Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Florida Oldscool Camper Rental
          Making unique travel since 2010
                   Book your road-trip now.......
                              www.floridavwrentals.com

Click here to find out how you can book your unique vacation with Oldscool Campers!

We have just finished our third year in business, and like all towns in Florida we have our in-between seasons. Our slice of pie where it is us that gets out to enjoy this great state we live in. May is an off season for us as it is in-between spring break and summer vacation.

~The Sunshine Skyway Bridge~

V-dubs 

over the 

Skyway is 

always a 

great site 

to see!

10 months ago I snagged  one of my favorite spots in Florida, with fingers crossed we have the time off to go. Here it is less than a week away, and it looks like we will have our week in the Florida Keys!

          Bahia Honda is a beautiful stretch of beach that is very rare in the Florida Keys.

       
         We have four nights booked here! This was from Jasmine's first trip to the keys!

                                                  What a great way to spend your day :)

                                         

  Mike on the path way to the beach

The first night will be a late arrival, as our bus is out with Chad Crawford filming a tv episode "How to do Florida". We are very excited to have Autumn join him on his vacation and are very excited to see her on TV. This must be what a proud parent feels like :) While I will enjoy our week in the keys, it is diffidently a working vacation as well.

We choose Autumn to take on this trip having a prime spot in Bahia Honda leaves time for great photos and video. We have just released our first video, and are excited to release a second one. No power like the power of social media! You gotta love it!

Traveling over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge our journey south...

I just love this bridge! It is Florida's Golden Gate Bridge. While traveling up the Skyway it gives you a great view of Ft De Soto and Egmont Key to the West. This gives you a good insight of what this area looked like long, long ago.

As you travel up and down the Skyway Bridge on both sides you will see the old bridge, which is now a fishing pier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyway_Fishing_Pier_State_Park


The old bridge was destroyed on May 9, 1980 at 7:30am when a freighter collided with a pier. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet into the water, killing 35 people. One man, Wesley MacIntire, survived the fall when his car landed on the Summit Venture before falling into the bay. He sued the company that owned the ship and settled for $175,000 in 1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skywayaccident.jpg

The collapsed original bridge on May 9, 1980, after the Summit Venture collision. Photo by St. Petersburg Times.

The south main pier (the one that required reinforcement before completion) withstood the ship strike without significant damage. It was the second pier to the south of it that was destroyed, a secondary pier that was not designed to withstand a large ship strike. After the Summit Venture disaster, the northbound span carried one lane in either direction until the current bridge opened. 

 Before the old bridge was demolished and hauled away in barges, MacIntire (the only survivor in the collapse) was the last person to drive over it. He was accompanied by his wife,and when they reached the top of the bridge, they dropped 40 white carnations into the water, one for each person who died in the disaster. The main span of the northbound bridge was demolished in 1993 and the approaches for both spans were made into Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. These approaches sit 1/2 mile to the south and west of the current bridge. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge

Checkout our other blogs please!
 http://floridavwrentals.blogspot.com
http://floridaunique.blogspot.com/2013/05/kroeshan-state-park.html