Bay Bayou, A Tampa RV Resort
Bay Bayou RV Resort
©Bert Gildart: This month’s issue of Motorhome, published by the Affinity Group, features a story of mine on Bay Bayou RV resort. The company is affiliated with the Good Sam Club and publishes books and dozens of periodicals, most with some sort of an outdoor theme. Each month, I write several stories for the Group, but this particular piece brought back many wonderful memories of the two month’s we spent in Tampa, Florida. I featured the resort because I could honestly report that it was upscale and attracted a wonderful group of interesting people, many of whom return annually.
Though normally we wouldn’t have stopped in such an incredibly frantic city as Tampa, we had friends there and I needed several months without travel to catch up stories and photo submissions. We wanted a place that had a well-tended swimming pool and lots of activities and Bay Bayou had all those features. We also needed reliable wireless connections and, of course, hookups.
By staying at Bay Bayou I was able to accomplish all my goals and learned some surprising things about this city of several million. From those experiences I posted many blogs about what actually became exciting urban adventures–something I never dreamed possible. Click on the links and you can see and read about some of those experiences which include Kayaking , Sunshine Bridge , Trailer Trash , Tiny and Tamp Florida-Naturally. I also wrote about Mayra Volk and her husband Jim. Both became good friends and I focused on Mayra as she and her parents had escaped Cuba and the Castro regime and had an interesting story to tell.
You can see all the postings and others from the area by clicking on the months of December 06, and January and February 07.
Despite the congestion that could at times be maddening, there were actual ribbons of sanity that coursed throughout city in the form of bicycle trails. In fact, right from Bay Bayou we could pick up a spur trail that linked with the Upper Tampa Trail. In turn, that took us past wildlife viewing areas, where I saw a huge alligator. Because of his size, Bob Feely, one of my bicycle companions, called him “Tiny.”
In my story for Motorhome, I wrote about this trail that linked with Bay Bayou:
Like Tampa’s many other bicycle trails, this one is paved and well patrolled. Though some proceed for over 60 miles, Upper Tampa Trail is but 10-miles long (each way!), and about three miles along we encountered several large ponds-and there, about 50 yards away on the far bank of this Paleozoic setting, was a huge gator.
Well patrolled cycling trails
During our months there we rode all the trails we could and visited some wonderful suburbs (Tarpon Springs), and, again, in my story I wrote:
One day we drove 45 minutes to Fort DeSoto State Park, where we kayaked, hiked and studied the panels describing the fort’s history. Another time we rode–almost sailed, it seemed–to Tarpon Springs for a Greek dinner and a visit to the suburb’s famous sponge business.
Tampa Bay, an incredible bay for kayaking
Whenever possible I tried to include mention in my blogs from Florida of some of the wonderful people we met and they were many. Nancy, Bob, Kathy, Jo, Ken and Gordy were just a few. We think of these people often and believe that another year, our journeys will in fact take us back to Bay Bayou.
Note: If you want to see some wonderful collections of photographs log on to AgPix . Obviously mine are there but so are the portfolios of many others. All who are represented subscribe to this service and we do so as we receive daily want lists–and more sales, mostly editorial.
