QC91-12 Kissimmee Prairie

February 25, 2009 (Wed) Fort Pierce, FL to Kissimmee Prairie SP (93/2370 miles) - It was a very quiet night for a Walmart parking lot. No highway noise, no cars racing here and there and very few trucks. So quiet, in fact, that at one point we woke to the sound of running water. If we'd been at home, we would have been sure that a pipe had burst in the basement but that couldn't be in a motor home. The pump would be running. A look outside showed that it hadn't been raining although there was some water rivulets on the asphalt. It turned out that a nearby sprinkler head was broken and water was gushing out of it like a fountain. Q was parked directly over the storm sewer drain.

In the morning, our friend Jack picked us up at his house in Stuart and took us to the assisted living facility to visit Olive, then to lunch at one of their favorite Italian restaurants. Thanks, Jack. It was really good to see you both.

After two days in the congested bustle of the Florida east coast, transition to the interior was both stark and abrupt. Within just a couple of miles the landscape of chain stores, gas stations,and fast food restaurants becomes vast expanses of prairie, dotted here and there with lollipop shaped palm trees. This is an area of large cattle ranches and many of them are beginning to show signs of the recession and several are for sale. After miles and miles of seeing nothing but an occasional house - some barely visible in the distance at the ends of their incredibly long driveways - we came to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. The campground is some four miles into the prairie on a washboard rough (this time) dirt road. We were well shaken by the time we reached our campsite and well ready to kick back and relax.

February 26, 2009 (Thur) Kissimmee Prairie SP (2) 49/74° - Laundry was our first order of business when we got in last night. The machines here cost less than most laundromats and tend to be faster - except... There is only one washer and one drier. And the lady ahead of us had honed inefficiency to a very high level in order with the goal of spending all her retirement years standing in front of public laundry machines. We brought the wet laundry back to our campsite and hung it on a jury rigged clothes line. This morning it was wetter than when we'd hung it! Dew. And some was dirtier - from a dirty clothes line! Back to the machines we went and while they did what the open air could not, we took showers. For Mark it was a very pleasant change from Q's cramped water-restricted shower stall. For Joy it was not. She couldn't get any hot water in her shower! Not a good start for her day.

But for this it was a very pleasant day to sit and recover from the stress of the last few days. Although cool in the morning, the sun was warm enough for short sleeves and bare feet. The "breeze", as they call it down here in hurricane country, was a bit chilly when a cloud passed over and made it impossible for Mark to practice his guitar outside. It not only flipped the pages of his music book, but blew over the music stand itself.

February 27, 2009 (Fri) Kissimmee Prairie SP (3) 51/78° - As I sit here looking out our dining room window I can see Bob and Pat's motor home maybe 40 feet away across a mown grass "lawn". Beyond them are a couple of trees, some low tropical shrubs and miles and miles of flat prairie all the way to the horizon. The scene out the cab window is almost the same except that after a stretch of lawn across the road, there are 16 horse paddocks, some with horses (this is the equestrian part of the campground) and a hard-wood hammock (woods) a mile or so away. The scene out the back door is also similar but no paddocks and the trees are closer. There are two empty campsites out our living room window and beyond them a compost toilet. It's peaceful and relaxing here and enough away from others that Mark can play his guitar and Bob his banjo (alone or together) without disturbing people, being invited to jam session with them or to entertain at their campfires - all of which have happened and either ignored or politely declined.

Compost toilet? It's basically a high-tech outhouse - no water, no chemicals and surprisingly free of odor. It seems to serve this area of 15 campsites quite well, even on weekends, we hope, when the sites are full. There are more modern facilities about a quarter mile back in the "family" campground. The rest rooms there have flush toilets, hot showers (except for Joy's the other day) and laundry machines.

February 28, 2009 (Sat) Kissimmee Prairie SP (4) 53/82° - The stars in these remote areas are something to behold. In fact amateur astronomers come here from all over the state because the viewing is so good.  The last couple of nights have been cloudless and the sky brilliant with their display. The moon has been a bright crescent highlighting the faint image of dark side (the old moon in the new moon's arms) with Venus (or maybe Jupiter) hanging out nearby. Last night it (the moon) lay red on the horizon as we made our final potty run of the day.

One of the activities in this park is the guided swamp buggie tour of the prairie. We've been wanting to do it since we started coming here five years ago. Today we did. Our guide turned out to be the park manager himself - substituting for the regular guide who was unable to be here. He was very good and obviously loved what he was doing. On this 2 1/2 hour, 15 mile ride out into the 54,000 acre prairie we learned more about this ecosystem than we can possibly remember - and probably just enough to be incredibly boring if we tried. Alligators were scarce because of the dry conditions but in one pond (puddle?) we did see a mother with at least five babies. We stopped at one point where we could see nothing but prairie all the to the horizon for 360° around. We could see nothing man-made, except the buggie, in all that vast space - not even a phone tower. And the quiet was deafening. There were small hammocks here and there and a scattering of single palm trees - which are considered invasive and may be taken out in an effort to return the area to what it was like "before the Europeans came". Suffice it to say, it will be the experience of the trip - well worth doing again.

March 1, 2009 (Sun) Kissimmee Prairie SP (5) 50/65° - We had a cool but not uncomfortable bike ride over to the shower facility at about 7:00 this morning but by 9:00 the breeze had begun to pick up considerably. An hour later we were battening down to keep things from blowing away. The awning was already in but we stowed the chairs, the mat and the flags and even loaded the bikes onto the rack to hold them secure. Dust from the road blowing into our eyes made working outside all the more adventurous. Once in travel mode, except for the TV antenna which we left up, we hunkered down inside to wait it out. Q was faced into the "breeze" as he sat on the pad but we could feel the gusts as if being hit from the side. There were a few sprinkles of rain now and then but not enough to settle the dust that was blowing past the windows. It was an interesting few hours. Things settled down in the afternoon but it was still too windy for the campfire and s'mores we'd planned for late afternoon.

March 2, 2009 (Mon) Kissimmee Prairie SP (6) 42/66° - It was a cold night last night. We'd talked about bringing the featherbed down from the attic but never did. Instead, we piled on all the blankets we normally have available. They were more than enough. It's supposed to get even colder tonight, frost warnings in some areas, so we may have to rethink the featherbed.

Bob and Pat left for parts north and west early this morning. It was sad standing in the cold morning breeze watching their motor home move slowly down the road into the prairie. Thanks for your company these last two months, guys. It's been great sharing the adventure with you. See you again this summer.

The young lady in the office told us that site #1 was open and available for one night so we decided to move. It is right next to the facilities so we took advantage and did a laundry. With a shower so close we went on and got those out of the way too - sparing us the need to suffer an unheated bathhouse in the morning. This site is shady but there are spot of sunshine and it doesn't have the breeze the other one had so is comfortable. It feels strange, though, turning on the water without hearing the pump and not having to worry about how much electricity we are using. There are those hook-ups here. Ah, the feeling of luxury!

Q048353 Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park  #22 dry $13.00 B (x5) #1 w/e $13.00 A+ (x1)
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March 3, 2009 (Tue) Kissimmee Prairie SP to Englewood, FL (135/2505 miles) 41° @ 6:00 - There was a beautiful sunrise over the prairie this morning. Q's orientation in the new site allowed us to watch it as we lay in bed. But all good things must eventually end so we had to get up and prepare to venture back into world. At 8:25 (43°) we began the drive out the long dirt road to civilization. Well not quite. We didn't see civilization for another 30 miles - a few houses and ranches here and there and loads of orange groves but that's not really civilization. The large open topped 18 wheelers loaded with oranges that we'd pass occasionally apparently lost a few because the road kill consisted mostly of oranges. It looked more appetizing than the animal type but we didn't stop to pick any up.

The best gas price we saw was $1.87 at Walmart's U.S.Murphy. We stopped but the station was closed - no sign to that effect, just a young woman in a reflective vest going from car to car telling each confused customer in turn. She was still at it when we passed back by after doing some shopping. We ended up paying $1.93 at a 7-11 several miles later. Lunch was at Ci Ci Pizza buffet because we couldn't find a 5 Guys Burger and Fries. Bom and Gail (Joy's mother and sister) were waiting when we pulled into Englewood's Quail's Run at about 2:00.

We found new "no parking" signs posted all over the SunTrust Bank parking lot where Q hangs out while we are here - strange things for an active commercial business to display! Mark went in and talked with the Bank Manager. She said they are meant to keep large trucks from leaving their trailers out there - a proliferating problem we'd been noticing. She said it was OK for us to store our motor home there while we are visiting. Q was hoping we'd have to go find a campground!

Q048488 Englewood, FL, SunTrust parking lot parked.