Mar 15, 2013 - we are now officially swamp rats

Our next door neighbour in this RV park had given us a map of the Everglades National Park and that inspired us to make a day of it and check it out for ourselves. We had already done the airboat ride but wanted to see another section of the park and maybe get some hiking and kayaking in and see another alligator or two. The first trail in the park, Royal Palm, is a boardwalk over the Everglades floor which is swampy, wet, grassy and kinda dirty looking (the floor, not the boardwalk!). The boardwalk is about half a mile loop that has a...

Mar 25, 2012 - Day #33

Day #33, March 21, 2012, Wednesday: Not only does southern Florida get more affluent it gets more crowded! Provisioned up at Homestead and arrived Flamingo Campground in the Everglades at 3:30 and settled in for 4 days. Passed through some of the most intensive agriculture we'd seen, hundreds of workers harvesting vegies and were forced off the road while a convoy of unknown harvesters (like pea combines) passed by. Celebrated the southern most point on our journey with a wonderful supper & a lot of “Yellow Tail”. Great spot and we're...

Mar 25, 2012 - Day #34

Day #34, March 22, 2012, Thursday: Attended a guided tour this a.m. with a pleasant knowledgeable Park Ranger, good morning although very windy early on. Hiked several trails and pond locations later in the day. Learned both crocodiles and alligators inhabit this most southerly area of Florida, saw a big “croc” swimming through the Flamingo harbour area. Returned to the campsite around 6:30 to find the power off. Luckily for us we're OK on battery & the switchover occurred flawlessly. Some neighbours weren’t and had left their AC on. As I...

Jan 24, 2012 - January 15th

January 15th We were scheduled to leave today, but we asked and were allowed to remain one more day. Were afraid to move up to our next stop at Midway camp ground on US 41 in Big Cypress National Preserve, because of the holiday. There were many campers around the last few days. The side we were on was full the last few days . We were concerned that the Midway campground would be full when we got there and felt waiting a day would improve our chances of getting a site there. We had broke camp and were ready to leave or at least move to a...

Jan 24, 2012 - January 14th

January 14th It cooled off during the night and became quite windy. We needed to close all the windows around 6 o’clock in the morning. The day was cool, with the high reaching the upper 60’s. The evening was cool and Sally went in before dark. The fire we had was nice to sit by as there were no bugs to contend with. We took a walk this morning on a trail called Christian Point Trail. It was 1.6 miles one way and we walked out and back. The trail was quite scenic, but also quite muddy in places. We needed to clean our shoes upon returning....

Jan 24, 2012 - January 13th

January 13th OK Friday the 13th. The day night shade that goes over the entrance broke the string that makes it go up and down. It seems to be something we can repair when we get the string. It rained last night everything is wet. We rode our bikes back to the Bear lake trail. We walked the trail back to Bear Lake. It was 1.6 miles back. The mosquitoes were bad but bearable. When we got back to Bear Lake there were 4 guys back there fishing. They had been there since 7:30. They had caught red fish, black drum, and a channel catfish. They...

Jan 24, 2012 - January12th

January 12th Not a big day. We seemed to have a full Black tank so we dumped. It took about 45 minutes as we needed to break camp, dump, come back to our site and re level and do the things needed to be ready, like set up chairs hook up electric, ect. We did ride the bikes around the campground going about 3 miles. We also showered in the heated showers over on the other side of the campground.

Jan 24, 2012 - January 11th

January 11th Today we took Carolyn to the Fort Lauderdale airport for her return trip to Ohio. She got through the TSA chek point with no problems. Her flight from Cleveland to Dayton has been delayed severa; times though. It is getting late and we need to return to the campsite without the knowledge of her return to Dayton. Weather was good today with a high in the upper 70s. We stopped at Walmart on the way back and picked up a few items.

Jan 24, 2012 - January 10th

January 10 We started the day walking around the marina. We saw manatees, several large pelicans, crocodiles, and several crows that followed us and crowed about the dog. We then went back once again to Murzak pond where we saw the usual large variety and amount of water birds. We also saw a 5 ft alligator and an 18 inch alligator. We have been here quite a few times and this was the first time we have seen alligators. During the night Terry lost his last baby tooth. Yes it was a baby tooth and it just fell out while laying there ready to...

Jan 21, 2012 - January 9th

January 9 We drove up near the park entrance to visit a few sites. We started at Mahogany Hammock, an island of trees in the sea of wet grass. We stopped at another site that had a walkway and looked out over a sea of grass. We saw a large diamondback rattle snake in the road. It was about 4 feet long and injured. We stopped once again at Murzak pond and looked at the birds. There are a great variety of water birds here, as well as a variety of butterflies.

Jan 21, 2012 - January 8th

January 8 Another beautiful day. Temperature in upper 70s, clear blue sky. We walked the West Lake loop trail today. It was not long, about half a mile. We also walked around Eco pond and saw very many butterflies. There were many white small ones a variety of brown ones with some resembling Monarch butterflies. The flowers also had very many honey bees on them. We rode our bikes in the afternoon for the second day. We rode about 6 miles

Jan 21, 2012 - January 6th

January 6 Well, it’s starting to warm up, it was 68 today. We went up to the other end of the park road where we walked the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. The Anhinga Trail has many alligators. We must have seen 50 or more. There are a great variety of wading birds and several kinds of vultures. The Gumbo Limbo Trail has many gumbo limbo trees and usually you can see large colorful snails, but we didn’t see any today. It was a warm pleasant day with a high in low 70s.