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Published: February 5th 2010
We're about to leave Pine Island to head for Turtle Beach on Siesta Key in the Sarasota area. There was a time, perhaps when our idea of "camping" was a tent on an island in northern Lake George, when we (I) snobbishly dismissed KOA's as "commercial," crowded, and generally unappealing. Well that erroneous aversion has come 360 for us now that we are in our 5th year of winter RV "camping!" The term itself is a little misleading as our "camper," a 34' Holiday Vacationer Motor Home, has a few luxuries not found in a tent. There's a queen size bed two TVs, full kitchen, room for guests to sleep over, air conditioner and a furnace. We return to the Pine Island KOA twice a year; storing the RV and Jeep right here when we fly home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Storage can be a big expense; but at this KOA the price is right ($1 a day). The pool and hot tub are great. The staff is accommodating. There's a convenient camp store, great laundry, and two club houses where there's breakfast for $3., exercise class, social nights with pot lucks, bingo, entertainment by the resident campers' own band, "The
Last Resort," and more. We took the park's free mini bus to have dinner and hear "The Last Resort” at one of our favorite watering holes, "Woody's Waterside" when our Jeep was in for repairs. A "Propane" tank truck" comes around at intervals playing a tune similar to the Good Humor Ice Cream truck's jingle. You meet nice people at the pool - like the lady from Michigan who invited me for lunch (TexMex under $6 - including a Margarita at the VFW). We dropped in at the beautiful Pine Island Library for a lively book discussion after lunch. Pine Island has wonderful restaurants, art galleries, events (including Art Night) and a newly discovered thrift shop where I spend under $3.50 on 2 cool items. And, according to the Pine Island Eagle, a newsy weekly newspaper and source for everything local like last weekend's October Fest in January at the Elks Club and an Italian Fest at the German Club, who's running for office, a full listing of where the various bands are playing, directions to all the fund raisers, and what's on the menu at the Elks, Moose, VFW, Legion, etc. We seem to be going native!
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Kay Ackerman
non-member comment
Re: Pine Island
Love your blogs, Joanne---we skiied Gore today temps in the 20's. In spite that we need snow, conditions were pretty good and we "oldsters" had a great day. Those sunfilled photos look very enticing, I must say.