Wading with crocs

Another Sunday morning in paradise. We sleep with the windows open at night and even though it gets to 80 in the daytime we haven't needed to use the ac. Sunday morning breakfast is usually a switch from cereal and fruit to something more exotic, usually pancakes, blueberries, mangos etc., ran out of all the good fruit so just had eggs and toast today, should have fixed those cinnamon roll in the tube, maybe later.

There is a bike path along the key highway, yesterday hopped on the bike and went into Marathon and bought a bag of shrimp for bait. We caught one small fish and fed others some nice shrimp. You need a boat for serious fishing at this spot, but it's fun wading around the shore and mangroves fishing, who knows, maybe we will land a big one soon. As you can see it doesn't take much to entertain us.

 
Nice spot to read




Juvenile White Ibis searching for bugs in the sod with that nice long bill, he will turn white as he matures.



Wading with crocs

Curry Hammock state park

CH is located in the middle of the keys, just above Marathon. It's a small park with 27 camp sites and about half the sites are right by the ocean. Reservations open 11 months in advance and book instantly.

Atlantic beach about 30 feet behing our MH

Nita trying to catch the main course



Stay away from this guy, Portuguese man of war, his tentacles will sting.

Thomas Edison & Henry Ford

The winter estates of Edison and Ford are in Fort Myers, Fl. Ford worked for the Edison Company before starting the Ford Motor Company. Edison bought the land in the frontier town of Fort Myers in 1885 and in the next two years built two houses and a laboratory. In 1914 Edison invites Ford to visit his home and two years later Ford buys the adjacent property and home. In 1927 Edison, Ford and Firestone established a laboratory here to develop a quick growing, domestic source of natural rubber.

The properties front the Caloosahatchee River and are filled with many beautiful trees and plants.

Harvey Firestone and President Herbert Hoover were guests of Edison.




 

Edison main house on right and guest on left.




 

Illuminaire In Edison family room with early produced Incandescent bulbs.






Porch with river in background.



Ford home on left and Edison on far right.

Roots of Mysore Fig Tree

Firestone gave a 4 foot banyan tree to Edison in 1925. This tree is now an acre in diameter and the largest in the continental US. The white milky sap of this tree can be used to create rubber. Edison and guest in foreground.

Manatees have the right of way

Well it's pretty exciting here on the locks and canal. There are loud speakers on the lock and we can hear the conversations between the boats and lock master. If it's a big boat coming we frequently walk over and stand on the side of the lock and watch the process. Yesterday morning a large barge and tug came down the canal from Okeechobee and requested passage. They opened the lock gate nearest him and 3 manatees swam into the lock headed toward Ft Myers. The lock master told the captian he couldn't come into the lock until they went through the whole cycle of lowering and raising the water to get the manatees through. The captain was upset and said he had a schedule to keep, but they made him wait for about a half hour to get the manatees out.

You can only stay in this park for 2 weeks so we are always getting new neighbors. We had the privilege this week of meeting Bob and Bette Buchheit from Kentucky and having 3 nights of conversation with them, with refreshments, while watching the sun go down. The night before last while sitting on our patio with them we were visited by a little armadillo who casually searched for bugs to eat in the grass about 6 feet from us. Wanted to grab him and pick him up but with my luck he would have probably bit me. We get old neighbors here also, one fellow came up to me yesterday and said hi Halsey, we met last year here, so we did, nice to see Jack again.

Well that's about all the news from the locks, no telling what will happen today. Oh, we did have to change sites this morning, this place is so popular that it gets booked 6 months in advance, so late comers depend on cancelations to get in and have to move to different sites to string together a stay here, no big deal, only take a few minutes to move.






Manatee in the lock





Little visitor





Valentines day potluck

Cow Stomach

We are located on a canal that goes from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf near Ft Myers. The park is the Ortona Lock run by the Corps, quite a nice spot and we can watch the boats and manatees go back and forth through the locks. For those with many birthdays it's quite a bargain for 12 bucks a day.

La Belle, the closest town is 8 miles west. The area is primarily agricultural, citrus, strawberries, vegetables and the majority of the population is Hispanic who do the labor. Every Sat in La Belle there is a Hispanic market with fruit, veg, clothing, food stalls, etc. It's fun to walk through and observe the people and items for sale. There was one food stall that I found fascinating and the food looked great. Several young men were eating a bowl of soup that looked delicious, asked what kind it was but they didn't speak English, they got the cook and he said it was cows stomach, decided to pass. We left with bags of fruit.



Nita picking up some mangos


Cranking out tortillas and throwing on hot iron plate





Chicken is fresh, there are a couple of goats inside


Our spot on the lock, nita possibly on the phone to you

Fish tacos and more

At the Sebastian Inlet campground I could hop on my bicycle with a fishing rod loaded with a silver spoon lure and be on the jetty in 5 minutes. The tidal turbulence at the end of the jetty attracts a number of different fish gorging on smaller fish. At 4pm yesterday I hopped on the bike , caught 2 two pound bluefish in about 15 minutes, hopped back on the bike with rod and 2 squirming fish in a plastic bag, stopped by the cleaning table, with pelicans, then arrived back at camp with some nice filets. Coated the filets with taco seasoning, sautéd them in olive oil, wow what great fish tacos. The day before made the catch and dipped the filets in pancake batter mixed with lemon pepper seasoning, sautéd in olive oil and had another wow dinner. Think I'm bragging too much, ask Nita, had to scramble to get my share. Darn, forgot to take pictures.

Unusual Event

The night before last the Sebastian Inlet experienced a rare event, the folks in the park we talked to have never seen it happen in the past. We are parked right on the inlet and woke up yesterday morning to what sounded like rain. The noise was being made by Menhaden fish that packed the inlet which is a half mile long and several hundred yards wide. It looked like you could almost walk across the water on then. Evidently a huge school must have been in the ocean and got sucked into the inlet on the incoming tide. The fish nearest the sides of the inlet were forced into shallow water and and they quickly depleted the oxygen and massive amounts of them died. It took many hours for the school to get back to the ocean. The pelicans other sea birds were all gone for the day, evidently they gorged themselves on the fish and went somewhere to rest. Fishing for the anglers was futile as the game fish also had their fill. Menhaden are filter feeders that feed by straining plankton and alge from the water, predator fish love them and they are netted for fish meal and oil.



Stragglers still trying to get back to the ocean, comrades on their sides didn't make it.


Silver colored shoreline of menhaden


Ooh, water getting kind of high. This was today, fishing for pompano but only caught a catfish. Was 85 today and water comfortable.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you

The fish cleaning tables here in the Sebastian Inlet park have troughs from the table to the water to flush fish scraps and blood. The birds congregate when they see one cleaning fish, the pelicans are the most aggressive. I was cleaning some fish yesterday and the pelicans gathered for a meal. They were on the trough sticking their heads into the cleaning table, they would swallow a whole 2 pound filleted bluefish in one swallow. You had to guard your filets or they would grab and swallow fast, I picked out a nice roe sack and presented it to one of the pelicans, expecting him to pluck it out of my fingers with the end of his bill, instead he grabbed my whole hand with his 15 inch jaws, quite a surprise, hurt but no damage, such bad manners.

The Sebastian Inlet is a prime fishing spot attracting folks from all over. The state has built long fishing jetties on both sides of the inlet out into the ocean, a bridge across the inlet primarily for flounder fishing and nice launching ramps for boats.


Plovers on the jetty rails awaiting scraps of bait


Some serious jetty fisherman and their fancy carts


Black drum and sheepshead


Crime scene


The one in front, sweet looking SOB that bit me

Cracked Head

The blog posts have been a little slow this past week due to not a lot of exciting things to report. We have been enjoying the great weather here at Sebastian Inlet and I have been running around getting some fishing gear together. The inlet provides some great fishing, we are parked About 30 feet from the inlet and I'm fishing right there. Have been waiting for some great fish pictures to post but my catches of blowfish and bluefish don't warrant pictures. The fish picture below is the best I can do so far.

What else has been exciting? The MH has large rear view mirrors that stick out at about head level. I wear a large floppy brim hat that limits upward visibility. Several days ago I went out to join Nita sitting in the sun with a cup of tea in my hand, bent down to set the cup on the running board and whacked the mirror with my forehead. Staggered a little bit and spoke harshly to the mirror. For some reason Nita thought the whole scene was exceptionally funny, laughing so hard it brought tears to her eyes. Even worse when I showed her the large knot rising on my forehead the hysterical laughter started again. Something is wrong here, I'm hurting fiercely and she is getting great joy out of it, go figure. As you can see not a lot of exciting stuff to blog on.





Fish for dinner, frozen Alaskan salmon. See that big heavy mirror sticking out.





Our sunset view each evening at 6:05





The Sebastian Inlet looking toward the Indian River, campground just beyond the point on the right.





The inlet looking out to the ocean. If one has heavy tackle the fishing is very good on the jetty.





Click on the pelican to enlarge and note his pretty eye and yellow feathers