Hey guys! Today's video is a little different. You'll see twice the cooking outside, some exploring of the area, some wildlife, a bit about how we use Campnab to book so many great reservations and finally our review of Collier Seminole State Park. This review may surprise you. We stayed here again because we needed to fill in some time before heading to the keys. Lynn did not want to come here so what did I do?... I booked 6 nights! Dumb right? We made the most of it for sure but there were reasons Lynn remembered not wanting to go back here and they showed up again this time too. Hopefully our honesty doesn't offend any of you, especially those of you who live in Naples. BTW here's the link to Campnab: campnab.com/r/jzlmgz
We spent two weeks there due to it being our first visit and we agree with you about both the park and beaches in Naples. Sadly we will not be back either. First disappointment among 7 Florida State parks. We loved the others.
I have to admit I love Owen "happy food" dance. It makes me smile every time. We plan on staying at this park in May to attend a Pickle Ball tournament. So it's good to know its short comings.
Owen and Lynn, I want to thank you both for giving us the Campnab tip! I immediately downloaded it and set up several notifications for parks I was having trouble booking for an upcoming summer trip to several National parks and such. Within a few days I had already nabbed several! Just waiting on about two more!! I chose the $20 package for up to 5 places. Can’t thank you enough for this tip!!! 💜 Give Maggie a pat for us and thanks from Mike and Stacy, longtime followers of your adventures.
I am a huge fan of dogs and also of Naples FL. This is a great opportunity to remind people why some parks have had to become so restrictive about pet dogs. It's not the dogs....it's the people. The state parks have the responsibility to protect the local ecology/wildlife and visitor experience. Pet owners who do not control their dogs, keep them safe and clean up after them will ruin the experience for everyone else. Cheers to you and the other responsible dog owners out there! Thanks.
So true. But what we've found with Naples is unless you're willing to drive or are lucky enough to own one of the nice homes in the beach you see mostly out of luck and seemingly unwanted.
@@VANTREKKINGlifestyle I understand that is how you feel personally and I totally get it. I’ve been bummed about restrictions too. But I’m offering a wider viewpoint so maybe others will see that it’s a collective issue. (For example did you see the horrific story about a senior woman walking her dog too close to a pond with an alligator in it? I’ll stop there because it’s so upsetting). I don’t think they mean to pick on us responsible pet owners. They just don’t have the money or staff to monitor everyone all of the time. It would be fantastic if the dog community could work with the local government and come up with some good solutions. It’s also good that you are giving other travelers a heads up so that they can make other choices. Cheers to you three! Love your channel ✌️
@@educateddogcenter We did see that. Sad and really sad that it happened a lot. I agree totally with you. One bad apple ruins a lot for those who really try.
Another enjoyable episode. Oh how we wish we were with you or how we wish we were anywhere but here. The money shot was the osprey getting fish. Not that easy for me! We felt the same way about Collier Seminole but had great restaurants in Marco Island. And there is Goodland which is also fun. Another great job by Mr. And Mrs. Love the unicycle joke!!! Oh yea I would!!!
You guys are the best. I agree with the money shot… it was awesome seeing the osprey bringing up a fish. I’m still impressed David can ride a unicycle.
Good evening, I agree with you about the dogs. They don’t mind taking your money though. Wow Owen, you got it going on with the good food, yum yum. The jokes were pretty good too, reminded me of my dad, he always had a good joke ready (he wrote them down before he passed and 26:05 I have some of them.) can’t wait to see the keys 😎. Happy tails
That’s great you have a copy of your dad’s jokes. I often tell Owen he need to write down all the jokes his grandfather use to tell him so he can pass it down to our Son. Thanks for sharing your comment.
Yep, CSP is not a big fav., So understand. So glad you could change your reservation. Love the SPs in the Keys. Yum, both great meals. We use medium tortillas for crust, and add our fav toppings. On the nachos a bit of chili, and save the rest for hotdogs the next day. Fun to see how others make things. 🙂👍
Excellent episode. Finding a sunny day seems to be difficult for everyone lately. I found Florida to be very un-dog-friendly in some respects. That's why I re-jiggered my trip this year and stopped at SC, which seemed extra dog-friendly. I'm new to travelling with my furry BFF, so that's a #1 consideration. So glad to go to Florida with you today, though. It is still my 'happy place'. Thanks for all the great info, too. Can't wait to see you in the keys! Peace & Prayers.
We totally understand our furry BFF’s being our #1 consideration, we do the same. We do have to leave her sometimes but we try and take her most of the time. Thanks so much for spending part of your Sunday morning with us.
Awesome...the bird catching the fish, the manatees, and two cooking segments....yay!!! Thank you for the campground review and the information on Campnab. (Attire...a tire...lol)
Looks like you had great weather for rigging bikes and cute Maggie went with you. Manatees and gators oh my! Hope the manatees don’t get eatin up my the gators. The pizza looked great I’m going to have to try cooking it that way. Thank you Owen and Lynn! Hope you have a great day!
Really enjoying seeing the Park Ratings at the end of your videos; very helpful information. The water looked beautiful at Collier-Seminole and seeing the Osprey fishing was wonderful. It’s amazing what you can whip up in a Lodge skillet Owen. Can’t wait to see your travels through the Keys; one of my very favorite places. Enjoy and stay well. Hugs for sweet Maggie.
Loved the photography and the amazing shot of the bird catching the fish. The cooking looked fantastic and we will be trying both the pizza and the nacho chips. Thanks for the great video!!!
Another great video. Your information about Naples & Seminole SP was very informative as we travel with our dog and that type of information is great. We consider how dog friendly an area is when traveling as not only does that make his adventures great and in turn makes ours great. We find that what we love about campgrounds is the same thing Ira likes. Also I have never made pizza or nachos in my cast iron pan. What a great idea!
Again thanks for your honesty, we had actually booked 2 nights there last year as we would have been traveling down to the keys but decided to cancel the whole trip when gas prices shot up. It was a blessing we canceled because our 1st stop was going to be in GA. We would have only made it there when Ivan hit and we wouldn't have been able to continue anyway. So next trip planned we will know to avoid because we also love being outside while camping. We love the wildlife as east tenn mountains is home. Happy camping 🏕
I hate you had to cancel your trip but it sounds like you did what you needed to do. I’m not sure the bug are bad there all the time, so it may be better at different times of the year. One of reasons we wanted to stay there is to get out on the water, which we were not able to do. We love the Tenn mountain.
Good Sunday morning. Your photography and cooking are spot on! I want to try the pizza on the blackstone and preheat the lid for some top heat. Y'all are 100% right about Naples and I love how you adapted with the campnab app. Thanks for taking us along . Happy tails and safe travels.
Beautiful scenery, thanks for sharing. That pizza looked amazing and the nachos didn't look too shabby. I really like the cooking overviews that you did and would love to see more of that in your future videos.
Such a lot of wildlife there! That pizza looked yummy!!! We're going to have to give that a try. Y'all are amazing! Hope everything came out OK, Owen.🤣 Loved the jokes...my kind of humor. Thanks so much for bringing us along with you. Lynn, you are the Woman! 💪(strong) So much love from SC, Jane ❤🙏🐾
Hey guys, absolutely great that your doing the rating system explaining not just the positives but let us throw the negatives too! We don’t get out much but when we do we want the best we can get. If you recommend skipping this campground then we will too! There are tons of campgrounds in Florida I want to stay at a nice one and with your reviews that will help greatly on our decision to stay or not! Thanks, Charles from central Florida
We hate being negative about any place we stay and I’m sure our thoughts do not match everyone’s and the last thing we want to do is miss lead anyone. You are correct there are so many wonderful parks in Florida to choose from and if you don’t get out much you do want to stay at the best. Thanks for your comment.
Very nice video, the area looks great, will have to stop there next trip I take in early March only about 3 hours for me sounds like a nice day trip, I have a annual Fl. State Park resident pass. Since your heading for the keys, if you haven’t been there already might want to take a side trip to Flamingo Campground -Everglades National Park and visit the Marina as well. They have a nice boat tour there into the everglades waterways and you can kayak there. Also, on the road there is a Missile Site built back in the Cuban crisis, should be open for tours as well. There are several places to stop along the way to campground. P.S. it’s a long road but nice.
Pizza sure looked dance worthy 😋 Thanks for sharing. Those rules seem crazy. Good to know ahead of time. We would not have considered that dogs would be so unwelcome.
You have really stepped things up with all of these lovely dishes and the new ratings of the campgrounds! Very nice video as always. We will be in Panacea next winter would love to meet you both!
Owen you are right about cooking at your site. The experimenting is part of the experience and not eating out all the time is great for the budget. We used our Lodge dutch oven to cook in our fire ring twice while camping last fall. Now I want to try pizza. One question for you. What kind of dough did you use for the pizza crust? Safe Travels!!
IMO, Blue Spring State Park in Orange City FL, in January/February is best for viewing manatee. Go on the coldest mornings. We were there last year and there were around 300 there. Apparently there were over 400 earlier that day.
We’ve been to Blue Spring before and totally agree it is the best for viewing manatee, and the park is really nice too. Thanks for watching and sharing your comment.
OK, now I’m hungry. You made two of my favourite meals. I need to experiment with the cast iron skillet. What type of burner are you using? I find my Coleman is very hard to control temperature.👋🇨🇦
It’s the burner on our outdoor kitchen and it is also hard to control the temperature. We’ve been doing a lot experimenting since we didn’t bring our Blackstone.
You three are loads of fun. Great adventures and cooking. You need to checkout Cowboy Kent Rollins. He’s got great recipes and his own version and happy dancing. Mmm that was good…
We got our chairs at REI. They do have them at Amazon, and we have put them in our store, here’s a link to the store if you are interested www.amazon.com/shop/VanTrekkingLifestyle They are very pricey but well worth if for us.
Great video as usual, Thank you! Do you have a video about your camera setup for Maggie? We are about to pick up our Ekko and since our Revel we now have a GSP., Ella. Would love to know about how your camera setup works. Do you have a jetpack that connects the camera? Thank you!
We don't have a video about our camera setup in the van but it's pretty simple. 2 components. 1) A T-Mobile hotspot to provide connectivity even when our phones are not around. 2) A Wyze camera purchased from Amazon that is connected to that hotspot so we can see inside the van from anywhere we have connectivity. We place the camera above the bench seat so we can see Maggie in that seat and the two front seats. We can't see her when she goes back to the bed though so we need to get a 2nd camera. It helps a lot to be able to know she's fine and to be able to hear her and "talk" to her. Here's a link to the camera on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08R59YH7W?linkCode=ssc&tag=onamzvantrekk-20&creativeASIN=B08R59YH7W&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.18Z0B46LNTGD4&ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_m_asin
I’m tired of seeing you guys in shorts and shirt sleeves. You should be suffering like we are. It’s 39 degrees here!!! You picked a good year to stay in the southeast. ❤
We did. The forecast for you was not good when we made the decision. Only guaranteed warm places were Baja and southern Florida. We think we chose well. Looks like storms have been hitting you guys too.
