QC01-06 Mosquitoes, gnats and rain

January 27, 2010 (Wed) Monument Lake CG to Flamingo, FL (129/1985 miles) - Well, here we are in mosquito country. The Everglades has a reputation for these pesky insects but this is the first year we've seen enough for there to be a problem. When we closed up for the night, the screen door was coated with them. Now we know why the gatekeeper emphasized the "no refund" policy of the park!

We got a cold start this morning (47° at 8:00) and headed East from Monument Lake on the Tamiami Trail (US 41) toward Miami. Our first stop was a laundromat in Kendall (South Miami). With our closets then full of clean clothes, we crossed the road to a Walmart, then on to a Publix supermarket - all rather mundane activities but seeds for irritability. First was the need to do in it the first place, then there was the total lack of the English language anywhere (we might as well have been in Spain but for the atmosphere) and there were too many people intent in getting in our way. We were glad when the chores, most of them, were done so that we could sit for a spell in one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Homestead. Relaxed and ready to plunge into the isolation of the Everglades National Park we headed for the Florida City post office (the last post office in civilization) to pick up our mail.

The last time we were at this post office Joy had to wait in a long line for service. She jokingly told Mark it was his turn this time. There turned out to be a long line this time too. After a 15 minute (at least) wait, he was told, "Oh, general delivery mail doesn't come here. You'll have to go the main post office in Homestead." So we turned around and drove 5 miles back into the "historic" part of the city and with Hildene's help, found the main post office - two blocks from where we'd had lunch. We could have walked there!

Irritability at a high level but flush with accumulated mail, food and clean clothes we headed for the isolation of the Everglades. To help us cope with the culture shock, we stopped at Robert is Here (a farm stand) for a key lime milkshake. YUM!! Thick and loaded with calories, it lasted most of the way down the 45 miles to the tip of Florida.

January 28, 2010 (Thu) Flamingo CG (2) 57/74° - The marvels of advancements in modern technology. Last year, and in previous years, we have been able to receive the 3 major TV networks as well as PBS. Now that TV technology has advanced in the wonders of the digital age and with the help of the law, we get nothing. Well, it may as well be nothing. We did find one Hispanic analog channel, the signal so weak that is was almost all snow. A Cuban station? There is one PBS radio (antiquated tho the medium it may be) station broadcasting something other than rock music, right wing political hate or fire and brimstone. The signal strength is low and it tends to fade out now and then, but it's a news source.

Many of the campers around us left off and on during the day and only a few came in so we are almost alone here in the "B" loop.  "A" loop is the more popular area for some reason - because the grass is a better quality? We usually come here because it is less crowded.

January 29, 2010 (Fri) Flamingo CG (3) 64/76° - Joy battled mosquitoes for several hours last night after we went to bed. She could hear them outside the window, she thought, and they seemed to be getting in somewhere. Mark couldn't hear them, nor did the ones that got in seem to bother him. The fact that they were getting in was a real mystery. We were completely closed up, water tight in fact. If water couldn't get in, how could mosquitoes? Even so Joy spent a lot of time searching out and stuffing all potential entry points.  When we opened the blinds this morning we found hundreds of them trapped between the window and screen - inside the water seal. The unlucky ones were able to find their way in from there - unlucky because they didn't survive long after getting in.

Boaters, probably fishermen, began their parade in during the afternoon. They seem to have decided to use the western end of the loop this year rather than mix it up with us landlubbers. That's fine with us. It is strange, though, to see so many tents up in that area.

January 30, 2010 (Sat) Flamingo CG (4) 67/77° - There is a flock (3 or 4) of egrets that comes by every morning before there is much human activity. They wander through the grass near us, sometimes as close as our picnic table and fire ring, picking up tasty morsels as they go. Yesterday there were 5 immature white ibis scrounging for food along the road.

One of our neighbors, across the road and up a bit, is a single guy in a small pickup camper. Small meaning the camper part does not extend beyond the tailgate as most do. Although the fellow is alone he has a companion, a female manikin head dressed in a baseball cap and sunglasses who watches from one of the camper windows. It's rather startling to suddenly notice her there as we go back and forth to the bathroom.

January 31, 2010 (Sun) Flamingo CG (5) 68/71° - When we were up around 2:00am, the sky was filled with stars and the nearly full moon lit up the campground but in the morning we woke to the sound of rain on the roof.  In no hurry to get up we opened the the blind and watched the approach of dawn. As the night became day and the rain intensified our neighbors, in the next space over, came riding in on their bicycles. We guessed that their early morning bike ride didn't turn out the way they'd expected. They immediately began to strike their tent and were packed and ready to leave before we got up.

The rain must bring up some tasty treats because a large (50 - 60) flock of white ibis swooped into our yard and began feeding. The juveniles we saw the other day were among them. They worked their way through our campsite into the next few sites before they were spooked by a morning jogger. They weren't finished here though, a few minutes later they were back. They were great entertainment as we ate breakfast. Watching the tenters wring out and pack up was painful.  We really felt sorry for them.

An interesting pair came into the site vacated by the drenched bicyclists this afternoon . He appears to be in his sixties, she in her fifties. Although they came in one car each had his/her own tent. They helped each other set up the tents, his a large one, hers so small that we wondered if it was really big enough for the double bed size air mattress they spent a considerable amount of time trying to stuff in. (They finally had to let some of the air out of the mattress. Once it was inside they carried the tent over to the car where the inflater pump was.) When the camp was set up they became the singles they probably were. They fixed and ate their meals at different times, came and went as if the other didn't exist and generally a acted as they might if they were on separate sites.

February 1, 2010 (Mon) Flamingo CG (6) 68/77° - The rain started about 7:30 and kept up fairly heavily all day. Some nearby counties report as much as 8". That's a lot of rain! Joy was out soon after it started and saw the lady next door leaning into the big tent. She heard the fellow say, "Why don't you take the car and go home." A few minutes later she got in their only car and left. We felt some concern for the guy having to sit in his tent for however long (the car had NJ plates), without food etc. But she was back a half hour later. Together, in pouring rain, they lifted her tent up onto the picnic table and moved his to a presumably dryer spot and left - for about 4 hours. When they came back they began transferring obviously wet stuff from tents to car - in still pouring rain. We decided that they must be leaving. They weren't. After moving his tent one more time, they took off again in the car. They came back just as we were going to bed. A fun day in the Everglades for apparently novice campers.

The ibis were back this morning - in drastically increased numbers. We estimated that the flock was easily four times what it was yesterday meaning there were well over 200 birds wandering through. And stragglers continued to join them. Looking out at them was almost like looking out at a field of new fallen snow. They didn't seem to mind the rain at all.

February 2, 2010 (Tue) Flamingo CG (7) 68/80° - The erstwhile campers next door left for good this morning. They had moved both tents onto the asphalt pad last night so their whole site must be a swamp as ours is. They began to pack up as we ate breakfast and were gone by 7:30.

It's been a long dreary day. The sun came out once in a while but it was mostly cloudy. The rain has turned our campsite into a swamp. The fire ring, full of water, sits at the edge of a small pond and the corner of our rug is under an inch of water. Our parking pad is covered with a slurry of thick mud. The grassy areas around Q squish when we walk there - which we have to do to get to and from the rest room. Mosquitoes, gnats and no-see-ums are breeding like crazy and bite with a frenzy. Even closed up inside we can't get away from them. We have spent the day reading, swatting and scratching. There are probably better campsites, other people seem to be living normally, but we can't do it here. Campsite #B15 will not see our rig again!

There are so many things that we love about the Everglades, even though it sounds like this stay was a bust.  The birds are marvelous.  The little blue, and yellow butterflies that flit around the grass, seeing roseate spoonbills fly across the campground, watching the hawks and osprey do their thing. Watching the moon rise and set, and the millions of stars out at night. It is amazingly beautiful.

We had intended to be here for two weeks but we leave tomorrow, probably for Monument Lake to let our mosquito and miscellaneous other insect bites heal.

Q057909 Flamingo CG, Everglades National Park #B15 dry $8.00 A (x7)