From Kissimmee Prairie to the Everglades!

Monday, December 15, 2014

We stayed eleven nights at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. It is definitely our favorite place in Florida to get away from the crowds and enjoy the “wilderness”. We took bike rides, and walks, and enjoyed the birds and wildlife. We had deer, wild turkeys, and various birds crossing through the campground. Riding our bikes in a downpour back from Gator Corner, we saw an otter cross the road in front of us. We saw several rare crested Caracaras, the national bird of Mexico.

Tiny tree frogs were Everywhere!

Anhinga on his favorite fishing branch

One of the main sloughs in Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

Ibis making a big show of flying only to land 50 feet down the road from us.

The main park road

Caracara in a Live Oak

Small white-tailed deer

One day the rangers and fire fighters conducted a controlled burn over a large area of prairie. It was interesting to talk with them about their tactics, and observe how they set and controlled the fires. Controlled burns have been policy for a long time in the East, to restore the natural habitat and prevent huge fires. The huge fires in the West have come about through decades of what our ranger said was the philosophy of, “Every fire out by sundown”. Now the West is scrambling to change their policies and reduce undergrowth that fuels fires. Out West we saw recent efforts to cut and pile underbrush in the parks and forests.

Starting the prescribed burn

Setting backfires near the road

The goal was to burn 2,500 acres of prairie that was overgrown by 2 years.

Fires still burning near sunset

We loved the small campground during the week. There were two volunteer camp hosts and only one or two campers besides us. We had the chance to get to know Kathy and Ron, volunteer hosts originally from Buffalo, who have been fulltiming for 20 years. They were a font of wisdom as we begin to plan the next stage of our fulltiming lives. We left the Prairie on Thursday, December 10^th and traveled back to “civilization”. Time to finish our residency requirements.

Former posts from Kissimmee:
Wilderness in Florida- Kissimee Prairie Preserve and Back to the Atlantic
Keeping Warm in Florida!

Florida Conehead Katydid on the bike cover

Large Golden Silk Orbweaver whose web stretched all the way across the campground road

Caracara watching us leave

Hopping back on I-95 we traveled north to Faver-Dykes State Park near St. Augustine. On our sunset walk along the creek we met another couple with a new version of our RV. Chelsea and Michael were on a nine day tour of Florida state parks to learn how to use their rig. Florida residents now, but formerly from Seattle and Hawaii, it turns our they had also lived 10 years in Costa Rica. Wow, I bet they have interesting stories to tell! We answered some RVing questions for them and encouraged them to keep in touch, and meet us at the View/Navion rally in Quartzsite, AZ in January.

Sunset at Faver-Dykes State Park

Camp at Faver-Dykes

Friday morning we broke camp and drove to Green Cove Springs, our new “home”. We picked up our mail at St. Brendan's Isle and saw that we had the proper documentation to proceed. Making the short drive to the Department of Motor Vehicles, we entered the almost deserted office and took a number. Before we could even sit down we were called to a window and the same clerk issued our driver's licenses, and registered the RV. There was a lot of documentation that we needed, but we had visited our lockbox before we left Maryland and had everything we needed. What a difference from every other state DMV we've ever been in. Interminable waits, return visits, and sometimes surly clerks.


Then we drove over to register to vote. We had to present our domicile papers and fill out the forms. Apparently everyone who has our same “address” has been put in a separate voting district. Then Greg changed out our license plates, we admired our new driver's license “mugshots” and we drove out of Green Cove Springs. We are now officially Florida residents! By now it was late afternoon and we stopped at a Publix grocery on the way back to the interstate, to fill up our fridge and pantry. Pretty low after 12 days. It was 4:30 before we were done, the sun was setting soon, and so we took our chances that there would be a spot left back at Faver-Dykes. We pulled into our old vacant site just as the sun set and spent a second night there.


Saturday we left Faver-Dykes again and looked for a laundromat. Outside of Daytona we found one, resupplied ourselves with clean clothes, and treated ourselves to lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Jamaican eatery. Good, cheap lunch special of chicken curry and jerk chicken. Winding our way back out to the interstate we passed the famous Daytona Speedway. It was a lot bigger than we thought it would be, with lots of new grandstand construction going on. Finally back on I-95, this time heading south, we set our sights for a Flying J truck stop at Ft. Pierce. Saturday night in Florida means no camping without a reservation, so we joined a half dozen other RV's in the parking lot outside Denny's, where Greg went sneaking off for breakfast early Sunday morning!

They did not offer Fish&Chips so Jerked Chicken had to suffice

In a truck wash, where 8 guys with pressure washers finally defeated the Arizona grasshoppers stuck in the grill.

Sunday finally brought us back to the Homestead area west of Miami. We made a stop at Robert Is Here, the great produce stand we discovered last winter. It was mobbed! Sunday, and beautiful, dry weather drew the crowds for a drive in the country. We asked Robert if Sunday's were usually this crowded, and he said that it was actually slow! Greg got in line for his Key Lime milkshake before the next wave of customers descended on the food stand. I begged three bites...OMG... hard not to beg more...so good...!!! We loaded up on produce and drove into Everglades National Park. 40 miles later we arrived at the end of the road at Florida Bay and the Flamingo Campground. We found a site with electric available and checked in.

Robert is Here

The campground here only allows you to pay a night at a time if you are a walk-in. Last night we went on line to pick out the site we liked and reserve it. Well, you can only make a reservation for a non-specific site, and not for the next night, even though the site we originally asked the ranger for was “saved” for someone coming later. We moved sites this morning while I was still in bed. Greg decided to sign up for a different site for tonight, since the one we were in last night had bee problems. Now since we reserved for three more nights after tonight, we can stay in this site. The whole system here is screwy. When we were here after Christmas last year we couldn't get an electric site because they were all reserved, even though half were empty because people didn't show up. It's critical to get an electric site here so you can run the air conditioner, not so much from the heat, but because the mosquitos and no-see'ums cause you to keep all the windows closed after dark.

Everglades pest control contractors - Ibis next to our RV

So we escaped the hornets and honey bees at the last site, only to have a large amount of honey bees trying to get in our windows on this new site. We can't figure out what they are trying to get to inside the rig! Anyway, we are here for four more nights, and then may go to the other campground closer to the entrance to the park for four more nights before we leave for Naples on the 23^rd, to spend Christmas with Greg's Dad. This post will have to wait until we have a connection in Naples. For now we have beautiful weather, so we are going to soak it up!