Going home, to rush or not to rush

The day we wrapped up the Shark Valley visit we spent the night in the Big Cypress National Preserve 20 minutes away. The next morning we drove most of the day to the Ocala National Forest to one of our favorite parks called Salt Springs, we wanted to spend 2 nights there, however Nita says this morning let's go on. So we drove most of today and are now getting ready for bed in Florence, SC. Have now decided to get an early start in the morning and drive the final 450 miles home. I think it would be fun to take the MH to Alaska, but with 6000 miles up and the same back figure we would probably kill ourselves on the way home trying to drive 1000 miles a day.

We have a lot of catching up to do and getting ready for, our granddaughter Heidi's wedding, friends 90th birthday party, taxes, boxes of mail, accident repairs ( got sideswiped on I95), etc., the 11 weeks went fast and were fun.

Thanks If you are one of those rare folks who read this blog, at least I know my sister for one reads it, when I don't post for a few days I get an email from her wanting to know if I'm still alive. Anyway, unless something interesting happens on the the final leg home tomorrow there will be no more posts till the next trip. When we figure it out will let you know. Bye for now.



Could make a few bowls out of this Short Leaf Fig tree growing inKey West

Top of the food chain

The naturalist on tram through the Everglades said that 2 out of 100 alligator eggs survive to adulthood. As babies they are consumed by birds, turtles, fish and even other alligators. However when they make it to adulthood they are the top of the food chain and they devour those birds, turtles, fish and any thing else they want.


Not too smart turtle soaking up some rays with the alligators


Stupid ex turtle being devoured by a big alligator, that's no crock

Shark Valley, Everglades National Park

The Everglades is the 2nd largest national park, Yellowstone 1st. Shark Valley is on the northern edge of the park. It features a narrow paved trail that loops 15 miles into the Everglades. You can take a guided two hour tram ride or a do it yourself bicycle or walking tour. We took the tram but bicycling would be my preference, that way when you see something exciting you can stop and photo as you want, missed some good shots on the tram. After the tram trip we walked and did some backtracking on the trail. If you are in this area we can recommend spending a few hours here.




Male Anhinga feeding his chicks, they are tropical diving birds. The male and female take turn feeding. The color of the female neck is light brown, the male black.


Great Blue Herron not concerned by a passing alligator


Couldn't get her to go any closer


Got down on my knees to take this picture, popped up quickly when he opened his eyes


Deer, Egrets and the larger bird with the dark head is the endangered Wood Stork

Island of Bones, Cayo Hueso or Key West

There were a few more things we wanted to do in Key West so we returned Wednesday. President Harry Truman used a home on the old Navy submarine base in Key West as the summer white house, he loved this place and used it frequently. The rooms and furniture have been kept as the
Truman's used it. It is a museum today and open to the public. We enjoyed the guided tour of the home.

All through out Key West you hear roosters crowing, they are everywhere and most quite beautiful, in fact you see them in many of the other keys. They seem to fend for themselves and are not bashful about wandering around with people.

After exhausting ourselves walking all over we drove to the old Cuban part of town to a family restaurant, the deep fried plantains are amazingly sweet and good. I see plantains at our local stores, guess I'll have to try making some.



Truman's summer white house


Believe these roosters think they own the town





Bahia Honda where we have been staying

Turtle Rescue

There a number of turtle rescue facilities along the Florida Atlantic coast. People bring in turtles that have been injured by boats, sharks, etc. these facilities have vets that treat them and tanks to protect them while they are nursed back to health. The big Loggerhead below lost a flipper to a shark and was in poor health, after 3 months of treatment they released it here at Bahia Honda with a lot of hoopla. It was anxious to get free and swam away rapidly with its 3 flippers.


Turtle Ambulance


Rescue workers in the blue shirts


Free at last


Kayakers taking a rest here, started above Key Largo headed to Key West. Over a 120 mile trip. Cover about 15 miles a day and have camping gear and food on board. It can be challenging with high winds and rough water, should be fun if you're up to it.


Nice waters to wade in, had a small shark and a large bonefish swim by us.

Jumping Key West

This was a busy time for Key West, spring break kids, motorcyclists pouring in after bike week in Daytona, and a cruise ship in town.

Finally found a parking place after a long search, right behind the courthouse. Nita quickly jumped out of the car and said don't leave me I've got to powder my nose. Long story short we got separated for almost an hour, finally found each other. Having used much of her energy in the search we hopped on the Conch Train for a 90 minute tour of the city. We spent the whole day there wandering around, people watching, Cuban lunch, etc.


Cruise ships pull right to the dock at Mallory Square


We won't get separated again. Who's got the cutest shoes?


Sculpture in Mallory Square, how about the guy lying down.


My bicycling friend


Spring Break on Smathers Beach, if parents only knew.

Location:Key West

5 O'clock here, 1931 models and Yucky Yucca

On the way to the Keys yesterday we stopped in Homestead, think we were the only English speaking persons there. As we have for the past few years we hadlunch at a Cuban/Spanish chain called Polo Tropical, they make the best grilled chicken. Had a side order of Yucca with garlic, it's mushy, stringy and very starchy, was interesting but won't order it again when we go back. Found a Costco near Miami and went in for milk and blueberries, no berries but came out with a full cart including a monster key lime pie, my o my.


This is the 5 o'clock group at St Lucie Locks, nice folks from Calif, NY, Michigan, MD and elsewhere. Many parks have 2 week stay limits so we meet folks again at other locations. Rick and Diane on the far left and right are headed to Bahia Honda as we are tomorrow, will be fun to see then again.


A good year, 1931 Model A Ford and a 1931 Nash (Nita's maiden name), both with rumble seats.


Sand Hill Cranes pecking the dead bugs out of this guys radiator, their impact made a lot of noise, owner was afraid they would ruin his radiator and chased them off, they reluctantly walked over to another vehicle.

My Tern, Conchy Joes and birding friends

We did some beach walking at Jensen Beach on the Atlantic. Ran across a flock of Royal Terns standing on the beach, tried to creep up on them to get a picture but spooked them and they flew. Took a quick snap shot of them flying away and figured it would not be any good, turned out to be a picture I liked.

There is an old restaurant in Jensen called Conchy Joes, they are famous for Conch chowder, they serve it with a bottle of Cream Sherry to douse it with. Nita is ready to dig into a bowl in the picture below, quite good, topped it off with a basket of steamed shrimp.

We have enjoyed bird watching, conversations and campfires with our next door neighbors here at the Locks. Randy and Elaine Fisher have been professional bird carvers for 30 years. In the winter they participate in the many art shows in Florida. Randy does the carving and Elaine does painting. Their beautiful birds look alive. The one in the picture below is a half size Red Tailed Hawk. They travel in a large trailer and produce birds between shows. They left today, hope to meet up with them again in the Keys in several weeks.

Location:St Lucie Locks

On the canal, jumping mullet and Olympic kayakers

We are on another Corps of Engineers park on the canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic. There is a damn here to control the lake level and a lock for boat traffic. We are on the fresh water side of the damn, the lock drops the boats down 15 feet to the tidal salt water side. This park has only 9 rv sites and 6 boat slips, tough to get a reservation, after 4 years of trying finally got 2 weeks this year. Our site is on the water with a nice patio to watch all the activity.

The canal has schools of mullet, interesting to watch them jump out of the water. My observation is that the average mullet makes a run of three consecutive jumps, occasionally one will make 4 jumps, probably a youngster, once in awhile just one jump, maybe a senior? Fun to watch.

The German Olympic kayak team trains on the canal here for most of Jan and Feb. There are about a dozen members here. They arrive early every morning and usually have about 3 sessions a day. Their coach follows them in a small motored Zodiac boat. Have talked to several of them, the team members are Army, policeman and some students. They fly home to Germany tomorrow, spend a week there then fly to Spain for 6 more weeks of training, say they love coming to Fl.

That's our routine here, watching mega yachts going through the locks, bs'ing with the rv'ers/boaters, checking out the alligators/ birds and mullet jumping . Doesn't take much to entertain Octagenarians.


The damn in background, fresh water here and salt on the other side.


Kayaks are light, narrow and fast


German on right was 2008 Beijing Olympic medal winner in kayak racing


Mullet


Heron flying by

Location:St Lucie South Locks

Moving day, visits and unique travelers

We have been at Sebastian Inlet for the past 9 day seems like we just got here. We are located right on the inlet and have been entertained by dolphin in front of our site.

Nita got a surprise call from her granddaughter Hanna, she and her friend Brian were vacationing in Miami and wanted to come up and visit. We had a late lunch with them. Toured the Inlet and ocean with them, first time they had seen dolphin in their natural habitat, a real treat to have them visit.

We met Judy last year in the keys. She was here when we arrived. Judy travels in a motorhome with her pooch Noah. Judy fishes, snorkels and is fun to visit with, hope we can cross paths again next winter.

One evening we met a young girl setting up a small tent by us. She travels on a bicycle and carries tent and all on the bike. She is from Germany and has been in the US for several weeks, has been to the Keys, Maimi and is working her way north to Toronto, expecting to arrive there in May. Said she just received her teaching degree and is taking this trip before starting her teaching career. A brave young gal traveling solo.

Another nite we met a couple setting up a tent, both traveling on bicycles and the guy was pulling a small trailer with a big dog. They seemed to be having a ball.

Found another red grapefruit farm store, bought another 1/4 bushel yesterday, delicious, we eat several a day.

Got to pull the plug and move south.








Hanna and the nomads


Better have another one before we pull the plug

Skunk in a ball, umbrella dog and Devils Gut

We are presently residing at Jonathan Dickinson state park located just south of Hobe Sound. The intracoastal waterway bounds the eastern side of the park and across the waterway lies Jupiter Island, home of the rich and famous, were told Greg Norman and Tiger Woods have homes there. During WWII the park was Camp Murphy, a secret Army radar training facility with a population of over 6000 troops on these 11k acres.

We visited the the Hobe Sound Nature center and took a ranger led tour of the scrub dunes and intracoastal waterway. They have a museum and the star is a Spotted Skunk in a plastic ball that speedily scoots around the museum wherever he wants to go, he makes it tough to get a good photo.

We have had some showers the last few days, a lady in the park walks her dog that carries an umbrella in case of rain, she says when it starts raining she has to wrestle it away from him.

In this are you see a lot of yellow/orange vines covering plants and trees. It is a leafless, parasitic, native species vine called Devils Guy or Love Vine. It doesn't harm the plants it grows on and is a beneficial cover for wildlife.



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Upper right is Devils Gut covering plants, Gopher tortoise sunning in lower left

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Location:Jonathan Dickinson state park

Hot Tamales, sea cows and misc. stuff

We attended the Saturday La Belle Hispanic market, we got our weekly supply of fruit. There are a variety of food stalls run out of trailers, back of trucks/car trunks and sure none have ever seen a food inspector. However all the food looked great, We stopped at a little spot run by a grandmother, mother and granddaughter and ordered some tamales, they were quite good and we entertained by the beautiful little 4 year old girl who supplied us with napkins and paper plates, enjoyed her so much we ordered seconds.

The sea cows/manatees are pretty smart, they know how to operate thru the locks, they wait patiently for the lock gate to open, swim in and wait for the water to rise or fall and the opposite gate to open to continue their journey.

Yesterday we strolled through the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve near Fort Myers. There are board walks through this cypress swamp and around the ponds with nice views of birds, turtles, alligators, etc. spent about 2 hours wandering around

We were disappointed we were not able to attend the grand opening of Debendra's new restaurant in Annapolis called Basmati. Debendra is Kim's husband and they have both put great effort into getting this restaurant started. The web site is www.basmatiofannapolis.com

Other than some of the above we have been enjoying the weather, reading, visiting other campers from all over the states and Canada and being lazy.


Our tamale server, 4 years old from Honduras


Manatee patiently waiting along with boat for the water in the lock to drop and the gate to open


Great Egret waiting for lunch


The 3 Turtles, momma turtle, papa..............

Location:Ortona Locks

Educated teeth and armored catfish

The red grapefruit lady also had some other stuff for sale in her barn. Nita browsed around and found a bunch of stranded pearls all tied together. Nita says she can bite the pearl and tell if they are real or fake, so with her educated teeth she bit and pronounced them real. She took them up to the grapefruit lady to buy a strand, lady said one dollar, Nita said she wanted one strand but couldn't get them apart, lady said one dollar for the whole bunch. Now Nita is the proud owner of 20 strands of pearls. Nita recently had her front teeth capped, I suspect the ceramic in the new teeth gave a false pearl bite reading, they look real but doubt they ever saw an oyster.

We walked across the damn and the lock gates to the other side of the river, on the banks of the river we saw many strange looking dead fish. Later the Corps ranger explained they were armored catfish, an invasive species, and that the river otters catch them and bring them up on the bank.

This morning I walked my bike across the locks then explored a small community north of the river. Found a biker bar called Shady Gator Saloon, very calm this morning, expect it comes alive at night. Enlarge the picture and read the sign on the pole by the bicycle.


Proud pearl dealer


Armored catfish, lots of large empty snail shells, suspect the otters eat them


Shady Gator Saloon


View of our View from across the river, fishing dock in foreground


River otter crawling around the rocks of the bank

Location:Ortona Locks

Ruby Red, Redhead and Well Read

There is a grapefruit grove next to the campground, they have a small sign out front advertising ruby red grapefruit. We drove in, lady asked how many we wanted, said 6, she grabbed a bag and went out and picked them off the tree. They weren't pretty, kind of a splotchy mix of yellow and brown, figured we got taken, however they turned out to be delicious, will go back and get more soon.

Most mornings as we have breakfast we are entertained by a large redheaded woodpecker working on a palm tree beside us. Well Read, yes we are working our way through a stack of books.

Saturday we took in the Hispanic flea market in La Belle, about 8 miles east of here, loaded up on fresh fruits and vegetables. Got a large bag of just popped kettle corn, should have bought more as we finished it and will have to wait till next Sat to replenish.

We are in a Corps of Engineers park on the Caloosahachee river at one of the boat locks. A boat can go from the Atlantic to the Gulf through here. This is one of our favorite parks.



Here's our spot on the Caloosahachee, Nita holding up the palm tree.


When a big boat or barge passes through the lock the campers all run over to be entertained.

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Location:Ortona Locks