27 Apr - Fort Desoto Park, Egmont Lighthouse, Tierra Verde Lighthouse, Unnamed lighthouse

This morning we headed west across Old Tampa Bay via Highway 92 and verified our route to Tropicana Field for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball game on Thursday.  Driving the big ol' brown truck I don't like to get twisted around in unfamiliar areas, plus it was on our way to our next stop.

The southern-most point in south St Petersburg is Fort Desoto Park.  This park is 1136 acres in five keys, or islands.  Our main interest here is the vantage point to view the Egmont Lighthouse which is located on one of the islands.  We were pleasantly surprised when we approached the entrance and prepared to pay our $5 entry fee that the person that preceded us paid for the next three folks!  We will pay this forward for sure.  What a nice gesture!

We made our way to the busy pier and really enjoyed the view.  There were fishermen in the water and fishermen on the pier and it appeared the fish were biting.  

One fella was tossing a net and hauling in bait fish called Spanish Sardines.  

At the end of the pier, off in the distance is the Egmont Lighthouse, located on Egmont Key.  It stands 87 ft tall and was built in 1858 and is still in operation, protecting the inlet to Tampa Bay.  The island (key) on which it sits is only accessible via boat and there are no facilities on the island.  WE will have to settle for a distant picture of this one!  The patch was sold in the gift shop at Fort Desoto Park.

  Leaving Fort Desoto Park, we retraced our tracks up highway 679 where we captured a picture of Tierra Verde Lighthouse.  This lighthouse is inaccessible to visitors.  It was privately built recently in 2005 by the Tampa Bay Watch society and it is a fully permitted US Coast Guard facility.  In fact it is the newest lighthouse in Florida in the past 50 years.  No climbing this one!

The last lighthouse today is also a non-climber.  It is also non-functional.  In fact we are not even sure why it is where it is - in the middle of a parking lot at 4800 Tyrone Blvd N, St. Petersburg, FL  Hey, why not!  It is an interesting structure.  It got us to stop, however we did not buy anything from the surrounding stores.  

After our journey today we returned to the campground and I gave the RV a bath.  Nice to get all the bugs cleaned off and the rest of it was a bit dirty also.  Doreen knocked out some laundry and then we relaxed with pizza for dinner and  watch the Chicago Cubs drop another one to Atlanta.

Tomorrow we plan to do a beach tour starting south at the Don CeSar Hotel and ending north at Clearwater Beach.