Corkscrew Audubon Sanctuary and Immokolee

We departed the Franklin Locks Monday morning and headed southeast to tour the Corkscrew sanctuary. They have a 2 mile boardwalk through the cypress swamp to view plants and wildlife. It turned out to be a disappointment as there has been a long drought in Fl and most of the swamp was dried out and little wild life. It was warm and Nita didn't fully appreciate the 2 mile walk in her hot jeans? We continued on to the Seminole Indian Casino in Immocoklee. We had an open night before our reservation at the Ortona Locks and the casino offered free parking and electricity. Nita found her favorite slot machine, Birthday Party, and paid the casino handsomely for their electricity, ugh, casino not dumb. At 5:30 in the morning we were awakened by a loud crashing sound, one of the casino workers getting off work was sailing out of the parking lot, probably on her cell phone and ran head on into one of the tall steel light posts, she got out ok but her car was totally disabled. No more nights at a casino.

We are now set for two weeks at the Ortona Locks by the river. Our good friends Jack and Martha Bently are here for the same 2 weeks. Just returned from shopping with them, bought some octopus for a snack tonight, Martha not too enthused about it.




Dry cypress swamp




Not much wild life, did find this 1 inch frog




And a colorful Anhinga
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RV and Limpkin

The Fort Myers RV show is being held in a colosseum a few miles from here. Took in the show Thurs., never saw such a bunch of old folks in one place, however expect we are older than most. Had trailers and motorhomes from $12K to 1/2 million for sale and folks were buying them, went back today and got another chair. Nita had a hard time adjusting her zero gravity chair so had to get something she could handle, got to keep that young gal happy.

There is a interesting bird here called the Limpkin. It is a unique species somewhere between a rail and a stork. It wanders around the water edges looking for Apple Snails, these are large native snails and the Limkin has a bill that can pull them right out of their shell, you see these empty shells all around. And are these Limpkins noisy, very wild sounding, loud scream or wail. The exotic sounding call has been used as a sound effect in old Tarzan movies, I can remember those old movies and those jungle sounds, little did I know that those sounds weren't African jungle sounds but recordings of Florida Limpkins. If you want to hear what they sound like go to the web site below and click on the sound button on the bottom.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Limpkin/sounds




Limpkin searching for dinner




Apple Snail shell




Handsome and Grackle




As Nita describes me at times, self portrait?
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Dump Station and the Milk Run

Warning, if you have a weak heart you might want to stop reading as this blog may be too exciting for you. Most of it is true.

The three Corps park along the Caloosahatchee river have the most sought after sites in Fl. They are large sites with great views and are immaculately maintained. The sites have water and electric but no sewage connection, they have a dump station you have to move to to empty your waste tanks. They have buildings with showers, toilets and washers and dryers, also first class, many folks use these facilities because they don't want their tanks to fill and have to move and dump. However my co-pilot won't use these facilities for fear of getting the bubonic plague, trench foot and Alzheimer's, so we use our own rv facilities, since she can't manage the rv by herself she won't let me use the park facilities for fear of me succumbing to one of these horrible diseases. We can go about 3 days before we have to empty, really no problem since we get out at least that often, go by the station, empty in about 5 minutes and are on our way. Have to confess, much nicer and handier to use our own.

Needed a gallon of milk yesterday, that's all. Went in to Cape Coral, had lunch at Pollo Tropical, on the way back ran across a BJ's where we stopped for milk. Made the mistake of taking a shopping cart in, stuff started filling up the cart and BJ's don't have small packages, half gallon of strawberries, large bag of oranges, Nita was putting in a box of a dozen monster muffins, convinced her we didn't have room or could eat that many, won that argument, lost some others. Nita has a collection of valentine cards sent to her by her grade school friends when Lincoln was president, no, think was FDR, anyway she got a pack of valentine cards, lost that one. Left with a full cart and topped it off with a bottle of single malt Scotch. So stop by, we can wine and dine you by the river.




Nita about to levitate in her zero gravity chair enjoying her new book on Kennedy. I'm starting my 3rd Jack Reacher book, tough guy.




Common Moorhen, stays around shallow edges, eats snails and seeds from water and plants.
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Heat-Humidity Birds

Looking at license plates in Florida at this time you find a very high percentage of them out of state. I wouldn't be surprised if the population didn't double in the winter. In the RV parks 100% are out of state. Some natives here complain about the invasion of snowbirds in the winter, most of whom were also snowbirds before moving here permanently. In reality the state wouldn't survive economically without us snowbirds. In some ways they take advantage of the snow birds, Disney World offers discounts to FL residents but not to those out of state, the state campgrounds offer 50% discount to FL residents but not seniors out of state, however a small price to pay for a pleasant warm winter. Many FL homes have a motorhome parked along side or huge garages containing motorhomes. Guess what, they take off in the summer when its 100 degrees and 100% humidity for northern cooler climates and most all states give them senior discount at the parks. What should we call them, yes, Heat Humidity Birds.


This pretty guy is a Muscovy Duck, think he is moving his wings around to dry them.


This Great Egret has his tail feathers billowing out by a breeze, years ago they were killed in mass to provide feathers for ladies hats.


Sea Cow munching water Lilly's in front of our site.

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Birds and a Twip

Yesterday we toured around Fort Myers. Visited the Lake Park, it features many hiking and biking paths and board walks across the lake and marshes, lots of birds. A fisherman caught an 8 pound bass while we were there. There is a small railroad museum there and a small train that takes you on a 1 1/2 mile ride around the park. It had 3 cars of about 24 single seats, had to twist Nita's arm to go for the ride but she enjoyed it.
Went to The Lazy Flamingo restaurant where we had a good Mahi mahi sandwich, did a little shopping and returned home.
You may ask what is a Twip? If you are one of our children don't read any further, as you always complain the answer is too corny and you don't want to hear it again. For those of you who don't know, a Twip is a Twain Wide.




Great Egret




Great Blue Heron




Little Blue Heron, different than the Great Blue, at our camp site.




Choo-Choo




Engineer in front, momma in front of photographer

Salt Springs to the Caloosahatchee river

We like to stop at Salt Spring in the Ocala National forest because it's a has a great campground and it's a good place to rest up before continuing on to southern Fl. There are large natural springs here that emit large volumes of 72 degree fresh water all year around, the snorkelers below are floating over one of the gushing springs, one guy was trying to dive in one of the spring holes but the flow was so fast he couldn't stay down. The fish below are near one of the springs, the bigger one is a mullet who is a vegetarian and it is eating the alge off of the rock.



Click on the pictures to enlarge!




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This is our place on the Caloosahatchee river. Lots of birds, jumping fish, an a few alligators. Haven't done a lot of exciting things, bicycling, walking, reading, soaking up the nice weather and bs'ing with the neighbors. Had a wild cocktail party last night with our next door neighbors from NC, Pat had a glass of water, Sam and Nita a small glass of wine and half a beer for me, oh, and some chips and nuts, ok, not too wild but enjoyable. Tomorrow we are going in to Ft Myers to look around and have a fresh mahi mahi sandwich for lunch at a restaurant recommend by Sam and Pat.

Day of Rest

We arrived at Salt Spring yesterday afternoon after 2 long days of driving. It's in the boondocks and there is no cell phone service, hoping to watch the Ravens game this afternoon if the tv signal is good. Anyway nice to have a day off from driving. The first picture is author of this blog hard at work, nice to be in shorts and tee shirt.






The owner of this rig is from Quebec, he bought this used tractor and removed one set of axels since his fifth wheel trailer was a lite load. He made a platform to attach his Smart Car which he cranks up the ramps with a boat winch, ingenious. He has a 100 gallon fuel tank that takes him 1200 miles before he has to refuel

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Location:Ocala National Forest

Getting our act together

It seems like it has taken several weeks to get ready for this trip to Florida, probably too much time, way too may clothes, and so much food we will probably bring some back in April. Anyway we got underway about 8:30, had a good day to travel and arrived in Florence SC about 5.

The picture below is of our good friend Tim. Here he is this morning enjoying watching us stuff the motorhome and having a laugh. Tim and I exchange favors, he brings in our paper and recycle containers and I put his name on his jackets, hats and other stuff, plus making him breakfast once in awhile.

Our destination tomorrow is a National campground in the Ocala Forest, FL.


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Location:Florence, SC