We left Sunshine Key by 10:00 a.m. We knew we didn't have to drive too far today, only about 120 miles, so we weren't in a big rush. The temperature was around 80F or 29C with a few clouds, but a good day for a drive. We stopped in Islamorada for brunch and arrived at the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park in south Miami by 2:00 p.m.

This is a really nice campground; spacious, pretty and relatively inexpensive. It is close to Miami, the Everglades, The Keys and Fort Lauderdale. It is owned by Miami-Dade County, is surrounded by 270 acres of Florida woodlands, has a five-mile bike trail, a small lake, clean washrooms and four laundry rooms. We have full hook-ups; water, power and sewers and it is less than $20 night. There is no pool, but we find that pools in public family campgrounds seem to be overly chlorinated and we don't use them anyway. We are here for a week so we were able to set up all our awnings, ground mat, lawn chairs and take out our bicycles. Rick did some cleaning outside and I, inside, we then had an early dinner and went for a bike ride.

The other campers staying here are very friendly. Our neighbour from Oklahoma is 86 and has been coming here for 15 years with his wife and dog, a 17 year old Dalmatian. The neighbours on the other side have been coming here for 20 years. They are wooden toymakers from Michigan and come here because it is central to all the craft shows that they attend. There is one lady here who just turned 95! When Hurricane Andrew came through here in 1992 there were a lot of uprooted trees and jungle vegetation that was damaged but it is growing back. There is an avocado grove here that apparently, at one time you could help yourself to, but now the county has pickers come in to do the harvest. I think we are going to like it here!