Living the Life of Riley at Red Coconut

                    

                            

I know the title is long, but I just had to name it this. I was at the R ed Coconut one Wed. morning and it was foggy! Thick sea fog was over the whole area and while I was searching for a place to paint, I was hoping the fog would lift. I have always been fascinated by this campground. Well, it used to be a campground and they were always full with no vacancies. People were packed in very tightly, but the most dense was in this first row, that is right on the beach. Campers waited for years for a front row vacancy to come up and I'm sure there is a waiting list. This camp is in high demand as it is all prime real estate. The park straddles Estero Blvd., and has four or five rows on the beach side and about three or four times that many spots on the other side of the Blvd. They are and have always been very crowded. But times change on Fort Myers Beach, and soon the Red Coconut campground was not a campground anymore but an R.V.  Resort. Now they could charge more money and hopefully crowd in as many people, on the same number of spots. I walked around the Park as the fog cleared and decided if you really wanted to park your very expensive motor home on the beach, or close by, this was the best and only park available, you have to tolerate the surroundings. You do still get a spot to put your motor home and room to extend one canopy on one side, and all the amenities, including running water and sewage hook up. There are bath houses with bathrooms and showers, laundry facilities, shuffle board, and The Beach. Because you are on the beach, there is sand everywhere and very little grass.  There are paved lane ways throughout and everything is close, very close. 

I got busy painting that front row of lucky Motor Home owners, who had the best spots in the Resort. Everyone who walked by stopped to chat and check my progress. They are a very friendly, out going, sociable group of people who live in the R.V. Park. If you live as close as they do to their neighbours, then you have to be very sociable and easy going. Whereas this resort is not for me, it obviously appeals to many people who wait for a long time for a vacancy. There truly is something for everyone on Ft. Myers Beach. One R.V. Owner said he was Living the Life of Riley on Ft. Myers Beach. That had to be the title.