Key Largo

Thursday, June 30 - This is where we are camping here.

Today we explored Key Largo, both on land and sea.  First thing this morning, after our trip out to the Circle K for Joe's morning soda, we drove over to the ticket office to find out our options for snorkeling. On the way, we encountered several huge crabs just waltzing across the parking lot in the campground.  Who knew there were parks where crabs roamed freely like this!?!

After careful consideration, I chickened out on the snorkeling (too much swimming, too high of seas since I tend to drink the ocean, and in my old age now get seasick).  So Joe went snorkeling, and I went out on the glass-bottomed boat.  Here's Joe getting ready for his outing.

And here's the boat I went out on.

The channel from this dock out to sea is very narrow because the water here is very shallow.  Mangrove trees, which are fascinating trees, line both sides of this channel.  They are the first defense against hurricanes because their root system absorbs a lot of the wind, and they also filter the salt out so the tree can absorb the water.  They are an essential part of the ecosystem here.

My boat was very comfortable, air-conditioned inside, with two big partitions of glass bottom.  I saw lots of beautiful fishes, and coral (which I will deal with later), a stingray with a 7-foot long tail, and even a huge turtle.

The pictures didn't turn out very good but we could see everything very clearly, and there was a "guide" who looked with us and identified what we were seeing.  The turtle was really a lucky sight.
  We headed back in, through the same narrow channel, and there was a lot of water traffic behind us, including jet skis as well as both small and large boats.

Joe said he saw a lot of really cool stuff too, and the snorkeling was very good.  He remembers more of the names of the fish than I do, but he really enjoyed his trip.  We went back to the RV and he showered off the ocean, then we drove into town for lunch.  We had been trying to hook up with Rick's cousin who lives down here and is involved with (founded) the Coral Reef Restoration Foundation, trying to restore coral reefs that were destroyed in the 90s by bacteria probably brought in from the Panama Canal on boats that destroyed the sea urchins, which ultimately destroyed the coral reef by depleting its food source.  Ken and Denise Nedimyer have been developing nurseries of the elkhorn coral which was almost completely destroyed, and Denise gave us a tour of their work area and explained what they are doing (successfully).  Their daughter has taken over their previous business, which is collecting and selling tropical fish, so we also got to see some of the tanks and aquariums she uses for that.  She had several lion fish in tanks, which is an invasive species here, and they catch any they find and usually kill them.   It was all very interesting.  We think John and Bridgette would really enjoy getting involved in this coral reef work if they ever find any spare time, so we have information to pass on to them.

AND THEN, we found the Holiday Inn where the African Queen is docked, and walked around there a little (it was sprinkling rain on us by then, so we didn't do this very long).

So we finally called it a day, and headed back to the campground so we could watch "And You Think You Can Dance," which Bridgette got me hooked on (Joe is a little less enthusiastic).  Tomorrow we move on to Key West.  I may have to have an umbrella drink there!

Biscayne National Park

Wednesday, June 29 - We had a few things still to do here before we left Homestead.  The first thing, we found the Military Surplus Store and bought 2 net shirts (expect a picture later).  We are now fully prepared to these pesky mosquitoes, if we just are smart enough to have all the gear on when we are exposed (which is just about all the time).  Then we drove back out to Biscayne National Park, which was established to prevent builders from putting up subdivisions in this beautiful country.  The park is 95% underwater, so we just walked around the boardwalk and checked out the visitor center.  We could see little fishes in the clear water (and big mosquitoes on our arms -- we left our new nets in the car).

Our next stop was the Homestead-Miami race track.  We went into the gift shop, and the clerk there graciously took us on a tour of the track -- we took the elevator up to the top and got to see the whole track from that viewpoint.  He said the elevation of the track is about 4 foot above sea level, and turns 3 and 4 are probably the highest points in Homestead.

This race track was built in 1995, with stimulus funds from the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  For any non-NASCAR readers, this track hosts the last race of the season, in November.  It would be fun to get to come here for that race some time.

From there we headed back to camp and got ready to leave.  We took the Card Sound Highway down to Key Largo, which parallels Hwy 1.  We were driving through a rain storm for these 20 miles so I didn't take any pictures.  Except for crossing one big bridge, we mostly drove between stands of mangrove trees lining the highway, with an occasional view of bay water on either side.  We are in the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park at Key Largo, which is a beautiful campground, surrounded by water.  They do scuba and snorkeling out of here, but we haven't committed to anything yet.  There are only 47 campsites here, and it is full, so we were very fortunate to have been able to reserve a spot here.  We got set up just before a thunderstorm hit here, so we didn't go exploring until after dinner.  We drove down to the beach, then drove around the town a little, and bought water shoes for each of us, since the beaches are rocky rather than sandy here.  We got back to camp just before it started to rain again, so we called it a day.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Flamingo Visitor Center, Everglades

Tuesday, June 28 - Today we finished the Everglades.  It was a 12-hour day, and we're tired, but we felt like we saw everything we needed to see, we went for a back country boat ride, and we walked several of the boardwalk trails to see the prairie, cypress domes, hardwood hammocks, campgrounds, ponds, birds and wildlife.

Here are some of the birds we saw:

In addition, we saw at least one osprey.  Most of these birds we were unable to identify, but there are lots and lots of birds here, and some are very pretty.  Our boat guide identified some, but we didn't try to keep up with that.

The Everglades is the only place in the world one can see both crocodiles and alligators.  And we saw both today, but not in the same body of water.  Our back country boat ride took us through the Buttonwood canal, and that's where we saw the crocs.  I think we saw 4 in total.  Here's a few pictures.  The last one was the only big one we saw.

 

This is the boat, and the canal.

He took us out to Whitewater Bay, where the saltwater and freshwater come together.  

We got lucky on the weather today.  It rained on us on the way to the Flamingo Visitor Center, but by the time the boat ride started, it had stopped, and the temperature probably stayed below 90.  Which was good, because Joe and I were in full safari regalia.

It has taken us all this time to get our full wardrobe, and we still need light-weight, long-sleeve shirts, but we finally did get mosquite nets for our heads.  We are both totally riddled with mosquito bites, and here's one of the havens for these little critters.

But today Joe came up with a new strategy.  Since supposedly mosquitoes can only travel up to 3 mph, he decided he would drive at least that, and I would steer, and he would take photos out his window.  We had some success with this, but we need to work on it more, since he got the front of the car in the photo.

This is one of the roads we traveled -- our kind of road.  Since he was safely in his full garb, he braved the elements and actually got out of the car to take these pictures.

We saved the side trips for the drive out, and we walked several boardwalks.  Here is a picture of the prairie here -- which has water flowing through it.  Also, the Everglades is not a swamp, because it does have moving water flowing through it. We learned that today. 

 

We have seen lots of huge grasshoppers in the last few days, and Joe got up close to one on the boardwalk.  He later found a different species of grasshopper, so that adds to today's wildlife.  The big one is the lubber grasshopper.

Our last hike was at the Royal Palm, which had lots of gators and turtles.  The gators here were a little aggressive, and we even heard one "growl" at another one.

 We saw several turtles grazing right next to the bank, and we also saw at least 3 different species of fish in these waters.  But the best was this soft-shelled turtle who decided to cross the sidewalk.

Finally, we left here and headed back to town, stopping on the way at a great fruit stand where we sampled lychee for the first time.  After a quick dinner at Panda Express, we drove out to the Miami-Homestead Motor Speedway (after getting on the wrong road first, heading 20 miles to Key Largo -- Joe made an illegal turnaround in the road construction so we didn't have to make the 20-mile trip just to turn around, since the racetrack was only 4 miles from where we started). 

AND THEN (see, Bridgette and John rubbed off on us), since we were close, we drove over to Biscayne National Park, but it was closed (since it was 8:00 p.m.), so we'll probably go back there tomorrow.  We finally got back to the RV, itching from mosquitoes, hot and tired.  And ready to do it all again tomorrow, just in a different place.  It was another good day.

Into the Everglades

Monday, June 27 - We braved the mosquitoes this morning and got unhooked, and got on the road about 10:00 (after I spent a couple hours on the blog).  We headed across Hwy 41 into the Big Cypress National Preserve on the north side of the road, and the Everglades National Park on the south side. 

We pulled into a picnic area across the road from a viewing center, and crossing the dirt road at the viewing center was this big, old gator.  He got tired and laid down about the time I got ready with the camera, but he was cooperative otherwise.  When we first spotted him, he was up on all 4 legs walking.

We drove down to Everglade City and stopped at the National Park Visitor Center there, and at a hardware store looking for mosquito nets for our heads (they were out, of course).  It was a nice little town with lots of airboats just waiting to take us for a ride, but we decided not to go out there (we may still have to do this).  Then we drove back up to Hwy 41 and continued on our way.  Our next stop was the HP Williams Viewing Center, which had a boardwalk area, but also there was a 15-mile loop road here that followed a river or canal.  So we unhooked the car and went exploring in the Explorer.  We saw lots of gators on this drive, probably about 20, but the most impressive was our second stop where there were 6 gators lying in the water.

We actually came back here and ate our lunch in the car while we watched them.  But along this drive we saw at least 3 gators up on the bank, and one slithered into the water as we watched.

We saw turtles on this drive, and lots of different kinds of birds.  We are not "birders" but it is easy to be interested in the wide variety of birds we've seen during the last two years. 

Our other interesting wildlife find was a raccoon.  He even stood up and looked at us, but the camera wasn't quite ready for his pose. This was our second raccoon today, and for the trip.

The everglades has many faces, and we think of it as a jungle with all the swamp growth and mangrove trees, but it also has huge clearings, that are very marshy.

 We passed what must be the smallest free-standing post office in the world here.  Didn't stop for literature but it would be interesting to know what year it was built.  Can't have too many people working here, I would think.

We finally left this area and headed on to Homestead (Florida City) where we will be spending the next two nights.  We drove 105 miles today, and it was all very interesting.  We continued to see alligators all day in the waterways along the highway, but we are still waiting to see our first panther.  The campground where we stayed last night had both panthers and bears in the area, but all we saw was a raccoon, several squirrels, and that alligator in the river there.  The campground we are now at is not too wonderful -- has lots of full-time residents which usually means a lot of junk around the trailers, but it will serve our purpose for the next two days while we explore the Everglades.  I made Joe take me back to the crossroads (18 miles) to the casino tonight, but we are now back from that trip, a little lighter in the wallet, unfortunately, and ready to go to bed.  Today was a good day!