Florida, finally...

The night before we hit Titusville, we stayed at a campground in Homosassa Springs on the west side of Florida a bit north of St Petersburg.  Along the road from the campground is a reserve area that caters mostly to Manatees, with hot springs that are maintained with constant temperatures, just for the mammals.  Manatees are protected here, and there are lots of rules and regulations to be followed when near them.  These, so ugly they're cute,

Manatee

Fox

sea cows are slow moving vegetarians that are often hurt or killed by boat propellers.  Thermal plants must maintain a constant temperature in their discharge water when the manatees are present because they can't handle the cold. They have a rather large assortment of other critters including the rare Florida Panther.

Florida Panther

Finally in Titusville, we have booked ourselves booked into the KOA in Mims, just north of where our boat is, for the month, works out pretty cheap per day.  We tried to get in at a few other places that were a bit nicer, but they were all booked up.  KOA was the last spot.  From here we can take side trips, whether a couple days or more and know we have a spot to come back to.  We spent quite a bit of time the first few days cleaning Needfull Things up, she wasn't too bad this time, they didn't get any hurricane weather here over the summer so she just had some green slimy stuff on the outside instead of lots.  I also found a chicken bone and a bean, kept looking for the rice to go with it...We run a dehumidifier inside which really makes her stay dry.  No leaks, no catastrophes, all good, well... except that I burned the tops of my feet, first time out in the sun while cleaning the topside - what was I thinking, ...not to put sunscreen on my feet......I did wear a hat and long sleeves...

All shiny and clean again

Of course a trip to Florida wouldn't be complete without viewing a rocket launch.  This one was at 2 am... yes, we're a bit weird, but we did get up and go see it.  It was the SpaceX one that was unmanned and made it to the ISS and back safely.  The testing is for the upcoming resumption of manned flights leaving from Florida.  It is always amazing to watch them.

Jenna, what is it??

There is lovely little park not far from our trailer, that has a couple small lakes with trails around them, as well on one side of the park is probably 6 or 7 fields with 4 ball diamonds in each, all professionally kept, lines, red infields... some small fields, some large.  There was a womens' college fastball game going on that we watched about half of.  They were very good.

Small black blob in the water is an alligator

said alligator

Couldn't wait to get back out to our favourite beach to walk - the Canaveral National Seashore.  We can never tire of being out there, the waves, the birds, I could take a million photos of waves and birds.... well I think I'm getting close to that...

Never get tired of this view

Next up is the Daytona Bike week, we didn't participate, but there were a lot of bikes around for the week.   We are less than an hours drive from Daytona. Some times it sounded like a rocket going up as hordes of bikes would ride through town on routes that would be a circle from where they started or ended at a bar... There is a huge schedule of events during the week, mostly sponsored by Harley Davidson, though I think some folks do some of the events, then just go riding.  We met people from Ontario that mostly come down this week to do just that and get out of the snow. The Daytona 500 was over before we got here this year, though not sure if we'd have gone to it.

Flamingo

We did go for a few days to the Everglades National Park.  There are only two roads in the park, with a few trails or canoe trails off of these two roads.  The first road we went on goes from a town called Homestead, west of Miami into the park and kind of dissects the park down to the southern tip of Florida at Flamingo and the visitors centre there.  We stayed in a campground not far from the entrance which was very nice, had a pine trees all around very well space out spots - (see the blog photo at the top).  You could hardly see you're neighbour.  Of course, we have picked the two hottest days so far in Florida this year to be there - in a water invested area.  Bugs weren't too bad at our campground, but in other places in the evening that wasn't the case.  The first night was a walk with the ranger after dark at a near by trail.  There were young alligators about 2 months old, calling for their momma, large alligators becoming very active, as that's when they hunt, and its also the beginning of mating season.  There was lots of activity that's for sure.  I didn't take my camera - but with all the flashlights I could have, darn it.

coastal prairie trail

Next morning we went down to Flamingo and walked along the coastal prairie trail - rightly named.  Not 100 feet from the coast it was like walking out on the prairies somewhere, then along the coast was beautiful mangroves, spiders and bugs.

view through the mangroves

The visitor centre here was pretty beat up by Hurricane Irma, but is in the process of being restored, portable trailers are being used as the centre for now.  There was also houseboat rentals, small fishing boat rentals available and a large tour boat taking folks out into the glades.  Oh, and a resident alligator.

posing for me

To get to the rest of the park you have to go out at Homestead head north then turn left onto another highway that goes from Miami over to Naples along the northern edge of the park.

Up there we went for a ride on one of those cool airboats, like the one in the picture.  Since Gentle Ben days, I thought that would be a fun thing to do.  We went flying out just like in the shows, swerving back and forth along the open spaces between the sawgrass.  On our way back, he slowed and talked about how the everglades work - that a river flows from Lake Okeechobee that's 60 miles wide by 100 miles long to the ocean at the south of Florida.  Its slow moving, maybe about 1 mile an hour, but ever flowing and that is what keeps the everglades alive.  Keeps Miamians alive with water too, as they have discovered over time, that this slow water flow also fills the aquifer that supplies the cities.  The slow flowing water filters through the limestone and fills the aquifer that the everglades sits on. They are now doing billions of dollars worth of remediation work to get more water flowing down this sheet.  This work is helping as they are seeing an increase in the flora, fauna and reptiles, bugs, bees that inhabit the park. 
On our return to the dock, the tour guide was talking about as it was so hot today the alligators were staying out of the excessive heat so that's why we weren't seeing any.  Then this fellow just swims out of the grass and towards us, then along side us and turns and watches us go.... almost robotic like...hmmm

 

robotic???

The next day we moved on to the other side of the park but not before going back along the trail we had walked in the dark.  What a difference - there were lots of birds living creatures that we hadn't seen in the dark, including a honey bee landing on a lily pad flower.  Saw an egret nest with chicks in it too. 

We drove over to Chocoloskee Island just south of Everglades City and found a campsite for the night.  We listened to another park ranger talk about the park, interesting fellow.  Also talked about a the Marsh Trail to go to at 7 pm where birds come in for the sunset.  Off we go to explore some of the area, and stopped at Big Cypress Boardwalk to see what we can see.  The neat thing about this park is that everywhere we have stopped has a different ecosystem.  From prairies, to swamp areas, to tree groves, to coastal mangroves.  This boardwalk, which most of the trails are boardwalks, is different again.  An alligator sits in the ditch by the side of the road, right behind where we park.  He was still there when we got back...

Big Cypress 

A claw??

Along the walk we would see big cypress trees growing out of water, it felt like walking through a rain forest.  One cypress had a strangler fig around it that made it look like the tree was being picked up by something with huge claws... At the end of the walk was a small pond closed in around the edges with shrubbery, trees and whatnot.  An Anhinga had just caught a fish and was beating it on the branch it was sitting on, over and over and over again. 

It must be dead by now...

From there we went to Marco Island for a quick dinner to make sure that we would be back in time for the bird show at Marsh Trail.  Marco Island is a busy place, and mostly high end.  The island was once like the rest of the everglades, but they decided to build it up and put in hotels and homes.  They had to build up the island with dirt/sand to get it high enough above sea level and in doing so I think everyone has a canal out back of their place.  A lot of Florida was built this way.

We got back to Marsh Trail in plenty of time.  What is to happen is that thousands of egrets come here every night as the sun goes down to roost in a specific set of trees.  This rookery has been here for many a year and we were not disappointed.  The marsh around the lookout tower we were on filled with all types of water birds, but only the egrets swarmed to the trees as the sun was going down.  It was a beautiful sight, and noisy with bird chatter, they were likely talking about where the best fishing was that day, or who had the biggest fish, egrets running in to others they hadn't seen in ages.....  Just as the sun set, hundreds more flew in from all directions until the trees were white with birds.  Amazing...

Egret rookery

The next day we headed north a bit to try and find some cooler than 32 degree weather and found it at a place called Frostproof, Florida.  Friends we had met in the sailing world, now also land yachting, have a place there in ... you guessed it... a 55+ community.  We stayed there for a night to visit with them.  Really nice place, can see why they got hooked.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, then had a lovely dinner with them at their spot. 

There is a resident Sandhill Crane that walks the campground regularly, they aren't sure why, whether looking for his long lost mate or just likes campgrounds.

We returned to our campsite in Mims the next day, just as the weather is starting to cool abit, thankfully.  The day after we spent the afternoon at our favourite beach... can't tire of the views...

Til next time...... happy Spring

February 25

February 23,2019

After Yuma we headed on towards Tucson in Arizona passing lots of Cacti, tumble weed and huge dairy farms.  I can’t believe the size of the herds of the cows, and the amount of milk that must come out of that area in a day.  There were hundreds and hundreds of cows, perhaps thousands. We arrived into Tucson early afternoon and stopped at a campground beside the Interstate, then I went shopping at fabric stores, yippee, … a couple that a friend from home suggested and wasn’t disappointed.  I also got the last of the embroidery thread I have been searching for, now I can start cross stitching as we drive.

After Tucson we passed Apache Pass and Fort Bowie, we didn’t stop but were amazed at the orchards of Pecan and Pistachio trees.  The entire valley was blanketed in these trees, all leafless for the time being, but I don’t think it will be long before they are green again as spring is fast approaching down south.  I read that they shake the trunks of the trees to get the pecans down, and it is an amazing sensation as the earth feels like it moves with the thunderous volumes of pecans falling.

Tethered Aerostat Radar System

 We were through New Mexico before we knew it.  This state is one that we want to come back to and explore, next time.  We moved into Texas, more cacti, all different sorts, Al even saw a roadrunner.  We spent the night ‘down in a west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl’… A much bigger town now.  The ad for the campground said it was a country setting in the city – ha, right next to a lot of semi trailer containers stacked two high, they did cut the sound and sites from the Interstate at least. 

I think we are over the continental divide, hard to tell when its nothing but flat out. 

 We’ve been going through passes, well actually between a few bumps, not really mountains passes that are up around 1200-1300 metres, however, it is hard to tell being so high on the plains.

We detoured off the Interstate and down towards the Mexican border to the Seminole Canyon State Park.  There are pictographs on the canyon walls that one can go on a tour to see, that’s the only way the public can see them; no tours the day we were there.  We walked around the rim of the canyon before the sun went down, very pretty.  A gorgeous sunset happened on our return to camp just as the full moon was showing up.  I lit up a bonfire this night, it was lovely, until it got just too cool out with the wind, took a bit to warm up after.  The wind was quite blustery, and as it was hitting us broadside and set off a whole bunch of new sounds that the trailer made that we had to get used to before we could sleep.

Stopped by The Alamo in San Antoinio, which wasn’t exactly easy while hauling a trailer.  Most of the public parking lots didn’t allow trailers, the churches were supposed to be able to take RVs but we couldn’t find any spots big enough. 

One lot wanted $50 for anything less than 4 hours, and many dollars for additional hours – I gave up listening after the $50 part.  We finally found 2 street parking spots just as it started to rain.  Only had enough quarters to get both spots for just over an hour, so off we trundled.   The Alamo is a museum now and run by the state.  They have a short documentary telling its history, the fall of The Alamo, ‘Remember the Alamo’.  It has become a spot of reverence to remember those that fell there – all the rebels that died including Davey Crockett.

We got sidetracked in  ‘Houston, we’ve got a problem’ space centre.  Not as big as the one at the Kennedy Space Centre, but still interesting.  They have the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour there atop the aircraft that piggy backed the shuttles back to Florida, the last Saturn IV rocket that was supposed to be for the next Apollo expedition that never happened. All of which one can wander around and through. There is a lot of astronaut training done there, including training to get ready to spend time on the International Space Centre.  I watched a fellow who is training a robot to walk to a truck and open its door.  There is a Canadian on the ISS with 2 others right now, with more astronaut to go up soon, launching from Russia. 

That’s the only place that those astronauts can go up from right now.  They run and control ISS from Houston. There is a duplicate ISS control room, in every way, where trainees go through the rigours of learning how to deal with every aspect of running the ISS, planning the astronauts every minute of every day from when they get up to going to sleep and all the intricacies of the ISS operation. 

A couple nights later we parked in a friends’ driveway for a night in Diamondhead, Mississippi.  Before we got

Mississippi area

to their place and just out of Baton Rouge, we drove for many miles on a raised highway, up out of the bayou.  It was quite neat. 

This couple were the first cruisers we met when we started our journey to Florida in our little sailboat and we have stayed in contact with them since.  We sailed the same route until we got to New York city then we parted on different routes and time tables.  This was the first time we’d seen them since then, we finally caught up with them….

We went with them and joined two other couples to enjoy one of the gazillion Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. Oh my goodness, the place is a crazy happening place during this time.  We were in the Garden District, probably a good thing we weren’t in the French Quarter, it is a lot more crazy there and not very safe during Mardi Gras, they say.

We wandered along St Charles boulevard which was lined with lawn chairs and ladders with little box seats on top for young kids to sit, spots saved all along the way.  Parades have been happening most days since January and will continue until Fat Tuesday in March.  The trees were even adorned with loads of bead necklaces, bits of broken ones all over the place.  What a mess at the end of it all.  Groups of people will gather and make there dinners right on the boulevard.  We had a dinner at a diner before the parades started, then headed back out to find a spot to see the festivities.  The first parade was put on by the Krewe of Oshun, the next by the Krewe of Cleopatra. 

trees adorned with beads

Shriners on Harleys

A Krewe is a social organization that puts on a parade or ball for the carnival season. It originated in Alabama, and some other states around the gulf do the same, but now the Krewe has mostly become synonymous with Marti Gras.  Each Krewe member has to pay a fee to belong to the group, which can range from a small amount to thousands. A Krewe can be specific in their membership like the two saw, The Krewe of Oshun, an all black Krewe and the Krewe of Cleopatra, an all woman one.  The fees pay for decorating the floats, or they decorate

Krewe of Cleopatra

them themselves depending on the size of the Krewe membership. 

Any members that ride the floats have to buy their own ‘throws’ (beads, and such) to toss from the float.  The floats we saw were double deckered and loaded with upwards of 20 people on each deck, so you can imagine the bling that was flying through the air.  You had to pay attention or one could get bonked on the head.

Us, with our bling

The floats were of different themes within each Krewe, mostly from cartoon characters or movies and folks on one of the two levels were heaving bead necklaces and other bits of plastic toys to the crowds.  I caught way too many necklaces, though some were kind of neat.  As we were leaving, I draped a few of them over unsuspecting lawn chairs, or gave them away before we got back to the car.  If one wanted one could pay a price and ride on the floats, though you also have to pay for the beads you want to toss mind you.  The parades we saw had about 15 to 20 floats with the route being about 6 miles long. In between each float there would a huge school band complete with their cheer leaders or dancing baton twirling girls dressed to the T. Interspersed amongst the band was a few folks walking on stilts, dancers, horse and riders, and the Shriners on huge Harley Davidsons.  There were some very young kids in the bands trying hard to keep up.  One little fellow I saw was supposed to be playing the trumpet – all 3 feet of him – he had his cheeks puffed out like Louie Armstrong, but the mouthpiece was slipping all over and around his mouth, so he wasn’t actually making any sound.  He was done.  It was a fun night, but happy to head back home to our friends place and our cozy little trailer.

We moved on to Alabama, passing along the ocean front areas where Hurricane Katrina came ashore.  People are re-building pretty much right where homes were whooshed off their foundations.  It looks like the pillars they set the houses on are taller, but that’s about all that’s different; homes and businesses are still right off the beach.

There are some beautiful old homes that did and have survived hurricanes along with many big old trees.  It was foggy both days that we were along the beach area, but what we could see was lovely.  They clean up the beach regularly obviously and not too many people out these days, but I’m sure when its nice its packed. 

It is becoming harder to find campgrounds campsites as we move further south, those darn snowbirds….  We seem to get the last available site when I phone in or there are no campsites at all.  Found out that in Florida though, if there is no sign that says ‘no overnight camping’ we can park there for the night…. Good to know.

We passed by where Hurricane Michael hit Florida last fall.  The place was flattened to say the least.  There are miles of pine trees that were snapped off like toothpicks, the few still standing have had their branches stripped of their needles.  The wind had ripped through the area at over 150 mph, the surge washed out parts of the highway and that are being repaired though aren’t finished so there were some very bumpy sections.  I don’t think there was any place that wasn’t seriously damaged in the event.  There are many slabs of cement where a house stood, but, has now been demolished.  There are lots of RVs by those empty slabs, not sure if they are waiting for their homes to be rebuilt or not. RV dealers gave these folks great deals on the RVs for a place to live until their homes are rebuilt.  Some homes are being repaired, but those look in sad shape.  There are a few businesses that have been put back together and open.  A very sad situation, yet people stay.

We are in Florida now and should be in Titusville tomorrow, to see our cute little sailboat.  I am sure it will need a good cleaning to make her pretty in hopes someone will soon buy her…

Talk again soon….