Down the Keys

Up not too early to make coffee as we have to use the generator for the coffee machine and generators are 8AM-8PM.

A long drive down the keys. When we get to Marathon around 1PM we start looking for a restaurant for lunch. Porky's sounds good. But the turn off is too quick for the bumbling van. We get off at the next business but there is no parking at that commercial establishment. So we dart the van across highway 1 and park on the other side. Then we have to dart ourselves across highway 1. The waitress says sit anywhere you like. So we sit at a table next to the water that had not been cleaned off yet.

She is cleaning off other tables. We politely wait. Then she is taking an order from some people who sat down at a table she had cleaned. Enough is enough. William gets up and says what about us? She forgot about us and associated us with the glassware sitting in front of us. So she finally cleans off the table and takes our order. We were there over 1 ½ hours. We noted their usual service time seemed to be about 15 minutes from sitting down until you were served your food.. I think this is a nice funky local restaurant with good food. But if you do not assert yourself, the wait staff can forget about you. I had a Cuban style pork BBQ sandwich and William had grilled yellowtail. So I look up Porky's and we have the distinction of having been poorly served at a famous restaurant.

Our unique location has hosted famous Keys visitors since the 1950s - include such notables as Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Hoffa & Elizabeth Taylor.

As we are on the last leg of the trip we see the old abandoned RR bridge. Flagler's folly. The rails have all been taken up. It is discontinuous in places.
Plants are growing up in some places. One part has been made into a fishing pier.
I finally have an address to put in the Navigator on the phone. It feels fun, but I can tell William did not like the voice. Especially since she had only a few turns to talk about. We are here at Sugarloaf Key KOA for 2 nights. Tomorrow we will drive into Key West and spend the day.

Big Cypress and Everglades

We awoke Monday in Collier-Seminole State Park to the sound of the garbage pickup. I think garbage men are like Santa Claus. The garbage is picked up everywhere early on Tuesday morning. This morning we feasted on blueberry pancakes.
After shooing away a 1½ inch horse fly from the door I jumped in and we were off. We stopped at the display of the walking dredge that built the Tamiami Trail across the bottom of Florida, through the mud in 1927-28.

We are driving along the Tamiami Trail through the Big Cypress National Preserve. The speed limit is 60 during the day and 45 at night, not because the elderly do not see well at night, but because of wildlife. We see a sign that says panther crossing and soon after 2 tan brown heaps at the side of the road. Not a deer. Not a bobcat. Not a dog. And on one I see round ears. The most common cause of death of Florida Panthers is being hit by a car.
Next to the road is the ditch created in the building of the road. The water is brackish. People who fish in it, and we see a number of fishing families, have to have a freshwater license if they catch a freshwater fish and a saltwater license if they catch a saltwater fish.
We see a so many vultures on a carcass that they look like huge black flies.
The Indian villages have thatched roof huts. Seminole and Miccosukee tribes still live here. It looks like they have centralized communal businesses; restaurant, Original Airboat, and a large ~8 story Casino for Bingo and Gaming.
This is a river of grass.
The Everglades is not a swamp like in Louisiana.
Someone in the highway department has a sense of humor. Rock Reef Pass elevation 3 feet.
We decide to head to Flamingo campground deep in the Everglades. No cell phone service and no internet.
Lots of wildlife, cattle egrets, white ibis and juvenile white ibis and a red shouldered hawk in flight.


And at dusk the mosquito. At the visitor center it says that the mosquito level is at enjoyable, the lowest level. Hysterical is the highest level. Few visitors come to the Everglades in high mosquito season. Which is the summer wet months, But the mosquito repellent tester companies come.
Today, Wednesday, is Jon's birthday. We ride the bikes down to the Visitor Center to see what is going on. They are not fully repaired from Katrina and Wilma in 2005. Sad.
We borrow a phone at the store and leave a happy birthday message for Jon. ATT phones work here, but not Verizon ones.
I use the word store loosely as they stock what are called snacks. Chips and more chips.
We visit the resident American Crocodile and then catch the Crocodile/Alligator ranger talk.
High on my agenda is wading in the Florida Bay. Shallow and not as warm as I thought, but being so shallow it is sensitive to the air temperature and it has just started to warm up down here.
Some sand but most of the shore is gray clay. I think you could make pretty good pots out of this clay.
The shadows are lengthening and my mosquito bites are itching. I need to shut this baby up. William prefers to stay out until they are starting to cover him then he brushes them off and comes inside. So he says as I kill tons after he comes in. That was the first night. The second night saw insects managed much better.
On the 17th Thursday Saint Patrick's Day we are up with the sunrise to make a birding hike. We identified a lot of birds out on the shoals of the bay. We watched white pelicans feed. They get in a circle on the water and kick up fish to eat. Then we walked into the parking lot where there were osprey nests in almost every tree with babies inside and flocks of red bellied woodpeckers. Nice.
We then hike out to the sewage treatment plant. The clean treated water attracts birds and we saw ducks and many wading birds. We are now birders.
We then did a self guided hike at Mahogany Hummock. One of the most beautiful tree islands in the park. Huge Mahogany trees, air plants, and the beginnings of spring flowers.

The island is in the river of grass that moves toward the Florida Bay at a rate of 100 feet a day (obviously during the wet season).
We ate lunch in the shade in the parking lot and then moved on to Pa-Hay-Okee, a short boardwalk to one of the highest points in the Everglades for another ranger led walk. We start in the dwarf Bald Cedar and continue onto a pavilion for some overall history of the park. As we are about to leave the pavilion some snake trackers come searching for an electronically tagged Burmese python. They wave their antenna around and say it is somewhere in the area. Our guide says those snakes have eaten most of the small mammals and even alligators. One alligator/snake encounter was won by the gator. He had ahold of the snake and it was wrapped around him. It was a 24 hour long struggle finally won by the gater when he drowned the snake.
When we arrive at our destination for the night, Long Pine Key Campground, I was looking forward to a hot shower. William braved a cold water shower last night, but I refused. I knew that the restrooms with solar had hot water so, so, so. But no! Three toilets and cold water in the sinks. I am going to croak. Since no one is around and the sites are quite private, William fixes me a plastic basin of cold water and I wash my hair and have a quick sponge off, mostly hidden by the RV. Ahh! William takes the hose to a faucet across the street and rinses off wearing/mostly wearing his swim trunks. It is hours before anyone comes by, and we are both refreshed and then grab a cold beer.
We try one more ranger talk. Mistake. Mostly boring talk about the use of fire in park management.
We snuggle down early in our cell free, internet free, electricity free campsite.

Manatee Springs to Bradenton to Myakka State Park

We left on time since we had at least a 3 hour drive to Bradenton. Quite a bit of bland flat countriside on the way obscured by dense vegetation on the side of the roadway.

Lots of traffic once we got into Bradenton. It's a warm Sunday and everyone is headed to the beach. Made contact with Cousin Scott and he suggests the Rod and Reel Pier Restaurant at the end of a pier on Anna Maria Island. We met at a beach parking lot at the end of the road to the island and drove in his car to the restaurant. Lovely water. Lots of nice resorts and condominiums, rentals and timeshares. A tourist town. Although we saw lots of young people, Scott said the average age is over 60 in the area. He said he felt like a native “cracker” here even though he has only been here three years. He became acquainted with the area through some other half cousins whose father lives here.

Lunch was great in this small restaurant. People were fishing off the pier and catching fish. Scott had the grouper sandwich. I had the Grouper Ruben and William had crab cakes. The food is very good and the waiter was very interesting looking, a real old salt.

Sorry we had such a short visit, but it was a good visit. Scott says that Aunt Alice has rented a house in Bradenton for next week as it will be spring break for Abby and all are coming down. Sounds like a good time will be had by all.

Off for us to Myakka State Park. We drove down to the end of the island to get the full Island experience. Lots more resorts, condominiums, rentals and timeshares. We cross Sarasota and drive only five more miles down to the state park exit. Imagine our surprise when we get to our spot and find no internet access. The WiFi is down at the concession store across the park. Our mind is made up to ramble to the store when the camper next to us starts a smokey fire right next to our driver's side door. Cough, cough. We will just stay under this tree in the concession parking lot until we are done.

From Carrabelle to Manatee Springs

While we were in Carrabelle we experienced some of the same problems with the electrical we had when we were at Big Lagoon. So we knew it was our problem. We had a load of laundry to do, so while the wash was going I looked through the big file of information about the RV that we keep. I pulled out a few relevant items related to the converter. William then read over those items and did a systematic check of the breakers, fuses and the RV battery. After taking my side of the bed thoroughly apart he found a cord partway pulled out. He reinserted it and all was well. We think that it jolted loose when we hit a few potholes at speed on the freeway in Louisiana. One was bad enough to have potentially blown a tire. You don't expect horrible pot holes on a freeway. Yeah for William and his fix it skills.

We stayed on 98 to Manatee Springs. We noted on the map that this area of the coast had no development and no roads to the coast. The land seems to be just used for corn row forestry. The land is cleared and trees are mechanically planted in plots. After about 30 years they harvest the trees and use them for pulp wood. They do burning for competition control and disease control. With all the uniform rainfall the burning adds nutrients. We coughed our way along the road when the smoke from this fire blew across the highway.

I saw some small signs along the road. Tupelo Honey. Mayhaw jelly. We passed a man selling out of a truck bed. If we pass another Tupelo Honey seller, I want to buy some. And there is another little sign Tupelo Honey 2 miles. William says, “Only if it is out of the back of a truck.” And of course it was. Such a chattery salesman. I am waving my money and he finally pays attention to me. I just bought a small Tupelo Honey as we don't have room for a lot of stuff. The Mayhaw jelly looked too red and reminded me of jellies I don't like, prickly pear and manzanita berry. There were also small signs for hot boiled peanuts. But William refused to stop for those. I'm going to have him get hot boiled peanuts some time when we are in the south.

Manatee Springs for a late lunch and then a hike to the springs. William booked this site on Reserve America and he swears it said nothing about this site being a handicapped site. At least we are old. It is really handy to the bathroom and no three flights of stairs to climb like in Big Lagoon.
We saw some people coming up from behind the RV in wet suits and William asked them about a path to the spring and they pointed it out. Down into a hollow, past catfish sink and then on to the boardwalk. This is a huge spring that stays at a constant 72 degrees so it attracts manatees in the winter. We stop and watch people swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving. We continue on the board walk to look for more wildlife. A sign says to watch out for humans with squirreliosis, a contagious disease of feeding squirrels.
Further on we spot a small alligator and a few turtles. Then out to Suwannee River overlook. Lots of vultures, turkey vultures and black vultures. The ranger who is out here says that this is their traditional area. They may sleep on the same branch every night.

Then we see some manatees out near the vulture trees. They stick their noses up to breath every once in a while. No spouting and breaching like whales. Then one starts for the platform. A huge manatee about 10 feet long with skin mottled and peeling as it slowly swam toward us and then under the platform. Quite a site.

On the walk back William says, “What is that.”

I don't want to yell that it is two vultures copulating because I don't want to disturb them.
Although maybe it wouldn't have bothered them as they seemed preoccupied as I took quite a few pictures. William figured it out.
We also saw a very small young deer. The ranger said it was browsing on the tips of the trees that the squirrels would break off. The deer meandered over to where we had seen the alligator. We waited hoping for some action, but the alligator was not there and was rather small even for such a small young deer. The last animal we saw was a squirrel as we headed back.
Such a variety of animals all interwoven. The vegetarians, manatee, deer and squirrels. The carnivore alligator and the carrion eating vultures. Nice walk.

Friday in Florida

Back on the internet here at Carrabelle Beach, Florida.
From New Orleans we went to visit Destrehan Plantation. This old plantation was saved from being torn down by a dedicated historical society. Marathon Oil which owned most of the plantation land in the 50's was implicated in the destruction of more than one old plantation house. If you have saved one, why do you need more?A docent dressed in period costume lead the tour through the house which is furnished in regency furniture.After the tour another docent gave a talk about sugar making on the plantation. This was the copper kettle where the syrup boiling process was started.This plantation was also part of the 1811 slave revolt. The overseers house had an exhibit on the revolt that was inspired by the revolt in Haiti. The live oak in the front yard is 200 years old.
We traveled on miles of causeway over swampland.
We spent the night in Big Lagoon State park in Florida. Our stay was marred by some sort of short in our power supply. Our first clue was when our lights got very dim and the low voltage alarm started up. We were forced to go to bed early as there was enough power to keep the low voltage alarm from chirping like a high pitched cricket only if we turned out all the lights.
Observation tower at Big Lagoon.



We took scenic 98 to Carrabelle. That was mostly a good idea except for all the stoplights that were coordinated so that you had to stop at most every one. Panama City was the worst. They just need a bypass.
Pretty beach at Carrabelle, complete with sand fleas.

Last day in New Orleans

Crash! Boom! Bright flashes of lightning. Huge booming jolts of thunder and rain so heavy it was like being under a gushing faucet. The rain let off after a bit more than 1/2 hour but we were sitting in a lake. I put on my shower shoes to wade to the bathroom. We were going to town today and had to be ready at 9. I waded out barefoot and put my shoes on in the laundry room. Others were at least 7 inches deep around their RV's. The tents had it rough as the tent area became a huge lake. They were still drying their bedding on the fence when we came home this evening.
We were the only ones going in because of the storm.
We began and ended our day at the Riverpark, a nice promenade next to the mighty Mississippi. William posed for me next the the statue of immigrants.
I had heard a lot about the Aquarium of the Americas, but I think Monterey spoils you for any other Aquarium. They did have some good exhibits about the Mississippi and the Caribbean. I took a few good pictures of a penguin and a clown fish.
I thought they could have had a bigger exhibit on wetland restoration. But then the oil companies that pay for most of the exhibits would have had to pay for this and I am sure wetland restoration is not high on their agenda. There was already a bit of revisionism in evidence in the downplaying of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. According to the exhibit it caught fire and sank on the 22 of April, end of story. There was also an interesting exhibit on pirates. No mention of Somali pirates when they mentioned present day pirates.
After the aquarium we had lunch at the Red Fish Grill. Excellent 2 course lunch.
After lunch we took the Canal Street street car to the end of the line and looked around in an old cemetery. Greenwood Cemetery.After wandering in the cemetery for a while we headed back to Riverwalk just in time to hear the steam calliope on the river boat Natchez.