SKP Co-Op Resort Website

General Information
Located in Wauchula in North Central Florida, SKP Co-Op Resort is run and maintained by the members of the Co-Op. Although the resort is not owned or run by The Escapees Club, you must be a member to stay here. Read about how to become a member here.

Dash Cam Video (coming soon)

According to owner/members we talked to, this resort was created in 1989 by the original Escapee founders, Joe and Kay Peterson. The resort has 127 full hook-up back in sites supporting Motorhomes, 5th wheels, park models and permanent mobile homes. Whether a site has a cement pad or any type of landscaping or foliage is dependent on what improvements have been made to the site by the co-op owner/member, but the majority do at least have some form of pad. Each site that is owned by a member has a shed but access is not available to non-members. There are sites available in an overflow area (water, 20A and wi-fi) and if that gets full there is also a boondock area (no hookups but water is available at clubhouse).

No reservations – it is on a first come first serve basis but they will try to accommodate non-members by providing a temporary space in the overflow (water and electric) or boondock areas until a full hook-up site becomes available. We were told that their busiest month is February because all of the owner/members want to attend the annual meeting.

Overall Impression – 4/5

Friendly and safe feeling commercial style resort. Not gated. Very well maintained and clean with lots of green grass and palm trees lining the streets, yet mostly open skies for satellite access. As it is a non-profit co-operative organization, it is operated almost exclusively by volunteers. There appears to be a strong and active social community here. Despite being a form of ownership resort, we did not experience any cliquishness. We have seen reviews claiming everyone here is “elderly”, but in talking to a few of the owners we discovered this resort is in the midst of a generational turnover. Many of the older residents are leaving, a younger more active crowd is moving in and things are changing to reflect the new attitudes.

Sites – 4/5

Size:
The majority of the sites are back in sites with cement pads. There are a few sites that do not have any improvements so those particular sites are grass only. While we were here the grass was green and well cared for so the grass sites are unlikely to be muddy. All sites are reasonably well spaced so there is room between you and your next door neighbor, but still are not as spacious as, for example, most State Park facilities. Our site A37 was a bit short for our rig and with the bike racks attached our tow vehicle extended slightly into the street. Other sites were more comfortable for longer rigs.

Some of the sites along Alligator Alley including our particular site A37 had a slight slope to it. As we backed in our mud flap as well as our tow bar scraped the cement pad.

Privacy:
Not much foliage between sites but that is dependent on the improvements the owner/member has made.

Amenities – 4/5
All full hook-up sites have water, 30/50A electrical service, sewer and wi-fi. Overflow sites have water and 20A electrical and boondock sites have no hookups. In addition to the site amenities, there are rest rooms, showers, laundry, free wi-fi, clubhouse, library, kitchen, shuffleboard pool, game room & pool table, dog walk area and a dump station. Lots of activities scheduled on a regular basis. The resort has its own sewer processing and their own well. We were told there was cold beer on tap available for a $1 donation and also ice cream for a $0.50 – $0.75 donation.

Location:

Convenience – 4/5
The Co-op is close to the small town of Wauchula where there are a couple of grocery stores (Winn Dixie, County Market), several restaurants, a laundromat and a hospital. There is a SuperWalmart about 5 miles away. Local attractions such as Bok Tower, Lipizzaners, Solomon’s Castle, Lake Placid and Avon Parkbare are within a short driving distance (less than an hour).

Physical Surroundings – 3/5
Located outside of town so away from general suburban hubbub. Basically built on and surrounded by cattle farms. We could hear cows mooing next door, which was pleasant, but nothing special about the surroundings.

Maneuverability and Roads – 3/5
Roads were moderately wide and paved and easy to maneuver. However, sites are not angled  and backing in (to site A37 at least) required a multi-point approach with our 43′ motorhome. A37 was also sloped upward and that caused our towbar (which is on a 6″ drop hitch) to scrape the pad. It should be noted that we did exit the site without a multi-point turn or running anything over, so we may have just made a less than ideal approach for the back-in.

Peace & Quiet – 4/5
Very quiet within the resort, although from our site we could faintly hear traffic from SR 64 but it never really bothered us. Sites on the south east side of the resort are probably subject to more traffic noise. There is a private residence just outside the north west corner of the park and on the weekend we were there it was a bit noisy due to a family get together. And then there were the mooing cows (just kidding, we actually liked them!).

Utilities – 4.5/5

• Sewer – well placed for motorhomes, screw in 4″ cap.
  
• Satellite – generally very good but might be marginal on some of the the wooded sites around the south western perimeter. From A37 we had no issues hitting all birds in the DISH network Western Arc (110, 119, 129)
• WiFi – Free, and well deployed around the park with several access points. Performance was very good. Even though it slowed around peak times, we were able to catch up on several Netflix episodes with no buffering issues. One of the best campground WiFi deployments we have experienced so far.
• Cellular signal – Moderately good Verizon 4G LTE with booster.
• Over-the-Air (OTA) TV – We were able to lock in to all major network stations.
• Power – 50A/30A on most sites with steady 120+ voltage on both 50A legs. However, electric boxes are far to the rear of the sites and might be a stretch for some rigs. Our cord reel is about mid coach and for site A37, with our tag wheels at the very back edge of the pad, our 35′ 50A cord just barely made it to the box.
• Water Pressure/Quality – Good pressure at 40PSI. The private well water seemed moderately hard and had that characteristic Florida “swampwater” odor, but tasted fine.

Additional Info:

Although the 11 current non-profit Escapee Co-op Parks were started by the Escapee Club, the club does not own or run them, instead each park is run entirely by the volunteer members of the Park. Each SKP Co-Op sets its own rules and is self-governing with a board of directors elected by the members.

At this particular Co-Op members can purchase a perpetual site lease for under $9000 (total) plus the cost of any prior site improvements. Annual fees including maintenance and taxes are about $1400. When you want to get out, just turn in your site and someone on the waiting list (currently about 10 years long) will buy it. Application for the waiting list requires a $500 refundable deposit plus a $25 non-refundable processing fee). Non-owners can stay on any site not occupied by an owner for $18/day plus electricity. The weekly and monthly rates are even lower.

One caveat is if an owner wants to use their site (usually during February for the board meetings), the non-owner occupant must vacate given 8 days prior notice. We were also told that non-owners are sometimes asked to leave after 30 days of occupancy if the holding areas are busy. Also we found out that owners can officially endorse non-owner occupants allowing them to stay indefinitely. Hmmm. It’s a pretty interesting concept. And its all totally non-profit. We got the sense that it’s a system that mostly works well. More details about the Wauchula SKP Co-op can be found on their website.

What We Liked
– Very clean, well maintained park
– Friendly residents and staff
– Decent sized sites

What We Didn’t Like
– Minimal privacy
– Some of the mobile home units were run down or cluttered looking. Some other awkward and less than pleasant looking units, like a 5th wheel with a traditional house roof built directly on top with gutters and downspouts running down the side.