Crabs and Commentary.

Along the Gulf of Mexico's  northern shore blue roads and small fishing towns of Florida's Panhandle.

Thousands of Blue Crab traps sit idle, as the crab industry already depressed by national economic conditions is worsened by Asian imports.

I guess there are logs in Florida that are used for lumber but all I've ever seen are trucks hauling pine stringers destined for paper pulp.  Watch out for their tail on the corners, they swing WIDE.

How can you tell if an ice machine is broken?  Look for the puddle at the bottom.  The pink pig?  Your guess is as good as mine.

As we traveled west throughout the day we tried to contact the "Indian Pass Campground" to assure accommodations for the evening.  No less than five calls produced the same results, "Can't get to the phone right now, try later," and then no "beep" for a message.  We came here anyway as the next RV campground was further than we wanted to travel.  The camp store was locked when we arrive so we just drove onto the grounds.  Jackie asked a lady sitting in a car if she knew where the owner was and the lady replied, "Find a spot and you can settle-up in the morning." 

Along at the end of the dock is this American White Headed Pelican resting after a day of fishing.

This is American Bob Sharlot of Upper Manhattan, NY, financier still fishing for his evening meal.  "The Chinese bought Florida first and now they have put a large down payment on the United States.  If we don't find the magic rabbit to pull out of our financial hat, we're doomed," he reflected, while slipping another bait shrimp on his hook. "I don't catch many fish but the birds sure like the shrimp," and for the first time smiling as he tossed his line into the bay.

Google comes to the rescue.

The veil of anger, mistrust, confusion and disbelief was lifted when Google got around to sending resurrection instructions for Jackie's email account. The more we become tethered to, and rely upon, the Internet for our communication and banking, the more unsettling it is to have it suddenly disappear.  It was a good lesson for us all.  Put a back-up plan in place for the day your most important information suddenly vanishes. Trust me, do it NOW, if you haven't already done so. It's a stress factor 10 situation.

We hung-out another day here at Tony's Nature Coast RV court in Steinhatchee (a dozen or so cozy spaces) as he has an excellent, and reliable, WI-FI connection to aid in the email revival.

The temps rose above 50 degrees (barely) so we pulled the bikes off the rack and took them for a spin down toward the gulf.  Wonderful how a little heavy breathing can clear the cobwebs from the head and get the world spinning back in the right direction.

OH NO!

Jackie has been locked out of her Gmail so the morning brings NOT a happy motorhome....especially since there is nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING, human about the owner of Gmail, Google.   All communication with Google is by email, the account you are not able to access.

We survived last nights hard frost, 27 degrees, here in Steinhatchee, FL., a stone's throw from the Gulf, but this email thing is rocking the road-boat.  We came here because all inland temperatures were to drop into the teens and dealing with frozen, broken plastic pipes on this rig WOULD NOT be a fun thing.

Non-Organic

We left Arcadia, FL. with hopes of winding through the countryside on nothing but the blue roads. Jackie fiddled with the Garmin GPS and had us rocking down the small, uneven, rural, agricultural backroads in no time at all. Florida has some mighty skinny roads out here, some of which are without center lines and hard-to-handle, drop-off shoulders. It's a white-knuckle experience when an orange-hauling semi and our rig cross paths out here.  *It still beats the no-view, no local flavor, Interstate.* We traveled through, at least, 30 miles of orange groves that stretched out from the road as far as the eye could see, and all of the trees were laden with branch-sagging fruit and ready for picking. I hope last nights hard frost didn't do any lasting damage. Maybe eating oranges become "juice oranges" once frozen.

Approaching one intersection where we needed to make a turn to follow these backroads, I noticed a huge plume of smoke. Getting nearer to the source I saw something that was producing this huge gray cloud but it was in the middle of a few hundred acres of tomatoes plants. I pulled the rig far off onto the grassy shoulder, grabbed the camera and crawled on top of the rig. The above picture shows what was producing the smoke.

From what I've been able to find out, tomato growers burn their plants, within 5 days, after the last picking, to make ready for the next planting. I've also read, from a USDA bulletin:

(2) Tomato Plant Destruction. Within five days following the final harvest of a tomato crop, commercial tomato producers shall destroy remaining tomato plants on the production site using a
chemical burn-down with a contact desiccant type herbicide that is EPA labeled and approved for this use such as paraquat or diquat that also contains a minimum three percent oil and a nonionic adjuvant to destroy crop vegetation. This must be followed by immediate complete destruction by crop removal unless double cropping is planned.

Look for these tomatoes, soon to be appearing in a store near you.

Zephyrhills, FL. 27 degrees

Stretching a meal.

OK, I promise, this is the last picture of vultures.  It's just that they are everywhere here in southern Florida....which means...there is plenty for them to eat.  "Natures efficient waste managers."

We've left the Everglades and are headed up the west side of the state.  This morning is cool, 35 degrees in Arcadia, FL. 

Pulling the swamp plug

The Purple Orchid Tree, another of the staggeringly beautiful bits of flora in the Everglades.  This tree is 30 ft. tall and 20 ft. wide and will bloom for three months . 

If my identification is correct, this is the Queen Palm tree.  I thought it interesting because the picture shows a new branch in the making.  Notice the short, pointed stub under the already developed branches.

White Bottle Brush plant?  6 inches long and about as wide as your thumb. 

Remember father Cane and son Able from a few posts back?  They decided to kill a resident Diamondback Rattler because...well...because they could.  It's carcass was tossed into the swamp behind their place and after a couple of days attracted no less than 50 vultures. 

In a nearby Long Leaf Pine, a Red Shouldered Hawk keeps one eye alert for breakfast and the other on us as we prepare for lift-off from our stay in Ochopee, Florida's Big Cypress Preserve. Six days is enough in the southern swamps for us northern swamp kind of folks.

So, we'll be pulling the plug this morning and head down the road for new adventures....First we'll be stopping back in Crystal River to see our friends Jill and Scoop.

Christmas Day in the Florida Everglades

The Black Vulture hanging out sunning before taking off and looking for their Christmas dinner.

The Black Vulture, unlike it's cousin the red headed Turkey Vulture, locates meals using mainly sight instead of smell.

There better be more than one DOR squirrel to satisfy this committee of hungry fellows.

The faster growing Strangler Fig wraps around a tree, spreading a canopy over it's host which eventually causes it to die from lack of sunlight. 

Neighbors from across the camp, Wade, Fran and Pooch.  Devoted NASCAR enthusiasts.

The boys will be out slogging through the mud, in their barking swamp buggy, as soon as the season opens for killing trophy wall hangers.

                          MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

Christmas Eve with a gator.

Jackie says, "Oh look, a baby alligator, isn't she cute."  I ask her how she knows it's a "she."  "It's small and cute," came her reply.  So how can I refute that logic without walking directly into trouble?  She kneels at the edge of the water, gently taps a stick on the surface and sure enough, over comes the three foot gator for a closer inspection.

"She must be hungry," exclaims Jackie, and scurries back to the rig for some gator food.  What better to feed little girl gators than sardines, right?

Chunks of sardines rain around the gators head with little more effect than the blinking of her large eyes.  Though little miss gator never dined on any of the tasty morsels, she didn't shy away either.  I'm thinking she found Jackie's sardine-toss quite entertaining and was sticking around for the shows finale.

Half an hour later and she was still patiently waiting.........

Tom, a fellow "Blue-road'er" and expert on all things 60's, floral and gators said, "Try some crackers with those sardines, that's the way I like mine."

To all of you stopping by this Christmas Eve, "Merry Christmas" and save your sardines for yourself, gators haven't the least appetite for them. 

Wally-World and back

Sunrise on our pond.  I haven't been able to find out what kind of flowering tree this is but it sure is pretty.  I'll keep cruising the internet and report back, if I locate a match.  Might be a cross-breed, strange things happen in a 12 month growing season.

The sign on the camp's shower door should read, "NOT EVERYTHING IS UP TO DATE IN KANSAS CITY"

On the way to Wally-World I stopped to send a couple of packages..I bet this is the only post office in the country without a waiting line...it is indeed, the smallest.

                                                                Country charm.

Naples, Florida WAL*MART. Red letters and pink building?  What's happening to corporate standardization?  Didn't blue and gray equal high enough profit?

Another sunset on the Ochopee-Serengeti. 
Tomorrow we get to string our little blinky lights around and over the mo-home.  Hope we don't upset the good-old-boys.

Dropping the anchor

Steam rising from warm water in the canal produces localized patches of fog along the southern-most highway in Florida.  This morning picture was shot about a half mile from our campsite.  After considering options, we've decide to hangout in the swamp through Christmas.  It is about as quiet here as anywhere between Miami and Naples.  Anyway, we need a place to hang our blinky lights and tinfoil so Santa can find us. 

I swear, this place is like being in the Amazon rain forest without the rain.  After wandering the safe woods of the Yoop for so many years, I feel like a the "Stranger in a Strange Land" here in "the glades," needing to always keep a wary eye for lurking cougars or hungry gators.

If it weren't for the Spanish Moss, I'd think this long leaf pine was in my back yard.  The moss is an air feeding plant, has no roots and does not damage it's host.

I found this (Florida Snake Bird)  ANHINGA, 50 ft. from our door, drying it's wings after a totally submerged, fish-dinner-dive into the water.  Their feathers are not waterproof like ducks which requires them to sit out of the water and dry before another flight. 

One blade of  Saw Grass gone to seed in the million and a half acres of the Everglades "Sea of Grass."

Standing guard at the entry to our home is this 10 times life size, cement cougar.  It's somewhat kitch, but hey, always fun to find another "Roadside Attraction." 

We'll fire up the rig this morning for a supply run to Naples and then back to our comfy spot here in the tall grass.  Well stocked with food, drink and Santa-bribe cookies, we'll be awaiting the jolly old man's cheerful "Ho-Ho-Ho."  Have no fear Santa, I'll be on top the rig with my 30-30 guarding your reindeer, should the hungry cougars be on the prowl.

Skunkape and Patriotism.

Red Bellied Turtle

We fled the urban sprawl of  South Miami and escaped back into the quiet and solitude of 

 "The Great Florida Everglades"   

Turkey Vulture (Red Headed Buzzard)

In all of my travels, including the deserts of the southwest and  the humid Gulf Coast from South Texas to West Florida, I have never, NEVER, seen so many vultures.  It is almost impossible to look to the sky and not see two or three, usually a dozen or more, circling in the warm air thermals using their extraordinary sense of smell to locate a meal. 

TRAIL LAKE campground,  Ochopee, FL.  An unusual, but very interesting stop deep in the Everglades.  We are set up next to tall grass and swamp where frequent sightings of cougar, bear, and the always common gators, keep us from our normal night walk. No one said anything about  snakes and the numerous spiders. I can deal with snakes and even the furry inhabitants, but being an arachnophobic, of sorts, spiders have a way of putting me on edge.

 

  Frogs are singing this evening and once I even heard a gator give it's mournful groan.  This is also the home of the Skunkape Research Center.  Go ahead, non-believers, Google "Skunkape."

Able, and young son Cane Abberstein, display their newly erected "Bars and Stars" Confederate flag.  Able said. "Just want to let everyone know that we still believe in the old values that made the US what she used to be."  Son Able said, "How do you like my new coonskin hat?" 

 If the bugs don't get too bad we might hang out with the "good ole boys" for a few days.  So far they're finding the "old snowbirds" equally as interesting as we're finding them.

Namby Pamby

December 18th and another day without long-johns and snow, just how is Santa going to manage?  Ski boat?

Last sunset from the "Keys" for us.  We've moved on to Florida City for a Wally-World fix and to have the oil changed in the rig......What a zoo.....It must have been the last shopping Saturday before Christmas.  Wall to wall shoppers, carts jammed the isles and the check-out folks at the registers were barely able to mutter, "Thank you for shopping with us."

I'm still waiting for someone to wish me a Merry Christmas, instead of, Happy Holidays. I guess I'm just old fashion because I'm getting real tired of all this Namby Pamby political correctness.   

Key Largo

It's all about boating, fishing and watching the sun set in the Gulf.

I sipped a little Jack while my neighbor (for the day) did the fishing.  We're 10 foot from the waters edge making it an easy cast...He baits with either shrimp or spoon. Watch your fingers, Bob, even the little Barracuda have sharp teeth. 

END OF THE SOUTHERN ROAD

Huge military jets scream and scorch the air while leaving the runway and returning to the Naval Air Station located just a couple of miles from here.  I know I should feel protected by all this noise and bluster...and I do, very much so.  I'm also wondering to what extent and for how long, we as a nation, will be able to afford this posture.  President Eisenhower said, "Beware the military- industrial complex."

The temperature rose to 75 degrees, warming our spirits and shouting "Get on your bikes!"  We rode the perimeter of Key West, stopping to people-watch on the famous Duvall (aka, Drink to you drop) Street and take in the obligatory sights....Hemingway's house, The Kapok Tree and Sloppy Joe's Saloon.  The 15 mile ride in T-shirt and shorts felt REAL good.

Goodnight and goodbye you island of fun and sun, though I doubt we'll be back this way again.  Not that you aren't beautiful, it's just that you have way too many people enjoying you at the same time....too crowded, too hurried, too jets-in-the-sky noisy, $6 bucks for a two ounce margarita and $120 a night camping!! Jimmy Buffett with his millions won't complain, but I will, with a smile.  "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt," time to move on.

Highway US 1 ends at Key West.

We left Florida City on US 1, crossed 42 bridges and 8 Key's, landing on Key West to make # 9 for the day.  All this in 122 miles.  Your trivia answer is:  " The Florida Keys are an archipelago consisting of a total of 1,700 islands.

Somewhere around four or five years ago Earl Norman, my biking buddy, and I stayed here at Boyd's Campground.  I liked it well enough to suggest to Jackie that it might be a nice place to hang our hat for a couple of days.



Right outside our rig is this Coconut Palm tree.

About the size of the tip of your little finger....Baby coconuts.

Outside our window this bright scarlet hibiscus displays it turgid erect stamen.