Ortona South Campground

Free and low cost dump stations in south Florida are few and far between.  Although nearly all RV-accessible campgrounds have them and offer them free of charge to registered campers, they often charge upwards of $20 for non registered campers.  This is a little pricey just to dump the contents of our black tank into a hole in the ground (actually, for us - $1 per gallon of sewage!), considering we usually try to pay $15 or less for our campsites.  After a little research, we learned that there were two federal recreation parks within 40 miles, to our north and northeast, that charge $10 to use the dump station or include it free with a campsite rental for $24 a night.  The $24 a night also includes water and electricity hookups (although, we generally do not use the water hookups... we learned the hard way before our water heater can't take the pressure!)

The weather was taking a turn for the worst, we resolved that we were going to have to pay to dump, and we knew we would have to find a campsite for the night anyway, so we decided to head for W.P. Franklin North Campground.  They did not have any campsites available, however the attendant informed us that Ortona South Campground about 30 miles away had plenty of availability.  So we headed east to Ortona South Campground.  The attendant at Ortona got us squared away with a campsites and we proceeded to the dump station to clear our tanks.

At precisely the moment we pulled up to the dump station and got everything lined up and ready the skies let loose a torrent of pounding rain and whipping winds.  There was nothing to do but laugh and carry on our business.  So, in the soaking rains and wind we emptied our tanks, climbed back into the van completely drenched and headed to our campsite.  We were already soaked and our van was in dire need of a car wash, so we figured we might as well wash the van while we were already in such a state.  Afterwards we headed to the camp showers for a much needed long hot shower.

Ortona South was a very nice campground built on the Caloosahatchee River section of the Okeechobee Waterway.  It was very clean, well maintained, and for $24 we got to dump our tanks, wash our van, and enjoy air conditioning without having to run the generator.

Here is a short video of a vessel leaving the waterway lock.