Heading "North"

Heading north is by necessity, not preference.  Because any further south would require swimming, which the Funmobile does not do well.

So we departed Bonita Springs later than planned due to a clock that was still set to daylight savings time.  (That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.)  A bit overcast but trying for Ding Darling (silly name) National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island.

When we get to the causeway to the island, there is a solid line of traffic coming off the island and an even more solid line going onto the island, with no place to turn around and a toll booth ahead.  (It's mid-day on a Monday.  WHY AREN'T THESE PEOPLE WORKING!!)



Long story short, we finally give up, do a U'y in mid-island, joining the outbound line.  Continue on to arrive at Oscar Scherer (no clue who he is) State Park in a driving rain.  Rain breaks for a while allowing for a leisurely short walk.

Roger, I don't care if the market IS down.  I want to make money ALL the time.

Today (Tuesday) the clouds break and we head over to Myakka State Park for the day.  A bike ride and a walk in the palmetto forest makes for a good day, ending in a special sighting.

Can Alligators Climb Trees?

A female owl and two chicks.

Now back at Oscar Scherer.  Tomorrow heading further north.

Good Night from west central Florida.

Brad & Val

Family Time

Spending a couple of days at Judie and Fred's in Bonita Springs.  Relative luxury compared to the Funmobile, with separate bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, shower, dining room and indoor pool.  We have all those things when living in the Funmobile too, just all in the same room.  (Except the pool which is usually across the street and full of alligators.)

For anyone who hasn't been to Judie's,  it's really nice.  A beautiful setting with lots of tropical plantings and designed to attract local wildlife, (birds, frogs, butterflies, hurricanes, etc.)

Not too shabby gettin' up in the morning and drinking your coffee overlooking the ibis' poking around under the banana tree.  One could get used to that.

Now Judie is a big-time birder.  I'm talking someone who would (and just did) spend a week travelling to all four corners of Colorado attempting to sight every known species of prairie chicken.  (To be fair, I'm sure she considers me a bit nuts for spending a month or more at a time living in a box with wheels.)

That said, taking a walk in the woods with her is and experience of another dimension.  She can see, hear and identify birds that I would never find, and even if I saw them, wouldn't have a clue what they were other than "white bird with long legs".

So that's what we did on Saturday, hopping over the gators on the trail, and on Sunday we walked around the island that is owned by the community association  where they live.  

OK - LISTEN UP!  That was a snowy footed, indigo fly catcher.
Twee-Toot-Warble-Warble

Just kidding.  It was only a robin.

He WASN'T there when we came out this way!

Good dinners and sitting around swapping travel stories. (Judie is well traveled to say the least, with several continents of birding under her belt.)

Several loads of laundry done, and we we are on our way Monday morning.

Thanks to J & F for the hospitality and Good Night from Bonita Springs.

Brad & Val

Backtrack

Last night was at Everglades City area which is on the west edge of the park.  We had planned on kyaking in the area, but I couldn't find anything that looked like what I wanted, (swamp as opposed to open water).

So we decided to back track to a trail known as Gator Hook located down a dirt road off the Tamiami Trail (the road crossing the glades.).  

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Now this is a pretty remote area and although technically it is in the Everglades National Park, there are some private land parcels.  But not to worry, they are well identified.



At the trail head there was a ranger, so we asked him about the trail.  We allowed that while we were experienced hikers, we were from Illinois had not done much swamp hiking.  A very friendly fellow, he  offered that he was from Wisconsin and down for the season as a park volunteer.

He said it was a wonderful trail and the calf to knee high water was clear most of the time so it was pretty easy to see what was underfoot..  He did however suggest we take one of the tree branch poles leaning up against the sign just to stir things up as you walked.  He also offered that there are hardly any gators as there's nothing to eat out there.

Finally, he said "You can wash the mud off you feet over there in the canal when you get back.  But be sure to swish the stick around first."

We smiled and thanked him for the advice.  Back at the Funmobile I decided that good sense says NEVER TAKE ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO WEAR CHEESE ON THEIR HEADS!!

So instead of the Gator Hook trail, we drove the 20 mile scenic dirt road, which is where all the alligators were that were allegedly NOT on "gator" hook trail.

Cooperative Roadblock Between Alligator and Buzzard

From here we proceeded to Bonita Springs where we will spend the next three days with Judie and Fred who graciously invited us to visit as long as we did not hang holiday lights or place pink flamingos around the Funmobile.

Good night from Bonita Springs

Brad & Val

Across the 'Glades

Got up bright and early after the night at the casino and arrived at Shark Valley by 9:30;  There are no sharks, but there are a ZILLION alligators here.

OK - You get the point

The bike trail is 15 miles round trip out through the marsh to an observation tower where you are greeted by a flock of crows who are busily unzipping the bike packs on those who've arrived earlier.  It quickly becomes obvious why a group of crows is called a "murder" of crows.  They are indeed sinister little beasts.

A ranger in the area tells the story of the crows stealing the car keys from a bike pack and dropping them just on the other side of the little canal along which you've just seen the previously mentioned zillion alligators.  (Decisions..decisions?)

Val takes her pack with her for the short walk to the observation deck.  I , on the other hand know I can outwit the little buggers.  I carefully tuck all the zipper tabs inside the compartments as I pull them shut,  (after removing anything I can't live without).  I then wrap a bungee cord around the whole pack for good measure.

I step away from the bike a few feet and it is immediately swarmed by 3 bandits.  I watch them carefully as they watch me derisively.  They poke a bit but I'm convinced of my superiority and wander off to the join Val who is just rolling her eyes.  (At them or me?)

View From The Tower

After the climb to the top of the tower, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (one of the items I figured I couldn't live without), we returned with some apprehension to the bike rack.  With a smug look to Val I proclaimed victory as I proceeded to clean several piles of bird-shit off the securely closed bike pack.

She smiles ever-so-slightly.

Good night from Chokoloskee Island, Everglades City, Florida

Brad & Val

The Tease

Southern Leg

On the last post I left a teaser in anticipation of some really good snarky material resulting from our planned destination for this date.  For logistical reasons, the only logical accommodation for tonight was the parking lot of the Miccosukee Gaming and Resort (casino) located on a Seminole Indian Reservation on the edge of the Everglades.  Targets of opportunity should have been endless. Indians, alligator wrestling, casino denizens and RV'ers all in one place.

However, as has been the case several times in the past, I will have to eat crow (no pun intended).

From the outside, it was a pretty classy looking place.  Not Las Vegas strip caliber, but not the grimey little roadhouse I recalled from a trip through the area many years ago.  They offered free overnight parking for RV's, and half price buffet dinners plus $30 each in free gaming credits to first time visitors. 

After checking in with security, we had a decent buffet dinner (wadda you want 6 bucks apiece).  Then we dumped the complementary $60 in gaming coupons on the slots in less than 15 minutes and went back to the Funmobile.   

I have to say all of the local Seminole staff we met were extremely professional, friendly and helpful.  The only ones left to poke fun at were denizens of slot machine gallery and the cheapskate RV'ers chowing down on the cheap food and free overnight accommodations.

Mirror mirror on the wall.....

Good night from the parking lot of the Miccosukee Casino

Brad & Val

(At least it wasn't a Walmart  -- yet.)

Another Day - Another Beach (swamp, marsh, bird, etc)

First  - Our most sincere condolences to Pat Russel who just lost her husband.  Some solace to be found in the presence of the Ya's to help her through the coming days. 
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Spent the last two days at Jonathan Dickinson State Park just north of Palm Beach and home of the "famed" Loxahatchee, (river of turtles), River.  The park is named after Jonathan Dickinson (duh) who in 1699, along with his family, was shipwrecked on the South Florida coast a couple of miles east of here. 

Now at that time, south Florida was thought literally to be the end of the earth.  The closest settlement was 260 miles to the north.  The local Indians didn't appreciate tourist any more than the current residents.  The party was taken captive but eventually escaped and made their way to Saint Augustine with just the shirts on their backs, (which they later lost to other Indians).

Long-story-short, most eventually made it to Philadelphia, their original intended destination.  Bet they would have liked the Funmobile.

So....  Yesterday was a REALLY windy day so we decided not to canoe the "river of turtles" and instead poked around the park, which in the1940's housed an Army top secret radar training base.  From the top of the old radar tower on Mt Hobe (86 feet) you could see Cuba I think.

DiCaprio is probably sexier than me, but I have Val!

Spent the afternoon at the Hobe Sound Nat'l Wildlife Reserve beach which probably wasn't the best idea since the 30 mph wind comin' straight up the beach was like a sand blaster.  Pretty never-the-less, with about 4 miles of completely undeveloped beach.

You'd think 4 layers of SPF 97 and a cloudy day would be sufficient.

On the second day (today), the overnight rains tapered off and the sun came out. Still pretty windy so we got lazy and took the tour boat up the Loxahatchee instead of a canoe.  Now normally, I'd swim up an alligator infested river before I'd take a Florida "tour boat", but my vision isn't what it used to be.  So having the white-shirted, tan shorted, bling covered 60 year old, ex-Jersey native point out the snake birds  to "yous" had some advantages.  We were treated to 4 gators, 5 ospreys, 2 snake birds, 13 manatees, a great horned owl, and a couple of cute girls in a canoe.  (We'll see if Val is monitoring this blog.)

 I will add that the destination of the tour boat was Trapper Nelson"s River Camp, Jungle Garden and Exotic Animal Zoo.  This was the original 1930's precursor to the current version of a Florida tourist trap.  However it does come with a fascinating story, so if you're bored, try;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapper_Nelson

To ease the abject shame of the above boat tour, we did take a hike out through the Florida pine scrub where I hoped to encounter at least one of the 23 species of snakes in the park.   The sign back at the visitor's center said ONLY six of the 23 will kill you on the spot.  (I didn't even know there WERE 6 poisonous species of snake.)

While we didn't see 23, we did find one in the palm tree directly over our heads as we sat down on a bench to have a drink of water.

Alright.  It wasn't that big or scary, but it's better than another picture of an alligator (and there are many of those to come.).

Goodnight from The River of Turtles

(Oh - and we saw lots of turtles on the boat tour too.)

PS Be on the lookout for the next post.  There will be a special treat.

Canaveral Area

Drove from Talbot Island to Melbourne (just south of Cape Canaveral).  Stopped over in St Augustine for the afternoon just to walk around Old Town.  St Augustine is the oldest surviving colonial town in the US and the home of various famous Spanish Pirates.  The streets are small and the Funmobile is big...

Turns out this is Motorcycle Week in Daytona (a little down the road).  A little difficult to tell the dressed up pirates from the not so dressed up Hell's Angels.  Hard to say who's more vicious looking.

Spent the today at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge which was decidedly more placid.  (OK, I'm breaking the previously mentioned rule about one day per post.  No way am I going to post every night.  That's way too much work.  So I'll just batch the posts.)

Merritt Island is actually the same island that Cape Canaveral is on.  Mostly marsh and swamp (and minefields if you go the wrong way).   Most people would say, "Why would you drive 3,000 miles to walk in a marsh?"  I would reply, "Because there was snow up to our butts when we left Downers."

An also because we got to see a Great Blue Heron catch and devour a 3 foot long snake.  Val REALLY enjoyed that because it was 50 yards away and the snake got ate.

Feral Hogs (Look like plain old pigs to me.) 

I'm SURE the train stops here.

Off in the distance is Space Shuttle "Vehicle Assembly Building", the largest single story building in the world at 526 feet high.  (How would you change the light bulbs?)

Good night from Melbourne

Brad & Val

Little Talbot Island SP - Day 2

First a point of order.  The last post covering several days got confusing because of the way blog posts,  (noun), post, (verb).  So if one views yesterday's post the same time as today's, the sequentiality (not a real word), looks all out of whack.

So  -  New RULE.  Only one day per post.  If nothing happened on a given day, save electrons and don't post anything.

Ok, back to today, (actually several days ago since I'm back-dating this post which isn't technically breaking the aforementioned rule).  Hopefully nobody is even reading this so they won't think I gone completely senile.

Took a ride to the Kingsley Plantation a few miles south of Talbot SP.  It was established in the early 1700's as a cotton plantation during the period when Florida was under Spanish rule.  The interesting part was the juxtaposition of 18th century Spanish slavery vs 19th century American slavery.  At least from the non-slave point of view.  (I guess if you were the slave, then it probably wasn't all that different.)

I originally wrote a narrative paragraph on the issues, but after reading it, I even bored myself.  Worth Googling if you're interested in that period.

Nice hiking around the plantation grounds.  Lots of live oak and Spanish moss.

SWAMP

BEACH

ROAD

TRAIL

MOUNTAIN??
(Ha Ha 56 feet)

Goodnight From Little Talbot Island

Brad & Val