The Q Chronicles #81-10

February 4, 2008 (Mon)
Englewood, FL to Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve (140/1859 miles)

The beautiful weather of the last few day continues. The sun was out and warm, making it unnecessary to wear our new Ramapo College sweatshirts as we walked over to Quail's Run condo book exchange shelves to exchange the last of the paperback books we'd brought south to recycle. We packed Q for the next leg of our trip and at about 9:30 (71°) we said farewell to Joy's mother and sister and started out  - with Q in a snit for having been left alone. He sputtered, bucked, spat and threatened to quit every time Mark pressed down on the accelerator. We stopped in the parking lot before pulling out onto SR 776, shut the engine off and quietly shared with him how important he is to us. That was all he needed. When we started him up again, he settled into a nice smooth quiet purr.

We stopped for groceries in Port Charlotte but decided to wait before getting gas. Big mistake! We could have gotten it for $2.99/gal. We paid $3.17 outside Naples, FL. We pulled into the Monument Lake campground at about 2:00, selected a site and settled in. Bob and Pat got here about 5:00. The sites we'd picked were on a road that sent a cloud of dust wafting our way every time a vehicle went by - not fun. So we moved. We are now at the end of the lake in an area we've not been before. It's really quite nice here with the lake and its resident alligator out Q's cab windows.

February 5, 2008 (Tue) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (2) - The fellow from next door stopped by this morning to ask about Mark's guitar playing. He and his wife are from North Carolina and have some interest in playing music while camping - but only enough interest to pack his dulcimer, not enough to take it out. He said he's never taken the time to learn how to play it. I guess it's going to take him a while longer. They were very interested in the Everglades when we told them that was our next stop. They might have gone on down there but for her health.

The rest of the day we just sat around reading and napping - and getting almost too much sun. The sun is good for keeping the battery charged up but not so good for northern winter bleached skin. The wind blew pretty hard all day reminding us of last year when we were blaming the wind for the trouble we were having with Q's refrigerator. It turned out to be the circuit board.

February 6, 2008 (Wed) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (3) - Monument Road, on which this campground is located, used to be the way former swamp dwellers got to their homes. Now the homes are gone and the road, blocked to "unauthorized" vehicles, is a twin track crushed coral "service" trail into the swamp. About a mile out, it joins a slightly better maintained road used by National Park Service swamp buggies - gasoline engine propelled platforms on huge wheels - for commuting to work locations and for tourist rides into the swamp. ATVs are also allowed to use it but we've never seen or heard any. We walked out Monument Road this morning and a way down the swamp buggy road. Along the way a hound dog wearing what looked like a radio collar joined us and followed us home. He wasn't much interested in us though. Fifteen minutes later he was gone - back out into the swamp?

We spent the rest of the day following what little shade there was around the campsite. Our sunburns were minimal but we thought a day out of the sun, wise. It was still quite windy today, so much so that we finally pulled the awning in to keep it from being destroyed. The wind calmed toward evening though, just as it had last night.

February 7, 2008 (Thu) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (4) - Again we must quote the immortal words of King George III on the day the US Decoration of Independence was signed. "Nothing of importance happened today."  We walked a mile or so out into the swamp in the morning and spent the rest of the day reading. It was quite windy during the day again - refreshing with the temperature hovering around 84° - and again it died down in the evening.

February 8, 2008 (Fri) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (5) - There's been increasingly more fog when we wake up each morning. We could barely see across the small lake this morning and by the time we took the second of our three times around the lake walk we couldn't see the other side at all. The sun burned it off very quickly though so that by the time we'd finished breakfast we could again see the distant trees out on the swamp plain.

The campground lost electricity during the night, maybe because of the fatal car crash out on US 41 near Turner road. This was only a miner inconvenience for us as we are completely self contained and would not have even known about it had the restroom not been closed. Apparently electric pumps supply the water and restrooms don't function very well without water! We've been supplementing our water supply all week be adding a gallon of water to our fresh water supply now and then so we are in good shape until we leave on Monday if necessary. We felt bad for the folks in tents though - the nearest water and restroom facility is eight miles East and that may be out too! The power was back on again just after noon.

February 9, 2008 (Sat) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (6) - This is a weekend. The campground should be jumping. Last year all the sites were full and there were several units parked in the overflow area. This year about half of the sites are empty. Is this because of the high price of gas? Don't know. Maybe it's normal.

Joy was talking with one of the campground hosts (volunteers) and learned that the park rangers are concerned about the alligators becoming aggressive. Apparently they (the alligators) are hanging out close to where campers are cooking their dinners and sometimes come up on the banks. Some have been captured and taken out of the area. She was told that more may be trapped today and taken away. We looked forward to watching. It didn't happen! Instead, we went to the regular Saturday night ranger campfire program at the amphitheater. It turned out to be a very interesting talk about the problems "invasive" plants and animals have on the ecosystem here in the Big Cypress National Preserve - and across the US. Invasive species are those that were not here prior to 1492 and are now spreading and overwhelming native species. Employing a Bingo type game card the young female ranger talked about several specific species.

February 10, 2008 (Sun) Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP (7) - We combined resources with Bob and Pat and had a special french toast breakfast this morning then spent the rest of the day just "hanging out". The sun was behind clouds a good deal of the day which reduced Q's solar panel's ability to generate electricity. By the time we went to bed the batteries were almost down to the system shutdown point but since we would be on the road tomorrow, we decided not to start up the engine to boost their charge.

Q041593 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress NP #16 dry $8.00 A (x7)