QC31-04 And on South

January 15, 2013 (Tue) La Belle, FL (7) 59/79° - Blueboys, in the RV community, are 10 to 30 gallon (usually blue) plastic portable tanks with wheels and long handles. They are used to transfer holding tank waste from large motor homes and 5th wheel trailers to campground dump stations when they need to be emptied during long stays. Apparently Tuesday is the traditional day to do that here at Ortona. There has been a parade of cars and pickups pulling tiny blue trailers going back and forth by our site all day. Some have passed by so many times that we wonder if it might have been easier for them to just drive the rig to the dump station and be done with it.

Except for the first couple of times we were here we have been able to walk (and even take our bicycles) across the dam to the locks so we can watch the boats go through up close. The gate has been locked this year. The campground host says that the walkway is damaged and unsafe. We've missed this small bit of entertainment.

January 16, 2013 (Wed) La Belle, FL (8) 62/78° - Heavy fog this morning. We couldn't even see the canal until nearly 9:00. Once the sun broke through, though, it was a beautiful day. Warm, almost hot, dark blue sky with big puffy clouds and plenty of sunshine. It has been this way every day we've been here. This is a sunny site with no trees close enough to provide any shade. Sitting in the sun for more than 10 minutes a day isn't an option this early in the season (or trip). Our orientation is such that shade from Q is on the road side which isn't the best place to lounge so we have to chase the shadow of the picnic table shelter roof around our site. This and reading (and knitting for Joy) was pretty much the extent of our activity today. It was also pretty much the extent of our exercise. We never got around to riding our bicycles the 4 mile round trip up to the main road and back.

January 17, 2013 (Thu) La Belle, FL (9) 57/77° - We made a shopping/laundry/mail pick-up trip into the big city (LaBelle) this morning in preparation for a week in the wilds of the Big Cypress Swamp. No mail yet! FMCA said some was sent but it hasn't gotten here. We'll try again tomorrow as we pass through on our way South. We didn't want to have to take Q with Lamont in tow into the very tight maneuvering situation around the post office - but do it we must.

We spent the afternoon watching a cold front come in. The wind came up and the sky got very dark off to the West. Weather forecasts said we might get some rain and it sure looked like it, but we didn't. It got a whole lot colder though. Down to 57° by the time we went to bed.

Q087296 Ortona Locks South CG #21&8 w/e $12g (x9)
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January 18, 2013 (Fri) La Belle, FL to Big Cypress National Preserve (92/1479 miles) 48/60° - Cold! It was 52° when we got up and went down as low as 48° as we got onto SR 80 West. This wasn't the morning for a cold shower so since the one he'd been using tended to be on the cool side Mark, decided to try the other one. Not a good choice! It was a long way from even lukewarm. Joy, however, had a wonderfully hot shower.

Our mail still hasn't made it to the LaBelle Post office! It use to be that we could count on being able to pick it up on Wednesday (it's always sent on a Monday). Last year it slipped to Thursday a couple of times. Now it seems that we can't even count on it being there on Friday. It makes scheduling a mail pickup a little hard to plan!

As we were heading south on SR 29 Joy remembered that the host at Monument Lake last year said that the campground might be closed for renovation this year. A discussion of what we would do if it was closed ensued. The possible solutions were depressing. What a relief it was when we say the motor homes parked around the tiny lake.

January 19, 2013 (Sat)  Big Cypress National Preserve (2) 61/76° - We expected to see the campground fill up in the evening. It often does on Friday nights with folks on their way to the Everglades or Key West - it makes a good and inexpensive stop when Midway campground 8 miles East is full, as it usually is. But very few of the campsites were occupied this morning. The host said that it has been a very light season so far. That's fine with us. We were able to get one of our favorite sites at the south end of the lake.

Swallows, hundreds of them, come swooping in low over Q from the south to skim the lake then circle back around. It's like being in blizzard of huge black snow flakes. 10 minutes later they are gone. Then in an hour or so they are back. This happened over and over in the late morning and early afternoon. Even so the small flies and gnats are plentiful trying every trick available to them to swarm into the motor home with us. Fortunately they're not of the biting persuasion - just annoying.

January 21, 2013 (Sun)  Big Cypress National Preserve (3) 66/78° - The folks across the road from us have a Sun Voyager class A motor home and tow a Jeep. When we came in on Friday there was a trailer with a boat hooked behind the Jeep. We've seen three unit rigs quite often down here, though they usually consist of a boat behind a 5th wheel trailer. What made this rig even more unusual was that the boat was a fold-boat - one that is designed to be folded up and carried on top of a car. Why complicate travel by creating a cumbersome rig like they had when the boat can be easily folded up and put on top of the car? The answer is: they don't. Yesterday afternoon, obviously getting ready to leave today, the fellow folded up the boat and put it on a roof rack on the Jeep. Then he folded up the trailer and put it on a rack on the back of the jeep along with the bicycles. There are those who probably think some of the things we do are strange too.

Q087389 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve. #2 $8 dry