To The Great Outdoors - #51-09

Sunday February 6, 2005
Zachary Taylor Resort campground #23 w/e/s $20.25p C+

Flamingo, FL to Okeechobee, FL (239 miles) Q010507

Our stay in the Everglades has been an experiment in a way. Camping in Flamingo is dry, no hook ups, so Mark took the opportunity to see just how effective Q's solar panel is in keeping the batteries charged. Well, we went the whole 6 days using power normally without having to use the generator. (If we'd conserved we could have gone somewhat longer.) We reached the limit last night, though. We woke in the middle of the night to the sound of the low battery warning followed by all systems going dark - Q shut the coach power off completely. This wasn't a problem, we just turned over and went back to sleep, but we couldn't fold the bed away without power in the morning. Nor could we take showers. Since the campground quiet hours weren't over until after 8:00am, we left Flamingo (at 7:20, 60.5°) in night-time mode and didn't really start our day until we'd stopped at a road spur and fired up the generator. We got off for real at 8:40.

Laundry was our next high priority activity. But it was not to be. The laundromat in Homestead where we'd stopped on the way down was packed full of people - all machines in use. The story was the same all the way to Miami on US-1 at every Laundromat Henry could find. We did get some food shopping done though. The traffic through Miami could have been horrendous if it hadn't been Sunday. Even so it was bad and we were glad when it was behind us. Our campground guide told us that no reservations were accepted at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Not true! When we got there about noon it was full and booked into the near future, as were all the other campgrounds in the area. If it weren't for the desperate need to do laundry, we'd have headed for the Flying J truck stop north of Fort Pierce. Instead we headed West to Lake Okeechobee and the Zachary Taylor Resort where we've stayed before. Not the best of campgrounds but "any port in a storm". Joy was able to get several loads of laundry done. And there turned out to be an added bonus of a WiFi hotspot at our campsite so Mark was able to get on the internet and download our banking data and look for Costco and Camping World locations (none of either nearby).
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February 7, 2005 (Mon)
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park #18 w/e $13.20 B+

Okeechobee, FL to Okeechobee, FL (135 miles) Q010642

It's disorienting sometimes to open the curtains in the morning. For almost two weeks we've looked out on natural beauty. This morning it was a big class A motorhome 10 feet away out on either side, a big fifth wheel 20 feet away out our back door and the Finsters in a fifth wheel across the narrow road - not to mention lawn chairs, bicycles and cluttered picnic tables all around. It was good we weren't staying another night. After showers and breakfast we were off at 9:32, 73°. Our interim destination was Palm City where Jack, an old high school friend of Mark's and his wife Olive live. Henry helped us find a more direct route East than we'd traveled West yesterday (CR714 is not on our paper maps but it was really a very pleasant and scenic drive) but got very confused when we got near Jack and Olive's home in Palm City. After a some unproductive wandering around, we finally called Jack for directions. It turned out that the street sign into the condominium was missing. Henry got us there but we didn't know enough to turn in! We had a great visit with Jack and Olive - reminiscing and catching up - but it was far too short. We had a campground, space reserved (this time), and had to get there before 5:00 when the security gate is closed. We didn't make it - not because we started too late but because there was a huge traffic jam at the Flying J - too many vehicles, too little space to get around, and too many pumps out of service. A fueling stop that should have taken 15 minutes took over 45.

It was 5:20 but the gate into the state park was still open so we drove in. A sign indicated that the campground was down the dirt road ahead of us. The land here is absolutely flat and almost treeless. The road was dead straight and disappeared off into the distance. For three - it seemed like ten - miles that's all we saw except for some horses and cattle. There wasn't a car, truck or RV going in either direction. Except for the tropical plants and an occasional palm tree, we might well have been driving across the Oklahoma in the late 1800s. Finally off in the distance we could see what looked like some trees and the end of the road. Great, we'd made it. Wrong. It was only a right angle turn and around the bend, more dirt road stretching on out of sight. A mile later or so later we reached the campground - and a traffic jam! 2 motor homes with towed vehicles and a fifth wheel were lined up trying to get in. As we waited our turn the campground host explained that this is a group that will be leaving their rigs here and going on a cruise. A cruise? In the middle of nowhere, no water in sight? Maybe we'll learn more later
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February 08, 2005 (Tue)
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (day 2)

This morning we took our bicycles out exploring. There are several roads/trails out into the prairie and nearby swamp but none are suitable for bicycles like ours with narrow tires - too sandy. (there are signs forbidding motorized vehicles too.) After trying a couple of them we rode out the entrance road to the gate, instead. Henry's maps show this area gridded off with roads with street names. We saw no indication of any roads! We speculated about how this may have been the site of one of those land sale scams in the past. It's amazing how flat this country is and how uneventful the scenery. There is a building, a small house, upon which a huge live oak tree fell some time ago - years. We wondered what the story was - whether the occupants had left before or after the tree fell.
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February 9, 2005 (Wed)
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (day 3)

For excitement today we walked out into the prairie - two miles out one of the straight flat sandy roads/trails we tried on our bicycles yesterday. We imagined ourselves being early pioneers walking across the plains and realizing how they must have felt picking a goal in the distance and thinking it wasn't getting any closer no matter how long they walked. We were at it for only a couple of hours, they were at it for months. Wildlife wasn't plentiful but it was there - white and glossy ibis, great white herons, great blue herons, anhingas (there must have been fairly deep water out there), egrets, hawks, turkey vultures, and the ever popular alligator. We also took a half mile (or so) loop trail through the hammock (woods) near the campground and saw white tail deer scamper off onto the trees, raccoon, and several small birds (including robins). As I was writing this, we heard a couple of owls talking with one another. At times it was almost as if they were arguing - loudly.

This evening, before stowing our bicycles for traveling tomorrow, we went for a sunset ride - again out into the prairie - there is nothing else here to ride out into! It was very refreshing after a hot day. Later on we walked out to see the most spectacular sky display. Because we were so far away from civilization, there were no distant lights to compete with stars. This has been a very nice place to camp. We will probably come back again sometime.
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February 10, 2005 (Thu)
The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Gulf Resort #440 Oak Cove Rd w/e/s A+

Okeechobee, FL to Titusville, FL (150 miles) Q01792

Well here we are again at The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Golf Resort. We tried to make reservations at several campgrounds for the weekend but all were full - apparently because of the Daytona 500 car race and reduced facilities from hurricane damage. We probably could have stayed at Kissimmee Prairie Reserve State Park but decided to take the opportunity to see Mike and Dorcas again before we headed North.

We were up early this morning - in time to see a beautiful sunrise over the prairie out our dining room window. We breakfasted, showered, dumped and were off by 8:00 (55.4°). Mark had tried to shorten our route by over riding Henry's directions. The short cut turned out to be a private sandy dirt road where we almost got stuck. Henry knew better this time! We got off I-95 at Vero Beach to do some discount mall shopping. It turned out to be a very congested area - there was a whole strip of malls, one right after another - but we had some success (and failure). We got here at about 3:17, set up and went looking for Dorcas and Mike.