kayaking.  But, we had no such luck.  So, we drove into Sun City Senior Center and enjoyed a great German meal.  Sun City Senior Center is a large retirement community with golf courses, restaurants, and a gazillion golf carts buzzing all over the area. After dinner,we drove around and checked out a couple small marinas and some of the beautiful water front homes.

Tomorrow, we pack up and head home ending a nine day trip enjoying a small spec of Florida's wonderful coastal areas.

High on Fort Desoto, St Petersburg, Fl.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014


Today we enjoyed a brief walking tour of Fort DeSoto.  All that remains of the old fort is some concrete walls and several empty rooms.  But, the view from on top of the fort was well worth the climb.

Here's a few pieces of information about Fort DeSoto. Both Fort DeSoto and Fort Dade were built at the beginning of the Spanish American war. Fort DeSoto was built on Mullet Key,  which is now Fort DeSoto Park and is a few miles south of St Petersburg.  This strategic location, along with Fort Dade on Egmont Key, provided excellent defense of the northern entrance of Tampa Bay.  Large ships would need to follow the deep water channel which runs between the two forts.  The forts were abandoned by the US Army in 1923 and the property was later purchased by Pinellas county.  Fort DeSoto was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977

This 6" rapid fire cannon was originally installed at Fort Dade.  It was recovered from Fort Dade and brought to Fort DeSoto for display in 1980.

This is a mortar battery which still remains at Fort DeSoto.  Information for zeroing in on targets was sent via telephone from spotters in forward positions.

The roof of the old fort is covered with vegetation just like modern buildings today with "Green Roofs."  The concrete rooms would provide protection from enemy shelling, but also provide some cooling relief from the searing summer sun.  The construction of these forts using solid concrete walls was a big improvement from earlier forts using bricks and mortar.

We really enjoyed the view from atop Fort DeSoto.  It provides a panoramic view of the Gulf beach, Egmont Key, and Tampa Bay.

This is a view of Fort DeSoto Park Beach as seen from on top of Fort DeSoto.

A fishing Pier in the foreground, and Egmont Key in the background.  In the Center of Egmont Key, you can see the old light house. (See Egmont Key blog dated August 4th)

 This view is looking towards the southern shore of Tampa Bay.  Using a telephoto lens makes the southern shore appear closer than it is with the naked eye.

Enjoying the view.

Kitty and Craig

Thursday, August 7th.

After spending the morning and part of the early afternoon enjoying the North Beach at Fort DeSoto Park under the shade of a large tree, we decided to drive up to Palm Harbor for lunch at The Lucky Dill.  The Lucky Dill was rated as one of the top sandwich shops in the country, and we have friends who's last name is Dill.  So, we had to check this place out.

As we walked into the Lucky Dill, I asked the waitress if we would get a discount because we knew Henry Dill.  She responded, "Who the hell is Henry Dill?"  Well, needless to say, we didn't get a discount.  But, that's alright since the food was great and the portion sizes were big enough to feed an army.

Tomorrow, we will head to Ruskin, Florida to camp at another county campground.  It's an interesting place to spend our last two days of this trip.  That blog will be up next.

Egmont Key, Florida

Monday, August 4, 2014


The brochure for the trip to Egmont Key was full of warnings.  One of those warnings stated "This trip is for agile people without physical limitations."  Egmont Key is actually a Florida State Park and it's only accessible by boat and has no inhabitants, except the wild life and a ranger station.  There are no facilities on the Key, and if you get hurt, a helicopter may be sent to rescue you at your own expense.  This had me a little concerned because if there is any way for me to hurt myself, I will certainly find it!  One other warning you should all take notice of is "clothing must be worn on the ferry and on the island."  One can only imagine why that warning was listed!

Egmont Key is just a few miles from the mouth of Tampa Bay, and was an important defense position when the Spanish American war began in 1898.  Fort Dade was built on Egmont Key, and Fort DeSoto was built on Mullet with both forts commanding a strategic position guarding the northern entrance to Tampa Bay.

Egmont Key has many things to see.  There's a light house that is still in operation, ruins of several gun batteries of Fort Dade, beautiful beaches, lots of shells, the remains of an old mine wharf facility, turtles, and a large bird sanctuary.  It's also a great place for snorkeling around some of Fort Dade ruins that were swallowed up by the Gulf of Mexico.

It's time to board the ferry that will take us across the shipping channel and drop us on Egmont Key.

Our ferry departed from the south shores of Fort DeSoto Park.

As we approached Egmont Key, we could see the light house that was built in 1858 and is still working.  

We departed the ferry and followed this trail.

The trail led us right by the light house. It is 133 feet high and the light can be seen for 22 miles at sea.  It was built in 1858 and is still in operation. 

Our next stops was to see the Gopher Tortoise feeding on the grass.

The trail also led us by the remains of one of Fort Dade's gun batteries built in 1898.

The gun battery was about half way across the narrow island.  It was just far enough inland to block the cooling breezes from the Gulf and this was a sweltering hot day.  So, we quickly moved on hoping to find the beach on the opposite side of the key from where we departed the ferry.

We were carrying a lot of drinking water and some food because the ferry wasn't returning for more four hours.  With a heat index of 107 degrees, we needed all the water we could carry, and it seemed we would never reach the refreshing breezes on beach.  Finally, we reached it and it was beautiful!  The was only 25 people on the ferry, and we had the entire island to ourselves!

This pelican is resting after eating his fill of fish.

Some interesting drift wood.  This is the exact position it was in when I found it.

We walked up and down the beach for a couple of miles picking up many small to medium size shells to bring home.  Then we found a shady place on the beach to sit and enjoy our lunch while watching the birds and the waves.  

The time flew by, and we decided to leave plenty early to head back to where the ferry would pick us up.  We didn't want to miss our only way back and be stranded on the island all night!  The ferry captain warned all that if the weather got bad, to get back to the ferry landing immediately so we wouldn't be crossing the shipping channel in a storm.

On the way back, I stopped and took these pictures of the old mine wharf used to move mines in and out of the shipping channel during the Spanish American war.

This is one of the mines from the war.

These buildings are what's left of the mine storage and maintenance facility. Neglect and a few hurricanes took their toll here.

While we were waiting for the ferry, we talked to some of the people waiting with us and they had found some large shells and sand dollars on this side of the beach.  Naturally, we were looking for sand dollars on the wrong side of the island!

As we boarded the ferry for the return trip, the clouds were gathering and looked like a storm was brewing.  But, the weather held and we were able to spend a few minutes chaseing a couple of dolphins.  It was hard to get a good picture as they would only surface long enough to catch their breath and down they'd go again.

That's Egmont Key barely visible on the horizon.

You can see the clouds gathering and it's getting darker.

We made it back in one piece and were thankful we didn't encounter any bad weather.  Since we spent so much time on the beach today, we decided to do something interesting tomorrow, but stay off the beach.  Stay with us to find out what we did!

Camping near St Petersburg, Florida

Sunday, August 3, 2014


We arrived at our pristine campsite at Fort DeSoto Campground early Sunday afternoon.  Fort DeSoto Campground is located in Pinellas County park on a key a few miles south of Tierra Verde, Florida.  In addition to camping, the park has great facilities for boating, kayaking, fishing, a dog park, and several beautiful beaches with one beach that allows pets.  Oh yea, there's also a couple old forts that were used in the early 1900's to guard the entrance to Tampa Bay.

We were impressed when we pulled into our pristine site #138 (in the pet section) and saw how level the sites were and all empty sites had been raked clean.

 Looking out of our front yard

Looking out from our back yard

Kallie was busy keeping the geckos at bay!

Can you identify this bird?  I haven't a clue.  I was thinking it's some kind of gull, but it has webbed feet.

Oystercatcher chick

Snowy Egret

North Beach at sunset

Sunset from our campsite

'

The setting sun brings an end to a wonderful day exploring Fort DeSoto Park.  There's plenty of things to do here and we probably won't get to do all of them in the four days we'll be here.  But, we will start tomorrow with a ferry ride to the uninhabited Egmont Key. 

Casey Key, Nokomis, Florida

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Well, after the encounter yesterday with a rattle snake (see Snake Dance in Osprey, Fl. blog), we decided walking the trails at Oscar Scherer State Park may be hazardous to our health.  So, we headed for a day at the beach.  Nokomis Public Beach is just three stop lights south of the state park.

We arrived at the beach mid morning and it was already hot with only a slight occasional breeze.  The beach is really soothing with the sound of waves, and the powdery white sand. This beach has nice restrooms, and for those that don't want to get on a sandy beach, there is plenty of covered benches on the boardwalk running parallel to the beach. We brought our beach gear and promptly plopped down into our beach chairs under the shade of our beach umbrella and began doing what we do best...nothing!

Nokomis Public Beach

We enjoyed watching the waves for a short time and then started walking the beach looking for sea shells worthy enough to take home.  Then it was back under the shade of our umbrella.  By late morning, the Gulf breeze became a little stronger and steadier, and we enjoyed the reprieve from the heat that the ocean breeze delivered.

We left the beach tranquility about mid afternoon and  headed back to the camper to pick up Kallie.  We decided to drive along the beach on Casey Key Road and take in the some of the sights along the Gulf.  A short distance south of the beach is Nokomis Park.  It was very crowded and pets were not allowed.  So, we headed north gawking at all of the big beach mansions that lined this section of the beach.  We drove several miles up to Blackburn Point Road and then headed back to our camper.

Upon our return, we were greeted by this unexpected guest.

Kallie wanted to play with him, but the turtle must have thought he was under attack and snarled and spit a couple of times.  So, we left the grouchy fella alone, and were thankful it wasn't another snake!

As the setting sun pushed out its final rays of light, the clouds began brewing up a storm in the Florida summer sky, and Kitty snapped these pictures.

We'll be leaving Oscar Scherer in the morning and heading to Fort De Soto Park Campground near St. Petersburg, Fl.  There's plenty of things to do and see there and it promises to keep us busy.