After a three hour stop in St Petersburg, we decided to make Hillsborough River State Park the location for testing all of our new equipment. We got out and walked around the outside loop of the campground and as we were looking over the river access behind our site we spotted an alligator leisurely floating downstream with barely noticeable steering provided by his (or her) gently swaying tail. We watched for about ten or fifteen minutes as several spots were checked out as possible dinner locations. Seeing nothing significant, we returned to the bird cage to make our own dinner and go through our systems.
Happily, everything we tried worked as planned and an evening running off the inverter went by without a hitch, including dinner cooked inside with the microwave, television, cell booster, computer charging, etc. In the morning the microwave and Keurig were used for breakfast. All said it was a pretty successful stay. We dropped the batteries down to 62 percent but we felt that we had given ourselves a fair test of how our new configuration would perform running everything off batteries that we would normally only be able to use when plugged in to shore power or using the generator. And, how else to test the ability of the new solar panels to replenish the batteries.
Sites in the campground were mostly dirt and sand but level. I would not want to be here after or during a heavy rain. Bathrooms were clean but a bit dated with plenty of hot water but you have to be patient while it takes its time to arrive. Everyone seemed happy and friendly, both campers and staff. After dark the place lit up like forest fire and the smoke lingered well into the morning. Mosquitos were abundant.