Camp Mars in Venus, Florida, (Mars/Venus pun was intended by the name we think) is the fourth gay campground that we have visited. We arrived mid-afternoon and immediately met our neighbors in the two closest RV sites, Ross and Cole, who chatted with us as we set up and gave us information about the campground and its activities. We later met one of the other neighbors near us, Frank. After we finished setting up, we took a walk around the campground to get our bearings. 
The activity for the evening was Bingo, so of course we had to participate; however, Tim’s winning streak at Bingo ended. Our tablemate for Bingo was Marvin, who had a fun sense of humor; so, we didn’t come away from Bingo empty-handed, we made a new friend. Immediately following Bingo there was a bonfire near the activities center, where we met more campers, including Trevor and Thomas.
On our second day at Camp Mars, the sun was out, it was in the low-80’s, and the pool was heated. We took advantage of the sun and laid out at the pool for a few hours. We retreated to our RV so Pat could begin preparations of his chili for the Chili Cook-Off later that afternoon. Pat’s chili was one of thirteen entries, being judged on hottest chili; best nontraditional chili; best presentation; and best all-around. Although Pat’s chili didn’t win a prize, people must have really loved it because it was the most eaten chili that evening! The winner of the best all-around had beans in his chili, which is a no-no for a Texas boy like Pat, so we gathered the judges thought chili should have beans.
Following the Chili Cook-Off, there was supposed to be country line dancing and disco, but we only heard the disco music and danced to a few songs. There was another bonfire that evening, where we met Wendell, who had been fulltime RV traveling for awhile and gave us some recommendations on gay RV campgrounds across the country. We had very clear skies that evening, so we tried to find the rare green comet that was supposed to make its first appearance since the Ice Age and wouldn’t return for another 50,000 years, but we never saw it. Ironically, we did find the planet Mars in the night sky, while we were at Camp Mars, because it was the brightest object in the sky.
Our third day at Camp Mars also provided abundant sunshine and 80-degree weather, so we once again hung out at the pool for several hours. Later that afternoon we took a longer walk around the campground to a boardwalk area with an abundance of trees, including fallen trees (Camp Mars is near Fort Myers, Florida, and was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian in September 2022). We returned to the RV, set up the grill, and grilled potatoes and steaks for dinner, while we watched the Cowboys’ disappointing loss to San Francisco in the NFC Divisional Playoffs round. 
We had earlier been invited to a campfire at one of the camp sites, so after the football game we headed out to sit at the campfire with 5 other campers. We somehow ended up on the topic of transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals; and some of the people at the campfire had some harsh opinions about the use of these individuals’ preferred pronouns and other methods of accommodating these individuals. We found ourselves alone in explaining that these accommodations were not that difficult to make, and how common courtesy should play a role in how we treat others. We eventually left the bonfire after we could not sway the other campers with our arguments and too many comments were made that we found to be highly offensive. The sad reality is that hostility towards trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals can come from gay people as much as it can from heterosexuals. Sadly, two of the individuals who made offensive comments were a teacher and a flight attendant, who probably interact with these individuals often and should have a better understanding of their situations. They professed to be supportive of these individuals, but their words did not support that position.
On the early morning of the fourth day of our stay at Camp Mars, we had some heavy thunderstorms pass through and it remained cloudy the entire day; so, no pool time on this day. Instead, we caught up with emails and writing blog entries. We took another walk around the campground before sunset, as it was our last night at Camp Mars. We even had a gator sighting!
Review of Camp Mars in Venus, Florida
Camp Mars is tucked into the back woods of Venus, Florida; the closest bigger city being Fort Myers, Florida. Camp Mars was damaged by Hurricane Ian in September 2022; mostly a lot of fallen trees and other debris. We were told that 4 RVs were totaled during the hurricane from falling trees and that part of the roof of the office was blown away. The camp did not have electricity or water for several weeks after the hurricane until the debris could be cleared; however, the owners have mostly cleared the campground of debris and fully restored water and electricity.
The only way to get to the entrance of the camp is a dirt road. Contrary to our prior experience with a dirt road, this one was flat and mostly smooth, so the drive to the entrance was not a bad one. The camp has full hook up RV camping sites, on mostly flat green pastures, along with cabins, yurts, and tent camping. We had some trouble hooking up our water, as the camp has placed a water pressure regulator on the faucets that makes it difficult to get a secure connection; we had a constant drip/stream of water at the faucet despite our numerous attempts to tighten the connection.
Camp Mars has hiking/walking trails, lots of forest, a stream, two ponds, and a boardwalk that ventures into the forest. The campground has themed weekend activities in an activities center, but there is no bar or café. The bonfire each evening was a nice touch, but the bonfire was small and not well-attended. The one washer and one dryer at the campground are not available to temporary campers on the weekend, but we were told that these are available on weekdays (although we did not attempt to do our laundry here). We enjoyed the heated pool (especially Tim) and were glad that there were themed activities.
Camp Mars tends to skew a little older than the other gay campgrounds we have visited (we were probably the second youngest couple there) and is smaller, but in some ways that is refreshing. Aside from our bad experience at a campfire we were invited to one evening (discussed above), the people were very friendly and helpful. We would not choose Camp Mars as our number one gay campground in Florida, but we might return for another stay sometime.
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