About Midway to Okeechobee

Now I’m in Mr. Peabody’s Way Back machine. Or so it seems. I’m so far behind in my posts that I need a kind of time machine in order to remember all the places I’ve been and what I’ve seen. That’s the problem with having so much fun, “work” is an after-thought that you only get to when there’s nothing else to do. And there’s always something else to do. But I will try to get my thoughts in a coherent form of some sort and get them on the page.

Biscayne

While I was still in the Homestead area I decided to visit Biscayne National Park. I really wish I had a kayak for that. I still haven’t been able to replace the one I sold before I bought my bigger RV. I finally found the one I want, but nobody has it in stock! The store that has it in their catalog doesn’t actually have it in stock yet, and they don’t seem to know when it will be available. Having something shipped to you when you have no permanent address can be a problem. Particularly when it is a big, heavy something.

Pretty fish for dinner

Meanwhile, I was in Biscayne and most of what there is to see there is either underwater or on one of the many little islands that dot the bay. I have snorkeling gear, but the reef action was farther away than I wanted to swim to, so I had to be satisfied with just walking around on the shore. It really is a beautiful place. I will be going back there after I get a new kayak, either next year or the year after, depending on where I decide to winter next year.

The bay is teeming with life. Colorful fish abound, birds everywhere, the ocean sparkling and bright. I want to go back! There is no camping there, aside from a couple of spots for park volunteers to put their RV’s. But there are a few spots for RV’s to park for the day, you just have to get there early if you want one. I met one guy who camps in store parking lots in town every night, then gets to the park as soon as it opens in the morning. He spends the whole day fishing, soaking up the sun and enjoying the beauty of the place until it closes for the night. He told me that he does that for a month or two every winter. Having a mobile house is nice for that kind of thing.

crab

hermit crab

 

 

 

 

I had planned to spend a second day at Biscayne but decided to go into Homestead instead and have a new radio/CD player and speakers installed in the RV. The old unit was too old to be able to “read” a lot of my mp3 format CD’s, thus I couldn’t listen to them while driving. And the speakers were so beat up that they were a joke. There are two speakers in the dash, installed flat on the surface, face up. They have had a lot of moisture roll into them over the years; condensation from the windshield, spilled drinks, whatever. The paper cones that were in common use when they were installed weren’t in very good shape anymore. They popped, crackled and made other unseemly noises, particularly if the volume was turned up much past the “marginally audible while driving” level. I felt that since I was replacing those two, I might as well have the two in the coach “living room” done at the same time.

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This, of course, added up to a bunch of money (the speakers alone were $100.00 each) and a whole lot more time than anticipated. The speakers in the coach were installed in such a way that it was obvious that Itaska didn’t want them to EVER come out again. But they were finally removed and the new ones installed. The new speakers do NOT have paper cores and if something gets spilled into one of them, it can be mopped out with a paper towel or vacuumed out with a wet/dry vac.  Sweet. The sound I’m getting now is even sweeter and no matter how high I turn up the volume, no distortion. Yes! You’re never too old to rock and roll.

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Since that shot the entire day, I ended up “camping” in the Home Depot parking lot for that night, then headed up to Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Refuge the next day. I really like Midway, but for some reason the park service powers-that-be decided that it should be by reservation only this year. And the reservations must be made at least 48 hours in advance of your arrival. Then they raised the cost of camping there (also the cost of all nearby campgrounds). There were no improvements to the campground itself. No reason to charge more that I could see. But it is what it is, and I wanted to stay there. Unfortunately I could only get five days in a row, then I would have had to go somewhere else for a day, after which I could have returned to Midway for another four days. Which is way too much trouble, so five days was it for me.

wood stork

butterfly

While I was there I did get to visit Sweetwater Strand again and also hike a couple of trails that I had missed on my last visit here. Since I was visiting slightly earlier in the year, things were a little different. The birds weren’t nesting yet, so there were fewer to watch and photograph. The air plants weren’t blooming yet either. But beautiful is beautiful even if it’s different from what you saw before. I also got a chance to make some new friends, but that happens at almost every campground. Most RV’ers are very friendly.

great blue heron

white heron

Once I left Midway, I headed north to Okeechobee, both the lake and the town. I had been told about a campground a little north of the town of Okeechobee, near a boat ramp, that was free and very peaceful. I wanted to check it out. On the way up, I drove along the east side of the lake. Not that you can actually see the lake that way. The lake is surrounded by big earthen dikes to prevent flooding, so no views of the water.

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As I neared the town, there was campground after campground nestled along the road. Most were very small and basic, but they had character. I thought about stopping and finding out prices and availability (full hook-up sites are so nice), but there wasn’t much in the way of parking in most of them and the traffic moves pretty quickly in that section. I also knew that if I liked the place I just might decide to stay for a week or two and not meet up with my friends in the other camping area.

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So I continued into the city of Okeechobee, then decided to spend the night in the local Home Depot parking lot. I was tired and it was getting late. I didn’t want to find myself trying to locate an unmarked campground after dark on roads I had never traveled before. It seemed prudent to wait for the morning light.

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The night was ever so peaceful. I parked by the side of the store, near the back. Traffic noise barely reached me and scenery wasn’t bad either. There was a large pond behind the store and a lot of birds were taking advantage of the water for a meal and a night’s rest. If it hadn’t been for all the pavement, it would have seemed like I was out in the woods somewhere.

campground

Upon reaching the campground the next day I found that It was everything I expected and maybe a little more. I found a nice spot under the oaks and set up camp; putting out the slides, unrolling the awning, setting out my lounge chair and table, etc. Since I still don’t have my solar panels, being where the sun could hit my roof wasn’t necessary. Although it would have been warmer. Mornings in the inland areas in that part of the state were still pretty cool.

‘gator

It was a great place to camp. There were no hook-ups, not even a place to get water. The only “amenity” was a bunch of trash cans near the boat ramp. So at least you could dump your trash. All this meant that there weren’t that many people in the campground. Which is always nice. The other plus sides were; water all around for boating, kayaking, fishing, etc., birds of every description abounding, solitude and stars at night beyond count, a pleasant trail to walk down to the river, vibrant sunsets and peace beyond measure. Whew! If it hadn’t been for needing to get my generator serviced, my kayak replaced and a dozen errands to run, I might still be there.

 

sunset

sunset two

But all good things eventually come to an end (to be replaced by other good things, of course.) So I took my baby into town and found a place to get the generator serviced. By the time I finished that, plus picking up my mail and getting by errands run, it was already almost 5 PM and that’s no time to start a days drive to the next destination. So I went back to the campground for another night. While I was taking Topper on his last stroll of the evening he started growling at something off to one side of the trees. I shone the little flashlight I was carrying in that direction but didn’t have enough light to get any detail on what had his attention. Then what I had thought was a shadow in the tall grass moved. Judging from its size and the fluid grace of its movement, I may have seen a Florida panther passing through. It also caused me to purchase a better flashlight so that if it ever happens again I will know exactly what I’m looking at!

River near campground

I finally bid farewell to the peaceful place under the oaks and headed back toward the eastern coast, then north. Vero Beach as my destination. But that needs to be a different post. Too much to write about, too little time…

Happy, Happy Homosassa

When I was in Florida last winter I drove past Homosassa Springs State Park. I didn’t stop at the time as it was already quite late in the afternoon and I wanted to find a place to spend the night. I found a spot about ten miles down the road, but the next morning I didn’t feel like back-tracking to the park. So I didn’t see what it had to offer.

When I saw the sign for the park on this trip I decided there was no time like the present. The day was windy and quite cool, thus there were very few people at the park. There was plenty of room in the lot, so I parked, grabbed my camera and went inside the building.

Once inside I found out that it you park where I was, you aren’t actually at the park yet. To reach it I had to take a one mile boat ride, which was actually fairly pleasant, if a little cold, on that day. Once I reached the actual park I paid my entrance fee, got a map and went inside.

the ride into the park

The park was once privately owned and contained a small zoo. When it was taken over by the state, the powers that be decided that only animals native to the state of Florida should reside there. (The animals are ones that have been injured and can no longer survive in the wild.) However, there was also a hippo in the park when the state took over. This hippo that was very, very popular with area school children and a lot of adults too. There was so great an outcry over the plan to move him to a zoo that he was allowed to stay and is now a park “mascot” of sorts.

bobcat

Florida panther

green heron

In addition to the hippo there were a lot of varieties of birds to see, plus river otters, a bobcat, a Florida panther, various reptiles and some manatees, etc. The watercourse that runs through the park is open, so that wild manatees can come and go as they please. There is an underwater viewing area where you can walk down a few stairs and watch them swim around in front of the windows. It seemed as though they liked watching us almost as much as we enjoyed them.

stilt

spoonbill

whooping crane

There are also at least three adult manatees that are permanent residents of the park. If you are in the right spot at the right time you can watch them being fed. While I was there, employees were tossing the contents of a large (about three by four feet) box of lettuce into the water. It was amazing to watch these huge creatures suck in a large head of romaine and make it disappear in only a minute or so. They are such gentle, peaceful creatures for something so large. It was painful for me to see the deep scars on their backs from boat props. But within the confines of they park they are safe, protected.

manatees from above

feeding time

manatees

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering among the various enclosures, only leaving when it came almost time for the park to close. If you’re ever in the area, do yourself a favor and stop. It’s worth a visit.

My Gumbo Can Limbo on the Anhinga Trail

I almost made a grievous error before leaving Everglades National Park. I almost bypassed visiting Royal Palm and walking the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails. That would have caused me to miss a lot of beauty, interest and birds.

But one afternoon I decided to go see what those two trails were all about. I was bored with sitting around in the campground and they weren’t that far away, so I jumped on my scooter and headed over to Royal Palm. I’m so glad that I did.

I started with the Anhinga trail. As one might suspect, there were a bunch of Anhingas, plus egrets, herons, ducks, coots, etc., not to mention alligators and Florida gar. Gar are curious looking fish as it is, but Florida gar must have taken their skin from a passing leopard. They are covered in similar spots. Same elongated, pointy snouts as the gar I’m used to seeing (well, not quite as needle-sharp as the ones in Missouri) but with a more interesting skin.

nesting anhinga

Anhinga drying its wingsr I’m used to seeing (well, not quite as needle-sharp as the ones in Missouri) but a more interesting skin.

I loved how acclimated the birds were to having all the people around. It seemed like they were purposely posing for all the photographers. Lots and lots of photographers, most with very expensive-looking cameras with enormous telephoto lenses. Florida has a lot more colorful birds than the usual Midwestern fare. I spotted a bird called a purple gallinule which wasn’t so much purple as iridescent blue and green. But I only saw it from above. Apparently the lower body of the bird is the part that is deep purple. Unfortunately, it was rather shy and I was unable to get a decent picture of it.

wood stork

snowy egret

The trees were full of bromiliads, which are ubiquitous down here. They are also in bloom this time of year–all red, yellow and purple. There were also several nesting anhingas whose eggs had hatched but whose young hadn’t much in the way of any kind of feathers yet. So their long necks, stretching above the nest as they cried to be fed looked more like albino snakes than baby birds. Albeit albino snakes with black-tipped bills.

green heron

blooming bromiliad

There was also a plethora of black vultures, which apparently are very destructive. There was a large bin in the parking lot full of plastic tarps with bungee cords which you could borrow to cover your car with while it was in the parking lot. This would stop the vultures from pulling off and eating the rubber seals from around the car’s windows and also the wiper blades. I won’t mention that they also covered everything in sight with copious amounts of runny, white droppings. Yuck.

As I neared the end of the trail, I found the alligators’ favorite spot. I had seen two or three along the trail, but in this place, they were in piles, some half-sunk in the mud, others laying atop them looking like an alligator wood pile. When they are resting like that they don’t move at all. They really look like they’re dead.

‘gator pile

Once I finished with the Anhinga trail, I moved on the the Gumbo Limbo trail. The Gumbo Limbo is a type of tree that is also sometimes called the “tourist tree”. This is because it has red, peeling bark, much like a once very pale tourist who had failed to slather on the sunscreen, then later paid with price with badly burned skin peeling off in chunks. The tree is very useful. Parts of it from just under its bark are used to spice up cooking and may be the origin of the original “gumbo”.

Sap from the tree can be used to ease pain and inflammation from bug bites and also pain and sores on the skin from contact with poison-wood. Yep, there really is a poison-wood tree, or shrub, or? I haven’t actually seen one, but I should probably find out what it looks like so that I can avoid contact with it. It is apparently like poison oak or ivy on steroids. Contact with its sap is more painful than merely itchy and the irritation lasts several times longer.

This area was totally different in vegetation, appearance, wildlife, everything really. Yet it was only a few hundred feet from the trail I had been on. It was also about three feet higher in elevation. So the only water was in holes where the limestone had degraded and crumbled away, instead of virtually everywhere. It should have been filled with mature oaks covered in Spanish moss, but a fire during a drought had wiped those out many years ago and it will take many, many more years before the area recovers.

Now the area is gumbo limbo, strangler fig and the like all squeezed together and blocking out the sun, sound and any hint of a breeze. Pretty in its own way, but not nearly what it had been before the fire. Still, there were plenty of interpretive signs telling visitors what they were seeing and what it meant. Educational, interesting and very worth seeing.

Still, when it’s all said and done, I prefer watching the birds.

War of the Worlds, Wilderness Style

I was driving thru the mid-Wisconsin late afternoon.   We were on our way to our night’s destination, Wilderness Campground, just outside of Montello, WI.   The area was hilly, the road undulating and winding as it passed through fields and farms.  As we entered a new area, I saw windmills rising out of the earth.  Not the Holland, grain-grinding type, nor the rancher’s water raising variety.  Rather, they were the huge energy-producers that are springing up all over the country these days.

Understand, I’ve seen them many times, in many places; sometimes as solo sentinels on a hilltop, sometimes in rows strung along a ridge and often in large congregations, row after row, line upon line, looking like some strange new crop springing from the desert floor.

But here, they were oddly out-of-place among the freshly mowed fields and acres of corn awaiting harvest.   The sheared fields were not the brown and gold hay fields I’m accustomed to seeing in the Midwest.  These were bright green, the color of new spring grass after early rains have brought forth the first blades from the slumbering earth.   They were interspersed with the corn fields, a deeper, more metallic green with hints of the brown and gold of the harvest season soon to come.

The fields were patch-work across the rollings hills and dales and the turbines were set far enough apart that the bases of no two could be seen at the same time.  Somehow, they blended into the quilted landscape while at the same time remaining alien and out-of-place. They looked  to me like the Martian invaders of H. G. Wells classic story.  They stood still, observing the land, their legs motionless while their blades slowly turned, scanning the fields around them.   Both benign and eerie at the same time.   The effect was one of great beauty coupled with an  unsettling  undertone.   Or maybe I was just tired from driving so many hours….

Eventually the land was emptied of its invaders and we found our turn-off, along with another of the ubiquitous produce stands found on the back-roads of farm country.  But this one had a little more than the corn, tomatoes and watermelon that made up the offerings of the other stands.  They had a dozen or more types of jams and jellies produced by the local Amish community.   So I stocked up on Apple-cinnamon and seedless raspberry plus an absolutely necessary pint of maple syrup along with the fresh corn and tomatoes that would make up a good portion of the night’s dinner.

The campground was only a few more miles down the road, with many old trees plus a small lake well stocked with fish, a swimming area for the kiddies (and adults, be they so inclined) and canoes, paddle boats and a kayak for rent by the half-hour.  The lake was small enough that you could easily explore it in 30 minutes, but I rented the double kayak for an hour so that Megan and I could explore in-depth and get close-up and personal with the turtles, birds and frogs and abounded.

We had only meant to spend one night there, but ended up staying two.  Which gave me a respite from the road, and allowed us time to play with the kayak.  The second evening also brought us a visit from a large flock of wild turkeys who were strutting around the shore of a slime-green duck pond set behind a screen of trees just off the road into the campground.  When I first saw them, there were about nine of the birds sitting on a fallen log that jutted out into the muddy water.  There were several juveniles in the group, along with the blue-headed dominant male and his hens.

Megan was bothered by a dead branch hanging from a tree that was catching strands of her hair as she tried to frame a photo of the birds.  Before i could say “Don’t!”, she snapped it off, sending the birds scurrying for cover.  She left, I stayed, and was rewarded for my efforts with a photo of a great blue heron who flew in to stand beside the one remaining turkey on the shore.

Desert Hot Springs

I’m out in CA visiting family right now.   Yesterday my sister and I went down to Indio to visit our brother Jon and his family.   After our visit we spent the night at Tuscan Springs Hotel and Spa in Desert Hot Springs, CA.
Tuscan Springs is a very pleasant hotel that’s hooked into the hot mineral springs that give Desert Hot Springs its name.  The building is obviously older construction, but has been upgraded (including wi-fi).  Our room was quite comfortable with 2 double beds, flat-screen TV, microwave, mini ‘fridge, dishes and silverware.  It’s a small hotel with only a few rooms laid out courtyard-style with very nice cactus gardens and numerous seating areas that the rooms look out on.  There are also 2 hot, mineral-water spas, a sauna and a pool.

I was more than happy with the free breakfast that was included: several types of cereal, hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels, tomatoes, toast, avocados, juice, milk, coffee and waffles — hot out of the waffle maker, not the pop-up toaster variety, etc.   I  pigged out.  What can I say?

After breakfast we drove out to Big Morongo Canyon Preserve and went bird watching.  Lots of pretty birds (including a Western Tanager and a hooded oriel –both very, very beautiful), more than a few lizards and a red (or was it “rosy”?) coachwhip snake.

Right now I have no way to add pictures.  That will have to wait until I get back home.