HISTORY     GENERAL INFORMATION     AMENITIES & SERVICES     ACTIVITIES & LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
 
 
     
 

We purchased Road Runner Trailer Park on December 20, 1979. It was very run down and the county was ready to close it. The park had 92 sites and was on 28 acres. Upon purchase there were about 15 acres of broken down machinery, cars, boats, buses and debris which were immediately cleaned up. We also managed to put on 16 more sites.

Shortly thereafter we secured a small business loan and built what was then a store/game/room/ registration building. This also eliminated the old tin mail boxes and moved the mail into the store for our customers, with our employees sorting it. Since there were 28 acres, only about 6 acres developed, a good portion of the park was previously used for debris, dead trees, bushes, leaves etc. This also had to be disposed of.

The development began again. A section had already been developed and from there most of the back portion of the park was developed. Sections B, C, N, O, F, E, D, M, & L, were completed.


scroll down
 
     
 

 

  
   
     
   
     
     
   
     
   
     
   
 
 
     
     
 

For the first year we owned the park we rented a house on the corner of Kings Highway and St Lucie Blvd,(St Route 608). The house and ten acres next door to the park became available and we were fortunate to purchase that addition to the park. There was a barn on that property and it soon became the maintenance shed.

It soon became apparent that we needed a recreation hall. We built a small recreation hall which sufficed for a very short while. Each year it seemed to get smaller and smaller. At this point we added the restaurant and offices onto the store and game room. We also eliminated the game room as such. We got rid of the games and utilized the space for more store inventory. .

By this time, we had remodeled the bathhouse and laundry with new interior equipment and fixtures and solar panels.

H and P section were now completed and we recognized the need for another bathhouse and a much larger Rec Hall. One of our customers, Howard Thompson, was a contractor up north, prior to coming to Florida. He and many of the men of the park worked on the rec hall to complete this large structure which has been updated from time to time but remains structurally pretty much the same. About eight years ago we enlarged the large rec hall and roofed over the enclosure between the 2 rec halls and the bathhouse. It is rather unique in that it has a Huge Oak tree in the center of the portion that we enclosed.

In 1984 my husband ran for County Commission and won . For eight years he was a St. Lucie County Commissioner. In 1983 we began developing the ten acres that we purchased with the house. We moved the lake slightly and put in 91 additional lots. In late 1984 we had a ribbon cutting and opened those sites for rental.

We purchased 11 acres on Indrio Road approximately 6 miles away and began plans for a new home. It was finished during the summer of 1986. Our first Park Christmas Party was held at the house in 1986. These parties were held there for many Years, until it just became to large a party for the house and we moved it back to the park.

Once we moved out of the house in the park, we utilized it as a rec hall. It had a library, and many small rooms for cards or games, or whatever. Giving us then 3 rec halls.

Around 2001 we finally completed paving of all of the roads and put in street lights. We were finally on city water and sewer and decided to develop the sewer plant into a 3 acre golf course. Even for non golfers, it is a beautiful natural Florida habitat. We often have Sand Hill Cranes, Blue Heron, and Curly Bills visiting this area of the resort. The waterfall, and bridge over the water make the golf course quite challenging for those wanting to enjoy practicing their golf skills.

For the past 31 years this has been a family owned park. My children grew up within the park and started working in it at very young age. For both their first job was bagging ice. As they aged, they worked in the store stocking shelves, etc.

In 2004 we had two hurricanes, Francis, and Jean with direct hits on Ft. Pierce. It was tarp city. We had so many people without homes that we asked some of our customers to cancel their reservations that season and allowed the people without homes to stay until they could get back into their homes. We were fortunate, in that we had precious little damage in the park. The house rec hall roof was damaged and there were so few roofing contractors available and so many roofs to be done that by the time that Jean came in and hit us, the house rec hall was ruined by mold. So in November of 2007 we demolished and removed the old house from the premises.

The hurricanes also tore the roof from the porch. It was a metal roof and not real attractive. In 2005 we completely tore down the porch area and replaced it with a tongue in groove wood paneling on the interior roof, changed it completely and added fans, TVs, Wi Fi for laptops and an area for the entertainers for our Fridays on the Porch. It is now a far more attractive entrance coming into the park.

Speaking of entrances in 2003 we realized that motor homes and travel trailers were getting much, much larger and our entrance was getting more difficult for theses very large vehicles to maneuver thru that entrance. We completely changed the entrance to the park, enlarging the culverts and widening the entrance to accommodate these very large units that were now utilizing our facilities. We added new signage, landscaping and gate. Another wonderful asset to the Road Runner Travel Resort is our employees.