Part 4- Loving the Everglades, Christmas in Naples, New Year's in Alabama and Finally Beach Camping!

December 18, 2012

We left Jonathan Dickinson State Park for the Everglades. A stop at Publix Market for food and a rotisserie chicken. We've gotten in the habit of picking one up on traveling day and having that for dinner with a salad on our first night in a new campground.

The drive south took us down Interstate 95 and then the Florida Turnpike to Homestead, south-west of Miami. We drove past mango and avocado groves, as well as fields planted with vegetables. We entered Everglades National Park and stopped at the Visitor's Center for a map. Then we drove to the entrance and purchased an annual National Parks Pass that will give us free entry for the next year into any federal park; national parks, national forests, BLM lands, national monuments, anywhere an entry fee is charged.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but hot with humidity and highs in the 80's. Because it was already 3 pm we decided to drive straight through to the end of the road to Flamingo Campground on Florida Bay. The campground was almost empty. We didn't need the reservations we'd made for the week before Christmas. It filled up more over the weekend that we were there. We set up camp which didn't take long because there was only an electric hook-up. We tried to sit outside for a while but the biting gnats were too bad. We found out later that they were no-see-ums because they came through the screens. We had to close the windows and run the air conditioning to keep them out. I overheard a ranger commenting that they were still around later than usual this year. They didn't blow out until a windy cold front blew in a few days later.

Everglades Camp

Ibis feeding at campsite

The Everglades has been on my bucket list since a brief visit as a child. My only memory of that visit was one of my brothers and I racing around a scenic boardwalk out into the glades and trying to outrun the mosquitoes. From then on my family called any mosquitoey place the same name as the boardwalk, which I have forgotten. (I expect that my brother Steve remembers!)

My bad ankle slowed me down for the first day or two we were there. I stuck it into an ace bandage and started to ride my bike close by. I had to lower the seat to feel more secure. Our second day there we took a boat tour into the mangroves down the Buttonwood Canal, out into Coot Bay and then down a natural river to Whitewater Bay and back. We saw alligators and crocodiles. The everglades are the farthest north the crocs are found. There were only two other passengers aboard the pontoon boat, a couple from Belgium. The park naturalist pointed out the wildlife, especially the birds.

Buttonwood Canal

Croc patrolling the marina

Boat tour up Buttonwood Canal

Mangrove roots

Osprey and nest

There were more birds around the close by Visitor's Center; four osprey nests, one on the wharf, and six or eight ospreys, white pelicans, hawks, vultures, crows, egrets, herons and a flock of ibis that grazed through the campground.

Greg biked part way up the park road and back and took several other rides from the campground. After hot, sweaty biking the first day, he discovered that there was no hot water in the shower house! That wasn't a major problem until the cold front came in and dropped the temps to the 40's at night with lots of wind. 60's during the day helped somewhat, but the cinderblock buildings held in the cold from the night before.
The day that the front was coming in we decided to do a field trip and drive all the way back to the park entrance and visit the pull offs along the way. We stopped at West Lake and walked the boardwalk through the mangroves. Then we stopped at Pa-Lay-Okee to see the River of Grass. We ate lunch in the RV there. We saw a huge contrail with fighter jets nearby, so we decided that there had been a launching at Cape Canaveral. We drove next to Royal Palm which is near the entrance. It was crowded as it gets the visitors that just want to make a quick visit there. We were surprised to see and hear that the majority of the visitors were either Japanese, European, or Canadian. The exchange rate has really made it easier to visit the U.S. from outside the country. We noticed the box of blue tarps by the parking lot, and the sign that advised visitors to put them over their cars to keep the vultures off. The turkey vultures like to remove rubber gaskets and windshield wipers. Greg chased a bunch away from other people's campsites when he was biking. They loomed over us from the roof of the bathhouse when we were dumping and filling with water. We didn't have a problem with them, but visitors are warned that any parking lot in the park is fair game for the protected vultures.

At Royal Palm we walked the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. We saw two gators, birds; a great blue heron, anhingas, egrets, hawks and of course lots of vultures. The vultures were actually following people around on the paved walks. I decided to turn around and walk towards one to see if I could intimidate it. When I got within a foot it sauntered sideways a little and them resumed following the crowd, weird... We saw lots of fish; gar, bass, tilapia, sunnies, and smaller fish.

Kathleen's pet vulture

Anhinga

Blue Heron

Gar

small gator

Tricolor Heron

When we left Royal Palm we headed back towards Flamingo, where incidentally there have never been flamingos. We stopped at the Pinelands, a sub-tropical pine forest. We saw tree snails attached to the tree trunks for the winter. At dusk we made a last stop at Mahogany Hammock, a grove of huge mahogany trees in the midst of the grass with a boardwalk running through it.

Tree Snail

Pinelands

 

Mahogany Grove Boardwalk

 

We reached the campground at dusk and Greg turned on the TV to the one local channel we could get there. It was a Spanish language station out of Miami. The show aired from 7-8 and Greg decided it was his new favorite show. Neither of us speaks more than a few words of Spanish, but the slapstick comedy, possibly live on “El Happy Hour” had us laughing and stretching our brain cells to try and figure out the language!

That night the rest of the cold front came through with 30 mph gusts and wind chills in the 30's. The camper rocked and we had to turn on the heat after running the AC the whole time previous to this. The sky was so clear and the light pollution so minimal that we could see the moon and Orion through the skylight over the bed. It was our nightlight.

The next day was windy and cool and we attempted to take a bike ride to Bear Lake. The sand road traveled next to the Buttonwood Canal where we'd sailed on the pontoon boat. We got to the end, but bikes weren't allowed on the trail to the lake. So we went back and rode on to the bridge over the canal and watched the Japanese tourists in rented canoes try to figure out how to paddle while looking stylish and taking lots of photos of each other, as they rammed each others canoes! We went back to camp and had cold showers and prepared to leave the next day.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Bright sunshiny weather as we traveled out of the park. Once we reached Homestead we drove due north to US 41. Along the way we saw lots of tropical plant nurseries, vegetable fields and several places to buy goats. We reached the Tamiami Trail (41) and drove west towards Naples to spend Christmas with Greg's Dad. Along the route we passed airboat rides, Seminole villages and tourist attractions. After the route turned into the Big Cypress National Preserve it got wilder. We drove to the Visitor Center. On the turn in, the refrigerator door flew open, jars came out and we had sun dried tomatoes and olive oil all over the place. Later Greg figured out how to tighten the latch and we bought expansion bars to go across the shelves. We'd previously had a dozen eggs take a dive and pop their lid as well. Messy...

After cleaning up and eating lunch we discovered that the pond between the center and the road was loaded with alligators! There was a boardwalk above them on the visitor center side. We spent quite some time photographing them as well as finally getting a photo of an endangered wood stork and several other birds. Back on the road we spotted many more alligators and birds along the side of the road all the way to Naples on the Gulf Coast.

Papaya Grove

Houseplant Nursery

Big Cypress Visitor Center

Wood Stork

We had reservations at the Rock Creek RV Park in Naples. The park has lots of snowbirds from the US and Canada. We were on the same block with Canadian Vets with their flags and motorcycles. The park was nice, and we had hot showers and a chance to do laundry in their good facilities. We'd picked this park for the inexpensive price by Naples standards ($45/night), and because we thought we could bike to Greg's Dad's retirement community. We wound up driving the rig instead and we had no trouble with parking, so it worked out.

Bougainvillea

Naples campsite

Christmas Eve Day we had lunch at Pollo Tropical. It was a lot like El Pollo Loco where we liked to eat when we lived in Pasadena, CA years ago. Then we spent the afternoon with Greg's Dad. We were the hit of The Moorings where he lives, with our Mercedes RV! The two of us had an unusual Christmas Eve which we usually spend with my family, by having dinner at TGI Fridays. It was on our route back to Rock Creek and had an easy lot for us to park in.

When we arrived after 8 pm at the park, the residents were caroling on our street. They loudly sang “Rudolph” to us while I tried to direct Greg in backing up into our small site. I had to yell at him so he could hear me in the backup speaker. Then I sang “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” with the carolers while Greg did the hook-ups. Well, that was a new Christmas Eve experience!

Christmas Day we returned to Greg's Dad's and had a great Christmas buffet at The Moorings. We spent the afternoon with him and came back to the park, (sans carolers), in the evening. We got up early the next day and took the RV into the Naples Mercedes dealer for its 30,000 mile check-up. They gave us a loaner Mercedes and we bought groceries at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and then we drove over to see Greg's Dad, the retired Cadillac dealer! We drove Dad on some errands in the Mercedes, (he didn't get upset!), and dropped him off to go retrieve the RV. We unloaded groceries in a brief downpour. That's Florida, great timing. We had to change our shirts. Then back to take Dad out to dinner at Swan River Seafoods. After dinner we took him back home, went back to Rock Creek and had a good night's sleep before we headed out again.

Christmas at Naples with Greg's Dad

December 27, 2012

Okay, our next stop was Wetumpka, Alabama. We had the whole state of Florida to traverse and didn't know where we would spend the night. We were entirely okay with not having a reservation after a month of planned camping. We drove interstates the entire length of the state and wound up boondocking in a Flying J truckstop west of Tallahassee. It was our first truck stop boondocking experience and that's when we realized, when our lights died after 10 minutes of use, that we needed to replace the coach batteries ASAP. We cooked dinner by headlamp and went to bed, the reefers and engines providing white noise and a “magic fingers” vibrating sensation to coax us to sleep. Greg woke up early, left me still sleeping and walked 100 feet into Denny's for a big breakfast. He loves his big restaurant breakfasts!

We stopped in Dothan, Alabama at Camping World and had the batteries replaced and bought some other items. Then we drove on to Wetumpka which is north of Montgomery. Regina is a friend from seminary days, and we planned to spend New Year's with her. We had a few days to visit with her and her sons and their families. Also, lots of good times with her SO Danny. New Year's Eve Day we hiked around Toulouse State Park with Regina and got carry out at Smokin' S BBQ. Yummm! That evening we had lasagna at Danny's and went to downtown Wetumpka to the court square for the Astroblem Drop. A meteor (astroblem) dropped just outside of town and Wetumpka has their own version of the Time's Square ball drop. We arrived too late for that. It happened at 11 pm since they are on Central Time, but, just before midnight, the country band that was playing said they would now play the national anthem. They launched into “Sweet Home Alabama”! Then they played “Auld Lang Sine”. The bonfires were burning and the fireworks started. I loved the small town intimacy of it all, after years of big city celebrations, or staying home on New Year's Eve.

New Year's fireworks at Wetumpka

Our lovely hostess!

New Year's Day football games

The next day Regina treated us to a Southern New Year's Day dinner of ham, cornbread, lima beans, cole slaw, and mac and cheese, (the latter mostly for Jonathan and Roberta's little guy). Roberta made delicious buttermilk pie. We watched bowl games and had a stereotypical New Year's Day.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Time to hit the road! We were ready to head out to see where we would land for the rest of the winter. Regina recommended Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, Florida on the Gulf Coast. Maybe we'd finally get a beach campsite! The website said they had sites. The sign at the entrance said they were full. The ranger said it was too much trouble to change the sign. Huh? They were not nearly full. We got a good site and parked in dreary weather.

Mural at the entrance to Destin

Boardwalk to beach at campground

How can I be on a Florida beach and still be cold?

Destin proved to be fickle. Our first morning was rainy and 45 degrees. By the afternoon it had cleared enough to walk three miles up and back on the beach. The next day was nice weather. Greg took a long bike ride around the area and mailed bills and went to ACE Hardware. He bought an angle bracket which he installed the next day on the dinette bench seat, that has a step up on it to climb to the cab over bunk. We needed to stabilize it better. After that we walked the beach to the Back Porch for an early dinner. It was cool, but not windy. On the way back we had a spectacular sunset and saw terns, sandpipers, gulls, brown pelicans, dolphins, a great blue heron, and ducks. We arrived back at the campground just as it got dark.
The next day was rainy and cold. We spent the day doing chores in the camper. We figured out how to make the passenger seat swivel. That gave us another more comfortable seating option. The dinette and sofa aren't the most comfortable with their straight backs. (I'm currently trying to figure out how to modify the short sofa to make it more comfortable. Right now we mostly just put things on it.) We watched a few movies and stayed one more day and two nights before we headed west. At this point we finally got the blog up. Yay!!! We gave up on Wordpress and went with Blogger for hosting the blog, after Wordpress lost my first posting three times and I had to keep re-writing it.

Eating lunch with a local resident

As a footnote- I have in my journal an entry for January 9, 2013, a thought that was formed in my head as I woke up- “When it all comes down to it, people just want to know that the love of God can still flow to them through the love of another human being. Just love people...”

So, I send my love out to the world, and all who read this! Blessings!