QC41-13 Some Time Below the Levee

February 18, 2014 (Tue) Trailtown, FL (7) 59/82° - Is it that we have become complacent in our peaceful uncluttered living 40 miles from "civilization" or is Miami traffic unbelievably irritating? Probably some of both but we put most of the blame on the traffic, traffic patterns and drivers in the Miami area. (We saw on the news yesterday that the traffic pattern at one exit was completely flipped. i.e. Where before you exit right for highway x and left for highway y now it's the opposite. Talk about confused.) Joy needed some thread for the quilt she's working on, we needed something to provide shade when our awning isn't doing it and we had some other errands to do before beginning our long trek north. Phoning attempts to the only quilt shop within reasonable driving distance yielded busy signals all morning. Assuming that must mean it's out of business, we headed for the nearest Jo-Ann's which turned out to be in Miami rather than Kendall. The store more then lived up to its reputation, (in other words it was not a good experience!!).

It sure was good to leave civilization behind and get back to uncivilized living.

February 19, 2014 (Wed) Trailtown, FL (8) 61/85° - Our mail forwarding service sends out email confirmation with postage cost when a packet has been sent to us (at our request). We got the expected confirmation Monday. We downloaded our email in a strong signal area on the way home. As always, we looked through it for anything that might need a response before going back into the communications black hole but didn't notice that we had 7 more mailing confirmations - with different costs! Did they really sent us 8 packets? Are they charging us for packets sent to others? By the time we did notice, it was too late to call them for answers.

Monroe Station

We think of Monroe Station as a derelict building with a large pot holed "parking lot" on US-41 about a mile east of Monument Lake campground (where we were last week) and the western terminus of the 21 mile Loop Road into the Everglades. It is also where folks park their tow vehicles and trailers when they want to take their big strange looking swamp buggies out into the wild. Why it has such billing, with large highway signs and notation on Florida maps, is a mystery to us but recently it has become the "seven miles down the road" where we have to go to get a usable phone signal. And where we went this morning to call FMCA about all those confirmation messages. It turns out that they had a computer "glitch" yesterday that caused us to get all those emails. The woman Mark talked to laughed and assured him that we would be getting only one package - and charged for only one mailing.

We tried out our new "sun shade" this afternoon but it was a little too windy. It kept blowing down. We need to find a better way to attach it to the awning.

Q091489 Big Cypress NP, Midway CG #2 elec $15 A (x8)
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Feb 20, 2014 (Thu) Trailtown, FL to South Bay, FL (106/1780 miles) 63/83° - Another short hop today, though not as short as the last one. Have we started to head north? We hate to think so but we are north of where we have been and our next move (and most of them from now on) will be in that direction, so I guess we have. We are in the South Bay RV campground in South Bay, FL. On the map we are at the very bottom of Lake Okeechobee. This is a county (Palm Beach) park and very much like many of the private parks we've been in, complete with full hook-ups, cable TV and even WiFi. Some sites have nice views of the two small lakes and narrow channel, but ours is of motor homes and fifth-wheels.

One could argue that we are back in civilization, but not very far in. South Bay has one restaurant (a Subway), a couple of gas stations, a Post office and a few commercial places serving the sugar cane industry but that's about it. We drove to Belle Glade, about 6 miles east, after picking up our mail, looking for some place to eat. We found a little improvement but not much. We ended up at a Pizza Hut where we over-ate at their buffet. The help could have been a little more diligent with service, busing, sweeping, restroom cleaning etc. but the pizza was pretty good - that is to say, standard fair for Pizza Hut.

Feb 21, 2014 (Fri)  South Bay, FL (2) 69/87° - Real showers this morning! After two weeks of the miserly use of water in a cramped space we could spread out, more or less, and let the water run as long as we wanted. Phone reception is better here too but spotty (fair at our site but barely existing up at the restroom/laundry building).

Margate is a northern suburb (and I use the term loosely) of Miami and our destination today. One of Joy's quilting friends lives there and we always try to have lunch with her when we are in the area - and, of course, go to the local quilt shop. Sweet Tomatoes is an all-you-can eat salad/soup/bakery buffet chain (in southern Florida?). The salad bar itself is a one shot deal. You can pile as much as you want (or think you can eat) on one plate but you can't go back. The 8-soup, bakery, beverage and desert (soft ice cream)  sections are available for repeat trips. We've been to the one near Margate several times and have  always found it well worth the $10 plus ticket price.

Feb 22, 2014 (Sat)  South Bay, FL (3) 70/87° - We had always thought that the levee that towers over the roads around Lake Okeechobee actually defined the lake shore itself. In other words, climb the levee anywhere and there the lake would be. This morning we took our bicycles up onto the paved "scenic trail" along the top of the levee. No lake! Just channels - leading to the lake no doubt. (for those not familiar with Florida geography, Lake Okeechobee is the "eye" visible toward the bottom of Florida on almost any map of the state or the United States.) Riding along the levee to the east and north we watched the traffic on four lane US-27 far below on one side and small outboard skiffs headed for a day of fishing on the other. Above to the east and south the clouds billowed soft and fluffy. Far to the west and north looked like approaching storms. A beautiful ride! A construction fence turned us back after about a mile so we returned to our starting point and went a couple of miles the other way. The prospect of peddling back against the wind discouraged us from going any further. There wasn't much in the way of wildlife up there. skittish Snowy Egrets avoided photo-ops all along the way as did an osprey in his nest high on pole. One lone anhinga stood drying his wings on a distant shore. That was it. No pictures.

Feb 23, 2014 (Sun)  South Bay, FL (4) 67/87° - The McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with egg meal used to a treat that we reserved for our last breakfast on the road for each trip. It's been years since we've done it so we decided to do it this morning - even though it's not our last day on the road. It will probably be years before we do it again! Either McDonald's has changed things or our tastes have changed - probably the latter.

What do you call a group of several Ibises? Since when birds of a feather get together they take on group names that differ by species, I thought it would be interesting to know about the Ibis. I found there are three - a congregation, a stand and a wedge. None seem to fit, except maybe congregation, because all they seem to do when they get together is wander around with their heads down.

There are several "congregations" around the campground. These, from group of about 25, were grubbing around near the pavilion. There is another that seems to like hanging around up near the restroom/shower/laundry facility at the end of our loop. Our back yard supports another congregation of 25 to 30. And there are others.

Q091595 South Bay RV Campground w/e/s/c/w $25 B+

QC41-12 Resort Living in the Swamp

February 12, 2014 (Wed) Trailtown, FL (8/1674 miles) 59/83° - Why "Resort Living in the Swamp"? There is electricity (but still no water) on side by side pads 20 feet apart and a pool, actually a small lake (with alligators). We're 8 miles down the road from Monument Lake still in Big Cypress (Swamp) National Preserve. There is no hot tub, tennis courts, golf course or club house - or showers for that matter. That's why the price is only $15 a night. We've been here off and on over the years but for one night stands only. We thought we'd give it a try for a week this time.

As I write this, we're in the midst of a thunder storm - a nice change from several days of sun. Earlier the sky was a deep blue with big puffy clouds. The breeze was brisk and cool reducing the heat of the sun and the bite of the mosquitoes and no-see-ums. Our orientation here is such that we get the afternoon sun coming right in under the awning but there is a tree between our site and the next that gives a little shade.

Next door: When we got here a huge fifth wheel sat on the pad next to us. We found out later that its tow vehicle is a big diesel semi tractor. In fact "semi-retired" is printed in script on the side. Instead of an actual fifth-wheel hitch up behind the cab like commercial tractor-trailers, the trailer connects to a ball at the rear of the "bed" leaving a long space for their "toy" - a vintage 1910 (or thereabouts) fire truck. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that before they took it away. Maybe later.

February 13, 2014 (Thu) Trailtown, FL (2) 59/81° - Trailtown, FL? That's where our smartphone location app says we are. Don't bother trying to find it on a map, it's probably the name of nearest tiny Miccosukee Indian village. US-41 (and I-75 for that matter) goes through the Miccosukee and Seminole Indian reservations. Small stockade fenced-in groups of straw roofed buildings are all along the highway. Signs announcing each is a generic "Indian Village". The one nearest to us, may be Trailtown. We're about half way between Naples and Miami,

When we were in Kendall last week we discovered that the cheapest gas in the area was at Costco, 3 miles away from where we were at the time. We didn't need fuel then but after a couple of trips into Everglades City, Lamont developed a good thirst so that was one of our errands in the big city today. While at Costco we had his wheels balanced and rotated (a free service because we bought the tires at Costco) - and, of course, we had to go inside for a few things! We had hoped to scout out a new and wonderful eating establishment too but Lamont was in a queue at Costco longer than we'd planed so we walked over to a nearby 5 Guys for burgers and fries. Always a treat.

And now a word about communication. Last evening we got a phone call from our daughter Jennifer that was dropped almost immediately, as was her second attempt to reach us. When we tried to call her, it didn't go through at all. Since our phones showed we did have service, albeit very weak, we tried a text message to tell her we were going out to find a stronger signal area. Seven miles west on the lonely dark road we found a strong enough signal to make the call. Phone connections are very sketchy here and, therefore, so is any internet connection. Texting seems to work OK, though - maybe because the application is willing to wait for the fleeting signal to show up. Resort living? Not so much!

February 14, 2014 (Fri) Trailtown, FL (3) 591/76° - The fire truck left for good today. And what an operation that was - and interesting to watch. When they moved the other day, it was just a few sites down and so little truck was driven (and immediately covered with a tarp - thus no picture). Today the fellow drove it around to the other side of the lake then hooked his fifth-wheel to the semi-tractor and drove it around. The trailer had to be unhooked again so the fire truck could be winched up onto the back of the tractor. Then, of course, the trailer had to be reattached.

This was all accomplished by one guy! At one point, Mark asked if he might help guide the truck to the hitch socket on the trailer, a precise procedure that required the driver to run from the cab back to the hitch over and over again. "No. I'd appreciate it if you didn't," the fellow said without even looking up. OooK. This was all done on the one lane exit road so by the time he was ready to go there were 5 motor homes and fifth-wheels in line behind him.

February 15, 2014 (Sat) Trailtown, FL (4) 51/76° - It's been a welcomed do-nothing day. Well, for us anyway. The kids from the two large groups in the tenting area have been having a great time. The younger ones ride their bikes and roller blade around and around the loop while the older ones (mostly early teens) play games in the field up by the main road (or bat small stones into the lake).

February 16, 2014 (Sun) Trailtown, FL (5) 49/84° - Sweetwater Strand on Loop Road (a rarely maintained gravel track into the Everglades) is a rich source of bird type wildlife photo-ops. Usually. This morning there were fishermen who were more interested flinging brightly colored fishing lures into wildlife habitat while talking loudly, than looking at birds. And there were twenty something young lades intent on taking pictures of one another with the strand, understandably devoid of wildlife, in the background. There was a great (white) egret and, I think, a white ibis brave enough to hunt in the relative protection of distance cypress trees but that was it. A very slow return along Loop Road yielded a few good photo opportunities. The Night Heron and Wood Stork below are examples. 

February 17, 2014 (Mon) Trailtown, FL (6) 61/85° - "That airplane looks like it's going to land on the highway." It really didn't but it was a fun thing to say about the slowly descending lights in the sky ahead of us. "It's probably a traffic helicopter. They fly low along highways." But it wasn't. And it did land on the highway. It turns out it was a medivac helicopter and we ended up sitting for 45 minutes waiting for it, fire engines, ambulances and police cars to get out of the way so we could move. We were 15 or so cars back but the police were keeping people well away from the scene so we didn't know what was going on until we were able to continue on. From what we saw it looked like the only car at the scene, which had obvious damage to the hood and windshield, may have hit a pedestrian. This is neither surprising nor unusual along US-41 between Miami and Naples. Fishing and wildlife viewing are popular activities along this 60mph road. People cross back and forth all the time and the speed limit is too slow for most motorists.

Shark Valley isn't really a valley. At least not the kind of valley we're use to. When the highest elevation in the Everglades is 3 feet, valleys are hard to distinguish. Never the less, we did Shark Valley on our bikes this morning. It's a 15 mile long paved bike trail into the Everglades that is lush with scenery and wildlife. Our intent was to go as couple of miles in, take some pictures and come back. But once on the trail we kept going. We were really surprised at how well we we did and how well felt (and still feel) having done the whole thing.

Q091489 Big Cypress NP, Midway CG #2 elec $15 A

QC41-11 Life in the Swamp

February 9, 2014 (Sun) Ochopee, FL (7) 66/79° - Wow! I just noticed as I was setting this post up that my last entry was on February 87. I expect you realize that was a typo.

Great Egret (A.K.A. Great White Heron)

If you ever read the terms of a warranty that sounds like it covers everything, you may well find that it really covers next to nothing. Last year at about this time we stopped at a place near Tampa and had the window in Q's (rear) door replaced because it was almost completely fogged over. The folks at Suncoast Designers did a great job. They even did a good job of matching the tint that reduced the inward visibility during the day. Yesterday afternoon we noticed that the inner pane (of 2) was cracked from top to bottom. We know approximately when it happened and can think of no traumatic reason (uneven "pad" warping door frame, a hard door slam, a bird strike, a stone strike, etc.) for the damage. That leaves inappropriate or faulty glass or less than super workmanship. The warranty that would replace the window 100% free until Feb 27 explicitly excludes post-installation damage, improper installation and cracked glass (among other things). In fact it guarantees only that it won't become foggy again for the next 10 years. Mark will give them a call on Monday but it looks like we're in for another expensive replacement when we're in the area again. In the meantime clear duck tape is holding the glass together.

February 10, 2014 (Mon) Ochopee, FL (8) 61/80° - Late yesterday afternoon a big fifth-wheel pulled into the site behind us. Although it was one of the biggest we've seen (three big slide-outs and a large self supporting awning), there was little of note except that the slides and awning were all controlled with a wireless remote. The fellow said this morning that the jacks and leveling are supposed to be controllable from the remote too but those functions weren't working. They were off today to get those features fixed. As they left we learned that a tool is only as good as its operator. They forgot to push the button that pulled the awning in and a palm tree near where they were parked registered a near-miss.

An Ibis flyover

The wind came up after we went to bed last night. We could hear the awning flapping. Although it was probably OK, it seemed prudent to pull it in. So out we went with crank and flashlight. It was good we had the light. Joy spotted a huge light brown spider preparing to make a web on the awning strut! Mark would have had an interesting handful if she hadn't seen it.

Remember the fellow with the hot tub? He and his thong clad wife were out washing their motor home with a garden hose this afternoon. Talk about extravagant use of water where there is no water supply. It seemed a little less strange later on when we noticed that they appeared to be breaking camp. Getting ready to leave? May as well put the water from the hot tub to good use.

Our friendly neighbor

February 11, 2014 (Mon) Ochopee, FL (9) 58/82° - Another new perspective. We're now at the south end of the lake - for one night because someone is moving into our old site today. We'll be moving on tomorrow.

We tried Everglades City for lunch again. When we told one of our neighbors about our experience at the festival they said, "Oh, we didn't eat there. We went over to the Everglades Seafood Depot across the street. They have a nice salad bar with all you can eat steamed shrimp for $6.95." We thought that sounded good so we gave it a try. It turned out not to be $6.95 but $8.95 (probably price down to attract festival goers) but well worth the drive in to try it. The place actually also had a taco  bar in addition to the salad bar. We sampled them both (although we learned later that we weren't supposed to) and both were good.

The little town is very much cleaned up from the big festivities last weekend. In fact, it's rather difficult to make out where they had put all the vendor's tents - and all the people!

After lunch we took a ride out to the end of the peninsula to the little village of Chokoloskee. The last time we'd been there was before Hurricane Katrina and it was interesting to see the changes. There were some fenced in empty areas, one with a rather well built bulkhead for boat docks, that have yet to be rebuilt and many of the small houses have been lifted up onto tall pillions. One house was perched so high up - it had to be 20 feet or more - on what looked like thin pillars of concrete blocks that it looked as if even a less than gale force wind would blow it over. A scary sight!

The bird pictured is a Brown Pelican.

Q091481 Big Cypress NP, Monument Lake CG #10 & 3 dry $14 B- (x9)

QC41-10 Fog and Seafood

Evening hunt

February 5, 2014 (Wed) Ochopee, FL (3) 72/82° - In all the excitement of learning about the changes here I forgot to mention the new experience of seeing a man in a hot tub beside his motor home. He gave us a big smile and waved as we drove by. We couldn't tell what he was wearing as only his head, shoulder and arm were visible. The tub appeared to be plastic lined wood slats about 4 feet diameter and maybe 4 feet tall. Thinking about it now I wonder how he managed to fill it as the only source of water here is at the rest rooms some distance away from where he was camped. And heat? well maybe it wasn't heated.

This dragonfly came whipping by us as we sat reading this morning. He found a tall reed by the lake and lit on it. Interestingly he stayed there for two or three hours - even as Mark walked up to take his picture. Every once in a while he'd take off and make as if he was leaving. Then he'd come back and land at the very top of the same reed.

Halloween Pennant

February 6, 2014 (Thu) Ochopee, FL (4) 68/82° - They call it a navy shower. I don't know who "they " are but I'm told the term means to use very little water. But that can't be right. The navy exists only because of the abundance of water. Well maybe it's the size of the shower stall. That would fit - we barely do - even one at a time. At any rate, we started the day with navy showers. At least the water was hot.

It was time to get away for a while - and there was laundry and shopping to be done. Kendell, west of Miami, was our destination. Chipotle supplied our lunch.

February 7, 2014 (Fri) Ochopee, FL (5) 66/80° - Fog, it's mysterious, dangerous and beautiful. I remember a morning some years ago driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fog. I don't think it was foggy when we started up into the mountains or we wouldn't have taken that route but it certainly hit us once on the parkway. It got so bad at times that we couldn't see more than two of the dashed center line in the road. It was bad enough just staying on the road, let alone having time to stop had we seen something coming at us. Then there was the more than occasional bicyclist suddenly materializing before us peddling along the shoulderless road. But our greatest fear was someone coming up behind us too fast and not seeing us until it was too late.

The fog this morning was thick. The silhouettes of nearby palm trees against a misty background gave the prairie to the east an air of mystery and calmed the waters of Monument Lake outside our dining room window to the west. Beautiful!

Morning Fog

 When our solar panels can get direct sun all day, we only need to run our quiet little Honda generator for an 1 1/2 to 2 hours each evening to keep the batteries fully charged. But with all the fog this morning we thought an additional hour was going to be necessary today. But the sun finally came out around noon and 2 hours seemed to be plenty.

A medium sized fifth-wheel trailer pulled in next to us late this afternoon. As the last step in his set-up procedure, he hauled out a huge generator, you know, one that is on wheels because it takes two men to lift, and started it up. Well there goes our peace and quiet. Fortunately it spewed out its racket for less than 10 minutes. Just testing? They and another couple took off in their toad and were gone all evening so the generator was quiet. Their little dog wasn't too happy to be left alone though.

February 87, 2014 (Sat) Ochopee, FL (6) 68/81° - Another foggy morning but today it burned off quite early. The generator next door started up at about 8:00 but an hour later died. Out of gas? When we got back from the seafood festival the campsite was empty.  We're back to peace and quiet.

The Everglades City Seafood Festival was an experience. The little town with a population of only 500 is expected to host as many as 20,000 people coming to sample from the huge selection of seafood, crafts and music. When we got there at 10:30, a half hour after it opened for the day, the free (illegal but free) parking was full to overflowing. Paid parking - we hope benefiting some worthy cause - ranged in price from $4 a half mile from the festivities to $10 just outside the gate. The music was billed as country but could have been anything while we were there. The "crafts" were touristy for the most part with some interesting stuff mixed in. There was also some typical farm market fair mixed in - we enjoyed tasting various dips and ended up buying some very hot, hot-sauce. The main attraction, with out a doubt, though, was the namesake seafood. The quantity and selection was endless and overwhelming.

Since Everglade City is supposedly the Stone Crab Capital of the World and we've never had stone crab, we thought, why not? It was both very expensive - probably priced high for the festival - and disappointing. It may have been the particular preparation we chose, served cold with a mayonnaise dip but it was very close to tasteless. We also got a mediocre crab cake to split and some Jambalaya. We tried to stay away from the fried stuff which was the vast majority of the offerings. We should have thrown caution to the winds and worried about the consequences later.

Q091481 Big Cypress NP, Monument Lake CG #10 dry $14 B-

QC41-09 A New Perspective or Two

February 1, 2014 (Sat) Moore Haven, FL (13) 68/88° - It's interesting what a difference a quarter mile in the same campground can make. It's not really the landscaping, which varies only slightly, or the rigs, which are virtually the same type, or even the slightly different view of the waterway. It's hard to put a finger on just what it is. The best I can say is that it has something to do with atmosphere and sense of community. But even that seems to be illusive because no one is allowed to stay in the campground any longer than 14 days out of 30 and there is a constant mix if people because, like us, they readily move from one site to another while here. That said, we like it up here a little better.

As you might have guessed, we moved today, from west of the locks to east of them, a distance of about a quarter mile. Only a bridge over a small brook separates the two sections of the campground. We are able to see the waterway better from this site. In the picture between Lamont and the motor home across the road you can see a bit of water that is the eastern approach to the locks. Just to the left of it (behind our car from this viewpoint) is the holding area where boats wait to enter the locks.

The sun has been out almost all day and the thermometer made it up to 88°. Sitting outside, reading and bicycling were again on our agenda.

February 2, 2014 (Sun) Moore Haven, FL (14) 66/83° - The motor home directly across the road from us, not the one pictured, left this morning giving us a good wide view of the waterway. OK! Now we can watch all the boat traffic and not miss any. "All the boat traffic" consisted of the large yacht, a couple of small fishing/pleasure outboards this morning and the commercial excursion "stern wheeler" below ate this afternoon.

We saw The Capt JP enter the locks from the west and watched from the comfort of Q's cabin chairs while the water lifted her to the appropriate level to continue east. When we saw her begin to move, we walked across the road and down to the edge of the canal. In the length of time it took us to get there she should have been well out of the locks. But she'd hardy moved. After a while she moved maybe 20 feet and stopped again. She was in some kind of trouble. Had the gate to the walkway across the dam been open (It's only been open one day in the 2 weeks we've been here), we might have walked over to see, or at least hear, what was going on. From where we stood it looked as if the nose was only part way into the gates. When they finally began to move again, very slowly, and had cleared the gates (pictured) the passengers applauded.

These anhingas paid no attention whatsoever. They seemed to be perfectly happy to just stand around in the sun and preen.

Q091391 Ortona South Campground #13 w/e $12 A+ (x2)
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February 3, 2014 (Mon) Moore Haven, FL to Ochopee, FL (90/1666 miles) 67/82° - Up at dawn to dense fog and took showers. By 9:00 the fog had just about burned off and the day showed promise of being sunny and warm. Actually it turned out to be sunny and hot most of the way down US-29. Other than a stop in Labelle at the Winn Dixie to replenish the larder, it was straight through to Monument Lake Camp ground.

This will probably be the last time we'll be camping here! When we pulled up to the welcoming kiosk, a sign informed us that reservations are now required! The host said we could stay here one night but if we wanted to stay longer we needed reservations. Not only that but the price has gone up 75%, from $8 per night to $14 for us senior citizens ($16 to $28 for younger folks) That's crazy! There is no water hook-up, no electric hook-up, no shower facilities and no dump station. Where we are on the east side of the lake there are only pit toilets, albeit nice ones! Ortona South Campground (where we've been the last two weeks) cost $12 a night and we had water and electric hook-ups, hot shower facilities and a dump station. We've been coming here for years and have been willing to put up with the primitive camping conditions because the price was good. Now it's not. We're running out of campgrounds down here. We stopped going to Flamingo deep in the Everglades when restoration brought out hordes of Olympic sized mosquitoes (with appetites to match). The two campgrounds here in Big Cypress have now lost their appeal too.

February 4, 2014 (Tue) Ochopee, FL (2) 68/84° - Now that the shock of the cost increase has warn off (largely), we can say that it is still beautiful here and for the most part quiet. We hear a constant drone of generators in the evening but that's kind of expected when there are no electric hook-ups. We'd prefer the loud ones didn't park nearby, of course, but most are on the quiet side these days anyway.

It rained late yesterday afternoon and we enjoyed sitting under our awning looking out over the lake and watching the sunset - until it began to pour. Today has been sunny and warm. And we took advantage of it. We both got a little more sun than we should have while at Ortona so we spent the day chasing Q's shadow. Better that than shoveling snow as we'd be doing if we were home.

A yacht has a small boat for a dinghy (for short trips not appropriate for larger craft). A motor home tows a smaller vehicle (commonly referred to as a toad). What, then, does a motorcycle have? Well apparently bicycles. That's what looped through the campground this afternoon - a motorcycle, two people aboard, pulling a trailer with two bicycles mounted on top.

Q091481 Big Cypress NP, Monument Lake CG #10 dry $12 B- (x8)

QC41-08 A Rainy Few Days

January 29, 2014 (Wed) Moore Haven, FL (10) 60/67° - It's been a windy, rainy day. Sitting outside was not an option. It would have been a good day for a road trip though and a jaunt into Labelle to pick up our mail would have been a a legitimate reason to burn the gas. But our mail hasn't arrived yet! Our mail forwarding service always sends it on Mondays (when requested to do so) and, if sent priority it gets to the post office on Wednesdays. For some reason getting to Labelle, FL seems to take longer. We ran into that problem last year and thought it was a fluke. But Mark called the post office this morning to check on it. No mail yet! Since we'll be off to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, it will have to wait til Friday.

Our data usage allotment was restored during the night so we were able to do some of the things we've been putting off the last few days, the most important of which was updating our financial data. We like to do that fairly often to insure that our bills are getting paid as intended and that our credit cards aren't being used fraudulently. Curious to know what this flurry of activity cost us data usage-wise, Mark checked our usage app as soon as he went off-line. Huge expenditure!! Far more than would have been used even for streaming videos for the same length of time. Verizon, our provider, had no explanation for this but agreed to credit back the morning's entire usage. You can bet we'll be watching very closely for a while. Over spending our allotment can be expensive.

Waiting to enter the locks

January 30, 2014 (Thu) Moore Haven, FL (11) 54/65° - Missouri good friends Jim and Lois have been on a 2 week cruise from San Diego, CA to Fort Lauderdale, FL via the Panama Canal. We drove down to Fort Lauderdale this morning to welcome them home and to have lunch with them. We chose the Bimini Boatyard Bar & Grill for it's seafood on the recommendation of Jim and Lois's motel staff. The food and our time together was more than outstanding.

Hildene and the greater Miami/Fort Lauderdale traffic patterns seem to have a love/hate relationship. Or maybe I should say court jester/hate relationship. Getting to the motel where Jim & Lois were staying was no problem - except for the insane drivers in the city itself. But the route she plotted from the motel to the Bimini Boatyard Bar and Grill took us east on US-84 about a half mile where we were to make a U-turn and come back west on US-84. Then she wanted us to take another U-turn and go back east on US-84 - passing the motel each time. Then we were allowed to continue past the first U-turn point and on to the restaurant. We decided to follow the directions given to us by the motel staff which was the same minus the U-turns. For our route back to the campground, she took us off I-595 onto US-441 north. When this didn't seem right to us we looked ahead at the directions and saw that she wanted us to make a U-turn up the road a way and come back south on US-441 and back onto I-595. Why she wanted us to do that? We have no idea. We made an executive decision to make the U-turn a mile or so short of instructions. Getting back on I-595 was a nightmare even with Hildene's help - a lot of construction and crazy drivers.

January 31, 2014 (Fri) Moore Haven, FL (12) 61/76° - A call to the Labelle post office this morning revealed that our mail had arrived. So off we went on another road trip. We had so much fun driving yesterday that we decided to go on into Ft Myers so we could shop at the Publix there - a much better store than the Winn Dixie in Labelle. The shopping was a positive experience (because we got everything on our list) but lunch was not. A Chinese Buffet in an Hispanic neighborhood makes for an interesting assortment of foods and tastes. i.e. we had to settle for Louisiana hot sauce instead of hot Chinese mustard. And there was much else to keep us from ever going back again!

Some use the waterway for other pastimes

Q091391 Ortona South Campground #50 w/e $12 A+ (x12)