Kathleen's Window: Keeping Warm in Florida!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Greetings from one of our favorite places, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, north of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. We discovered it last December when we were searching for a campsite away from the coasts, which we were finding impossible to get into due to the large number of Florida “snowbirds” that fill the coastal parks. The small campground sits in a hammock or grove of trees, surrounded by 54,000 acres of flat grass and palmetto filled dry prairie.

After leaving the county park in Sopchoppy in north Florida, we drove to the western side of the state to Manattee Springs State Park along the Suwannee River. The warm spell and warm water kept the manatees down river and away from the warm spring. If it's not cold, they don't need the refuge of the spring, so we didn't see any. Last winter we saw a pod of them, but only saw and enjoyed the wintering over turkey vultures and black vultures again this time.

Manatee Spring Outflow, sans manatee

Sunset over the Suwannee

The boardwalk through the cypress swamp

The trees where the vultures like to roost over the warm water

One night was enough to take us up to our six night reservation at Silver Springs State Park in Ocala. Normally we do not make reservations, but Florida is crowded in the winter, and we needed to be near a settlement office and good connections in order to close on the sale of our condo. The campground is fairly small and quiet with really nice facilities, including showers. Nice to have access to them after boondocking in the desert this fall. We had one night of heavy rain, but otherwise we had typical warm, sunny Florida weather. Isn't that why people winter over here? Greg spent time biking the wooded trails and looking for wildlife. He also rode up to the old Silver Springs resort which is now part of the state park. It is in disrepair, but the glass bottom boat tours are running again.

Luxurious Silver Spring Campsite

Decorative tree lichens

This is the first 3-dimensional armadillo that I have ever seen. He walked right up to me on a quiet trail. The rest were 2-dimensional road kill.

Wild hog rooting damage - looks like rototilling over many acres.

This episode's fierce wildlife - an armadillo-eating spider.

Our real estate transaction hasn't gone as planned and as of today is still not settled, but I can't comment on it until it is finished. We had planned to be done and ready to head for a remote area before we go to the hustle and bustle of Naples for Christmas. We are loving being back here in Kissimmee Prairie again, but it is being tainted by unpleasantness.

Our Kissimmee Prairie camp had the only shade for miles.

Greg hopped his bike yesterday morning and scouted out the trails and wildlife. In the afternoon we rode together down the flat straight roads to a hammock several miles away. Prime alligator and bird watching! The park was conducting a controlled burn a few miles away. We were downwind of it, so there were some smoke, ashes, and agitated wildlife. The burns are necessary every few years to keep the vegetation and wildlife healthy. After a long visit observing the gators and various herons, egrets, and an endangered woodstork, we rode around the equestrian campsites. Yes, you can go camping with your horse!

Prescribed Burns started by the Natural Resources staff.

The deepest pool, where the big gators hang out

Cooling off, or smiling!

Egrets, Herons, Ibis, Wood Stork

For some reason, swimming never occurred to us

Female Wild Turkeys in the camp

Saw Palmetto on the Dry Prairie

Tomorrow we have reserved a spot on a guided swamp buggy tour. We are looking forward to getting off the roads and out into the prairie. We missed the astronomy time last night, so hopefully we'll make it tonight. A retired astronomer spends December here, we met him last year, and he sets up his telescope each night. The preserve is located in a dark sky area, hard to find in the East, due to the population and light pollution of the cities.

Little Blue Heron

Saying goodbye to the big guy on our last bike ride to Gator Heaven

We will be here until Monday when we move over to Rock Creek RV Park in Naples for the holidays. I doubt that I will post again until our visit there is over, so, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday time with family and friends, and love and blessings for the new year!

12/29 Update- We were unable to post this before we left Kissimmee due to low connectivity at the remote location. Our Naples visit was hectic, too. I'll add a bit about our swamp buggy tour and catch up on the next post.

Saturday we took the 2 pm swamp buggy tour of the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. Our ranger, Frank, drove six of us out into the preserve and explained the ecosystem, history, wildlife, birds and even quizzed us on the way back on official Florida state birds, animals, song, etc. Greg and I were kind of proud to know the majority of the answers even with native Floridians on board, who didn't know! The preserve encompasses a small portion of the native prairie that has been destroyed from cultivation and cattle farming. They use practices to encourage the native plants and animals to recover and thrive. Frank told lots of interesting stories about the history of the area and since we sat next to him, we were able to ask lots of questions as he drove. The tour enhanced our appreciation for a wild place that we already love.