The Sunshine State
Florida delivered all we expected from it: warmth, swamps, swamp creatures, and visits with friends and family. Oh, and Cuban food; that was pretty awesome too! And as a bonus we got to use all our toys: kayaks, mountain bikes, road bikes, and fishing poles (well, we put the poles in our hands with bait and tackle on the line and threw that in the water…but that was the extent of their “use.” We suck at fishing!).
We did not boil this little feisty one.
We dropped in from Valdosta, Georgia so we missed the panhandle, headed down the west side all the way to Big Cypress National Preserve, which abuts the Everglades on the northwest side. Our stay in Big Cypress afforded us our first glimpse of Everglades National Park when we rode our mountain bikes on the Shark Valley loop road. This is a less visited area in the northern part of the Everglades, but well worth a few hours of your time. We saw plenty of prehistoric giant lizards lazing around, birds of all shapes and sizes, some giant turtles, and we even saved a crawdad’s life from an oncoming trolley as we caught it attempting to cross the road (it probably became gator chow after we threw it back in the water. You know, circle of life and all…)!
Into the mangroves...you can just hear the "Deliverance" banjo playing, can't you?
To get a little closer to the aquatic critters, we dropped our kayaks in the water at Halfway Creek in Big Cypress. As we were putting the boats in the water, the Park Rangers gave us a little excitement as we observed them detain and question a gentleman who had apparently been fishing without a license. So, in case you thought they never check…don't underestimate National Park law enforcement rangers! Once we were underway in our boats, the first mile led down a canal, where we saw a couple of guys catching fish about every 30 seconds or so. Once again we shook our heads at our own lack of fishing prowess. The canal led to a series of water trails from small pond to small pond, finally connecting to a mangrove trail where the it significantly narrowed.
As we were innocently paddling between ponds, Dean noticed the coloring in the water below his boat suddenly change, and saw something move beneath him! Dawn watched with amusement as his boat rose about a foot out of the water. Dean had apparently surprised a manatee that decided it did not like the kayak that was passing over it, and its powerful tail flipper gave one flick that could have upended Dean into the gator infested waters! Once Dean’s heart rate returned to normal, we agreed that it was awesome to spot a manatee lumbering about the channels that connect the mangroves with the ocean. Kayaking in mangroves was a new experience as the mangrove forms a narrow tunnel of overhanging trees and vines. In many places your paddles only get in the way, and you have to propel yourself forward or back by grabbing vines and trees on either side or above the boats, while keeping an eye out for slithering creatures or beasts with big eyes and big teeth. We capped off our visit to Big Cypress with a road bike ride. It might have been the flattest road bike ride we’ve ever been on. Even from our bikes we could spot gators lounging along the side of the creek that paralleled the road.
Sure, it's all smiles till someone runs over an alligator!
An Anhinga (also called "snake-bird") air-drying its feathers after a swim.
The Everglades is big, so we headed around the east side of the national park to see the Long Pine Key and Flamingo areas on the south side of the Everglades. These two did not disappoint as they delivered more swamps full of life both beautiful and dangerous. The birds in the Everglades are magnificent. They are big, colorful, and plentiful. Even if you only visit to do birdwatching, it’s worth it. We were easily intrigued by the creepy critters under the surface, so once again we dropped the kayaks into the water. Armed with Florida fishing licenses, we dropped our lines in the water as we paddled around. This time it was Dawn’s turn to spot a creature from the swamps. As we were slowly making our way through shallow water, in her inimitable way, her voice suddenly pitched an octave or two higher as she declared, "there's a gator under my boat!" She then held her breath hoping her kayak would not scrape it as she glided over the top of about an 8-10 foot alligator that was lurking just about a foot or so under the surface. Dean was following and attempted to steer left of her path to avoid the prehistoric creature. But the channel was narrow, and all he accomplished was to pass just to the left of the gator’s head, which was barely under the surface of the water about one foot from the side of his boat. The gator thankfully remained motionless with open eyes, watching us glide by, and did not twitch or even blink (the humans might’ve been a bit twitchy!). Sorry – no pics to prove our close encounter with the giant leezard; we were both so focused on self-preservation that we forgot to take our cameras out! Just like the bears in Yosemite, we honestly did not seek out a close encounter with a dangerous, wild beast, so when it happens it is an adrenaline producing, frightening moment. Oh, and not to keep you in continued suspense: despite seeing lots of fish, some two or three feet long, we did not catch any, though we did have a couple of exciting snags on underwater plants! We're still counting fishing as a "win" though, as we did NOT catch any eels or snakes or anything else that would've required us to just launch the entire pole into the water and paddle in the opposite direction.
While in the Everglades we had one overcast / almost rainy day so we took the chance to visit Key Biscayne National Park on the coast southeast of Miami - it was a fun, underrated park. Had the weather been better (aka less windy), we'd have enjoyed putting the boats in the water and toodling around. Add it to the list of parks where others were catching fish but we just watched.
Posing on one of the bridges between Keys
After we had sated our desires to see aquatic wildlife of the prehistoric sort, we headed further south to the Florida Keys. We wanted to check out Key West, and since it turned out there was an RV Camp on the Key West Naval Air Station - we had no reason not to meander that direction. Basically, we traded prehistoric dinosaurs for their human equivalent as we ran into the retiree crowd out in full force! (Also, we're not mocking as it's basically a life goal to be retired loafers!) We also hoped to meet up with a couple of friends that would also be on vacation there. Our campsite at Key West was about 30 feet from the bay side of the keys, so we could easily drop our kayaks into the ocean to explore a little of the bay.
Kayaking around some smaller islands near Key West
Key West was not our normal "scene;" there were lots of people and very little ability to escape crowds. Since both of us had likely gone a bit feral in our travels in much of the vast unpopulated spaces in America, a crowded, touristy place felt slightly disorienting. The only time we used the truck after arriving was to restock groceries as Key West is best seen by bike or foot. You know you're not really constituted to be a tourist's-tourist when you see the long line of folks at the Southernmost Point of the US waiting their turn for a photo moment, look at each other, shake heads, take pics of other people from a distance, and pedal off to find someplace to watch birds wheel overhead. Mine! Mine! Mine! Or a bakery. We always like visiting bakeries and Key West did not disappoint. We also visited a fun butterfly sanctuary and had a great dinner out catching up with USMA buddy Diana and her wife Toby. They're doing some serious thinking of taking a year off, buying a truck and trailer, and traveling around this great country! So, we really had nothing to discuss over dinner...except that we're excited for them and we are really looking forward to reading their travel blog!
See, we “visited” the southernmost point! Yeah, no, we're not in the pic. Just off camera to the left is a long line of folks waiting their turn for a photo. Not. Our. Scene.
Luckily this gator had lockjaw or he would've bitten her head off!
After satisfying our curiosity about Key West, we made our way up east-central side of Florida. We opted to not drive all the way up to Orlando (more USMA buddies! yay!) and camped out overnight in Long Pine Key again. Saw more prehistoric critters on our morning run before we headed up the highway. And by highway, we mean toll road. And by toll road, we mean non-EZ-Pass reading, "toll-by- mail" license plate scanners; and wtf is up with every single road in Florida (even rural routes) having a toll? Had a great time re-connecting with Kaye and Landy in Orlando. (Side note - call up/text/send a note to your "old" roommates / classmates / workmates / or just plain ol' friends - and make time to visit them when you're passing through - and if you’re not passing through, go out of your way to do so - you won't regret it.)
We took John (Dawn's Dad) for a boat ride through the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. More gators!
In case you were sick of gator pics, here’s a sleeping owl
Post-Orlando, we were headed to Jacksonville to check in on Dawn's Dad and spend some time visiting with him. Dad even arranged for us to park the YOFOhome on the property of the Church where he has been an active member for over a decade (and no, lightning did not strike the YOFOhome!). We ate, we laughed, we ate some more, and retold and reheard stories - overall a great visit and a good way to cap off our visit to Florida. And, unlike the previous posts where we struggled to find stuff to do in the south...to quote one of our dinner companions, "Once you go south past Jacksonville, you're not in the South anymore." Next stop: Fun and friends in Georgia and South Carolina (ever heard of Congaree National Park? We hadn't either...) and we're eventually bound for Great Smokies National Park! Stay tuned...next blog out soon (well sooner than the time between the last one and this!).