Beaver One's first trip to FL đ´đ
Welcome to Clearfield Florida! If you're unfamiliar, this is where the Phillies do their Spring Training. The girl in the front holding the baseball is Karilynn Bayus and it is her bachelorette party.
I have to give two thumbs up to Clearwater Beach. You would think that this is the kind of town in which no one could possibly park a camper van and not get hassled, but you'd be wrong. Here is Mike walking down Clearwater Beach towards the Wyndham hotel where the rest of the bachelorette party was staying.
Here is a photograph from Karilynn's window. She had a beautiful room on the 11th floor and once we got a look at the view we both wished that we could have a room that was this high too.
We all met at the Wyndham's outdoor bar and got lucky because the bartender recommended Crabby's Beachwalk Bar and Grill for dinner which we all enjoyed. As you can see, Karilynn wasted no time in getting a frozen beverage with her sister Colleen.
I had never been to a Spring Training game so this was extremely exciting for me. The only thing that I knew about it was that you had a lot better chance to get close to the players, and to see it all at a very reasonable price. Thank you so much to Katie Ruch who put all of the tickets on her credit card and trusted us to pay her back.
At the start of the game they gave a shout out to the late Roy Halladay. The fans loved it.
Here is a shot over the field. The stands were about half full, which was good by me. It meant that we didn't have to fight with people to get to the restrooms or to get snacks.
One of the nice features is that we got upgraded tickets to the Tiki Hut area. Unfortunately this didn't mean that our seats were shaded, but it did mean that we were next to the bullpen. This proved advantageous because at the 7th inning stretch I got to call down to one of the players and ask for a ball. Everyone who knows me knows I have a pretty big mouth so I just shouted down, "Can I get a ball for the Bride?" He smiled and threw one up to me. Another thing that many of you may know about me is that I don't exactly have ball zen, but that day all the stars aligned and I managed to catch it.
What I was not lucky enough to catch was an Oscar Meyer Wiener from the Philly Fanatic. Ever since I went to my very first game at the Palaestra I've wanted to catch one... no luck yet.
As a thank you for coming, Karilynn got us all adorable glittery flip flops. Everyone liked them so much that they all wore them to the game.
After the game we got into position to get some autographs. We managed four but I think Karilynn was most excited about this selfie. Man, is the Phillies new manager Gabe Kapler hot!!!
Next we headed to my Godparents' home in Coral Gables Florida. The lovely trees in front of their house are Mahogany trees. I had never seen them before but they are very lovely and provide shade for their balcony.
This is next to a grill in the complex. I put this in to illustrate why Mike and I could never live in a place that had a homeowners association. Seriously, what is up with number 4??
We took a walk around the complex and spotted this guy. He is a spinybacked orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis. He was chilling out on a wall by the pool. I think he had a pretty good idea of where was the best place to be in this weather.
Bea and Rich were kind enough to take us out to dinner. They chose a lovely dockside restaurant called Rum Runners. We sat right against the canal and watched boats pass by and the sun set. This crazy golf cart was parked out front. I think it gives you an idea of the socio-economics of this region!
Both Mike and I got the seafood pot pie. It was delicious! Our waitress was Emalea, she was lovely and I just want to wish her the best of luck as she signed up to join the Navy and will be heading to training next month. She wants to be a combat medic... what adventures she will see.
We had breakfast with my Godparents and they suggested that we go and see the Edison Ford house. I'm so glad that they did because Edison planted some truly astounding Banyan Trees, Ficus benghalensis, on the property. He also set up a beautiful cactus garden and area to grow and propagate native plants.
The reason he planted the Banyan Trees was because he was investigating a domestic source of rubber. Now you can see the connection between Edison and Ford! This is his laboratory; it is still in beautiful condition and I was very excited to view it.
Here is a picture of his distillation set-up.
And here is a photo of Mike standing next to the Edison statue in front of the Banyan Tree. This is the largest on the property and is 84 feet tall and 376 inches in circumference. It is the largest Banyan tree in the continental United States.
This was Thomas and Mina Edison's winter retreat until his death in 1931. It was built in 1885 and dubbed "Seminole Lodge". Edisonâs good friend Henry Ford purchased the adjoining property, "The Mangoes", in 1916. The entire complex is now known as the Edison Ford property.
Edison didn't just plant botanical items on his own property, he planted 1800 Royal Palms, Roystonia regia, between the downtown area of Fort Myers and his own home. Many of these gracious palms are over 75' tall, and I really enjoyed driving past them on McGregor Boulevard. These magnificent Royal Palms give Fort Myers its nickname, "the City of Palms."
After that we took one of my mom's recommendations and went to a U-pick tomato farmstand. My Mom and Dad had visited this farm while in Fort Myers one February after they retired.
The crazy thing is that when I look at these I think of my Mom's garden in July and August. Sometimes I think gosh I could really live here! And then Mike brings me back to reality and says, "It's February; I'll drop you off in July and you can tell me if you still feel the same way."
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Another thing about Florida is they might have the worst drivers we've seen anywhere in the United States. I'd love to tell you it's because a lot of old people retire down here but let me tell you, age knows no bounds in bad driving. I would swear that Florida has a law that says turn signals cannot be installed in vehicles and cutting across three lanes of traffic is perfectly acceptable. I wish you could put a sign on a vehicle that says "We cannot stop quickly and accommodate your idiotic driving".
In the morning we went to 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Reserve. We practically missed it as the parking lot was just a tiny area off the side of a busy highway, with very little signage. When we walked down the 1.5 mile dirt track we were blown away that this place has been saved.
They had an enormous 3-tiered observation deck with free viewing binoculars on them. You can see me in the background trying to scout out good birds to look at with our binoculars. The number of wading birds that are in this area don't vary all that much, but each time we see them is very exciting. We're really hoping to see the Wood Storks here, as they are in this area this time of year.
We arrived just after sun-up and all the birds abounded. Remember it wasn't warm enough for the gators to be around so the birds and fish reign! You can't see it in this photograph but there is a Green Heron fishing in this pond just to the left of the pond.
Here is a greater view from in front of the viewing tower. You can see that this wildlife refuge stretches as far as the eye can see. For these types of animals, a tiny square of land just doesn't cut it. They need wide areas to roam and hunt their prey.
On our way back down the trail it had warmed up enough that the alligators made their appearance. This one was vaguely reminiscent of Georgia when he sank down and I kayaked over him...
The refuge is home to so many other things too. This is an Orange Fritillary in full butterfly form in February. Sometimes Florida astounds me.
Next we stopped in at the Everglades 10,000 Islands Visitor Center. This place has absolutely nothing to do if you don't have a kayak. So we made arrangements to get one early tomorrow morning and booked a camping spot on Tiger Key. This will be a short 9-mile paddle and we'll get to say we kayaked in the Gulf of Mexico.
Since we're going to be kayaking and camping in the Everglades tomorrow we headed over to Big Cypress National Preserve today.
Unfortunately the park is a lot of driving but they do have a few boardwalk hikes that we can do. This environment has the most beautiful bromeliads I've ever seen. They were crowded into all of the trees. We also saw some strangler figs which are the first ones that Mike has ever seen.
At the end of the boardwalk we saw this beautiful Cooper's hawk fishing in the swamp.
Here is a picture of the pond that was at the end of the boardwalk hike. You can see all the little fish swimming around. Perfect snack size for this Cooper hawk.
Another interesting thing is that we saw the Southern terminus for the Florida trail. Some people do this trail as a precursor to the AT. It is a 1,100 mile through hike, making it almost perfect to do in one summer.... if only it weren't in Florida.
In Big Cypress National Preserve there is a particular section along the canal but the gators just love. It's right in front of one of the visitor centers and they bask on the clay banks. It's very cool to see so many of these big predators all in one place.
I have to say when we started this trip I didn't expect to learn so much about off-road vehicles. It seems that every new environment brings a new brand of off-road vehicle.
Since we have to be up early tomorrow, we decided to stay in the Big Cypress Campground. It was a nice spot around a large lake.
In the morning when we went to pack our kayak for our overnight trip, we found raccoon footprints all over the front! We've been warned that these pushy carnivores will steal your food and water if it is not properly stored. This prompted us to repack in a bear canister.
Another wonderful thing about kayaking out here is that we got to see so many Ospreys fishing. You can see that there is one sitting by its nest at the edge of this mangrove hammock.
It's funny that we didn't do any kayaking in in the first half of our trip and now we've done it twice! But I have to say that the 10,000 Islands area is a truly beautiful place to go out. You just have to be careful because, as you can see from this photo, the water can get very shallow at low tide. There were a couple of times when we both had to get out of the kayak so that we could get it over a particularly shallow section.
Welcome to our private beach on our private island. It's amazing how being completely alone and isolated can make one feel so wealthy.
Another thing that we were lucky about is that we were able to put our tents in at least some shade. So many other places on the island had 0% shade and, since all I wanted to do was curl up and read a book, shade was really important.
Here you can see the tents set up on the Gulf. We were both really surprised how much change there was between high and low tide. For half the time the water was about 8' in front of the tents; for the rest of the time there was a fascinating shallow mudflat that extended for about 150 yards.
After setting up our tents we noticed this slightly creepy spider crab. Someone had perched him up in the tree where he could look down over our campsite.
Here is an example of the amazing sea life that we were able to see in the sand flats off our camping spot.
Mike built up a wonderful coral fire ring. The wind was whipping through the campsite pretty solidly, so it was an important precaution even though we were making the fire on sand. We also got to use the fire starter that Mike's parents gave us for Christmas.
So while Mike walked around the island to collect firewood, I curled up on my blanket to read. Currently I'm reading the book Adrift by Steven Callahan about being lost at sea for 76 days. I'm really into my book so it takes three passes of the police boat to get my attention. I mean I was vaguely aware that he was there, because he had his blue light on, but just thought, "Boy this Ranger really takes his duty to check the islands seriously... three passes seems excessive." On his fourth pass I take notice and see that he is waving for me to come over. I put on my shoes and slog the 200 yards to his boat. which is sitting in the channel off our island. He shouts, "You Christine?" I nod. He then says, "Your kayak outfitter called you in as missing. Are you ok?" I am flabbergasted and tell him we are fine and I will work it out with them when we get back tomorrow. He gives a wave and speeds off. It's not until we get back that I realize two things... one, we were camped on the wrong island; we were on Lulu, a mile farther than Tiger; and two, the kayak company dragged that Ranger away from the Everglades staff party fish fry. đ§ I never got to see him to apologize for this, but then it wasn't our fault and it clearly made for a good story because all the Rangers knew.
In the evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset, not just a plain sunset but one with the green flash! I had never seen one anywhere except in the Caribbean, so I was very pleased that Mike got to see one with me.
After the sun went down I thought I might organize some of the photographs that we took of the animals we encountered today. The top left is a Florida cone sea snail, the bottom left is a mud crab, Dyspanopeus sayi, the bottom right is a baby Praying Mantis, and top right is the io moth caterpillar, Automeris io. I was so fascinated by this caterpillar that I failed to see his twin further down the tree. Don't worry, he made his presence abundantly known by spiking me through my pants and into my leg. He left me with caterpillar vomit on my pants and a rash that took hours to calm down. So, needless to say, don't pet this one...
In the morning we got up to watch the sun rise. You can see how much mud flat there is at low tide. The upside is that we were able to leave Lulu Island at the start of high tide, which means that once we are back in the channel the tide will help us along.
So here's the last story that I did not tell from last night... Mike and I made the fire you saw earlier, cooked hotdogs and just relaxed. The stars were lovely and we were quiet and just enjoying things before the moon came up. Mike was lying with his head in my lap when my sixth sense kicked in... something was wrong... I looked behind us and saw Mr. Raccoon. He was so close I could have petted him. I squeeked and he took off into the swamp. The next morning there were little raccoon prints all over camp and we saw him fishing for his breakfast as we took the kayak out. This is the wildest racoon I've ever seen. No trashcans for this trash panda.
After the Everglades, we needed to move quickly towards the Florida Keys because we need to be in Key West for our ferry to Dry Tortuga on March 3rd. There is a lot of craziness surrounding this trip that I will tell you all about in the next blog, but for now we are moving down the Keys which are SUPER non-friendly to campervans.
At the crocodile sanctuary we walked in this lovely butterfly garden. The Keys are home to so many endangered species that every green area is dedicated to saving one or another of them. The Saltwater Crocodile may be named in this refuge, but they also save the Schaus Swallowtail Butterfly, the Key Deer, the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit, the Key Largo Cotton Mouse, and the Key Largo Woodrat. I wish we had more time here on Key Largo, but we'll hit it on the way back.
Next we hit the Islamorada Brewing company. They rock!! Trust me, we're building this deck game when we get home.
Just across from the brewery was the most amazing Bass Pro store ever. They had the most lovely fishing boat there. It is the sister ship to the one Hemingway owned when he wrote Old Man and the Sea.
Then we left our mark on the Jenga set and went off to dinner.
At happy hour time Mike took me to Sparky's Landing. They were totaled by Hurricane Irma but are back up and running now. They had nice happy hour specials and we loved the water view. Here today. .. Dry Tortuga tomorrow.
