Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground — Attraction in Goulds

This is a huge 270 acre park adjacent to Zoo Miami. The park is named in honor of Larry Thompson who wrote a daily humor column, called "Life With Larry Thompson," which ran in the Comics Section of The Miami Herald for more than two decades until his death on February 18, 1973. He also authored three books. In 1953 Thompson married aviator Gladys "Penny" Rhodes. He met Penny when he interviewed her for a story about women pilots and her involvement promoting international women's air races in South Florida. She was a pioneer in women's aviation in the 1940's and 50's and she is in the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame. She was the Florida chapter president of the Ninety-Nines, the women's pilot organization founded by Amelia Earhart who took off for her final flight from Hialeah. While Penny was a member of the Civil Air Patrol she flew over the Gulf of Mexico looking for German U Boats. On April Fool's Day in 1954, Penny gave birth to the couples twins, Carl and Evellen. For the twins first birthday, Penny invited all twins to come. More than 200 came and Life Magazine covered the party. Gladys "Penny" Thompson passed away on September 22, 1975 at the age of 57 in 1976. ||||After the couple passed away, their son Carl Thompson lobbied the Miami-Dade County Commission to name the park after his parents which they unanimously voted to do on November 17, 1975. The couple had a connection to parks because they loved to camp and Larry would chronicle their trips in his column. They both advocated for more parks and trees in Miami.||||Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Zoo Miami are located on part of the former Richmond Naval Lighter Than Air Station which was a blimp air base used during WWII. Pilots from the base would patrol for German U boats off the coast of Florida. In 1945 a fire caused by a hurricane destroyed the hangers, blimps, 150 vehicles, and 366 planes including the one owned by Penny Thompson. If you go to the south entrance of the park you can still see the concrete arrow that used to guide the pilots landing at the base.||||After the war the land was used by the University of Miami as a campus and research area for trees. In 1974 the United States government transferred the land to the county for the creation of the park. The next year it was named in honor of the Thompson's. In 1992 the park suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Andrew but has since recovered.||||Today this is the largest campground/ park in Miami. The park contains a 22 acre lake with beach, picnic tables, playground, and bike, horse, and hiking trail. There are also three water slides that were not open when I visited. I am not sure if they are closed permanently. The 60 acre campground has 240 sites and a pool. During my visit there looked like a lot of construction was going on but it was open. The campground office has a historical display relating to Larry Thompson and his column. This large park has something for everyone. It is worth visiting if you find yourself in...

This is a huge 270 acre park adjacent to Zoo Miami. The park is named in honor of Larry Thompson who wrote a daily humor column, called "Life With Larry Thompson," which ran in the Comics Section of The Miami Herald for more than two decades until his death on February 18, 1973. He also authored three books. In 1953 Thompson married aviator Gladys "Penny" Rhodes. He met Penny when he interviewed her for a story about women pilots and her involvement promoting international women's air races in South Florida. She was a pioneer in women's aviation in the 1940's and 50's and she is in the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame. She was the Florida chapter president of the Ninety-Nines, the women's pilot organization founded by Amelia Earhart who took off for her final flight from Hialeah. While Penny was a member of the Civil Air Patrol she flew over the Gulf of Mexico looking for German U Boats. On April Fool's Day in 1954, Penny gave birth to the couples twins, Carl and Evellen. For the twins first birthday, Penny invited all twins to come. More than 200 came and Life Magazine covered the party. Gladys "Penny" Thompson passed away on September 22, 1975 at the age of 57 in 1976.

After the couple passed away, their son Carl Thompson lobbied the Miami-Dade County Commission to name the park after his parents which they unanimously voted to do on November 17, 1975. The couple had a connection to parks because they loved to camp and Larry would chronicle their trips in his column. They both advocated for more parks and trees in Miami.

Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Zoo Miami are located on part of the former Richmond Naval Lighter Than Air Station which was a blimp air base used during WWII. Pilots from the base would patrol for German U boats off the coast of Florida. In 1945 a fire caused by a hurricane destroyed the hangers, blimps, 150 vehicles, and 366 planes including the one owned by Penny Thompson. If you go to the south entrance of the park you can still see the concrete arrow that used to guide the pilots landing at the base.

After the war the land was used by the University of Miami as a campus and research area for trees. In 1974 the United States government transferred the land to the county for the creation of the park. The next year it was named in honor of the Thompson's. In 1992 the park suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Andrew but has since recovered.

Today this is the largest campground/ park in Miami. The park contains a 22 acre lake with beach, picnic tables, playground, and bike, horse, and hiking trail. There are also three water slides that were not open when I visited. I am not sure if they are closed permanently. The 60 acre campground has 240 sites and a pool. During my visit there looked like a lot of construction was going on but it was open. The campground office has a historical display relating to Larry Thompson and his column. This large park has something for everyone. It is worth visiting if you find yourself in...

This review is a review of the RV Park at Larry and Penny Thompson Park.

First, I would give the staff 5 stars. They are on top of their game immediately remember your name. They are very pleasant and always willing to help. The park is kept very clean and the maintenance crews are very nice and are on top of everything to ensure the park is kept clean. n addition, the Maintenance Crew came to our site to double check that there were no branches impeding us backing in. Once we were in on site, the crew still trimmed branches to keep them away from the coach.

We paid $565 for 30 days and stayed in our 45' American Coach Eagle.

Most sites were large enough except the one they first tried to put us in which was in Pod 9 Site 11. The Trees would not allow us to back in. The rest sites were large enough for us.

The reason for the 3 stars is the 1) you are required to move around the park during your stay. You do not get to stay in one place and you are fitted within existing reservations. They DO NOT change a reservation even if that reservation can fit in the place you are moving to. Seems everyone at this park is used to doing this. We had to move 3 times to stay between October 10 and Jan 10. 2) The sites are constrained by two high yellow poles that require you to shift left when backing up. That means in some cases you will be half way off the macadam. Pod 1 is the best pod for Big Rigs as it is the largest pod and you can easily back in or pull through. The remaining pods are tight as you are trying to back in. 3) There are no dog parks which requires your dog to be on leash all the time even though there are several areas where a dog park could be put up. In this park almost everyone had a dog so this was disappointing.

Not because of the park, another downside of this area was that the traffic in Miami is horrible 45-60 minutes to go 10 miles was tough to make plans.

Unfortunately, we will not return to Miami but probably would consider this park if we had no...