W. P. Franklin North Campground

Posted on by November 25, 2007
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Three years ago the CurbCrusher clan decided that they’d start a new Thanksgiving tradition and go camping on Thanksgiving weekend. We piled the gang into the fifth-wheel, and went to Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park in Micanopy, Florida. We had a great dinner and then went bike riding around the park. Little CurbCrusher went over her handle bars and knocked out one of her brand new front permanent teeth. We spent the better part of Thanksgiving at Shand’s Emergency Room, and ruined Thanksgiving dinner for two pediatric dental interns. Little CurbCrusher has been adamantly opposed to going camping on Thanksgiving since that time.

So after staying home the past two years, we ventured out again on Thanksgiving, this time to W.P. Franklin North Campground near Ft. Myers, Florida. It was about a three hour drive from the CurbCrusher estate, and done on Thanksgiving morning. The traffic was lite and the driving easy. W. P. Franklin is a Corp of Engineers park, something we’d never stayed in. This campground is located on an island off the north bank of the Caloosahatchee river. Opposite the park is is the lock that raises and lowers boats that are moving up the river toward Lake Okeechobee. The campground has 30 sites with water and electricity, all are paved and all but three are right on the water. The three not on on the water are in the middle of the island, and still have a great view of the water, but they are close together. Each site has a fire ring, and a raised grill, and a picnic table with a cover. The sites are paved, and have gravel around the picnic tables, making for a dry site when it rains. There are two bath houses, and they were very clean and roomy. In addition, there are eight boat slips that have power and water. A single dump station serves the park.

After enjoying a nice Thanksgiving dinner, we awoke Friday ready to do some tourist stuff. We drove the fifteen miles or so to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Thomas Edison spent winters in Ft. Myers starting in 1886, and his home has been preserved. At some time, Henry Ford bought the place next door, and spent time in Ft. Myers also. The local preservation group has preserved both houses, and a laboratory that Edison worked in to try and determine a method of extracting rubber from plants that would grow in the U.S. Little CurbCrusher had been wanting to see something related to Edison after studying him last year in school, so this was a great opportunity to work in a field trip.

Following the tour of the Edison home, we wandered over to Sanibel Island, which is located a little further south. We had two reasons for wanting to visit Sanibel. One is that it has great beaches, and Little CurbCrusher likes to play on the beach. Secondly, Lady CurbCrusher wanted to check out the Periwinkle Trailer Park and Campground to see if it was a place that we’d like to camp in the future. We walked about a mile of so beach and collected shells and a slight sunburn. We then stopped at the Periwinkle campground and took a look around. This place is more of a permanent living location with lots of park models there, but there is a loop or two for camping. It is the only campground on Sanibel Island, but there is still a good walk to the beach. It might be a good place to stay if your destination was the beach, but we left not completely convinced that its a place we want to camp.

On Saturday we made a trip up to the Ortona lock. There is another campground run by the Corp of Engineers here. This campground has 51 sites, and is a bit larger than the one at the W. P. Franklin lock. They are a bit more relaxed at Ortona lock, and they let you walk across the damn and the locks to the other side of the river. While there we were able to see the lock in operation as a couple of boats came through headed east. It was pretty neat watching the lock in operation.

We then drove back down to the W.P. Franklin Lock and Recreation area. This is located across the river from the campground, but you have drive 12 miles to get to it. There is a beach, boat ramp, and observation deck to watch the lock in operation. When were there there was only about a two foot difference in the height of the river on each side of the damn, so it was not as impressive as watching the Ortona lock where there was more like a five foot difference in the river height.

Pictures from the trip are located here.

Choosing an RV (The First Time)

Posted on by November 21, 2007
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So the CurbCrushers were at the point where they wanted an RV, they just needed to decide what to get. At the time the CurbCrushers owned two vehicles, a GMC Sonoma S-10 Pickup, and an Olds Minivan. The S-10 was not made for a family though as it had two sideways facing jump seats in the small extended cab area behind the two bucket seats, so that left the minivan. The initial thought was to buy a towable RV that could be towed with the minivan. Well, when CurbCrusher started researching the towing capability of the minivan, it quickly became obvious that they only option would be a small pop-up.

The first decision was whether to get a drivable RV (motorhome) or a towable. The CurbCrushers thought they wanted a motorhome, so after asking around, they set off to Lazy Days. A very patient salesman showed them some low end new Class A motorhomes and then some bigger used Class Cs. One of the big drawbacks to the Class A was that the only place for Little CurbCrusher to sleep was the couch or the dinette. So it seemed as though the Class C might be more appealing, as some of them have the bed over the cab. So off the family went on a test drive in one of the used Class C motorhomes that day at Lazy Days. After the test drive, Curbcrusher didn’t like the visibility to the back and sides (although this may have just been because I wasn’t used to driving something that large at the time) and the whole family didn’t like the visibility from the living area out the front. A example is that if Little CurbCrusher was sitting at the dinette while traveling and Lady CurbCrusher said “look at that”, there’s no way for Little CurbCrusher to look out the front window. So at the end of the Lazy Days browsing trip, a disappointed CurbCrusher clan was not sure what they were seeking in an RV.

The CurbCrushers started visiting RV shows and dealers on the weekends. At some point a trailer that had a bunkhouse in the back was encountered. That seemed ideal. It gave Little CurbCrusher a place to sleep that didn’t interfere with the adults staying up late, and it also meant that one didn’t have to put a room back together before eating in the morning. So the field was narrowed to trailers that had bunk houses.

There was still the matter of the tow vehicle. It was time to replace the S-10, so the CurbCrushers next thought was to get an SUV and tow a trailer behind it. When CurbCrusher started researching the towing capacity of SUVs, he was quite surprised to find that they were much lower than he’d imagined. It shortly became apparent that to get any decent towing capacity, it was going to require the purchase of a full size or a heavy duty pickup truck. After reading and talking to a few people about the differences in towing between a fifth-wheel and a trailer, CurbCrusher suggested that if a pickup truck was going to be the tow vehicle, why not go to a fifth-wheel.

At about this same time the CurbCrusher family saw the Salem 32BHSS unit at a show or on some dealer lot. Lady CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher fell in love with the RV, and started lobbying for it. CurbCrusher had really wanted to stay with a unit that was thirty feet long or shorter, and this thing was thirty-five. In the end the women won, and the CurbCrushers had picked out their first RV.

Before getting the RV though, a tow vehicle was needed. It was apparent from the RV selected that heavy-duty pickup was going to be required. CurbCrusher has always been a GM guy, but he read up on the GMC 2500HD, the Ram 2500 and the F-250. One of the factors in the decision was whether or not it would fit in the garage, because CurbCrusher likes parking in the garage. The Ford was about 4 inches longer than the GM or the Dodge, and that was the difference between being in the garage or out. With the Dodge you could get a Cummins diesel, but on the GM the Allison Transmission was available. After doing some research on the engine/transmission combinations, CurbCrusher was convinced that the Duramax/Allison was the way to go, and ended up with a GMX 2500HD Duramax.

And that is pretty much how the CurbCrusher clan ended up with the Fifth-Wheel.

How the CurbCrushers Got Started RVing

Posted on by November 18, 2007
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I promised a few months ago that I’d related how the CurbCrushers got started with an RV. To begin, we should probably start with once upon a time with the formative years of CurbCrusher and Lady CurbCrusher.

RV/Camping Experience
CurbCrusher had limited camping experience as a child. This was primarily due to Pa CurbCrusher’s opinion that since he was in the United States Army, he was a professional camper, and there was no way that he was going to camp on vacation. There was one abortive attempt at camping when CurbCrusher was five years old. CurbCrusher, his uncle and a cousin went out into the woods of Northwest Florida and set up a tent. Pa CurbCrusher was to come out a bit later and join in the fun. But, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in, and CurbCrusher, the uncle and the cousin decided there was no need to stay in the woods when there was a warm, comfy house back in town, not to mention a good hot meal at Grandmother’s house. Since this was in the days before cell phones, Pa CurbCrusher ended up in the woods at night looking for a non existent campsite. Following this incident CurbCrusher was never involved in another camping trip.

However, during his first two years of college CurbCrusher did come in contact with Rving. CurbCrusher participated in an extracurricular activity known as “Speech and Debate.” Now Debate teams are ranked somewhere below basket weaving clubs on a college campus, and therefore unlike the sports teams that travel in style in a bus or plane to a completion, Speech and Debate students are lucky if they aren’t hitch hiking. One of the girl’s family owned a Winnebago, and through some sort of arrangement that offered her dad a tax write off, CurbCrusher and his teammates got to drive around the country and stay in RV parks while competing in speech and debate tournaments. Now this is not to say that CurbCrusher fell in love with RVing at this time, as trying to put ten college age kids in a motorhome that is advertised as sleeping eight doesn’t exactly leave one with memories of the spacious luxury of a modern day RV.

Meanwhile in Central Florida, Lady CurbCrusher was growing up in a family where vacation and camping were synonymous. Every summer her family spent a couple of weeks at Moss Park camping in a tent. In addition, as big scouting family, there were a number of other camping trips for this family. Even today, Lady CurbCrusher’s dad spends a number of nights each year camping with Boy Scouts, and has a pop-up camper. So Lady CurbCrusher viewed CurbCrusher’s aversion to camping as being based on a basic character flaw.

RV Fever

When Little CurbCrusher was about four years old, a number of events occurred that started us down the path of RV Ownership. The first was when Mrs. CurbCrusher went out and bought a tent and assorted other camping gear. She was determined to overcome CurbCrusher’s anti-camping character flaw. She planned a trip in the middle of summer to Moss Park. Lady CurbCrusher’s dad also was going out and took his pop-up camper. Well, lets say that it was a pretty miserable experience. It was hot, it was humid, there was no real point to it other than to be miserable. Not that there wasn’t some redeeming qualities. It was sort of nice to sit around in the evening in the woods, and Little CurbCrusher had a great time playing in the woods.

The second event was a trip to North Georgia where CurbCrusher’s cousin had just purchased a cabin. He’d invited a number of other relatives, turning it into a small family reunion of sorts. Two of the other relatives had a trailer and fifth-wheel. After touring the rigs, and talking with the relatives, CurbCrusher began to think that maybe he could handle camping if it was done in an RV.

A second camping trip was planned with Lady CurbCrusher’s dad and his pop up. This time the destination was Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground. While better than the tent camping trip, this was a bit of a mess also. It rained for most of the weekend. The three adults and one kid in the pop-up seemed way too much. Considering that CurbCrusher is not a small man (He’d not Adre the Giant sized either, but lets put is this way. If you are sitting on a plane with an empty middle seat next to you, and you see CurbCrusher coming down the aisle, you’ll probably be saying a quick prayer that he’s not the guy with the seat next to you), and neither is his father-in-law, and throw in the other two people trapped in a 6×8 space and it’s not pleasant.

So, we were left with two camping trips that weren’t great. But, and its a big but, CurbCursher could see that there was something there. Something that needed to be experienced and something worth while. It was obvious though, that it didn’t need to be experienced with canvas though. The bug was caught, and the CurbCrushers were on their way to getting an RV, the question was what would they end up with.

Wekiwa Springs State Park

Posted on by November 5, 2007
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The CurbCrushers were on the road again this last weekend. Not for long, but on the road nevertheless. All of 18 miles up I-4 and west on State Road 434 to Wekiwa Springs State Park. This park is located on the Northwest side of Orlando, and is a fairly nice place to spend a weekend. Add the fact that the temperature dropped into the upper 50’s each night, and the humidity was low, and it makes for a very nice weekend of camping.

There are two camping loops at Wekiwa, each with 30 sites featuring water and electricity. A single dump station servers the entire campground. About a mile away from the campground is the natural spring that gives the park its name. The sites are well situated with a decent amount of privacy. There are probably only five to six sites that would be too small for anything but a pop-up.

There are a number of hiking and biking trails throughout the park. In addition, there is a concession that rents canoes and kayaks. You can go down the Wekiwa river and come back, or there is a five hour trip where you ride down to a spot called Katies Landing and then the concession folks will come and pick you up. Wekiwa is bear country, and there are a number of warning signs over the park, and we know a number of people that have seen the bears on their stays.

The CurbCrusher’s camped as a family on Friday night. On Saturday at noon Little CurbCrusher’s Girl Scout troop showed up and set up tents on the site next the motorhome. The girls then went on a 2 hour canoe trip down the Wekiwa. After the canoe trip the girls spent some time on the playground, and then came back to camp to fix dinner.

CurbCrusher fixed his own dinner, and watched the girls make smores and actually read a book, a first on a camping trip. In addition, since the rest of the CurbCrusher family was camping with the Girl Scouts, CurbCrusher was able to control the temperature in the RV, and had a great night’s sleep.

Wekiwa is a good place to go anytime of the year. If it’s hot outside, the springs are a great place to cool off. And when it’s cool there are great trails to walk.

Moss Park

Posted on by October 20, 2007
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The CurbCrusher’s made a big trip this last weekend. All of eight (yup that’s 8 ) miles from the RV storage lot to Moss Park. Moss Park is a county park located south east of Orlando International Airport on the shores of Lake Mary Jane.

This is a fairly large park, up at the front near the entrance are two boat ramps, a swimming area, a number of pavilions, a playground and some large fields. As you go back towards the camping area, there is a group campground that always seems to be busy with scout groups and a couple of more pavilions. The campground is located at the back of the park. It has 56 regular sites with water and electricity and two large bathhouses laid in one big loop. There is a smaller loop inside the bigger loop that contains four “family” sites. These family sites are set up as big pull through sites that have two water electric posts that are set up to serve three rigs. Each site also has a grill and fire ring (except the family sites which only have fire rings). The sites are a crushed shell/sand surface. A big appeal for some folks is the dock that is located next to the campground. Campers are permitted to put their boats in at one of the ramps, and then keep their boat in one of the slips during their stay. In addition, there is a rather long trail, the Split Oak Trail, which starts at the beginning of the camping loop and heads back west into an area that is closed to vehicular traffic.

One of the reasons for heading on this looong camping trip, was because Lady CrubCrusher was taking Little CubrCruhsers Girl Scout troop Orienteering. The Florida Orienteering group was putting on an orienteering event. This is where you get a map with check points on it, and you use a compass to find your way. The troop managed to work their way around the course in about an hour and a half. Then we all went back to the campground for a lunch and some play time on the playground near the campground and dock.

It was a cool weekend in Central Florida, with temperatures dropping into the upper 60’s, lower 70’s each night, so we enjoyed a campfire both nights. Its the first time in a long time that we’ve had a fire in Florida.

All in all a pleasant weekend camping. No long drive, and not really far from home, but a good time was had by all.

The Majestic Steakhouse (Kansas City, MO)

Posted on by October 5, 2007
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The Kansas City airport is the place sometime in the past 10 years that Mr. CurbCrusher found himself during the month of January. The day started out blustery cold, then got colder. Sitting in a conference room facing a lake, Mr. CurbCrusher watched the lake go from a liquid state to a solid state over a period of about 6 hours. Since it also happed to be Mr. CurbCrusher’s birthday, his boss had promised him a steak. Well needless to say with weather freezing the lakes, there was only hotel food that night, no steak.
So Earlier this week, Mr. CurbCrusher finds himself in Kansas City for a conference. On Tuesday night, he found his way to The Majestic Steakhouse located at 931 Broadway, about four blocks from the convention center.
The setting is a downstairs, basement like, environment with raw brick walls. There is a piano player and jazz singer, who would probably sound good if the room was bigger. But with a seat right in front of the speakers, it just makes conversation impossible, and is a bit noisy.
Mr. CurbCrusher enjoyed the 8oz Fillet, with a twice baked potato. The meat was cooked and seasoned nicely, and the potato was about average. In my mind that about describes the meal, it was about average. Nothing to rave about, but nothing to turn your nose up at either. Considering that the alternatives were hotel food or a sports bar across the street, it was about as good as it was going to get.

Fort Wilderness (Disney)

Posted on by October 5, 2007
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Well, another weekend another camping trip. The CurbCrusher’s loaded up and made the 35 minute drive to Disney World on Friday (Sept 21). Nothing but a reason to live in the motorhome for the weekend. We lazed around the campground, wandered over to Downtown Disney.

There’s not a lot to say about Ft. Wilderness other than “Disney.” It is located a boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom and a bus ride away from Epcot and MGM Studios. In addition, there’s all the other Disney attractions: water parks, hotel pool jumping and more. Every night there is a “campfire” in the meadows at the campground and Chip and Dale come out to play. Then they show a movie on the screen. Think of it like a drive in movie (for those old enough to remember them) without the drive in part.

The sites we’ve always had have been full hookup (water, sewer and electric) and Little CurbCrusher always has a good time, even if we don’t go to the parks. There is a large pool at the campground, and playgrounds scattered around the whole park. The rates can get expensive, that’s why we only go when we can get a “Florida Resident” rate that is just outlandish as opposed to exorbitant.

Driving the Motorhome

Posted on by September 20, 2007
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Well we finally made the first trip that was longer than two and half hours in the motorhome. I’ve become much more comfortable driving the coach that I was on the first couple of trips. Initially I had reached a comfort level by limiting my speed to 60 MPH. I’ve now become comforatable driving at around 65MPH. Because of the towing limitations of the Saturn 65MPH is the max speed I’ll run.

The motorhome is much more “loose” on the road than the truck/5th wheel combination. This is especially true when driving in tight traffic. I feel much more claustrophobic driving the motorhome in the middle of traffic that I did the truck/5th wheel. I also felt comfortable running about 70 MPH in the truck. The truck always felt solid on the road. The motorhome fees a bit more mushy.

Traveling through the city of Atlanta was an experience. We had made two round trips to north Georgia via I-75 while we owned the 5th wheel. On both trips, we drove through the middle of Atlanta, and used the HOV lane. This trip on the way north we went through the middle of Atlanta on I-75. We did not use the HOV lane. It is my opinion that the lanes on I-75 within Atlanta are smaller than the lanes outside of Altanta. We drove through on a Saturday, and it was fairly stressful driving through the middle. On the way home, we took I-285. It is only about six miles longer, but it is much less stressful. On I-285, I was able to establish a position in the middle lane, and not have to worry about as much merging and rushing traffic as I-75 through the middle of the city had. All in all, I’ll take the bypass next time.

As far the family traveling in the motorhome, it is a much superior experience to the truck/5th wheel. Little CurbCrusher is homeschooled. So when we left White Springs, FL on the way to Chattanooga, Mrs. CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher spent the first couple of hours doing school work. Then Mrs. CurbCrusher joined me in the co-pilot seat and Little CurbCrusher did some school work, read for a while, watched a movie. When I got hungry, Mrs. CurbCrusher was kind enough to get up make me a sandwich and get me a drink. We pretty much only stopped to get gas on the way up. On the way home, we stopped at a couple of rest stops and I got out and took a walk.

Another item to note is my mind set while driving. When I drive long distances in a car, I find myself constantly calculating how many miles per hour I’m averaging. My goal is to always average at least 65 miles an hour, so I’m looking at the distances to cities, figuring out what time I’ll get there and happy when I beat my calculations. The same thing with mile markers and counting down to state lines. In the motorhome I find myself just chugging along enjoying the drive. It is much more relaxing.

Back Home

Posted on by September 15, 2007
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Well, we did it, our first long trip in the motorhome. The CurbCrusher clan drove from Cloudland Canyon back to Orlando on Thursday. Because there was not internet access for most of the trip, I wrote about the trip in OpenOffice and then I’ve cut and pasted into the blog, and edited the timestamps on the post to match roughly when I actually wrote the entry.

It is good to be home, but now we have to catch up on all the mundane chores that we got to ignore for seven days. Grass needs to be cut, laundry done, the house cleaned and all that. It was great to get back and find out that someone other than the family reads this, thanks Lou.

Having spent a while driving the Itasca, I want to write a summary of my thoughts on driving the motorhome on a long trip versus the fifth-wheel, and I want to explain how we got started RVing, as I mentioned in my response to Lou, that may help others that are thinking about RVing, but not sure about it. I’ll probably try and post something about the driving this weekend, but may hold off on the other.

The next trip is already planned, but its a short one. Next weekend we are going to head over to Fort Wilderness, the campground at Disney, for a weekend. Hopefully this will be a more relaxing weekend that the last trip to Ft. Wilderness three years ago when we left early because of Hurricane Jeanne so we could batten down the house before the storm.

Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia

Posted on by September 15, 2007
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The last stop on the CurbCrusher Fall 2007 tour was Cloudland Canyon State Park in north west Georgia. On Tuesday morning, we spent a lazy morning cleaning up camp at Raccoon Mountain and then moseyed a bit south, twenty-five miles to be exact, to Cloudland Canyon. We approached from the west, taking I-24 west from Chattanooga, then exiting a Trenton, Georgia (exit 11) and heading east on state road 136. 136 is a mountain road (Ok I know the people out west laugh at the mountains on this side of the country. But for someone that lives in the flat lands of Florida, when the elevation exceeds about 40 feet above sea level, you’ve got a mountain.) that winds up to the park entrance about seven miles from the interstate.

We arrived and headed for the West Rim camping loop. Cloudland Canyon has two camping loops that are about a two – three mile drive from each other. The West Rim has the bigger sites so we headed that way. Georgia State Parks let you reserve a “type” of site, and then when you show up you look through the available sites of that type and choose the one you want (as opposed to Florida State Parks were you reserve a specific site number). So we drove through the West Rim loop and looked at all the “green” sites. There were about a half dozen RV’s in the loop, and probably another three or four tents. We finally settled on a pull through (one of four in the loop) that was behind the playground and a bathhouse, although the woods were so thick that you could not see the playground or the bath house from the site. The site was extremely large, and gave you a good sense of privacy. There was electricity and water on the site. There were a number of “gray water dump” sites located around the loops, and then a full dump station located on the way out of the camping area.

One of the attractions of Cloudland Canyon is that there are two waterfalls located in the canyon. Well when we checked in the ranger told Mrs. CurbCrusher that because of the drought the waterfalls have dried up. This was a bit of a disappointment, as I am a waterfall fan. We decided to hike to the waterfalls anyway. So we started our first hike of the day. One big problem was that we started the hike without looking at the map closely. The Waterfall trail starts on the East Rim of the canyon. We were on the West Rim, and needed to take the West Rim trail over to where it crosses to the East Rim. Since CurbCrusher was responsible for reading the trail map, and he didn’t do it right, the family started off toward the 4.2 mile loop section of the West Rim Trail, instead of toward the Waterfall Trail. There were some beautiful views of the canyon, and different rocks and fauna, but after about a mile we reached the start of the loop. Needless to say Mrs. CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher were not amused that we were at the start of the 4.2 mile loop, and so CurbCrusher actually read the map and we turned around.

After a bit of a rest, we drove over to the East Rim. The East Rim camping loop is more compact, and the sites do not seem to have as much foliage between them. There is also the parking for the day use near-by the campground, and the East Rim cabins are located right next to the camping loop.

We hiked the Waterfall trail to the dried up waterfalls. This trail is a mix of walking along a packed dirt trail, and descending steps to the canyon floor. You get about half way down and the trail splits, one way going about a tenth of a mile to one waterfall and the the other going about three tenths of a mile to the other. CurbCrusher is not convinced that the signs indicating the distance are accurate, as it seems that you go three tenths of a mile horizontally, and about six tenths vertically. And of course the real problem is that once you get to the bottom of each of the trails you have to climb back up. Somewhere I thought I’d heard Mrs. CurbCrusher say there were 400 steps to the waterfalls. On the way down I quit counting at 170. On the way up, I figured I’d count and when I got to about 230, I should be where I quit counting on the way down. I quit counting at 300 on the way up and I still could not see the place I’d quit counting on the way down.

While hiking and walking around the camping loop, we had seen a number of different leaves. We stopped by the Ranger Station and they lent us a guide book for identifying trees. After we had tried as best we could, we took some leaves back up there when we returned the book and they helped up identify them. Little CurbCrusher completed the Junior Ranger program during our stay at this park, and was able to get three nice patches.

The weather was wonderful. When we arrived in the park it was sort of drizzly and cloudy, but with a nice breeze that kept it feeling cool. The first morning we woke up to our outdoor thermometer reading 62, which is the coldest we’ve seen since February/March of this year. At night once the sun went down the temperature dropped in to the low 70’s fairly quickly and we were able to enjoy the ambiance of a small campfire for the first time a few months. This was what CurbCrusher had in mind when he talked about going to the mountains in September on vacation.

We would definitely like to visit this park again, especially once the waterfalls come back. This park is only about a half hour from Chattanooga, so it would be possible to use this park as a base to visit Chattanooga. The only thing is that the gates on this park are closed from 10PM until 7AM, and they don’t give you a code to get in and out like they do at other parks.

Some pictures can be found here.