Mon, 3/15/10

Everglades National Park: Another beautiful morning. After our showers we filled up the water tank and then put the hose away. Late morning we headed out to hike the Christian Point trail. We stopped at Mahogany Hammock and our friends from Illinois were there. We wanted to check out the owl chicks, but they weren’t in the huge mahogany tree any more. Heard them on the other side of the hammock but couldn’t see them. Continued on our way and parked at the Christian Point trailhead, which is almost to Flamingo. I put on my hiking boots and my snake gaiters. Started out on the trail over a little slough and on through buttonwoods, but then the trail opened up into a large open grassy area. Didn’t look too interesting and it was kind of soggy, so we went back to where we parked and decided to go up the road to the Rowdy Bend trailhead. Before we even got out of the truck, a couple stopped and warned us about the mosquitoes. So we nixed that and continued on to the Snake Bight trail. This is such a pretty little trail which follows a slough through a hardwood forest and mangroves along the slough. You’re hiking under this canopy of lush vegetation. After our hike we drove the short distance to Flamingo for some cold drinks and a snack. The Florida Bay cruise boat was about to leave in half an hour, so we decided to go on that. Florida Bay is very shallow—average depth 4 feet. You could literally walk across Florida Bay to the Keys. Out on the bay it was really windy and cool. Thankfully the captain told us to be sure and bring a sweatshirt or jacket. During the cruise he gave a very interesting narrative about the Everglades and its importance to the area. It’s the only thing like it in the world—the river of grass--40 miles wide and 6 inches deep. After the cruise we headed to Homestead to fuel up and have some dinner. Stopped at a Mexican restaurant which wasn’t that great. Back home. We discovered that Daylight Savings Time started on Saturday. We had no clue. Changed all the clocks. Think it hit the upper 70s today.

Slough along the snake bight trail

On the very pretty snake bight trail

Starting out on the Christain Point trail--in my snake gaiters

New key in the making--Florida Bay

Keys on Florida Bay

 

Sun, 3/14/10

Everglades National Park: A nice sunny morning after a rather cool evening last night. Late morning we headed out with our bikes. There’s an old farm road, forest road, or whatever, at the end of our loop. Took that old road which dead ended at the road that goes to the Daniel Beard Research Center and the old missile base if you go one way, and if you go the other way you end up at the Anhinga trail. We went to the right and biked past the Daniel Beard Research Center and then the road takes a sharp left and dead-ends at the old Nike missile base. Rode all the way out there and then started back. Coming back was better once we made the turn in the road because the wind was at our backs. Stopped at a little pond by the side of this road and saw a couple of gators. On the other side of the road was a family of immature white ibis. This is a great place to ride since the road is much better than the main road through the park and there’s hardly any traffic. Along this road there was also a trench dug into the limestone way back when. I guess for drainage? It’s since overgrown or filled in. Gives you a good look at the limestone in here. Under all the saw grass is this limestone—and in most places water. And in some places the softer stuff gets worn away and you’re left with these jagged holes—several feet deep in some places. That’s what makes it so treacherous walking around in the saw grass. After our bike ride we relaxed the rest of the day. Steaks and cauliflower for dinner. A couple two sites up from us who are from Illinois joined us for a fire in the evening.

These trenches were dug into the limestone way back when--probably for drainage

Old farm or forest road

Sat, 3/13/10

Everglades National Park: Cloudy this morning, but the clouds quickly dissipated revealing a deep blue sky. Beautiful, except for the wind. We had sausage, eggs, biscuits and orange juice for breakfast. Figured it was a good morning for it since it was a little chilly early—what with the wind. After cleaning up the breakfast dishes we ventured outside. Pretty chilly in the shade, but great in the sun. Moved my chaise into the sun and changed into shorts and a tube top and lazed in the sun. The lacy, green pines were a beautiful contrast against the deep blue of the sky. We talked about going for a hike, but that’s all we did was talk about it. Probably not a good idea anyway since we did get a bit of rain and the trail was probably pretty soggy. Anyway, I’m having a hard time putting the book down I’m reading—“State of the Union” by Brad Thor. A great espionage thriller. Mike just finished “Assassin” by Stephen Coonts which he said was great also. I’ll be reading that one next. Mid-afternoon we went for a walk around the pretty little lake here. The water was crystal clear in shades of turquoise, green, and deep blue—thought we were back in the Keys. It’s basically a shallow depression in the limestone bedrock which filled with water—the prettiest we have ever seen it. After walking around the lake we continued around the campground. It’s pretty full in here right now, which is unusual. Spring break maybe? I made chili for dinner—along with leftover biscuits. Upper 70s today with low humidity and a brisk wind. Our solar panels are doing a great job. Even though it was mostly cloudy yesterday, the batteries are fully charged. Life is good.

Immature white ibis, white ibis, wood stork
Picture by Mike

Fri, 3/12/10

Everglades National Park: Just hung out today. Really cloudy, humid and windy and threatening rain but it didn’t start raining in earnest until around 4:00. Mike had to drive to Homestead to get one of our propane tanks filled. Other than that, we just sat around reading. I went for a walk while he was getting the propane tank filled, and then we walked again when he got back. 85 today. Nice.

Picture by Mike

Thu, 3/11/10

Everglades National Park: Cloudy this morning and very humid. There’s a front coming through and we’re supposed to get a lot of rain in the next two days. Showered and had some breakfast. Filled the water tank. Then headed down to Flamingo, stopping at Pa-Hay-Okee (grassy river) and Mahogany Hammock. This hammock has got to be one of our favorite places in the Everglades. It’s a lush ecosystem of old growth mahogany trees, a variety of palms and other lush sub-tropical vegetation. And, like last year, there were two barred owl chicks in one of the mahogany trees. Two little bundles of fluffy feathers and big eyes. At Flamingo we had lunch at the marina store and checked out the campground there. They’re in the process of installing electric at the RV loop. Flamingo is right on Florida Bay, whereas Long Pine Key where we stay is in the Pinelands, which is a large slash pine forest with palmettos and a plethora of other sub-tropical vegetation—all of this surrounded by saw grass prairie, little lakes and sloughs. We like it better here. Coming back, we stopped at a little pineland trail where we saw a tree snail a couple of years ago. Each hammock has its own variety of tree snails. I thought they were kind of rare, but we saw about 10 on this little hike. Each hammock has its own specific color variation and back in the day collectors would collect some from a hammock and then burn down the hammock so no one else could get any—which would make their collection more valuable. Pretty harsh I’d say. Back home and sat outside reading for a while. Sandwiches for dinner. 83 today and pretty windy.

Tree snail--pineland trail

Orchid (I think) in the saw grass

While admiring this magnificant mahogany tree, I heard a noise and looked up--and this guy was looking back at me.

Curious ball of fluff

Wed, 3/10/10

Everglades National Park: A beautiful, sunny morning. Just hung out all morning enjoying the gentle swaying of the beautiful pines in the balmy 83 degree breezes. We saw a beautiful, graceful bird flying overhead with a long, deeply-notched tail. Turns out it was a swallow-tailed kite. A member of the hawk family. It’s getting cloudier and cloudier. After lunch we decided to bike to the Anhinga trail. Biking on the road from the campground was okay, but when we got on the main road in the park—which is a two-lane road with no shoulder and a speed limit of 55—I was not comfortable. So we turned around and headed back. Biked a little of the pinelands trail, which is an old forest road—basically two ruts on limestone bedrock—which meandered through the saw grass prairie. I was worried about seeing one of those damned pythons which are all over the area. So far we’ve never seen one though—or any snake for that matter. Biked back and drove over to the Anhinga trail and walked it for a while. Unbelievably, as we were leaving we ran into Karen and Jim, a couple from North Carolina who were wintering at Lazy Lakes this year also. They left the day after we did. Small world! In the parking lot at Anhinga there was a dead black vulture hanging upside down from a post. Apparently the vultures have been eating the rubber trim off the cars in the parking lot. And hanging a dead vulture apparently scared them off because there were none in the parking lot. Drove into Homestead and picked up some produce and bought some D batteries. Had dinner at Mutineers—we both had steak and shrimp. I ended up sharing my steak with a little stray cat. He stuck up his nose at the shrimp, but devoured the steak. The waitress told us there are 30 stray cats on the property and they feed them all. Back home. Mike made a fire and we sat around drinking Baileys and gazing at the stars. 83 today!

Anhinga--picture by Mike

Me, Karen and Jim--picture by Mike

Baby gators--picture by Mike

Mama gator--picture by Mike

Tuesday, March 9:

Lazy Lakes RV Resort, Sugarloaf Key, FL, to Everglades National Park: Left this morning at 9:40. I decided to drive. Worked our way up the Keys and enjoyed the beautiful turquoise waters one last time. We arrived in the Everglades at 12:30 and I actually backed it in the site with Mike’s help and did it quite well. However, setting up was a different story since we’d been in one spot for over three months and apparently got pretty rusty. We needed to level the 5th wheel out but put the levelers on the wrong side so it was canted pretty badly. So, we had to hook up again and put the levelers on the other side and then unhook all over again. Spent an hour futzing around. After finally getting set up we had some lunch and then went for a walk. It’s pretty busy in here which is unusual. After our walk we sat outside reading and listening to the wind in the pines and the chattering of the birds. I love coming here. It’s very restorative for some reason. Mostly cloudy today and think it was 75 when we pulled in here. Had Italian sausage sandwiches, sugar snap peas, and potatoes for dinner. No hook-ups and we have no D batteries for our lanterns, so we have to go to Homestead tomorrow to pick some up.

Hammock in the saw grass--Everglades NP

Morning Glory--Anhinga Trail

(picture by Mike)

Double crested cormorant

Sat, 3/14/09

Long Pine Key, Everglades NP, to Jonathan Dickson SP, Jupiter, Fl: Went for a walk this morning. Saw a little garter snake in the road and we chased him into the bushes. Left the campground at 11:30 after stopping at the dump station. My turn to drive. Stopped at the produce stand on the way out and bought some bananas. Then onto the Floridas Turnpike the rest of the way. The Sunpass is such a big help. It probably doesn’t save that much money, but it saves a lot of time. I drove for a couple of hours until we stopped at the West Palm Beach service area where we had some lunch and then Mike took over driving. We were only about 15 miles from our exit. Pulled into Jonathan Dickson at around 3:00. Got set up by 4:30. Had trouble backing into this site because of a couple of trees, so Mike had to go out and come back in the wrong way and we were able to get it in just fine. Jupiter is such a pretty place. Love it here.

Great Blue Heron--Anhinga Trail

Fri, 3/13/09

Long Pine Key, Everglades NP: Not a cloud in the sky this morning when we woke up. Decided to do a big breakfast—eggs, sausage, biscuits, and orange juice. Tasted pretty good. First time I’ve cooked a big breakfast in a year probably. After topping off the water tank we went for a walk around the campground. By early afternoon clouds started rolling in. We decided to just hang around this quiet and peaceful place today. There’s been a French Canadian couple across from us since we’ve been here. He plays the guitar—just like our French Canadian friends from the Keys, Gerald and Charlie. Wonder if they’re all musical, or is it just something to do during those LONG winters up there? On the other side of us the past two nights have been French Canadians also. Last night was an older couple and tonight is a young couple with two little girls. Steaks, mashed potatoes and pickled beets for dinner tonight. Played rummy again tonight. Mike won two, I won one (sigh).

The original African Queen

Iguana in Pennekamp

Thu, 3/12/09

Long Pine Key, Everglades NP: Another beautiful morning. After our showers we hooked up the hose and topped off our water tank. Put the hose away and started out for John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo. Ever since we’ve been coming down to the Keys we’ve been wanting to check it out. But from Sugarloaf it would be probably a two-hour drive. From the Everglades it’s probably an hour tops. So, after stopping for breakfast at a little roadside café/picnic place, we were on our way.. Wanted to take Card Sound Road this time. We’ve also been wanting to take that road but always had the fifth wheel on the back of the truck so we didn’t. The road wasn’t very scenic until you crossed the bridge at Card Sound. Then you start seeing a lot of pretty little sloughs through the mangroves and a couple of lakes. It’s also a big wildlife sanctuary. At the end of Card Sound Road you could turn right to go to Key Largo or left to go to Ocean Reef. We decided to see what Ocean Reef was all about. Drove through a pretty hardwood forest (also a wildlife preserve) for several miles until it dead-ended into this private residential area called “Ocean Reef”—which boasts three golf courses. Drove back towards Key Largo and saw another old military installation—probably another of those Nike missile bases they had down here. Finally made it to Pennekamp and drove around the campground to see what it’s like. It’s small but the sites are pretty good. This park is all about the reef and snorkeling, diving, and kayaking around the trails through the mangroves. From the little beach it looks like a big lake because you can see land of some kind all around—probably all mangroves. It would be nice to snorkel in the beach area—the water is crystal clear and it’s protected somewhat. We’ll come back next year for sure. They also have a glass bottom boat tour out to the reef. Left the park and drove around Key Largo a little bit. Stopped at the Holiday Inn there and saw the original African Queen used in the movie of the same name. Then started back and stopped at Marley’s Bar and Grill just before you go over the bridge to the mainland. I had a mahi mahi sandwich and Mike had a Cuban sandwich. Sat outside by the bay. Back to our peaceful and quiet campground in the Everglades. Played rummy again. Mike won 2, I won one. Low 80s today. Low 60s last night. Perfect! The solar panels are doing their job. Batteries are fully charged!

Owl chick--Mahogany Hammock

(picture by Mike)

Wood Stork--Anhinga Trail

Gator on the Anhinga Trail

Wed, 3/11/09

Long Pine Key, Everglades NP: Another gorgeous day. Took a shower and washed my hair and went over to the rest room to blow it dry. I told Mike I’d like to not use the generator unless we absolutely have to. The solar panels are doing a great job. I’m sure he’s dying to turn on the TV though. We do get great TV reception here, but no cell phone signal. After we both took our showers we topped off the water tank. It’s really easy here since the water spigot is next to our site so we can run the hose over there—as long as we don’t leave it hooked up. After a light breakfast we drove down to Flamingo to see what’s going on there. They’re in the process of tearing down the old lodge/motel there. Plan to rebuild which should be done in 5 years. After exploring around for a while we went to the marina store and bought some ham and cheese sandwiches and some sodas. Sat outside at a picnic table by the water to have our lunch (on the opposite bank of the river there were a couple of salt water crocks). I had one bite of my first sandwich half and this brazen gull swooped down and grabbed the ham and cheese out of my sandwich and flew off. But not before pooping on my camera case. Couldn’t believe it! Had to really protect my remaining half in order to get to eat it. Drove back and stopped at a couple of ponds along the way. Also stopped at mahogany hammock and walked around. There were two barred owl chicks in one of the trees. They were pretty big but still had some down on them. Back to our nice quiet camp site. Just had sandwiches for dinner. Played rummy. Mike won both (sigh). 82 today.

Our pretty little campsite

(it's really dry--grass is brown)

Mon, 3/9/09

Sugarloaf Key to Long Pine Key, Everglades NP: Left Lazy Lakes at about 10:10. Charlie and Johanne stopped over with their dog, Maple, to say good bye. We arrived at the Long Pine Key campground in the Everglades and were set up by 2:00. Cloudy when we got here but it cleared off to a beautiful day. I love being back here. Sat outside listening to the happy twittering of the birds and the soughing of the wind through the pines. Very quiet and peaceful. Went for a walk around the campground and saw a dead Eastern diamondback rattlesnake in the road (yikes!). If we do any hiking while we’re here, I’ll definitely wear my snake gaiters. Of course they won’t do any good against those damn Burmese pythons. Mike grilled Italian sausages for sandwiches and I made a four-bean salad. After dinner we sat outside for a while. A full moon tonight. Beautiful! Listened to our NOAA weather radio and it’s supposed to be in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night for the next 6 or 7 days. Perfect!

Spider Lily - Pa-Hay-Okee Trail

Fri, 12/14/07

Everglades: Drove over to Biscayne National Park this morning. This park preserves the mangrove shore line from Miami to just north of Key Largo. It also protects several reefs and the uninhabited northern keys. But most of the park is under water. Would be a great place to snorkel. And, they’ll take you out to one of the uninhabited keys and let you camp there. We may do that next year. On the drive over there I saw a HUGE snake. All black and it was coiled up and its flattened head rose up in the center of the coils—like a cobra. Probably my imagination, but they did lose a bunch of cobras in this area during one of the hurricanes. And they’ve been reproducing. We had lunch at the Mutineer Restaurant in Florida City. Back in the Everglades park and we drove over to Pa-Hay-Okee trail and overlook. Another beautiful day—mid 80s again. Sprinkled off and on.

Thu, 12/13/07

Everglades: Topped off the water tank this morning after our showers and then relaxed and read for a while. Early afternoon we went into Homestead and did the laundry and then had an early dinner at the same Mexican restaurant. Topped off the gas tank in the truck and then headed back to the campground. We were hoping to see some wildlife on the way back—but nothing. We did see a couple of deer as we were leaving the campground a couple of days ago. First time we’d seen deer. Started raining after dark. Rained hard for a while. This area needs it badly. Another beautiful day though--in the mid-80s.

Salt Water Croc - Buttonwood Canal

Osprey--Flamingo Marina

Wed, 12/12/07

Everglades: Topped off the water tank this morning after we took our showers and then headed over to the alligator/snake farm. We went there solely for the air boat ride, but the gator and snake show was entertaining. The air boat ride was wild. Every time our driver would hit open water he would do a 360 and FAST. Water would spray up everywhere and the bottom of the boat would fill up with water. There was a family there with little kids and they were all terrified. Air boats are very loud anyway and would scare kids, but when he would spin it around I’m sure it scared them even more. When he slowed down you could remove your ear plugs. I had to put mine back in because those kids were screaming so loud. Pretty funny. Not for the kids though. Stopped and had lunch at a little place just outside the park. Then we stopped at a fruit/vegetable market and picked up some stuff. They had the most exotic things in there. Back to the park and stopped at the Anhinga trail and walked around to see what was happening. Another beautiful day—mid-80s.

Coot Bay Pond

Florida Bay at Flamingo

Couple of Osprey in Flamingo campground

Mon, 12/10/07

Everglades: Made a big breakfast this morning and then we filled the water tank. Drove down to Flamingo which is about 34 miles from our campground. It’s right on Florida Bay and the campground there is more accommodating for the big rigs. And they have a shower house there. But the lodge and restaurant are still closed. We walked the Eco Pond trail. Stopped at the marina at Flamingo. They restored that right away after the last hurricane. Going to take a boat tour tomorrow through one of the mangrove waterways at Flamingo. I’d love to canoe the wilderness trail. It starts at Everglades City and goes 99 miles south to Flamingo through the 10,000 islands. It takes about 7 days in a canoe and there are all these chikees along the route where you can put up a tent. I guess they’re platforms of some kind. We headed back north and stopped at several ponds along the way to see the wildlife. Also stopped at Mahogany Hammock which is a beautiful, tropical paradise in the middle of the saw grass. Met a ranger there on the boardwalk. She just got hired and we were talking about all the Burmese pythons here in the park. Turns out that most of the road crossings where they see them are in the Piney Woods area—which is where our campground is. Jeeze, just when you think you’re safe. And I thought they were more prevalent in the water areas. Wrong again—they feel more comfortable on land…according to her anyway. Fired up the generator when we got back so we could watch the news and we see there’s a tropical storm heading this way. What next?

Downtown historic Homestead

Sun, 12/9/07
Everglades: Rained at about 4:00 a.m. this morning. Then it cleared off and by the time the sun came up there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Went for a walk and then came back and relaxed for a while. Then tackled cleaning the other half of the camper. Looks pretty good. Put everything away and sat around and read for a while. Then decided to drive into Homestead and have some Mexican food to celebrate getting that lovely cleaning chore done. The little historic downtown area of Homestead is really cute. Our dinner was great. After walking around the little downtown area, we headed back to the park and drove around a little bit trying to find an old road the ranger told us about where we could bike. We finally found it. Looks like it will be a great place to bike—11 miles each way and there are two primitive campgrounds along the way—one of which we could have lunch at. While driving around we started noticing a ditch that was cut out along side the road. Not sure what is was for, but it shows a great cross-section of what the terrain is like here in the Glades. There’s just a little bit of soil and grass on top (maybe an inch or so) and the rest is this porous rock. We’ve been told you can walk anywhere you want in the Glades, but to start out across this vast grassland would be very treacherous walking when you could step into one of those holes in the rock—not to mention all the other stuff that might be out there. I think most of the critters live in the hammocks though. By the time we headed back to our campsite, it was getting dark. I was hoping we’d see a panther. They are all around here apparently. But we didn’t. When we got back there was a little tree frog on the window of the truck. They are so cute!

Our campsite in the Everglades...

Sat, Dec. 8:

Everglades: Our new water pump is doing great. And the solar panels as well. We’re getting a lot of sun and we sure won’t have to use the generator unless we want to. Even though we have no electric, we plug our computer into an inverter and it works like a charm. So, we still can use the computer. Whether or not we can get on the Internet is another story. I did yesterday. But the signal isn’t so great tonight. Forget trying to upload pictures. Walked this morning. Then we went just outside the park to a little restaurant for breakfast. Then checked out a place also just outside the park that offers air boat rides, a snake show and a gator show. Thought this place would be a dump but it was quite pretty. The landscaping was beautiful and exquisitely maintained. A lot of the buildings had thatch roofs—think it is owned by the Micasouke Indians. We’ll go back for the air boat ride. Not sure about the snake and gator show. We see all kinds of wildlife on the Anhinga trail here in the park. After that we came back and kicked back and read for a while. Then we cleaned and washed windows on one side of the camper and loaded some water. After dinner of barbeque pork sandwiches we played Trivial Pursuit (I won) and two games of Rummy (Mike won both)(sigh).

Everglades: The eagle was back this morning. He didn’t stay long tho. I was taking a picture of a limpkin by the water and turned back and he was gone. Went for a walk and then came back and started putting things away. Left there at 11:00 after stopping at the dump station. Took 3 ½ hours to get down to Long Pine Key campground in the Everglades. Thought we’d never get there. Speed limit on the Tamiami Trail is 50 mph and we encountered a lot of traffic around Homestead. We noticed all the U.S. flags at half staff. Guess because it's Pearl Harbor Day. Finally we got into our site and set up. Can’t have any camp fires because fire danger is very high. It is the driest we’ve seen it down here. We have a bunch of fire wood too. Should have had fires at W. P. Franklin I guess. We’ll be here for 9 days with no electric. Love it! At least we’ll get a chance to see how our new water pump works.