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-