How Many No-See'ums Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? Everglades National Park

Monday, January 6, 2014


First post of the New Year! The rest of the eastern part of the country is struggling with snow, ice and record cold temperatures. We keep reminding ourselves not to complain about the heat and humidity in the Everglades. The alternative is not pretty...


Two nights at Trail Lakes Campground was enough, so after another visit to the campstore the day before (see photos), we drove east across the Tamiami Trail towards Homestead and the entrance to Everglades National Park. We saw a few gators in the ditches on the side of the road, and quite a few birds, but mostly we were dodging the cars darting in and out of the airboat tours. Apparently, Christmas week is the high season for tourists from the US and abroad and EVERYONE wants an airboat tour of the Everglades. Of course, it is perfectly appropriate to stop dead in the road if you can't find room to drive into the parking lot. And of course, what could be wrong with a u-turn in the middle of a very busy, fast, two lane highway? Well, we managed to survive the Tamiami Trail and drove south into Homestead past lots of nurseries selling palm trees, tropical plants, orchids, statuary and produce.

Skunk Ape Bar - Where the diet drinks really work!

Cast of Skunk Ape footprint

Deluxe Mercedes windshield washer

Landscape nursery

NON-Organic Tomatoes

After a short drive back southwest we reached the visitor center for Everglades National Park. We heard lots of German and Japanese spoken and watched a ranger trying to explain the park in English to a large group of puzzled looking non-English speakers. We drove on to the entrance and were informed that both campgrounds had openings, so we drove a short way to the Long Pine Key Campground. It looked great! Recently renovated, it had paved roads and pads, and mowed grassy sites. The drawback? No electric, water at the community spigot, and no showers.

Florida Panther crossing

We decided to travel all the way to the end of the road approximately 40 miles to Flamingo, where we stayed the week before Christmas last winter. The campground was almost empty then. What a difference a year and a week made. None of the 41 electric sites were available until April! We took a non-electric site and even though we are used to dry camping, we've needed to run the AC to keep the RV reasonably dried out from the high humidity. Whenever the dampness gets too high for too long in here, we get mold issues under the mattress.

Our neighbor's homemade "Gypsy Wagon", a small but very nice setup

Our camp companions, black and turkey vultures, here helping me add water to the RV

The campground was only allowing campers to pay for one night at a time. The frustrated ranger said that the reservation system had no other way to handle non-reservation sites. The mosquitoes and no see'ums are here late this year, and we had to develop bug defense strategies. Mosquitoes like the shade and the breeze helps keep them away, so were able to sit outside and adjust our chairs to be in the shade just on the edge of the bright sun, and hope the breeze didn't die. If that didn't work we used our natural citronella based oil that smells strong, and “moisturizes” your skin very well. Keeps away the bugs, but is really tough to wash off in cold showers which is all our showerhouse offered.


Once the sun gets low, the other mosquitoes descend, as well as the no see'ums which are small enough to fit through the screens and are attracted to light. Generator hours are 8-8, so we closed up, hit the start on the generator and cut on the AC. Cooled us down, dried out the rig, and allowed us to watch a DVD. At 8 everything is turned off. At that point the rig is freezing, I'm wrapped in an afghan and wearing fleecy socks, and we hope it stays reasonably cool all night. If not, we have a small 12-volt fan to blow air over us in bed.


So, why stay after all that effort? The Everglades is a unique amazing environment, not to be missed even with the bad bugs. Last year we did a lot of exploring, biking, and took a boat ride. This year, we wanted to relax and just absorb it slowly. Greg did a few bike rides, and we both biked to the Flamingo visitor center and marina, but frankly, it was mobbed, and we enjoyed the wide expanse of the well separated campsites in an open mahogany grove. We could see the birds flying over, and the weather coming in. Our last day we hiked the Coastal Prairie and Bayshore Loop Trails from the campground. We had planned to rent a canoe, but the wind was 20 mph, and we hiked instead to take advantage of fewer bugs.

Croc at the marina

Zebra Longwing

Coastal Prairie Trail thicket

Open prairie

Dense overgrowth with thorns

Mangrove "Beach"

US Coast and Geodetic Survey Marker, 1934

Mangrove shoots

A view!

How big a hurricane does it take to drop this V-8 engine and outdrive?

Succulent coastal prairie plants

Dry mud and algae crust

Mahogany fruits

We also met a nice couple from Buffalo, NY who are living in the newest version of our RV. Michael and Lisa are two months into their trip, bought a condo in Florida, and in April go back to Buffalo to sell their house. We had fun sharing with them our experiences and expertise gained from a year of traveling. Michael is a “birder” and was having a great time being retired and able to travel and bird. Lisa does most of the driving, and motivated me to take the wheel, if I can pry it out of Greg's hot, sweaty hands!


After five nights at Flamingo we drove the 40 miles back to the Long Pine Key Campground. We just finished two nights here and will stay tonight and leave for Naples tomorrow. Greg signed up for a ranger led bike tour through the woods and fields yesterday, and is out exploring the old roads again today. We are having rain on and off, but we don't consider that bad weather! It is currently 82 degrees and 88% humidity. Tonight when the rest of the east coast has sub-zero temperatures, we are supposed to drop to 43 degrees, with a high of 60 degrees tomorrow. Once again this winter we have gone about as far south in this country as we can go to escape the weather. At least this time we will not be sitting on the Mexican border in the snow!

Old Ingraham Highway, abandoned coral road with T-storms brewing

Lots of 6-footers next to the trail. Greg must have biked within a foot or two of several in the grass that he did not see until he passed them.

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!