Thousand Trails Peace River

Thousand Trails Peace River in Wauchula is a unique park. It is in a much more remote locale than its sister park near Clermont, and has only about half the number of sites. The scenic Peace River circles the southern perimeter of the park, which is both a curse and a blessing. Of the 400+ sites in the park, about half are in the flood plain of the Peace River. The river has flooded these lower sites five times in the last 12 months. These sites in the flood plain have no sewer connection. Consequently new arrivals at this park perform an interesting dance I call the "Sewer Site Shuffle". Upon arrival at the park all the sewer sites up on the hill are always taken. New arrivals therefore choose a site in the bottom lands, and their name goes on a list for a sewer site as one becomes available. The next day a list of available sewer sites is posted at noon, and at 1:00 people claim the best sites in the order in which they arrived, and commence to move their rig to that new site on the high ground.

When we arrived yesterday afternoon it was raining hard and 45 degrees. Not unusual weather for Florida this year, but not the greatest conditions in which to set up camp. They put our name on the list for a sewer site, and said it might be several days before our name came up for a better site. Dang. We managed to find a site in the bottom lands that looked hard enough that we would not sink up to our axles, and waited out the rains. By 4:00 the skies cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.

Today dawned sunny and mild. Even though our chances were slim, at noon we went up to check out the list of freshly available sites and began our rendition of the "Sewer Site Shuffle". We walked through the park making notes on the available sites and prioritizing our choices. We ran into dozens of others, notepad in hand, also performing the dance. At 1:00 all the hopeful souls gathered and, as we expected, our favorite sites were claimed by those who arrived ahead of us. Finally, just as we were about to give up all hope, our name came up. There was only one site left that we had deemed moderately acceptable, but we took it. We could have passed on the site and moved up on the list for a better choice tomorrow, but decided to take it, so that we could get settled. We didn't want to spend another day doing the "Shuffle." By 2:00 we were moved and set up on our new site.

What we didn't realize at the time is that the site we chose is directly across from the sewer dump station. All those folks from the lower forty (those who refused to participate in the "Sewer Site Shuffle") were constantly parking their rigs in front of us to dump their waste tanks. Additionally folks were towing their "blue boys" up to empty them and the park's "honey wagon" made twice-daily visits. We got a real education on the various and creative techniques of amateur waste disposal. It wasn't pretty. The worst part is that with large RVs parked in the road at the dump, there was little room for other large RVs to pass. Our row was on the exit route for the park, so there was a fair bit of traffic. We made a point to park our car (the trikes which stick out about a foot on each side) well off the road. Our next door neighbor parked his truck about a foot out into the road. I guess he wants a new truck. Still, it was a bit unnerving watching RVs pass so close by through the windshield. Yet another rendition of the "Sewer Site Shuffle".