Canoeing is a great way to relax in a scenic nature setting. My dad use to race canoes so naturally my two brothers and I grew up loving the sport. One of the major benefits of RVing is you get to make friends with like minded people and enjoy the activities that you love.

We were staying at the Thousand Trails Peace River campground in Wauchula, FL  and made friends with Karl. He’s from Germany and loves this campground so much he and his significant other Linda purchased an annual site. He has a canoe so we headed out one morning to Canoe down this tropical river.

Danielle dropped us off at Paynes Creek Historic State Park just after sunrise. It’s around 9 miles or so north of the campground. The campground we are staying at has sites on the river. In fact, some of the sites you can fish from your RV if you have a deck off the Toy Hauler.

We paddled out and started heading down the river. Luckily it had been raining for the past few days so the River was up a few feet which made for a faster flowing (less paddling) and less concern about maneuvering around shallow areas. Almost immediately we noticed fish leaping out of the water around us. However I was on the lookout for something much bigger….Alligators!

I was constantly reminded of how tropical this area is. The palms trees and green vegetation line this river. Within a few miles of our adventure it happened…we saw an Alligator!!! In fact we ended up seeing 4 alligators on this canoe ride, lots of big turtles, more fish than we can count, and a lot more wildlife. One thing we didn’t see was people. It was a very secluded and serine tropical experience.

It was really neat to get to the campground because I could see our RV from the canoe. As most great things, incredible experiences like this don’t come without action. I encourage everyone to get and camp, seek adventure and enjoy the outdoors in this beautiful country.