Florida Camping

We’re finding that southern Florida winter camping is very different than what we’re used to doing. We like keeping things open so we very rarely get reservations. Here, though, you have to get reservations. In some cases the campground fills up a year in advance, especially as you travel farther south. The campsites tend to be smaller. The whole area is much more congested with houses right next to each other with small lots. Plus, being near the warm waters seems to mean that No-See-Ums (biting midges) will attack. These are small bugs that you can barely see but bite any skin they can find. So my legs are spotted like I have chicken pox. We originally planned to spend the winter here, but we may change those plans. 

For a warm Florida stop, we went to a botanical garden. The weirdest thing we saw was this large thing with stuff growing out of it. It reminded us of some cocoon that would have something scary come out of it. What is it?