Got back too late from our day and then eating last night to write anything down. We left the Econo Cheap yesterday morning, and headed into the Everglades National Park. Where we were staying was only a few miles from the park entrance. The trip to the park entrance was through lush vegetable fields. We passed tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Squash harvest was in full swing and the fields were swarming with migrant pickers. I never saw a squash field with rows as far as the eye could see. It made my back hurt just thinking of those folks bending over putting squash in a bucket for hours at a time. We arrived at the park, paid our $10.00 (which was good fo r 7 days), and headed in to see what we could see. The main road lead to something called the Flamingo Visitors center, about 38 miles Southwest of the entrance. We rode through 38 miles of desolate marsh and arrived at Flamingo. It must have been pretty cool at one time, but now it is a bunch of derelict buildings. According to the ranger Wilma and Katrina really put the whammy on the place. It used to have a bar/restaurant, and nice cabins and motel like rooms you could stay in. All that’s left functional are some campgrounds and the marina/store. However, they still offer guided boat tours of the Mangrove Tangle Estuary nearby. We were about ½ hour away from the next boat trip so we bought some tickets and grabbed a little snack. They had nukeable pre-cooked food, beer, sodas, snacks, etc. I found a cool “Cup O Noodles” that all you do is add hot water to. That and a beer, and I was a happy camper. (cost all of $0.60) We powered down a few carbs, and joined the other folks for t he boat tour. The tour was 2 hours and narrated by a park naturalist. It was worth the price cause the group was small and you could ask any questions you wanted. We saw all manner of birds, alligators and crocodiles, along with numerous types of Mangrove and other swamp trees. After the boat tour, the naturalist suggested we head for the Anhinga Trail back near the entrance of the park. We rode back through the swamp to the suggested destination. Here we found a mile or so nature trail that was literally covered with wading birds, swimming birds, giant fish, turtles, alligators, you name it. All of the animals were seemingly unaffected by our presence, and Vickie nearly wore the camera out taking pictures. We stayed there till nearly dark. After that we had to get back to the Econo Cheap and the Rt. 1 Sunday night traffic was abominable. (Rt. 1 ran directly in front of our place) We finally got back (only to discover the cheap b_stards had turned off our AC while we were gone) and camped for a while to let the traffic clear. Then we headed next door for another shot at Sonny’s Barbecue, to try something different. Vickie had baby backs and I had pulled brisket, both were excellent. This morning we once again breakfasted from the not too deluxe continental breakfast, supplemented with 2 nice hunks of sweet cornbread doggy boxed from Sonny’s. We left Florida City and headed for Everglades City where we are now—I got us a reservation at something called the Captain’s Table Motel and Apartments. Along the way, we traveled up Rt. 936 out of Homestead. This passed through one after the other huge nurseries. We could not believe the nurseries on both sides of the highway as far as the eye could see. Now I know where all those plants and trees at The Lowes come from. We followed this road up until it intersected Rt. 41, the Tamiami Trail. This road heads due West toward the coast. The road is in abominable condition, the truck traffic has ruined it. We followed it across and stopped at another Everglades Park entrance called Sharks
Bay. We hiked another short nature trail (yes Wes and Vickie actually hiked a little) and saw some more interesting wildlife. Then we headed further West. Along the way there was this road that cut off 41 called the Loop Road in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I decided to take it. It was really a backcountry little lane and a half barely paved road through the boondocks, until—it turned to dirt. I told Vickie, this finally made it a real road trip when we ended up on a dirt road. Based on what the GPS told us, we still had a good piece to go on this road, but the sights were so good we forged ahead. The road literally had water on both sides, and every so often it would have these green stakes with an opening in the side brush and a vista on both sides of the native marsh. We saw so many birds, alligators, fish, and even a deer. It was worth the trip. Often we h ad to pull over to the side of the road so we could let another car pass in the opposite direction. By the time we were done, the Vette looked like a powdered sugar donut. We finally got to Everglades City, and had lunch at Susie’s Restaurant. What a quaint little place, and what good food. A killer fish sandwich for me and hand ground burger for Vickie. We went down to the Everglades Park entrance, and found out they had a boat tour titled “10,000 Island Tour” that went out after dolphins and manatees. We signed up for the 5:00 tour which included the sunset. We then left the park and checked into our place, which was great. The desk clerk told us we could use the boat wash to hose off the car so we did. We hung out for a little while at the motel (I wrote, and Vickie discovered a group of trained pelicans that she got to pose for numerous pictures) and then set out for the boat tour. It turned out to be great, with a beautiful view of the sunset over the Gulf. While returning to the dock a dolphin swam and frolicked alongside the tour boat. I got some great video footage of his performance along with the sunset. We had a nice dinner at the seafood restaurant next door, and crashed for the night. Tuesday A.M. we set off for my cousin’s place in Estero, near Ft. Meyers. We enjoyed driving up the coast through Naples etc. and arrived at Herb and Linda’s house in the early afternoon. They live in a fairly new gated community fairly typical of the retirement communities in this area. Very nice, and with minimal maintenance required. It never dawned on me till reading the local paper last night, how seasonal the population in Florida is. Linda was telling me this particular development (one of thousands in South Florida) has 1200 or so “doors” as they put it. In the non-winter months, the occupancy rate is less than 30%. This means the population here swings 70% winter to summer. Another big issue down here is water. They go so far as to pipe the waste water tre atment plant discharge into special piping used to water lawns etc. It really is a different world. We’ll be here for a couple days—plan to give the car a serious wash job, and then head on up the coast.
More later.
Wes and Vickie
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