When my father was Sports Editor of the newspaper in Punta Gorda – it was fishing, hunting, and football …. then fishing, hunting, and football. Not anymore.

Charlotte County has the Redneck Yacht Club – one of the largest and wildest off-road parks in the world. It is a Mud Park with three lakes, one larger than most similar parks.

Danny Kelly grew up in the Southwest Florida area and started Kelly Brothers, a marine contracting firm. He found enough room in massive Charlotte Harbor for his boating interests, but the area lacked a place to race his multi-terrain vehicles.

So in 2007 he obtained a lot of land 17 miles out CR74 (44570 Bermont Road), 3 miles past Bermont (which was the real Boonies of Charlotte County). In a few years, he created a weekend monster of a destination.

Bring your ATV, your Jeep, and any Rugged Terrain Vehicle and Swamp Buggy, but don’t bring your boat! There is always events going on from races to music festivals to wild holiday celebrations.

The Redneck Yacht Club has 227,000+ Likes on Facebook. So many people show up, the park has put out a call for more vendor food trucks. If you are visiting Southwest Florida, here is a fun place to look up on the Internet.