Still in Big Cypress NP - #71-07

February 13, 2007 (Tue) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - This campground is run by the National Park Service and up until a few years ago was free. So amenities are scarce. There is running water and flush toilets in the one rest room building but no hot showers. There is one communal outdoor cold water shower that one could use if modesty weren't a consideration. It's good that Q has shower facilities on-board. The only problem is an adequate water supply. We are solving that by carrying a one gallon jug when we go over the the rest room. That way we've been able to keep our fresh water tank topped off.

February 14, 2007 (Wed) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - The distance around Monument lake then out to the road and back is about a mile. We walked it three this morning before we took our showers and ate breakfast. That and walking the long way around the lake to the rest rooms once in a while was our exercise.

Our neighbors across the road left this morning so we pulled up stakes, so to speak, and moved across the road. Now we are right on the lake and our closest neighbor is a 6 foot alligator sunning himself on the bank. A big old turtle climbed up on a rock nearby at one point and when Mark went down to get a picture, a bee crawled between his toe and sandal and made his presence known. The bees, not the alligator, are keeping us away from the lake.

February 15, 2005 (Thu) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - Last night a pair of bicyclists, each with a small trailer, came into the campground. This morning Joy had a chance to talk with them. They are from San Diego, CA. It's not clear if they bicycled all the way here from there this time but they have peddled across the country in the past. They are on their way to the boat show in Miami.

Tuesday night the campground was full with 3 units in an overflow area. Last night there were several empty sites. Maybe about half the sites were empty at noon. There seem to be a lot of one nighters. We enjoy watching the rigs come and go. And adding to our camping pleasure this morning, a road crew with dump truck, scraper, roller and small scoop came in and began resurfacing the gravel road around the lake. It needed it. There were several pot holes that made walking after dark somewhat hazardous.

February 16, 2007 (Fri) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - It rained quite a bit last night which did a good job of turning the newly graded road into mud. It's packed down now that it has dried. Motor homes, trailers, pickups, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, and human feet have helped too.

Since we can't go 7 days without dumping our holding tanks we had to go out to the dump station (15 miles away) at least once. Today was the day. We went on into Everglades City (5 miles more) to look for a laundromat. None! Nor is there one in Chokoloskee, a small fishing village on an island (connected by a causeway) out in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh well, we'll be going through Homestead on Monday. There are several there. In the mean time hand washing a few things will have to do.

February 17, 2007 (Sat) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - It got down to 39° last night. That's cold for south Florida. In fact it set a record for this date. It did warm up during the day, 73°, but sitting outside was a bit uncomfortable with the brisk breeze. The campground wasn't quite full last night - one or two spaces stayed open - and a lot of units left this morning. But this afternoon they began to pile in. Right now there are six units in the overflow area. This is one of the few campgrounds we've been in that continue to let people in after the campground is "full".

The Ranger led campfire program tonight was about how Big Cypress has been, and continues to be, inspiration to artists. Very interesting. Joy was especially interested in how local native American textile design was influenced (Seminole patchwork). The young lady Ranger who gave the talk and slide show presentation was very knowledgeable and did quite a good job.

February 18, 2007 (Sun) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve - Just before sunrise this morning we watched a rather spectacular weather front came across the swamp. We first saw it as a strip of dark blue - we thought it was the tail edge of the cloudy overcast at first - exactly parallel to the horizon. As it came across the wind picked up considerably whipping up little whitecaps on the lake and it began to rain heavily. The rain didn't last long though and the sun finally came out but the wind continued to keep the water choppy all day. There were no alligators out sunning today! The refrigerator kept going out until we turned Q around to face into the wind. (Maybe that's the problem!)

The campground, as over full as it was last night, emptied out this morning leaving only a few RVs and a couple of tents scattered around the lake. In the middle of the afternoon a family of 7 pulled into a nearby RV site, set up a tent, put loud salsa music on their boom box, and loaded up the barbecue with something that smelled delicious. We enjoyed watching the kids. At about 5:00 they folded up their tent, loaded everything in their pickup and left. In the late afternoon a Newmar Mountain Aire (a BIG class A motor home, very scarce in this no hook-up campground) pulled up to register. They circled the lake several times and finally pulled in across the road from us. We watched in amazement the variety of passengers that went in and out over the next hour or so. We counted least 7 kids plus a couple of young adults.

Q035934 Monument Lake Campground, Big Cypress National Preserve #3 dry $8.00g B- (x6)