Christmas in Naples and Into the Everglades

Sunday, December 29, 2013


We are now camped in the Everglades! Officially we are at a private campground surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, called Trail Lakes. The campground is only part of the business. They take pole boat and kayak tours into the Everglades. This time of year is hopping. All the airboat tour companies we passed getting here had overflowing parking lots.

Camping on the edge of the Glades

After leaving Kissimmee Prairie on the 23^rd, we drove to Naples, Florida. Checking into the Rock Creek RV Park where we stayed last Christmas, we spent the next four days with Greg's 93- year -old Dad. We had great weather, good food, lots of watching Gunsmoke and Bonanza, and an interesting time as he reminisced about the vessel he captained during WWII. We were also serenaded on Christmas Eve until one in the morning by drunk French-Canadians in a campsite near us, shout-singing Frank Sinatra songs. Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Dad Siegner's

Our last day there, we put the rig into the Mercedes dealer for routine maintenance. The work was done fine, but upon returning to the RV park, we discovered that the quality control test driver had taken a turn so quickly that one of our large kitchen drawers had flown out, spilling its contents, mostly lots of jars of herbs and spices, and broken the drawer supports. That was bad enough, but they didn't tell us. We discovered the drawer on the floor sitting on top of my clothes storage bag, as we crunched cloves under our feet.


We took it back to show them the next day and they told us to go to the RV dealer in Fort Myers, and send them the bill. We spent our departure day driving back north to Fort Myers. The RV dealer no longer serviced Winnebagos and told us to go to Home Depot for the parts. We could have saved ourselves the drive. Now Greg has work to do.

It was getting late, and we didn't want to go back to an expensive park in Naples, so we drove to Collier-Seminole State Park southeast of Naples, on the edge of the Everglades. Their campground was full. Apparently Floridians and a few out- of- staters camp over Christmas week. We were offered an overflow space, which was the parking lot of the boat basin, surrounded by mangrove swamps. The park closed at sunset, so we had the best spot in the park, all alone across three spaces along the water. Score! We sat out in our chairs and watched a beautiful sunset until the mosquitoes descended! From 0 to 60 in a very short time! Later inside, we discovered that the lights attracted the no-see-ums who squeeze through the screens, so we kept our lighting low.



The next morning we awoke to a croc right next to the boardwalk, and a beautiful great blue heron across the basin. Knowing that there were no spaces in the campground available, we thought we would be smart and pay for another night or two in the overflow lot. No hook-ups, but Greg hauled water from the picnic area restroom spigot, and we could dump tanks at the campground. It was working for us, but not for them. We were welcome only one night, and were handed a list of places to call for a space. We made calls to the Big Cypress National Preserve which has several campgrounds. No room. We needed to stay somewhere we would have cell phone connections, as unfortunately we were still in the midst of an insane real estate debacle over the condo we are selling. (As of today, we have it back on the market, but had to hire an attorney to deal with the “expletive deleted” buyer who didn't show up for settlement twice, as well as causing other problems I will decline to discuss for now!)

Overflow parking - we made it the best site in the park!

Mangrove Swamp around the boat basin

Huge spider web in the Mangroves

Sunset from our camp

Kathleen's croc buddy

The Trail Lakes Campground another 30 miles east toward Miami, called us back and said they were jam packed, but had a cancellation, so we stowed the rig and drove deeper into the Everglades. We had to take our chances on connectivity. We pulled into a crowded parking lot and entered their office which was a store, tour and camping reservation desk, and a roadside zoo. Inside were many alligator items. The host told us there were no problem gators. If they were, they were soon dinner, and apparently, heads, necklaces, keychains, gator feet, and jawbone knives!

We saw a Florida Panther...made out of fiberglass

No "Problem Gators" here

Gator tooth trinkets

Rental Chickee

The host led us on his bicycle to the backside of the park where we can gaze out over the Everglades. He informed us that on occasion gators, Florida panthers, deer, and bears can be seen there. As long as the breeze kept up we were able to sit outside and enjoy the “ambience” until the sun got low and the bloodsuckers showed up!


Our neighbors are using old trailers for hunting cabins. On our walks around the park we found various swamp buggies parked. Late morning all the hunters came back. This park is a crazy mix of old rigs and new, residents from all over the country, especially the colder states, lots of Florida hunters, and some Europeans with rental RV's mixed in. We walked up to the store and checked out the “zoo”. We had free admission since we are camping here. I didn't want to stay long. It was the usual assortment of tropical birds, snakes, turtles, and a tortoise, in small cages. I must say the snakes scared the heck out of me. There were a half dozen huge southeast Asian pythons and boas. The birds looked unhappy, especially the one screaming at the top of its birdy lungs for attention. I really hate these places. This is “Old Florida” writ large.
 

Judging by all the swamp buggies, many of our neighbors are professional hunting guides

Goldie, a Reticulated Python, was an abandoned pet, rescued from a Miami mobile home 5 years ago

Now she weighs 350 pounds and eats roadkilled raccoons

They also proclaim themselves the Skunk Ape Research Center. There is someone here who has been researching it for 30 years. There is a DVD for sale with filmed footage of an upright ape who looks a bit like Bigfoot. Hmmm...


It's rained on and off today. The temperature is near 80 degrees and the humidity is 99%. We finally put the air conditioning on in hopes of drying things out. Greg is having a fun slow day streaming old movies, and I am catching up on the blog. Tomorrow we will drive east and then southwest to Everglades National Park and spend New Year's Eve drinking bubbly and gazing at the stars, while enjoying the solitude and the tropical breezes!