#243 HOLLYWOOD Fl. Seminole Casino

I had wanted to park overnight beside the tree shown above. I tried to get close so not to block the drive area. At some point the tree ripped my TV antenna off and destroyed it for the second time in a week.

When we left crooked River State Park so the next stop would be the Miami area on the way to the Keys to see LeAnn. As much as we thought we had things figured out this was not to be. We had left an email for Leann in Conch key that we would be a little earlier than we thought. We had to be there around the 20th of January. It looked to be closer to the 10th. We pushed on while waiting for her to respond. We went towards Miami and we intended to stay at a place that is called Larry and Penny Thompson recreation area. We had stayed there for several nights the previous year and I just thought it was a nice RV park. When I called them, they said there was no room in the inn. That's about the only good place to stay in Miami that's not a hundred dollars a night. There were other state and city parks but they were all full. There was a Boondock available in Hollywood Florida at a casino. It wasn't ideal but it was about all we could find as a place to rest. When we got there, we found a certain area of the parking lot extremely crowded and very difficult to navigate. Soon I realized there had been a better way to enter. With some assistance from the security guard, he told us if we went to the very back there would be no problems parking overnight. We did and we found a little place that worked for us. As I have done many times, I tore the antenna off the top of my roof again by being too close to low tree limbs. I believe this is the 4th time I've torn it off. Once was at Naples Florida Walmart parking lot the other time was in Tallahassee Florida at a car museum another time was in Charleston sc. This time it was near Miami. I had become pretty clever on how to fix it as it's only about 12 in off the roof but it doesn't like low limbs. It just pops it right in half. Typically, I would take it apart and with my gorilla glue piece it back together in a way that it would work again. After a few repairs it needs to be replaced but this would do for now.

I am also aware that you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. I created a shield using to pieces of PVC pipe in an x pattern. This would let the low limbs to glide over the top and not destroy it anymore. It's easy for one to be judgy and say why don't you just be more careful. Keep in mind that it doesn't usually happen weekly but over a 2-years it's happened four times. Many times you can be just so focused on getting a parking place that's ideal or trying to get through a state forest skinny road that you just forget there's an antenna up that’s fragile.

The x brace protection thing I made his works great and I have gone by low trees since and they brushed right over and without any damage.

We settled in and decided to walk up to the casino to get something to eat. Sometimes they have a buffet with marvelous food. The next day we went to a church service at the Hollywood United Methodist and they were very friendly. We joined them at a covered dish there after the service and we enjoyed visiting with them. We called the Bayview Inn and they said LeAnn would be back Tuesday. We needed to kill some time while we waited for LeAnn to show so it was off to the everglades.

HOLLYWOOD Fl. Seminole Casino. "Unofficially" allows O/N in lot out back (according to phone call to security). I-95 x22 to Stirling Rd (SR-848), go ~3 mi W to SR-7 (US-441), SW corner of intersection. Seminole Hard Rock Casino Just N on SR-7 does not allow free O/N pkg