Camping on Florida's Beaches - Segment 3

Setting up Camp

This is an important step and should be thought out.  If you have more than one tent going then placement will help with many things.

Arranging your tents

1. 
   
   Scout your area in advance. If you can go to the area and see whats there you may have a better chance of finding a good smooth spot to put your tents up.
2. TIDES. Make sure if you setup close to the water that you don't setup in a tidal area that will be under water when the tide is high.
3. Mangroves and No-See-Ums. If you setup near the water and there are no mangroves too close you will be much happier. HOWEVER they will still be there. Make sure your tent is zipped up about 2 hrs before sunset to seal it off from the little critters. Also if you can sleep with a pair of light long pants, and a light long sleeve shirt this will keep the critters off most of you and if you sleep with a sheet as a cover you can use that to cover all the way up while your sleeping. trust me this will make you more comfortable.
4. 
   
   Find the direction of the wind and depending on where your Camp Fire will be place your tents Up wind of the fire so they don't get smoked out.
5. 
   
   Place a Tarp on the ground towards the front of the main entrance so that you have an area in front of the tent that will have less sand on it and give you an entrance area.
6. 
   
   Setup a Clothes Line so you have a place to hang shirts or towels. Two long poles with a string in between them and then two support strings staked at 45degree angles should hold the line. Make sure your stakes are in the groud  good and hold the weight of what your placing on the line. Long Sand Stakes are better if you have them.
7. 
   
   Your tent should be free Standing and only need stakes to ensure the wind doesn't blow away your tent. Put your rain cover on so you don't have to worry about it later on. This also will help with Hunidity over night.
8. Keeping Sand out of the tent is a chore. The best bet is to have a bucket of water that you can step into and then step out onto a towel or directly into the tent without any sand on your feet. this will eliminate about 90% of the sand in your tent.
9. For your beach Fire you don't really need to dig a pit BUT it does help with containing the area. However starting the fire can be tougher if you dig it so deep that you don't have a good wind flow to it.

These are a few Camp Setup things to think about and may help you out with your comfort while camping on Floridas beaches.

See Florida Boat Beach Camping - Segment 4

Where is the Best Place to watch a Tampa Bay Rays Game

Where is the best place to watch a Rays Game? As I was getting ready to sit down and watch the Rays on TV I figured since they were out of town I would find a place to watch the Rays game and enjoy some company and a little additional fan excitement by watching the Rays game at a local bar, sports establishment or eatery. If they were at home I would be in my season ticket seats at the TROP! But since they are not home lets find a place so I looked online and found nothing that said "THIS IS THE PLACE" so I decided to make my own list. I am from Tampa so it is probably "Tampa Centric" however if you leave comments to this post I will make sure to approve them for posting.

1. Fergs! (yes not Tampa But if your going to watch the game this is by far the best place to do it.)
2. Beef O'Bradys (Good because its local and pretty sports oriented.)
3. Wing House (another local place and pretty good)
4. Lee Roy Selmons (Another local place good food good prices and sports Oriented)
5. The Press Box (Dale Mabry, Never been here but they have Celebs and specials during games)
6. The Cop Shop (Oldsmar hangout that is pretty good, lots of tv's and drink specials)
7. Buffalo Wild Wings (Lots of TV's and WINGS)(They also turn the sound up for the Rays Games
8. The Long Bar (The owner Francis is a Rays Fan and he has Great Pizza, Good Wings and a Great Crowd)
9. Varsity  near Tarpon

10. Hattricks (Downtown Tampa, great sports oriented bar even better for Lightning games.)

After thoughts.

-- Any Applebees shows the game
-- City Fish (Oldsmar)
-- Rumbas (Oldsmar)
-- Bostons on Anderson Road
-- Most local bars will show it.
-- MacDintons Tampa Westchase area
-- Champps in the International Mall
-- Courtside in Oldsmar
-- Hooters (as you can tell I like wings)

So if your headed out and find a great place send a comment to here and I would love to have more choices....for now I'll just stick to what I know....GO RAYS!!!

RUMBA's Island Grill - Valentines Day

My wife had been going to Rumba's at lunch with her work friends and she finally said lets go there for Dinner on Valentines Day. We decided to go to the new one we knew of on Tampa Road in Oldsmar. I went on Urban Spoon read the reviews there and decided despite some of the bad reviews the majority were GOOD. So off we went at about 5:45pm wanting to beat the Valentines day rush. However when we got there it was already pretty packed and when we went to the front desk to ask for a table they asked if we had a reservation. NO, at a Island Grill and Bar? Anyway they said it would be 25 minutes. So we decided to wait at the bar and found two seats and sat down. Immediately the bar tender "Jessica" got us drinks. It went from being a wait to a fun time sitting at the bar watching all the people.

At $1.49 a Beer and two for one drinks it was actually a great time just waiting. At almost to the minute the front desk girl CAME to us where we were sitting and told us our table was ready. We sat down the waitress "Gabrielle" came to our table and took our order. This is where it got very good. the food was excellent. Great flavor, outstanding presentation and an excellent price. It wasn't  over the top with SUPER hot plates you can't touch or all crowded on your plate to make it look like a lot, it was just prepared well and then delivered well. I was very surprised. It was very busy in the entire restaurant, with a band outside all the tables full the bar full and the inside full but the manager I think her name was Tracy made it a point to check in on us as well .

A very good night and when we were done we made our way back to the bar had a few more drinks and met some great people that said the place is even better on a Friday Night. My recommendation is that when you try a restaurant and you have a bad experience and you want to make that your only impression of a place make sure you return and give it a fair chance, MAYBE just MAYBE you were more stressed out then you thought and part of the experience was your own creation. I couldn't find fault with anything done at this restaurant and on one of the busiest nights of the year for going out they made it a pleasant and enjoyable evening.

Square 1 Burger - gourmet burgers with a south Tampa attitude

This is a nice off the beaten path restaurant. Burgers are gonna cost about the same as most sit down places but the kicked back service and the choices are what set this place apart. 20+ burgers and the choices of kobe, turkey and buffalo give them all a uniqueness of thier own. The Red wine and bleu is a good choice.

Florida Boat Beach Camping - Segment 4

SAND GRILL

This is probably something you may never need but if you run out of gass for your portable OR you just want an Open fire taste you can use this simple Beach Grill Technique.  One thing you need to know is that you DO need some sort of grate to cook on.

Here are the items you will need.

1. Wood for the fire. No need to chop it into small pieces.
2. A metal Grate to Grill on.

How to build the fire

1. Dig a trench about 2 ft wide and about 3 feet long and about 1.5 ft deep.
2. Lay the wood in it in a pile lengthwise. I the pieces are long it;s ok thats why we made a trench so that the wood can stick out the ends as needed.
3. Start the fire and let it burn real well for about an hour. Adding more wood to it as the wood burns to create a nice coal bed.
4. If you have two long pieces of Wood that are about 6-8 inches in diameter this will work good once the fire is going and the coals are hot.
5. Lay the large pieces on the outside edge of the coals the coals should ave burnt down and the large wood should be high enough off the fire that you can rest your grate across it.
6. Slide smaller sticks and wood in from the ends of the trench to either increase heat or keep the coals going.

Camping on Florida's Beaches - Segment 2

SEGMENT 2 - Prepare for the elementsPreparing for the worst case scenario will mean you are ready for anything.Thunderstorms pop up quickly in Florida and having a Phone or A radar on your boat or listening to the Weather on your UHF radio will give you that heads up to know when your going to get hit by rain or a storm.

 Taking care of your boat. Sense your on the shore you should take some precautions that will help your boat ride out the storm safely.

1. PLAN AHEAD FOR WEATHER. If you know there is a 75% or more chance of Heavy Thunderstorms and Strong winds you should not be camping.
2. Secure everything on your boat and lower your antennas and fishing poles.
3. If you have the ability to place your boat outside of the waves that are hitting the shore do that. If not then try to loosen your aft anchor enough to allow your boat to float freely on the foward anchor.
4. In essence leaving enough scope on your forward Anchor and then letting your aft anchor go slack should give the boat free reign to be in deeper water and the aft anchor will be your connection to your boat.
5. Since you are camping you should be in rather calm water BUT if you are facing open waters and your boat is near the beach ensure you have enough scope on your forward anchor to stay far enough from shore. If your worried about the boat riding the thunderstorm out attempt to move it to a leeward area.
6. If you have to power your boat up and ride out the storm then you should seriously think about NOT STAYING for camping if it is going to be that type of storm.

Next think about your own comfort.

RAIN

1. Your Clothes should stay on the boat in a dry area until it is time to go to bed OR when you know there is no weather threatening. This ensures that your clothes do not get soaked and you have dry clothes to wear.
2. Stay inshore enough to be out of any potential Lightning and if you think there is lightning around and you could be threatened by it try not to be the tallest thing on the beach.
3. Try to stay out of the water take shelter in your tent if possible.
4. One important thing about packing is to pack in a Plastic Storage Container with a lid that way your equipment and other items are in a secured place and they should stay dry as well. You can then leave them in the rain and they should stay dry. Make sure the lid seals well and if possible place one of your tarps over all your gear in the containers to further protect it.

WIND

1. Wind can pick your tent up and throw it down and make a mess of things. IF you think that there will be Strong winds during the day try to not setup your tent until later in the evening when the wind will surley die down.
2. Long Tent Stakes will help if you want to setup in the wind but there is only so much you can do.
3. Secure all your items in their containers as if for rain and you can keep things under control.

SUN and HEAT

1. Drink Plenty of water (Stay Hydrated) 
2. Wear a hat to help with the heat from the sun.
3. Swim and have fun.
4. Wear your sunblock at least to block the harmful UV rays. 

See Florida Boat Beach Camping - Segment 3

Florida Boat Beach Camping - Segment 1

This may be a long post so I am going to break it into segments.

SEGMENT 1 - Planning the Trip

This is the most important part, primarily because if you forget something it could mean a long trip back to the ramp to get other supplies which is not cool. SO think things through and have a plan.

First The Boat make lists for each piece of your operation and you will be better off. I know it may sound a little anal BUT forgeting the regulator to the grill will make for an emergency sand grill that you will have to be your McGuyver back up plan.

 Boat List.

1. 
   
   Gas, Oil and Safety Equipment (required)
2. 
   
   Chem lights for marking your boat so you don't have to leave your power on all night.
3. 
   
   Forward and Aft Anchor. Aft anchor should have long enough line to reach way up on shore. (don't want your boat dragging off in the middle of the night)
4. 
   
   Coolers (as many as needed but less is better) One for Drinking one for Storage and ICE
1. 
   
   The Storage one should not be opened very much to conserve ICE.
5. 
   
   5 Gallon Bucket.
6. 
   
   Water in your fresh water tank if you have one. (Showers at night on the boat to get the salt water off will be refreshing).

Second make your camping list. (this list is for comfort so it can be trimmed for bare necessities.)

Campground List

1. Tents. (3 people per is good unless you want privacy then 2 per)
2. String and long poles. (You need a clothesline to hang wet things it is inevitable that you will want to hang things up. Whether it is clothes towels or trash and lanterns)
3. Wood for fire and fire starter (If there is none on the island you are on enough to burn for about 3 hours OR more depending on your night activities.)
4. Grill, Gas and Regulator (if your grill is small and the regulator detaches make sure you bring it) (If you forget it don't worry I will post a SAND GRILL design later on.)
5. Lantern gas preferably.
6. Toilet Paper.
7. Shovel, Hammer and Knife (you always need a knife)
8. Large bucket or storage container. (can be used to bring your blankets, pillows and air matress in) but will be empty for use later on. See the section on SETTING UP CAMP).
9. Pillows, Sleeping bags, or blankets (sometimes a light sheet is all you need in the summer. (you may think you don't need a cover BUT you do. See the section on KEEPING THE BUGS OFF.)
10. Chem Light for Camp, Head or Hand Flashlight. (for that middle of the night bathroom break)
11. Small Battery Operated Fan (if you have one again this is just for comfort) Walmart $20bucks Light fan combo.
12. Tarp place under the front of your tent to help with Sand (See the section on SETTING UP CAMP).
13. Tent Candle, (Helps with Humidty)

Third Make your List of personal items you need.

1. Clothes in a Back Pack. (Back Pack works the best, easy to carry and they can hold alot.) To keep Dry Clothes (put them on the boat in a dry compartment in the event of Rain. See the section on PREPARE FOR THE ELEMENTS).
2. Towels (2, one for swimming one for showering)
3. Any kind of Medications, Female products or Contact solutions etc....
4. Sunscreen
5. Hat
6. Sunglasses
7. Flip Flops (shoes) (Water Shoes can be very comfortable)
8. These should be the items you should think about when planning your trip. Remember the less you carry, The less you have to carry. Pack simple and try to be comfortable. Nothing Beats Camping on the Beaches in Florida especially the ones that you can only get to by boat. If you plan ahead to camp on the beach in Florida you truly can make an excellent overnight trip.

See Florida Boat Beach Camping - Segment 2