Jan 2008

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 132
Weather - Cool, Partly Sunny, Some Winds but not a problem
Camped at Boyds Campground on Stock Island, just across a short bridge from Key West.

Musings:

Interesting day, things never turn out quite the way you assume they will...

Did you happen to notice the Blog is current again? Of course, it took me until past midnight to get it so. Mom would probably say - 'can it'...

Narrative:

The objective for today was to get to Key West, and we did that. Driving hard, we decided to bypass most of the sightseeing and make sure we got there. We may take more time out for stopping on the way back. So there isn't a lot of blogging to do for today.

However, things didn't get off quite as we planned. On our way south, we again stopped at the Wal-mart in Homestead to get Mom's prescription filled (the Pharmacy was closed on New Years when we stopped by on our way to the Everglades). Nasty surprise, somebody in the government figured they could save money by having Seniors prove their eligibility for low income status every year (or at least this year). Somehow, Mom missed the notification, maybe the trip, maybe the government, who knows. Anyway, she went to pick up the prescription and instead of paying $5, her usual co-pay, they wanted $90!

So instead of leaving for the Keys right away, we sat in the RV in the parking lot for a couple of hours trying to call Social Security. It seems another way they've used to save money is to have a phone system that never lets you through to a live body. "Speak or say...". So using two cell phones, a laptop computer, and two people trying to find someone who can explain this to us, we finally succeeded. She has a phone interview scheduled for next Tuesday that will probably reinstate her status so she can get her prescriptions filled.

So we'll try again next week - and in the meantime will try to put that all behind us and get back to our trip! This got easier to do the further south we headed.

The layout as you go south in Florida is first Miami, which is very built up, endless condo's and apartments and very expensive. Further south you get to Homestead - big Air Force Base, a military town (and not too far south of where we'd been camping). Homestead is also where the Wal-mart was where we'd stopped.

Driving further south from the Wal-mart, it was only a few minutes before we saw wetlands on both sides, Egrets along the swampy fields on the sides of the road, and not much human development other than an occasional marina or seafood restaraunt, and not many of them. Homestead seems to be the southern end of development in Florida. From there south until you cross into Key Largo is wetlands.

Highway 1 runs from Maine (yes Maine, not just Miami) to Key West. This section that we're taking today, from Homestead to Key West, is mostly two lanes and wasn't very busy today. They were working on the road on the first stretch, not surprising since many parts of the road seemed to be adversly affected by erosion (or something, the quality was pretty scary at times).

We crossed a fairly high bridge to Key Largo and back into strip malls - but these with a distinctly Scuba Diving or Shell flavor. At the Visitors Center, we picked up additional information about the Florida Keys. Unlike Barrier Islands as we'd seen farther North along the eastern seaboard, the Keys were formed by Coral Reefs during earlier ice ages/warming cycles. Most of the trip to Key West is actually across Islands, with only short bridges or causeways where you're fairly exposed. The famous stretch I'd seen in movies (and assumed would be how most of the drive would be) is a seven mile long bridge between two of the middle keys. So only seven miles of the whole 125 or so is open ocean - the rest is mostly islands and island hopping (short bridges). The name "Key" is a corruption from the Spainish word "cayo", meaning small island.

There was wind today but it wasn't that bad. In hindsight, I could have probably made it on Jan 2nd as we'd originally scheduled, but it will probably be more fun in Key West tomorrow slightly warmer and less windy.

Once we got past the first couple of keys, they became less populated and more beautiful. The water was esecially lovely, we did pull over once on Indian Key and took a few pictures. Some jelly fish had blown up along the shoreline, which I didn't do a very good job capturing. Believe it or not, these pictures were all taken in the same area at about the same time (color variations due to partly cloudy/partly sunny conditions).

When I went to get back into the RV, the wind again caught the door and pulled it a little, sure enough it again fell apart. I guess my 'patch' job wasn't very good! I gently pushed it together enough to get it closed and locked it to prevent us from accidentially opening the door until I can repair it more effectively (we'll have to climb through the front for the moment). Fortune choosing to smile upon us a bit, one of the larger Key's near the middle actually had a Home Depot. I pulled in and stocked up on Wood Hardener, Wood Putty, and super glues.

Along the drive, we passed some sections where an older road (or something or other) paralleled the main road, but we couldn't quite figure out what it was. There were sections missing in some area's, lots of people fishing off it in others, some sections were clearly too narrow for cars. It turns out that before Hwy 1 was built, a developer built a railroad from Miami to Key West. This was the only way to get there other then by ferry. There were also some bridges built between islands, but no through road as there is today. Then on Labor Day in 1935 a Cat. 5 Hurricane struck the Key's and severly damanged the railroad and road bridges beyond repair. The remaining sections have just been left in place next to the new ones built for Hwy 1. Some are blocked off, but others left open as fishing piers.

We really enjoyed the drive, especially as we got past the more built up Keys. There were still a lot of resorts all along this stretch, a few State Parks, and several RV campgrounds. Having lost so much time on the phone this morning, we just drove by the parks and beaches - but did make note of where they were as we'll be driving back this way Sunday! With so much self-discipline, we actually made it to the campground shortly before 4 PM, plenty of daylight left to play with the door. First however, I took a stroll around the campground and took some pictures. We didn't get a waterfront spot, afterall I just called them a few days ago, but we're only about 40' from the ocean!

By the way, we also have an interesting tree by our site here - of a slightly different sort.

The pioneers had to contend with broken wagon wheels, axles and just about everything else that could break and no local Home Depot for repair supplies. I guess we can deal with an occasional flimsy door.

So I broke out the tools, glues, and bravado to see what I could do about the door. After pounding away for some time, it was clear the hinge pins weren't going to come out (probably rusted solid where they don't turn). I decided to leave the door in the frame (to hold it together) and try removing the screws and fixing the screw holes in place. So with lots of fat matchsticks I'd been able to find at the campground store and fancy expanding glue from Home Base, I screwed the thing back together again. We are leaving it locked until tomorrow - give the glue plenty of time to set up. If it will hold up that long, I finally realized the easiest way to fix this (and probably best) - just drill new screw holes and add more screws. Duh. So Sunday when we head back, I'll stop at Home Depot again and get the necessary materials. The door will probably be stronger then it's been since before I bought the RV.

In the meantime, I think my patch job #2 will hold through the weekend so tomorrow we'll set our sights on conquering the Conch Republic (e.g. Key West for you land lubbers)!

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 0
Weather - Very Cold and Windy, especially in the Morning
Camped at Miami Everglades RV Park

Musings:

I'm beginning to think some of the fancy RV campgrounds are like Cruise ships. They have activities and a sort of community that develops. People travel with the RV park as the destination, not to stay at the park while traveling to other destinations. I'm a different sort of traveller, just using the campground as a base of support while I travel to different destinations. Guess it's just a case of different strokes for different folks. (Anybody want to buy a campground membership?)

Narrative:

Not much to write about today, but Mom had been telling folks about the RV campground (Big Pool, Hot Tub, etc.) so I thought I'd throw in a few pic's. Of course, I didn't think about this until now that a cold storm has come to town, but it was hot and sunny earlier this week, and it probably will be again soon.

Here is the clubhouse and volleyball court. They have parties, movies and pot lucks in the clubhouse and volleyball every afternoon at 2 PM. For some reason, neither of us took advantage of these activities this trip. I normally love volleyball, but guess I was just in need of some visiting (with Mike), chores, and blog updating...

Here is the pool. The guy was cleaning it when I finally remembered to get my camera out, so the gate was locked and this was as close as I could get. I estimate it was about 40 feet across, 3 feet deep at the sides and 6 feet deep in the center. It really was nice. The hot tub is out of view to the left, but just a normal hot tub (no pic available). We both used the pool & hot tub, several times...

Also, this tree was right next to the RV all week. Mom and I both thought it was pretty cool.

My son, Mike came by Thursday evening to join us for dinner. He was tired and didn't feel like driving too far so we tried a rib joint down the road. Mixed reviews I'd say. Maybe I was just down a bit, as I realized I probably wouldn't be able to see him for some time, maybe a couple of years - as I will be going back to work as soon as I get home to pay for the trip, so won't have any more money or time off for travel for a long time...

So we leave Miami on a bit of a sad note, but are also really looking forward to moving on and getting back to sightseeing (and learning) again. Tomorrow - Key West or Bust (wind or no wind).

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 133 (RT)
Weather - Sunny & Warm on Tuesday, Cold and WINDY on Wednesday (but Sunny?)
Camped at Miami Everglades Campground for the most part, but we did stay at Flamingo CG in Everglades National Park last night (Tuesday night) - NO Internet Signal whatsoever (this is truely the end of the Continent!)

Musings:

We decided we both like touring much better than sitting around a campground...
We also definitely like beaches, tree's and grasslands (or Everglades) much better than blacktop, traffic, strip malls and condo's (Miami and Fort Lauderdale). But of course, we're part of the problem as we also need supplies that the malls provide and roads to travel on. Hmm...

Narrative:

Originally, I had planned to spend New Years here in Miami, then head south to Key West Jan 2nd and made reservations at a really nice RV park at Key West. However, while watching the weather forecast the last couple of days, it was clear a major cold front/winter storm was headed this way. I don't mind a little rain or cold weather, but wasn't looking forward to driving 135 miles over long bridges and little key's in a strong & gusting wind. So I called the Key West campground and postponed our reservation for two days, extended my reservation here for two days, and decided to hunker down until the storm passed.

However we were out of a few supplies and the weather Tuesday was still hot and sunny. I figured if the storm hit Tuesday afternoon and we had to drive home through rain & wind, we could handle it - just not 135 miles over the open ocean. So we decided to go shopping Tuesday then visit Everglades National Park, rather then just sit around the campground. (My son, Mike, had other plans for New Years so we had some free time on our hands, which we never seem to have trouble filling.)

Off we went, had a blast, so just kept going. There are a couple of entrances to the park. Because our campground isn't that far from the south entrance, we took that one. It turns out that there is a 36 mile road that goes all the way across the Everglades to the south coast, a place called Flamingo (it used to have Flamingo's before hunters killed them all around 1900). We stopped at the visitors center at the entrance, went to the next stop or two, then just kept going all the way to Flamingo. They had plenty of open campsites (in contrast to what we'd heard about campgrounds in FL this time of year. Could have been the storm though) and only cost $8 with Mom's Golden Age passport - so we elected to just stay there for the night. In case you're like I am and have never heard of this place, a map might help:

But to recap a bit, starting at the Coe Visitors Center, I saw a beautiful & striking butterfly. Of course, it was very difficult to get a sharp picture because he just wouldn't sit still, but this is clear enough that you can see what it looks like. This is a Zebra Longwing Butterfly (I found a sign later with a picture almost exactly like this - saved me untold hours trying to look it up!)

At the visitors center we also learned that the best place to see wildlife is at the Royal Palms Hammock (aka Paradise Key), just a couple miles down the road. This is a slightly elevated area where tree's have a chance to take root and was one of the first area's preserved as a state park before Everglades National Park was established in 1947.

There is a canal and pond in the area where fish tend to congregate in the dry seasons (Dec & Jan) when parts of the Everglades dry out some. Wildlife depend on this cycle and congregate here to take advantage of the dense fishing grounds. Even though there was a nasty winter storm forecast, there were many visitors to the Everglades NP, many speaking languages I couldn't quite identify. The Everglades is the only terrein of this type in the world, south Florida is some of the flattest land in the world and has enough water that the Shark River empties from Lake Okeechobee in a miles wide and inches deep slough. Of all the National Parks in the United States, only the Everglades NP has three major international designatations:

International Biosphere Reserve, World Heritage Site, and Wetland of International Importance

The wildlife here has gotten used to people it seems, as the birds and such pretty much ignored all the people. On the drive back, we stopped at Royal Palms again and Mom took the nature walk (you can tell which day it is by the way Mom is dressed), this is a Cormorant that just sat on the edge of the walk, didn't seem to care how close people got to it.

The 1/2 mile nature walk at Royal Palms is actually named the Anhinga Trail, after the Anhinga birds that are quite common here. I'd never heard of them before (of course), they are related to Cormorants and have similar behavior in terms of diving for fish and then having to dry out their wings before they can fly again. Males are almost all black, but females have a lighter colored neck.

We also saw a turtle taking in some sun. It was surprising how the birds and turtle seemed to ignore the many alligators all around them. I guess there were so many fish, they figured the gaters weren't really hungry for anything but fish - or they were fooled by the big beasts sitting so still most of the time. There was a gator just a few feet further up the canal from this turtle.

There were several Egrets in the park, both Great Egrets and Snow Egrets, but I'm don't think I got any pictures of the Snow Egrets. They have black legs and bills as opposed to the Great Egrets which have yellow bills (and are larger of course). Notice the Alligator tail just to the right...

One of the endangered species that also frequents the Anhinga Trail is the Wood Stork. This is the only Stork native to North America. It feeds by sticking it's beak into the muck to search for food. (I have some video I'll try to upload - a most unusual bird).

We also saw three different kinds of Heron's on this one walk, the Great Blue Heron, a Little Blue Heron, and a Tricolor Heron. The park also has Green Herons, which we didn't see and another that is much more rare (and I forgot the name - not surprising as over 300 different types of birds frequent the park, and I'm not a very good birder).

Since there were many Cormorants as well as Anhinga's, we got a chance to learn how to tell the difference. These are Cormorants.

And swimming or lounging around all of the birds and other animals were Alligators, lots of them. (If these aren't enough, I have more...)

In spite of taking pictures of almost every alligator and bird I could find, we actually did make it back out to the road. Along the way, we saw lots of different types of scenery - the river of grass, yes, but also brush, forests and bald cedars. In these two shots notice how the Everglades looks just like grassland when viewed from across it, but if you get a little higher, you begin to see the water more.

We finally made it to Flamingo about 5 PM and could have driven back to the RV park if we'd wanted - the storm still hadn't hit yet. However, when we found out the NP Campground at Flamingo had plenty of spaces open and only cost $16 ($8 with Mom's Golden Passport), we figured we'd just stay there and have more time to enjoy the Everglades NP in the morning.

The storm did finally hit during the night. Some rain blew through briefly last night, but the cold front brought mostly WIND and cold. The temperature dropped over 25 F between yesterday and today (84 yesterday afternoon, 52 when we got up, high today of 60). The wind continued throughout the day, but other than making the cold seem a little colder, it wasn't a factor. We had to wear jackets & hats, but otherwise were able to enjoy the Everglades again today. It may have been cold, but we still had to check out the beach!

There were vultures all over south Florida, but the Flamingo area seemed to have quite a few around the campground and beach, especially Black Vultures. These are a little smaller than Turkey Vultures and have black heads, instead of red heads. There was one spot that had both types of vultures walking around just a few feet apart.

I may have passed by a couple of brown signs, but very few - I think we stopped at most of them today. At Mrazek Pond about 5 miles east of Flamingo we saw this Alligator at the edge of the pond. I had walked over to get a picture of an Egret on the other side of the pond and just noticed this guy not very far from me, with no obsticals to overcome if he'd wanted to chase me down (unlike the Anhinga Trail, which is a raised boardwalk - quite protected from angry Alligators). I guess I backed up in time since I'm still here writing about this! Just a little reminder that this is a National Park, not a Zoo.

We'll probably hunker down tomorrow (Thursday) again, then head off to Key West Friday - wind or no wind.

ps - one little side note on the wind - it caught the RV door and blew it open a bit more roughly than usual Wednesday morning at the Flamingo campground, and the door fell apart! Turns out I've got some wood rot around the door also (not too surprising with such an old rig) and this was a breakdown just waiting to happen. I removed the screws, stuffed a bunch of matchsticks in the holes, the put the screws back in. This seems to be holding for now, but I think the screws went in a little too easily and am expecting more repairs down the road...

Logistics:

Miles Driven: 47 (RT)
Weather: Hot & Muggy (84 F)
Camped at Miami Everglades Campground, Expensive but they have a 40' round swiming pool, hot tub, clubhouse and snack bar.

Musings:

Mom has been having fun calling friends and bragging about the weather - how she's off to the swimming pool & hot tub. I prefer the weather a little less muggy. Each to her own I guess.

Narrative:

Saturday, we got some visiting in with my son, Mike. Later, we played some Rummy Cubes (a family favorite) and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't win even one game.

Sunday, Mom & I did chores (Laundry, etc.) and I worked on the blog. Mike came over later and drove us by the school where he teaches. This is in south Miami area, he teaches remedial math mostly for high school girls, but also some junior high. He especially likes the small class sizes (10 students vs 40) and really enjoys being a teacher, but is finding that it is also a lot of work.

Mike also came by on Monday (a little earlier this time). None of us had eaten much for lunch, so he stopped by this shop for some "Pasties". Mike got the spicy, Mom & I the mild. They were quite good however.

We had a few false starts trying to find something to do (a lot of places closed for New Years Eve). We drove up to Fort Lauderdale to try to find a Circus, but they weren't there anymore. Then we went by a Chess Hall of Fame, but the lady who handled the HOF left early for the holiday. The building was interesting looking however.

Finally we decided to go ahead and visit the Miami Zoo - kind of expensive, but nice. Of course you can tell the weather was still at record highs for New Years Eve (mid 80's. Mike seemed to think this was normal however, guess he's been here awhile.) Mostly typical zoo pictures, you can click to enlarge or if you want more descriptions.

Here's a different sort of zoo exhibit - this tree was in the Austrilia section. It is a Painted, or Rainbow Eucalyptus, very exotic:

Later, the campground hosted a New Year's Eve party which lasted until 1 AM. Then somebody across the street had a party that lasted well after that. We didn't get much sleep (and didn't even go to the parties!). Oh well, guess it goes with the territory.

Happy New Year!