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!

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.

Prairie Cadillac

Ranger Frank

Egrets in a Depression Wetland

Lap Gator

Ibis, Egret, Stork

Prairie Grass in seed