Oasis Visitor Center - 01/31/13

Thursday – January 31, 2013

We awoke to a brief rain shower this morning with the temperature dipping into the low 60’s. The cold front from the north had worked its way down into southern Florida. It was overcast all day with a few sprinkles occurring in the afternoon. The cloud cover finally started to clear out to the east around 6:00 p.m. The weather forecast for the weekend is sunny days with temperatures in the mid-70’s, so no complaints from these two happy campers.

We decided to visit the Oasis Visitor Center today. It is located on the north side of US-41, three miles west of our campsite at the Midway Campground, in the Big Cypress National Preserve. There is a water canal that runs parallel to and on the north side of US-41 throughout the Big Cypress National Preserve. Within the visitor center boundaries, the canal is approximately 20 feet wide by a football field long by 5 feet deep.

The visitor center has an abundance of wild alligators, Florida garfish and other species of fish as well as Anhinga water birds. A boardwalk, approximately 50 yards in length, runs parallel to the canal providing a safe and close-up viewing area for the visitors. A park ranger provides very informative on-site lectures on the wildlife that inhabit this area. He explained the large volume of water, accessible open banks and abundant food sources, attracts a large gathering of alligators and water birds to the visitor center area. In our travels throughout southern Florida we have never seen so many alligators gathered together in one area as they are at this location.

The alligators vary in size from 3 feet to 6 feet in length. Most of them are just casually lying on the bank of the canal while a few are gently gliding through the seemingly still water in the canal. It is mesmerizing to observe an alligator swimming through the water. Their muscular tail slowly undulating back and forth provides the thrust to propel their body silently through the water. Their front and rear legs are tucked in against their body, pointing backwards toward their tail. These leg positions seem to provide them with a multiple rudder type arrangement, which allows them to easily change direction.

The visitor center provides an informative 25-minute film on the ecosystem of southern Florida. This film is a thought provoking visual essay on the important responsibility mankind has to protect our environment and our natural resources not only here in Florida, but throughout the world.

Following our visit to the Oasis Visitor Center, our next stop was to the Big Cypress Swamp Visitor Center, located 17 miles further west on US-41. We were pleased to discover we received a very strong cell phone signal on our T-Mobile Smartphone at this location. We do not have cellular reception at our campground, so we will use this location to access the Internet on our laptop computer through our smartphone.

We arrived back at our campsite in the late afternoon just in time to settle in for the day to view our favorite soap, General Hospital, on the West Coast feed we receive on our Dish satellite service.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Big Cypress NP - 01/28/13

Monday – January 28, 2013

We departed Naples, Florida on Monday at 11:55 p.m. We had an absolutely wonderful time visiting with my sister and her husband at their home in Naples the past two weeks. My sister is a marvelous gourmet cook and provided us with some outstanding tasty meals. We left a few pounds heavier than when we arrived, but very content. We will have to increase our exercise regimen a bit to work off the extra calories we consumed.

Our destination today is the Midway Campground located within the Big Cypress National Preserve in southern Florida. This area is located about 70 miles southeast of Naples. However, we took a slight detour of about 40 miles northeast of Naples in order to check out the W. P. Franklin North Campground near Okeechobee Lake. This is a beautiful C.O.E. managed recreation area with 45 campsites located by the water. The campsites have paved parking pads with electric and water hookups. The restroom facilities have flush toilets, hot water showers and a washer and dryer. This is a very popular campground that requires advance reservations of at least six months through Reserve America. There is excellent fishing at the dam located on the campground. There is very little privacy between campsites and for this reason we found this area not suitable for our style of preferred camping.

We arrived at the Midway Campground at 3:30 p.m. Due to our late afternoon arrival we were concerned that all of the campsites would already be occupied. If so, we were prepared to spend the night at the Monument Lake Campground located about 9 miles west of Midway. However, upon our arrival at Midway, we were surprised to see the number of campsites that were available. The campground host informed us they had never filled up so far this January. We selected campsite #10, which is located on the west side of the pond, out of six campsites left to choose from.

Midway has paved parking pads with electric hookups and a restroom with flush toilets. Monument Lake has gravel parking pads, no electric hookups and a restroom with flush toilets. Campsites at Monument Lake and Midway are arranged in a semi-circular pattern with each campground surrounding a large pond.

As dusk approached we were relaxing in our lawn chairs watching two alligators gliding through the water in the pond. When darkness finally settled in, the night sky was aglow with the numerous star formations seemingly floating through the blackness of space. The full moon rising added to the brightness of the night sky. The reflection of the sun on the moon’s surface was partially visible through a small patch of clouds gently floating through the night sky. The reflected light from the surface of the moon penetrated through the cloud cover producing brilliant shades of reddish pink colors. A fitting ending to our day.

Camping Fee: $10.00 per night with our Golden Age Pass.
Campsite: 10

Total miles traveled today: 147

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Naples, FL - 01/14/13

Monday – January 14, 2013

We departed the Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades National Park at 11:55 p.m. and arrived at my sister’s home in Naples, Florida at 4:50 p.m. We will spend the next two weeks at their home visiting with my sister and her husband.

My sister and her husband moved to Naples 22 years ago. When they first moved here, Naples was a very small quaint community that was a winter home to many of the homeowners. Today, Naples is a large sprawling urban community to a majority of year-round homeowners.

We always enjoy our wintertime visits to Naples. January is usually filled with sunny days and warm weather. Some of our favorite restaurants here are: P.F. Chang's China Bistro, The Fish House and Sushi-Thai.

P.F. Changs is a Chinese influenced restaurant that has an amazing décor with delicious menu choices.

The Fish House is located in Bonita Springs right next to a canal that flows out into the Gulf of Mexico. This restaurant serves up delicious fish sandwiches with generous size portions at very reasonable prices. Boaters are welcome and can tie up at the dock to enjoy lunch or dinner here.

The Sushi-Thai provides a variety of very tasty sushi rolls and sashimi delights. If you enjoy sushi or sashimi, this is the place to go!

Total miles traveled today: 163

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Royal Palm SP - 01/13/13

Sunday – January 13, 2013

This is our last day here at the Long Pine Key Campground at the Everglades National Park. It was a nice sunny day with the temperature in the mid 80’s, so we decided to visit Royal Palm State Park located within the Everglades National Park. This is a beautiful area with an abundance of wildlife. It was officially dedicated as Royal Palm State Park on November 23, 1916, and covers 4,000 acres.

The towering live oaks and royal palms in the middle of this endless prairie are home to a number of ferns, orchids and scores of other plants. Most interesting is how rare and tropical plants exist in this small patch in the Everglades. The slough that surrounds this hammock also provides protection against fires, leaving much of the vegetation well preserved. The establishment of Royal Palm State Park began the greater conservation efforts that would lead to the designation of the Everglades as a National Park.

Royal Palm State Park offers self-guided as well as ranger-guided tours. There are two nature trails: The Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. There are elevated walkways provided to view a variety of water birds, turtles, alligators and crocodiles. It is not unusual to see an alligator resting on the footpath blissfully ignoring the humans carefully walking around it. This is one of the few areas in Florida that you will see alligators and crocodiles inhabiting the same environment.

Water birds on the Anhinga Trail include: Egrets, Herons, Cormorants and Anhingas. The Anhinga is an interesting bird in that it completely submerges itself in the water to hunt for fish. It swims very fast underwater using its tail feathers as a rudder to change direction. Oftentimes, it will only raise its head and neck out of the water, keeping its body fully submerged in the water. Their feathers become so saturated with water that they must dry their wings first in order for them to fly. Therefore, you will see numerous Anhingas perched on tree branches or on the ground, with their wings fully extended, to dry their feathers.

As we were leaving the Anhinga Trail, two alligators, about six feet long, got into a violent confrontation with one another. It lasted only about 20 seconds, with one of the alligators receiving a nasty wound on its back. They separated a short distance from one another and then started to circle one another making low growling noises, until one of them swam off, ending the confrontation.

A violent ending to an interesting day at Royal Palm State Park.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Flamingo CG - 01/11/13

Friday – January 11, 2013

We continue our stay here in the Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida, enjoying sunny days with temperatures in the 80’s. We visited the Flamingo Campground late this afternoon. This campground is located 34 miles southwest of our campsite at the Long Pine Key Campground. The Flamingo campground is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Gulf of Mexico on the west.

The campsites at the Flamingo campground are located in open areas with little to no shade. There is tent camping only allowed on the grass area adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. A short distance inland there are additional campsites for tents and RV’s. The restroom facilities have flush toilets and showers. There are no electric or water hookups here except for the Loop "T" campsites which have electric hookups. The rules and regulations on the Flamingo Campground map state the Loop "T" campsites are for use by RV’s that are 24 feet or longer in length. However, during our visit we saw several pop-up and other styles of travel trailers that were much shorter than the 24-foot minimum limit. Loop "T" campsites can be reserved on the Reserve America website.

We met a very nice couple from Las Cruses, New Mexico traveling in a 2008 Casita Travel Trailer, the Freedom Deluxe model. They were camped in Loop "T" and we stopped to say hello. They have traveled extensively and during the husband’s working career, as an electrical engineer with the Raytheon Company, they had lived in Australia for 15 years on company business. They shared with us some of their adventures in their Casita to Alaska and to Mount Hood in Washington.

Darkness had set in during our return trip to our campsite at Long Pine Key. The speed limit on this section of the two-lane paved road is 55 mph. Because it was so dark we were traveling less than 50 mph as a precaution in case we encountered any wildlife on the road. Sure enough! We were traveling along when all of a sudden a large Blue Heron was standing there in the middle of the road. It’s color blended in perfectly with the pavement of the road. We were within a few feet of hitting the bird before I spotted it. Fortunately, there was no other traffic on the road and I was able to swerve toward the side of the road to avoid hitting it. We were relieved to arrive safely back at our campground without injury to any wildlife.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Long Pine Key CG - 01/07/13

Monday – January 7, 2013

Daytime temperatures in the high 70’s, sunny days, cool evenings, what’s not to like! We are totally enjoying this weather at the Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades National Park.

This past weekend there were a few campers with school-age children that made life kind of noisy around the campground. No big deal, just lasted for two nights. They all left Sunday afternoon; life around here is now very quiet and peaceful.

We are just relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Everglades National Park - 01/04/13

Friday – January 4, 2013

We awoke to another overcast sky, but a much warmer temperature in the high 60’s. We departed the rest area at milepost 238 in Ruskin, Florida at 7:45 a.m. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a hearty breakfast at the next exit. Refreshed, we continued on our journey to southern Florida.

By the time we reached Fort Meyers, Florida we had finally left the cold rainy weather behind us and were now enjoying a clear blue sky, with warm sunny weather.

We arrived at the Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades National Park at 2:20 p.m. This is one of our favorite campgrounds and we will spend 10 days here. This campground does not have electric or water hookups, so we must rely on solar power and our generator for electricity. The restrooms have flush toilets and are clean and well maintained.

We selected campsite #16 in Loop D for our stay. This is a very nice site that provides plenty of privacy from other campsites.

We were surprised to see how many campsites were available at this time of the year. When we stayed here in February 2012, there were also a lot of campsites available. We can only surmise that a lot of Snowbirds prefer private campgrounds with full hookups.

It is a bright sunny day with the temperature in the high 70’s. We are happy campers. We have finally arrived in warm weather!

Camping Fee: $8.00 per night with our Golden Age Pass.
Campsite: 16

Total miles traveled today: 287

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Cedar Key, FL - 01/03/13

Thursday - January 3, 2013

We departed the Eastbank Campground in Bainbridge, Georgia at 10:00 a.m. It was a cold rainy day with the temperature in the low 50’s. We decided we had enough of cold rainy weather and we would head to southern Florida to find warmer weather and sunshine.

Our first stop was Tony's Seafood Restaurant in Cedar Key, Florida. We arrived there at 3:20 p.m. after traveling 205 miles. This has become one of our favorite stops for Tony’s World Famous Clam Chowder. Our first visit was in January 2012. At that time you could buy fresh or frozen to take home. They also shipped frozen throughout the U.S. In September 2012, they introduced a concentrated 51-ounce canned version that requires the consumer to add cream and half-and-half to the concentrate. In February 2013, Publix will begin selling a smaller canned version of the concentrate.

Our second stop was a Florida Rest Area at milepost 238 in Ruskin, Florida.We arrived there at 7:00 p.m. after traveling another 162 miles. This rest area has nighttime security so we felt comfortable making this our home for the night. The sky was still overcast with a light rain falling. We settled in between a motorhome and a fifth-wheel trailer for a night of rest.

Total miles traveled today: 367

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Eastbank COE Campground - 01/02/13

Wednesday – January 2, 2013

We departed the Walmart in Mariana, Florida at 6:00 a.m. and made a quick stop for breakfast at a McDonalds a mile south of the Walmart on FL-71.

We arrived at the Eastbank Campground in Bainbridge, Georgia at 7:45 a.m. The campground host was kind enough to assign us to a lakeside campsite in Loop C. We will spend one night here to check the campground out for a future extended stay at a later date.

Eastbank Campground is located on Lake Seminole, which lies in Southern Georgia and Northern Florida. This is a C.O.E. campground with 63 RV campsites with electric and water hookups at each site. There are two restroom facilities with flush toilets and hot showers. One of the restrooms has four private showers with locking doors. They are located in the rear of the building. Loop A campsites are lakeside and have gravel base parking pads. Loop B campsites are located away from the lake and have paved parking pads. Loop C campsites are lakeside and have paved parking pads.

Argentine Ants are found in this area. They form very large colonies and are very difficult to control. They may try and get into your camper in large numbers. They are not known for painful bites.

Some ways to deter them are:

• Use an approved ant poison around your camper’s tires, jacks and levelers.
• Sprinkle kitchen cleanser around your camper’s tires, jacks and levelers.
• Apply Vaseline on electrical cord, cable TV wire and water hose at their entry point to camper.
• Vary the temperature in your camper.
• Avoid dampness in and around your camper.

Lake Seminole has 37,500 acres of water, 376 miles of shoreline, and over 22,000 acres of surrounding land. It was originally authorized as the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam Project by the River and Harbor Act of 1946. Jim Woodruff Lock was the first of three locks and dams constructed for navigation, hydro-power and recreation on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint River systems. Construction of the project began in 1947 and completed in 1957.

The area around Lake Seminole is rich in history, having been occupied by man for at least 10,000 years. Among other Native Americans, the Seminoles lived here until around 1825, and it is they for whom the lake is named. The Spanish and English have also occupied the land and fought battles, as described by the many historic markers throughout the area. Steamboats once kept the ports busy, and the area is still known for its agricultural production.

Camping Fee: $11.00 per night with our Golden Age Passport. Standard fee is $22.00 per night.
Campsite: 32

Total miles traveled today: 34

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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Happy New Year! - 01/01/13

Tuesday – January 1, 2013

We spent a leisurely day at our campsite on Monday, December 31, 2012. We decided we would have a Poboy sandwich at a local restaurant in the area. A google search led us to Tony's Restaurant in Chalmette, Louisiana, which was located about 10 miles from our campground. Online reviews provided high marks for their Poboy sandwiches. The reviewers were right on the mark with their comments. I had the shrimp Poboy and Sharon had the catfish Poboy. Tony’s really produces a fantastic tasting and large Poboy sandwich. We will definitely return to this restaurant on our next trip to the New Orleans area.

New Year’s eve was quite noisy with the sound of numerous fireworks exploding from nearby communities in close proximity to the campground. They continued on past midnight but did not bother us, since we were up anyway, watching the New Year’s eve celebrations on TV.

We departed St. Bernard State Park in Braithwaite, Louisiana this morning at 10:40 a.m. Our destination today is the Eastbank Campground in Bainbridge, Georgia. We learned about this C.O.E. campground from other campers while we were camping at the Ocean Pond campground in the Osceola National Forest in March 2012. Our plan is to check this campground out for a future extended stay at a later date.

Nightfall was upon us as we pulled into the eastbound rest area on I-10 in Florida at exit 133. They have a nighttime security guard stationed at this rest area; however, this rest area does not allow overnight parking. We did a google search on our Android Smartphone and found a 24-hour Walmart a few miles further east in Mariana, Florida at exit 142. This Walmart allows overnight RV parking. Upon our arrival at 7:10 p.m. there were three other RV’s settled in for the evening, so this would be our home too for the night.

Total miles traveled today: 332

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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