Myakka

We’re staying at Myakka River State Park. Our first choice for a campground was full, but this has been a good park. There’s good hiking trails and the campsites are excellent. We can only get internet after a 3 miles drive and cell phone service is good around 2.5 miles, but all that means that I can relax and read a good book. 

During my first morning walk, I saw a forest of palm trees and an alligator along the water.

A family of raccoons walking along the road during the evening.

And the best was seeing these two eagles off in the distance.

Manatees and Fort Myers

Manatees like to stay warm so they will find hot spots in water. Power plant discharge warm water so manatees are frequently found in those areas. Lee County has a park devoted to viewing the manatees around a power plant discharge.

We enjoyed it and saw over 80 manatee in the area (we only saw 5 in the same spot before this). The problem is that there were so many people coming to see them. The parking lot was jammed on a Friday afternoon. It was hard to get space at the fence to see the manatees. We laughed when one of us “it’s a zoo here”. Yes, only manatees and people at this zoo, but a zoo none the less.

It’s a common theme here. It’s really hard to enjoy Florida with all the people. We were planning to visit Sanibel Island, but we heard that the bridge to the island was a traffic jam so we just skipped it. The weather is wonderful but we don’t plan to visit Southern Florida during the winter again.

Koreshan Unity Settlement

Back in the late 1800’s, utopian communities were all the rage and formed in various parts of the country. These communities provided security after the problems from the Civil War. The Koreshan community was formed in Florida near Fort Myers with some good and bad points. Women were equals with a women’s council providing leadership to the group. The community ran several progressive businesses to make money such as the only printing company in the area and even produced and supplied electricity locally. The community was cultured with interesting gardens, white table-cloth meals, and plays, musicals, and concerts performed regularly.

Yet, celibacy was expected for the most faithful, which made it difficult for the long time viability of the group. The biggest thing was their belief in “the hollow earth”. Supposedly, the earth is hollow and we all live on the inside surface. Gravity didn’t exist though the spin of the earth kept us to the surface. The sun is battery operated in the center of the earth and moves through reflections, refractions, and other explanations. The interesting part to me was how long some of the followers believed this. The last living member made this comment when asked if she still believed we lived inside the earth “I did until the boys landed on the moon. When that happened, I knew it couldn’t possibly be true.”

Casinos and Monument Lake

In the past, national parks were first-come, first-serve. Now more of them are switching to reservation only. When we pulled into Monument Lake Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve, I thought that we didn’t need reservations. Long story short…we got one night since they happened to have an opening, we got a 2^nd night by paying someone who had a reservation but didn’t need the spot, we had to leave for one night, and then we got two nights by reservation. We ended up staying at a casino (free parking) that was an hour away on the night of a big concert with all kinds of noise. Ah, the joys of camping!

The campground is nice with a lake and a few alligators. It seemed that every time John started supper an alligator showed up floating beside our RV.

We had some excitement at the campground. One of the campers brought a small hot tub. OK, that’s a first time we've seen someone do that plus they pumped water from the lake to fill their hot tub. But the rumor is that the wife wore only pasties while in the hot tub and sunbathed in the nude on top of their RV. Given that this is a family campground, the sheriff department showed up. The husband told everyone it should be OK since she was a former stripper. I know camping is being back to nature, but that’s just bizarre!

Some of animals we've seen lately including a bird (great blue heron?) eating a fish.

Alligator

Florida Soft Shell Turtle

Florida Gar

Green Heron

For the last three weeks we’ve really enjoyed ourselves being in areas with little cell phone service, no internet, no power, and no water connections. Now we’re at an RV park (very expensive in Florida). We’re busy doing laundry, taking long showers, catching up on email, and this blog. 

Balls of Twine in South Florida

I made John stop at the smallest post office in the United States. The interesting part to me was that there were a lot of people stopping at the post office to take pictures. We tourist will take pictures of anything!

This is the Skunk Ape Research Center. Well…it’s also a gift store (lots of Skunk Ape T-shirts) and campground. But there’s a section that talks about the Skunk Ape, which is the local name for Bigfoot since he apparently gets stinkier in the swamps of Florida. This area is supposed to have the largest sightings of Bigfoot outside of the Northwest. The rangers make fun of this whole thing. Sometimes people will hear a noise in the area (probably a gator) and ask about it. The rangers have been known to tell them it’s the Skunk Ape. At the ‘Research Center’, there was a picture of the Skunk Ape, a casting of his footprints, and they sold a booklet about him. Very cool!

Shark Valley

Shark Valley is another visitor center in the north part of the Everglades.  There is a walk along a canal that is full of birds and alligators. It’s also full of tourists taking pictures, people on rented bikes, and an occasional shuttle. We went in the morning around 10 am. We got a space in the parking lot but the path was already starting to get crowded. We drove past this area later in the day. The parking lot was full and there was maybe a mile of cars parked along the road.

This purple gallimule is the prettiest bird in the area. We tried to describe him to a ranger. I said that the colors were like a peacock and the ranger paused to think. John told him the bird’s beak looks like candy corn. The ranger immediately knew it was the purple gallimule.

These are an anhinga. The black is a male and the brown neck one is female. They look like a water snake as they swim in the water to catch fish. They dive down and then only their skinny neck will show above the water as they breathe. Then they have to stretch out their wings to dry before their next time in the water.

There are lots of alligators along the trail or in the canal. The picture shows one swimming by and one on the shore. Some of them get quite noisy in their roar (or whatever you call that sound).

Baby alligators…we counted five that were around two-feet long.

  

Got to mention the traffic on the two-lane Tamiami Trail (Route 41). It’s not that it’s exceptionally busy, but people keep pulling over to see the birds or alligators. And there are a lot of alligators along this road. I called out “Alligator” every time I saw one. After about 100 of them, John was very frustrated with me! But now, after being in the area for a few weeks, alligators and birds are interesting, but not enough to risk life and limb to pull over on a road with a 60 mph speed limit. Plus, there are several roadside stops with plenty of wildlife where you can safely pull over.

Coral Castle

There’s a long story that goes with the castle about the unrequited love of Agnes Scuffs(!) and building this ‘castle’ in the dark of the night to protect construction secrets.  Basically, I liked the idea that a five-foot guy built this whole thing by himself with no money except for the 10 or 25 cent entry fees. He used only tools he made himself from a car scrap yard. The castle has been a subject of TV shows, Believe It or Not, and is listed in the National Register of Historical Places.

There’s several astrological places like this sundial and the Polaris telescope. The Polaris telescope is just two holes that you look through so you can see the North Star (at night, of course).

I can understand why Agnes never married this guy. While they look cool, I don’t think I would like to sleep in these beds.

Ed Leedskalnin (the builder of all this) would take a bath in this tub. The place had no electricity, so the water would warm up from the sun and then he could take a warm bath in the afternoon.

Camping at Everglades

We liked camping at the Everglades so much we stayed 8 days and then returned for another 5 days after the Keys. One thing that is different here is that most of the RV’s are smaller. There really isn’t room for the big rigs. Many people have solar panels. Without electrical power, we have to run our generator every few days but they can run with only the solar panels to charge the batteries. Another thing that was different is how many large cameras we saw. Lots of people had big cameras with lenses and tripods. My little digital camera seemed silly (but I could put mine in my pocket). Several mornings, there were multiple cameras on tripods along the pond where people were lined up to take sunrise pictures. Also, people are really friendly. We would take a short walk around the campground and end up taking an hour due to stopping and chatting with people.

At our campsite, we liked to sit read quietly and watch the birds and animals that showed up. Or this time we actually had a fire at night.

This guy kept fighting his reflection in the hubcaps and the front bumper. We’d hear pecking as he struck it over and over.

We think this is a woodrat. We’re pretty sure it’s not a field mouse. We saw several. That doesn’t sound unusual, but we heard that most rodents have disappeared from the park due to the invasive snakes like pythons. By the way, we only saw a small regular snake on our last day. The snakes are here, but they hide very well and are rarely seen.

A cardinal at our campsite…

The Keys – Long Key State Park

Everyone has heard how wonderful the Keys are in the winter. EVERYONE has heard how wonderful the Keys are in the winter. To get a camping spot in the winter, you either have to pay over $100 a night at an RV park (plus make reservations months in advance), or pay $23 a night (senior citizen and Florida resident rate) for a night at a state park. The problem is that you need to make the reservations online at least 6 months in advance and then you’re lucky to get more than a few days. The other thing you can hope for is cancellations. I tried for several weeks for openings and finally got one day at Long Key and one day at John Pennecamp State Parks. Not ideal, but it gives us a feel for the area.

The drive to the Keys is on a single highway with 42 bridges between Key Largo and Key West. The water is gorgeous, but the drive isn’t really that great with heavy traffic on the 2-lane road (it varies from 2-4 lanes).

Most of the Keys are narrow, so that our park was right along the highway. I thought it would be noisy with traffic, but instead the waves from the ocean soothed us to sleep. This is view from the bedroom of the RV.

The campsites are small, but there are trees on both sides between you and the next RV. Here’s a bird nesting in those trees.

There’s not really a beach behind the RV, but more of a mud and rock flat at low tide. In the morning I found a weathered float had come ashore. I thought about keeping it as a souvenir, but it was too big to easily store. Maybe the next camper will like to have it. I took a walk out at low tide and saw all sizes of crabs scuttling around.

At sunset we saw a windsurfer (or whatever this is called). He was tacking back and forth along with jumping up in the air when taking a curve. In the picture, he’s by the boat. 

Sunrise….

Pennekamp State Park had an aquarium with multiple tanks in their visitor center. Very educational.

Refrigerator Failure!

Our RV is around 9 years old. While refrigerators can last for 20 years in a house, that’s not normal for an RV. It’s designed to work with propane or 120 V plus it has to handle the vibrations and movement of driving down rough roads. All of this means a fairly short life plus they are really expensive (~$2,000), even though they are smaller than refrigerators in a home.

Everything was working well running on propane until a few days ago when the temperature starting increasing in the fridge and freezer. We tried several things like defrosting the freezer and then trying to run on electric by running the generator, but nothing helped. We had a neighbor who suggested we clean the burner. John did a great job and we had a good flame, but still the temperature dropped. Finally, I started calling RV repair shops in the area. As I described our problem, I mentioned that we’d see a yellow crystal form under the burner area. The repair man started yelling, “Shut it down, shut it down!” After turning off the propane, we found out that we had a coolant leak that can start a fire.  Whoa!

Turns out that if you have a coolant leak, they can’t fix it. They can replace the cooling unit, but it’s more than half the price of a whole new refrigerator. So, we’ve ordered a new refrigerator and are currently living with everything being in a cooler with ice.

RV life is always a challenge.

Biscayne National Park

As a short day trip, we drove over to Biscayne National Park. If you have a boat, I hear it’s a wonderful park. It’s very big with all kinds of places to snorkel, including 50 shipwrecks. But, since most of it is water and small islands, there’s not a lot to see from the mainland.

There is a good visitor center. I liked the short walls along the path made of fossilized corral.

There was a boardwalk over the water. These algae (the round balls) were different looking.