Florida Circuit

We decided to leave on Thursday. It was a short trip. We hung around the house for a while, then went to the corner service station for fuel. There we met a couple of Florida’s less-friendly natives. Then to the Publix to get a few supplies and find a UPS for Jean to send a fax. That done, we put the campground that Jean and Anna had gone to the day before (and reserved a space) into the GPS. Anna had found the place, but it was part of a day of driving around; we didn’t know how to get there from the Publix, and so the GPS. It was surprisingly empty, though the women had been told that it would be full by the weekend.

This was our problem. We were still in Florida’s high season, and it may or may not have been Spring Break time (we never know when that occurs). With the weekend coming up, it was going to be difficult to find space at a campground. Some people, like my brother, have all the campgrounds reserved (and often paid for) months in advance. But we don’t follow any schedule, and often change plans along the way. This could be a problem in the coming days.

The campground was a Corps of Engineers campground (always very nice), so it was alongside a lock on the canal from the St. Lucie River to Lake Okeechobee. Our site was right along the canal.

 Friday we needed to head on, but we waited to watch a couple of yachts lock through.

 It was a mostly sunny day, with some wind and a few clouds, so we decided to go back to Hobe Sound beach. That was one I was convinced we could easily find. Along the way, we stopped at a McDonald’s for a late breakfast. Parked next door was a shiny, new Model T. It was, as far as I could tell, a kit car. It looked, and sounded, authentic to me.

 We also stopped at a Publix and got some new books to read (I got the latest Wooden Boat magazine). The road to the beach is like driving through a tunnel of banyans.

The beach was cool and windy, though not as much as the day before. The beach here is a dark grey sand, I gathered some for my collection. We didn’t set up chairs, just walked along the beach and collected shells and a couple of pieces of driftwood. Jean is starting to think about a display of some sort.

After that pleasant respite, we plunged into the madness of the Florida Turnpike. It’s about 135 miles to the Everglades, and from here it is almost all city traffic. Might as well get it over with as quickly as possible. There were several backups due to congestion, so it took most of the rest of the afternoon.

About 3:30 or so, Jean started contacting campgrounds. Friday and Saturday are the worst times to find a space at a campground, since they usually fill up for the weekend. She wasn’t having much luck. We would have preferred one of the campgrounds in the park itself, but we assumed that they would be fully booked. Jean called anyway, just to say we’d covered all the ground. To our delight, she scored two nights. We were even given our choice of campgrounds. We chose Flamingo because it provides electricity and we might need to use the air conditioner. Especially since the overhead vent fan stopped working again a couple of days after the technician fixed it.

It appears the busy season for the Everglades was over for this year. The spaces are large, the day was warm but not hot, and there was a breeze (no mosquitos!). We were set up and relaxing with our Cuba Librés by 6:00 o’clock.

Saturday, we relaxed after breakfast and watched a great egret walking around near the van.

Then we drove the mile or so back to Flamingo. We parked under the trees and observed a pair of ospreys circling and calling. They flew away, but we could still hear osprey calls from nearby. We took a few steps into the grass and looked up. There was an osprey nest in the tree, with three half-grown chicks sitting on the edge 

One of them looked like he was getting his courage up to try flying.

We watched for a while as they encouraged each other, but then we pressed on for the Visitor Center. There we learned that the interesting trees with the big nutlike things in the top are West Indian Mahogany.

We talked with the folks for a while, bought a field guide to SE Florida birds, and headed toward the marina. The main building for the park had been damaged in a couple of hurricanes, and was being restored. But the marina area was still in good shape. Along the way there were several people watching (or trying to watch) two or three manatees cavorting near shore. Unfortunately, they were stirring up so much mud that the water was opaque and you could only see a part of them when it broke the surface.

At the marina, we bought some lunch and a cold drink. We ate it next to the canal, where we watched the goings on of the (other) tourists. There was a crocodile hanging out on the other side of the canal.

Meanwhile the canal itself was a hive of activity with people in rented canoes and kayaks.

           

It’s not Florida without pelicans.

After relaxing for a while, we wandered back to the van. When we got there we saw that the osprey nest was empty. They had all screwed up their courage and had taken off. We wish them good luck and good fishing.

Before we got into the van, several red-bellied woodpeckers flew into the tree in front of us and briefly worked it. Must not have been very good pickings, because the soon flew on.

We drove back to the campground, turned on the air conditioning, and spent the rest of the rest of the afternoon being lazy.

Next morning, we headed out. The Everglades are called a “river of grass.” That describes the sawgrass prairie which is most of it. Basically it was originally a river, 50 miles wide and only a few inches deep that flowed from Lake Okeechobe to Florida Bay. That was covered in sawgrass.

But there are other areas. Higher ground (even if only a couple of feet) are called “hammocks” and create a different environment. There are trees and varied undergrowth. There is a limestone ridge that runs through the ‘glades. This is in places broken into islands, called “keys.” We walked out on Long Pine Key. It is a pine forest, with occasional holes in the limestone caused by acidic water.

On the way out, we stopped by a lake, where we saw our first alligator for this trip.

 

There were also a couple more birds.

Since it was Sunday, we figured we would have a better time finding a campground. The only traffic of any note we found (considering it was a Sunday afternoon) was in beautiful downtown Homestead. Much of the drive was on the Tamiami Trail (US-41). This is a highway cut right through the Everglades. It traverses Big Cyprus National Preserve, and has a canal running alongside it for the entire preserve.

There are Mikossuke Indian villages from time to time. We stopped for lunch at a Mikossuke Restaurant. Expensive, but pleasant eating outside next to the canal. There was a female boat-tailed grackle busily working the tables. While we waited for our food, I made contact with the campground at Collier-Seminole State Park, where we have stayed in the past. I found that they had space available, but they don’t take reservations. We got there about 4:30 and got a site for two nights. We didn’t set up, we just planted our flag and headed out for the local Walmart. We got some needed groceries, and filled up the fuel tank for the first time since we left Stuart, 350 miles ago. All told, a successful day.

We ran out of water in the evening. Luckily, we still had some bottled water left over from when we were winterized. So first thing in the morning, I set up and refilled the water tank. That meant that the holding tanks were probably full, so we dumped on our way out of the park. Then began a long search for breakfast. We usually have breakfast in the rig. When we decide to have breakfast on the road it always seems to take a long time to find a restaurant. Such was the case today.

After we finally got something to eat, we needed to get some groceries. We went in to a handy Walmart and Jean went in for a few groceries while I tried to figure out why her phone didn’t charge last night. The fuse box in the Mercedes is an exercise in frustration on a large scale. The fuse that covered the outlet where the charger was plugged in is the hardest one to get to. Before I attempted that, I got out the multi-tester and learned to my relief that the outlet had power. Obviously, the charger was no longer operating. No problem, here we are at a Walmart. After much searching (where is an employee when you want one?) I found the phone chargers, but the selection was very limited. The same was true in the grocery section. I picked what seemed like the best available charger and went back to the rig. It was the wrong kind. They also didn’t have all the groceries we wanted. We had never seen such an inadequate Walmart.

We eventually came to a mall, where we went inside and found a cell phone place that had the right charger (at a much higher price) and finally got her phone to charge. All told, we got most of what we needed and still made it to Koreshan State Park by 3:30. We got checked in and did laundry.

We spotted these flowers there. We don’t have any idea what they are.

There were also butterflies.

After breakfast in the rig (no orange juice because Walmart didn’t have the kind we need) we headed out for Sanibel Island for another beach day. It turned out to be farther than we had calculated, but we eventually found our way there. The main road up the island was bumper to bumper (no surprise) and we crawled a long way up the island without finding any signs for the beach. So we found a road closer to the water, and worked our way back. We eventually worked our way back to the lighthouse, at the beginning of the island. There we found parking, and even an empty spot in the space set aside for RVs.

The beach was only moderately crowded. There were a couple of people trying to kite sail, but I guess the wind was not strong enough to pull them up. A big, high-speed tour boat came by just offshore.

After an hour and a half, we both had about as much sun and heat as we could take and headed back, looking for some lunch. We shopped for a bit in the oldest shop on the island; small but interesting, as was the old guy running it. On the way back to the campground, we stopped at a Publix and got the stuff we couldn’t find at the Walmart.

A couple of nights ago we ran out of water. This night we didn’t have power to the outlet over the counter. Again, I spent some time checking things out. I finally found that the convertor-inverter under the driver’s seat had kicked off. So we didn’t have any power to the outlets served by the inverter — and the house battery was not being charged. I reset the unit and we had power back to the outlet, but it took quite a while to get the house battery fully charged.

Next day (Thursday) we headed up US 41. That led us through Ft. Meyers, Venice, Sarasota, and Bradenton. All areas with heavy traffic. During the afternoon, Jean contacted Manatee State Park and learned that they had a space available, but it was first come, first served only. That made the struggle with the traffic even more frustrating. We did manage to make it to the park about 30 miles east of Bradenton in time and got another spot in the jungle.

One of the things I find fascinating about Florida, is the variety of trees, including some that look like they were designed by Dr. Seuss.

Jean contacted her sister-in-law, Chris, and we arranged to see her next day at her home in Seffner, east of Tampa. We had a very nice visit, then after lunch the women went shopping, another of Jean’s favorite things. We finished off the day with strawberry shortcake, even though the Strawberry Festival is over.

Next day, Saturday, it was time to head out again. Jean loves the Sponge Docks area of Tarpon Springs, so that was our destination. We took a wide swing around Tampa. We probably drove farther and longer than a more direct route, but the traffic was less and the scenery better. Tarpon Springs on a nice Saturday is tourist central. We found a spot on the parking lot for a popular restaurant, which solved the problem of where we would have lunch. First, we walked around a little and went into a couple of shops. There was an older, wooden sailboat tied up at the bulkhead. It is not clear if it is an example of an older sponge-fishing boat. I took a picture of it anyway because I love old wooden sailboats.

Next to the boat is a statue of a hard-hat sponge diver. That is the business that made Tarpon Springs famous.

We managed to contact a campground that had a space on a Saturday at a less than outrageous price. (Not a lot less, but less than the others.) Then we went to the Greek restaurant to have our lunch and get a parking pass. This was the second place we have seen that puts its Greek salad on a scoop of potato salad. We decided to eat something else.

In the middle of the hot afternoon, we headed out to find our campsite. We drove through pleasant residential areas, followed by industrial areas, followed by country. We arrived at this old, overgrown campground in the middle of the jungle. It had seen better days, but the utilities all worked, so we hooked up and turned on the air conditioning.

This marks our turn. From here, every day brings us loser to home.  We hope that by the time we get there, it will have warmed up a bit.