Everglades National Park to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL:  Left the Everglades (reluctantly) this morning at 10:00.  Another great stay here.  I drove for the first time since December.  Taking the Florida’s Turnpike, drove past greater Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. Stopped at the West Palm Beach service area for lunch and Mike took over driving.  Arrived in Jonathan Dickinson State Park and were set up by 2:30.  We’re directly across Hwy. 1 from Burt Reynolds’ place.  Headed out to our favorite restaurant for dinner, but it’s closed and has been bought out by Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  OMG!  Went next door to Jetty’s and had an appetizer and drinks.  Had some great fun with some people from New Jersey at the table next to us.  Back home to our site and watched TV.  I’d rather be in the Everglades.  At least Jupiter has a lot of open areas dedicated to wildlife preservation.  They haven’t built high-rises or shopping strips on every space available.

Our site at Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Thu, 3/15/12:
Everglades National Park:  Our last full day in the Everglades.  Weather has been almost perfect—warm days and crisp, cool nights.  A couple pulled in yesterday afternoon in a cab over with a semi chassis pulling a huge, triple-axle cargo trailer.  This cargo trailer has an elevator in it.  Their two-seater convertible was on the bottom and their boat was in the upper compartment.  Not sure what else they had in there.  Pretty impressive though.  I can just imagine the path of destruction I would leave pulling that rig.  Around noon we decided to go get some lunch and then go for an airboat ride.  There’s a little grill just outside the park with picnic tables.  No inside seating to speak of.  We ordered sandwiches and ate them in the truck, since it was starting to rain—with thunder rumbling off in the distance.  So we ate our sandwiches and nixed the airboat ride.  Back to the park and inquired about the Florida panthers.  We see the signs for them around our campground.  They have seen them crossing the road in our vicinity in the wee hours of the morning.  Wish we could see one.  We topped off the water tank for the last time and put the hose away.  Played Aggravation for a while.  Mike actually won for a change.  Tomorrow we leave for Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter, FL.  

View out our back window

An example of the challenges of an off-trail hike in the Everglades.

Wed, 3/14/12
Everglades National Park:  Started out clear and sunny this morning.  But clouded up by the time we showered and had breakfast.  Topped off the water tank and sat outside looking at the clouds moving in.  But we decided to get the bikes out and go exploring.  We took a back road out of the campground which was really bumpy but came out on the road out to the old Nike missile base.  This is a nice bike route because there’s very little traffic on this road.  Rode down to the missile base, then turned around.  But not before it started raining—well, sprinkling anyway.  Saw a couple of gators on our ride.  Got back and still pretty cloudy, so we decided to head in to do the laundry. Of course as we drove in there it cleared off nicely.  Got that done, picked up a couple of burgers, stopped at the produce stand and bought some more tomatoes, and then headed back.  Glad to get back to the peace and quiet.  Couldn’t wait to get away from the people and the traffic.  And the sky had cleared beautifully.  85 today and mixed sun and clouds.

Cross section of what is under all that saw grass.  These "ditches" were dug--I guess for drainage.   Shows what the off-trail hiker could encounter.  These "ditches" harbor all kinds of wildlife.

Even gators!

This gator was in a little slough.

A crocodile--Flamingo 

Tue, 3/13/12
Everglades National Park:  Not much wind this morning so we thought we take the bikes out, but by the time we had our showers and topped off the water tank the wind was back.  So we relaxed outside enjoying this peaceful place.  After lunch we drove down to Pa-hay-okee and then on down to Mahogany hammock to see if the owl chicks were about.  Didn’t see the chicks today.  A beautiful afternoon though.  Pa-hay-okee is on the shark river slough.  Gives one an idea of what the Everglades are all about—although it’s just a shadow of what it used to be, what with all the “water management” going on. We heated up left-overs for dinner.  82 today.

Mon, 3/12/12
Everglades National Park:  Pretty cloudy this morning.  I took care of the cleaning.  After lunch we headed out to get a paper and pick up some produce.  There’s a large produce stand just a few miles outside the park.  It’s called “Howard is Here”—weird name, but a lot of their produce comes fresh right out of their fields.  We picked up some raw peanuts, some tomatoes, sweet corn, and some pickled vegetables that Mike likes.  On the way back we stopped at the Anhinga Trail which was really crowded with people—mostly Europeans.  Decided to skip that and just come on back.  Relaxed outside for a while.  I just finished a book by Mark Twain, “Roughing It” about his travels across country on an Overland stage back in the 1860s.  Bought it when we were in Virginia City.  I chuckled all the way through it. Mike grilled up some steaks for dinner.  I cooked up the sweet corn along with some tiny potatoes I bought a while back.  81 today. 

Milk thistle in bloom

Sun, 3/11/12:
Everglades National Park:  Today was pure relaxation.  Well, I took care of some maintenance stuff, like hair, nails, and toes.  Cleaned the fantastic fan.  But mostly we kicked back and enjoyed this peaceful place.  This is so much more wide open than a commercial park.  There’s no one on top of us.  Lots of vegetation.  And no lights, so at night it is really dark and the stars are brilliant.  Last night we listened to “A Prairie Home Companion” on NPR.  This particular show was out of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  Home of the Grand Ole Opry.  We lucked out and saw an opry show there once.  Anyway, Emmy Lou Harris was a co-host along with Garrison Keeler.  A great show, and always live. This afternoon around 4:30 we headed back to Mahogany Hammock to see if we could find any owl chicks.  And we weren’t disappointed.  There were two fat little chicks, and we had the added bonus of the adult.  Actually there were both adults, but we could only see one of them.  They were calling back and forth to each other.  The chicks are so curious.  We didn’t stay long because the insects were out in force.  A great day in the mid-80s. 

Mama owl

One of the fuzzy little chicks

Both chicks--they are so curious

Sat, 3/10/12
Everglades National Park:  After our morning ablutions we got out the hose and filled up the water tank.  After we got that done we relaxed outside enjoying this pretty day. Watched a hawk circling overhead and heard an owl nearby. Love this place.  The smells are so different here.  In the Keys there’s a strong smell of the sea.  Here in the Everglades is the smell of the pines and other flora.  Both smells are good—just different.  After lunch we decided to drive down to Mahogany Hammock to see if there were any owl chicks this year.  Drove down through the dwarf cypress forest at the lofty height of 4 feet above sea level.  Didn’t see any chicks, but we’ll go back again.  Continued on down to Flamingo for the express purpose of discerning the demise of the 70-year-old man that went missing last year at this time.  They were still searching for him when we left here last year.  Well, they never found him—not any trace of him.  It’s like he disappeared into thin air.  They had just pulled into the campground in Flamingo, had set up, and he went off for a walk.  Never to be seen again.  They searched and searched.  Brought in dogs.  Used military helicopters with a heat-seeking apparatus.  Searched alligator dens.  Then his sons came down and they searched, proceeded to get lost, and then they had to be rescued.  Anyway, there was never any trace of him or his clothing.  What a mystery.  Maybe he wanted to go missing?  Upper 80s today.

Coming off Mahogany Hammock
Picture by Mike

Fri, 3/9/12
Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf, FL, to Everglades National Park:  Left Lazy Lakes at 10:00.  A bunch of people came out to say good bye.  Said our good byes to Bastion.  And we’re on our way.  Worked our way up through the Keys, enjoying the beautiful vistas and lovely turquoise waters one last time.  Arrived at the Everglades by 12:30 and were set up by 1:30.  Our usual site was occupied (sigh) so we had to settle for another one.  But we’re close to water so we can fill up our tank easily with a hose.  There was a traffic snafu just before we got to Homestead on the divided part of the Overseas Highway.  Not sure what it was, but there were several emergency vehicles, news crews and a helicopter hovering overhead.  They were even bringing in a swamp buggy of sorts.  Never saw a wreck or anything.  It is a conundrum.  Mid-80s here and pretty windy.