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

Pancake breakfast and Florida scrub walk

Thursday is pancake breakfast day at the park, we had some nice blueberry pancakes and headed out for a walk in the scrubs to find the endangered Florida scrub jay. The scrub jays live in family groups of a breeding pair and offsprings. One of the group takes a sentinel position and warn of potential dangers, after awhile the sentinel is replaced by another family member.


Catching up on her reading in the Florida scrubs


This is one of the jays in his sentinel role, shortly after taking this picture another bird flew up and took his place.


Colorful scrub jay on the ground.

Location:Oscar Scherer State Parkd

Good friends

We spent a day with Joyce and Kent Burgess, good to see our friends who moved to The Villages 6years ago, had some great food, card games and conversation. We have graduated from riding Gold Wing Motorcycles around the country to golf, racing model sailboats, motorhomeing, kite flying, cards and more.


Motorhome parked in front of Burgess home. Nita/Kent/Joyce


Kent and his 2 radio controlled sail boats he made and races.


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Location:The Villages

Bicycles and misseltoe

Where are all the bicycles going? As we travel down 95 many cars, trucks and rv's have multiple bikes strapped on the top, back, mounted upside down, horizontally, vertically. Some have plastic shopping bags tied around their seats, guess they don't want wet butts when they arrive. My navigator doesn't like bikes (because she wrecks) so we just have one mounted vertically on the rear ladder, seat removed and inside, don't want a wet butt on arrival. Expect they are all going to Fl, I worry there will be massive bike congestion on the bikeways.

During the Xmas holiday time, growing up as a kid in Missouri, there were many street vendors selling bundles of misseltoe, had no idea where it came from, didn't grow there. Anyway you hung it up over a doorway, anyone standing under it was entitled to a free kiss, not bad. Today we observed lots of misseltoe growing in bunches in the bare trees, should have stopped and grabbed a bunch, could have got a romantic reward tonight.




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Location:Yesterday traveling down Georgia 95

Spring chickens get loose

After days of preparation and stocking the View with months worth of food we finally flew the coup at 8 this morning. Stopped for fuel at noon and found a 5 Guys hamburger shop. Had a great hamburger and peanuts, on returning to the View I could not find my keys, went back to 5 G's and had all the nice folks there help with the key search to no avail. Then searched the parking lot, no luck, one more search of the 5 G's restroom, gave them our phone number to call if they found them(have a spare key). While eating the hamburger Nita said I had mayo running down the corner of my mouth, took out my trusty handkerchief and mopped up, then returned it to my rear pocket. You guessed it, jammed the handkerchief on top of the keys I thought were lost. With renewed spirits we hit the road again. No pics of the chicks today. Shooting for a campground in the Ocala National Forest tomorrow pm.


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Location:Florence, NC