After yesterday’s cold front cleared the area, today was very windy and a lot less humid. The high temperature was around eighty while the sun dominated the sky. By late in the afternoon clouds took over the sky until a little before sunset. Overall it was a nice weather day.
The slow moving water through the grass prairie that is the Everglades.
Today I toured the roadside turnoffs along the main park road. I drove about thirty five of the thirty eight miles east toward the park entrance stopping at nearly all of the named scenic areas along the way. If walked five of the short loop trails. I may return later in the week for some of the longer trails. Adding up all the distances, I walked about three miles. Most of the loop trails were on boardwalks over the slow moving water of the everglades.
As I got closer to the east entrance and civilization the number of people and the amount of wildlife increased. At my first few stops near my campsite in the Flamingo area there were any birds or people at the pull offs. At the Royal Palm area near the east entrance there was a full parking lot and plenty of wildlife to see.
The weather forecast called for another cold front to pass through the area today. For most of the winter the weather pattern has called for a cold front to pass through every few days. The trick was knowing how much rain and wind came with the front. It sounded like today’s front was going to be one of the weaker variety, but none of the forecasts are for this immediate area. They are either for Miami, Key West or the Naples area. All of those areas are at least fifty miles away. It turned out to be a mild weather day, but I planned for the worst.
Tonight’s sunset over the campground. Wildflower blossom of the day
I got my first walk in early. The temperature was in the mid eighties and it was very humid at 9:30AM. By noon the sky to the north was looking threatening, so I retreated inside my RV home. It looked like it would rain at any minute for most of the afternoon. Around 4PM it finally started to rain. For the next half hour the area was subject to a couple of minutes of downpour followed by a few minutes break before repeating the pattern. The sun was back out by 5PM reflecting off all the puddles left by the rain. I took my second walk of the day after the rain.
Last night there were lots of tent campers in the various sections of the camping area, but there were still vacancies. I am very surprised at how empty the Flamingo area seems. The prime season is from November to April, but in many ways it seems more like the off season. In the visitors center and marina area there are more empty parking spaces than there are occupied spots. Perhaps the issue is all the reconstruction going on after the last few hurricanes. I don’t know if it is funding or the pandemic, but the rebuilding seems to be taking forever. The marina area, run by a concessionaire, is operational, but most of the boat slips are empty. The sign at the construction site for the visitors center says it will be opening in 2021. I doubt they will make it by the end of 2022. The temporary visitor center building will have to function for another year.
New Flamingo Lodge under construction. One of several buildings made of shipping containers.
The new Flamingo Lodge construction is the only thing that seems to have any urgency associated with it. There were construction workers on site both Saturday and Sunday. The rebuilt lodge will be very modern and potentially more resistant to water and wind in a hurricane. They are building it out of recycled shipping containers. Once again it is associated with the concessionaire, so it may be easier to spend money on a revenue generating structure as opposed to the visitors center of other infrastructure.
Canal into the backcountry waters. American Crocodile swimming in the canal.
On my walks today I continued to be drawn to the two Osprey nests. Watching the young wait for their next meal to arrive is fascinating. Tonight there were about five people with fancy cameras setup to get pictures at the nest in the marina. I like my pictures with my less than fancy camera.
Today was a mostly dry hot and humid day with a high temperature in the mid to upper eighties. The wet part of the day came as a ten minute burst of very heavy rain about 9:30 this morning. It created puddles around the campground that remained most of the day. More rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Another cold front is moving through the area.
Where is my lunch?Wildflower blossom of the day
I spent the day wandering around the campground and the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park. The Flamingo visitors center and marina area is about a mile away from my campsite. A combination of park roads and trails makes it easy to get there. There is also a loop trail nearby called the Eco pond trail. The half mile loop around a small freshwater pond was the most disappointing part of the day. I expected to see a few water birds, but I didn’t even see one.
Florida Bay
The Osprey nest on the trail to the visitors center area and the second nest at the marina made up for the lack of birds on the other trail. Each nest contains a nesting pair with almost full grown young. The nest at the marina has three young Osprey that are probably only days from leaving the nest. They seem to be very comfortable with all the people hanging around below the nest taking pictures.
The Florida Bay side of the marina has a family of manatee that call it home. I saw at least one today, but only got a picture of its brown back while it was near the surface. The American Crocodiles that live in the brackish waters on the other side of the marina were not visible while I was there today. A park ranger indicated there are at least three that usually hang around that area. There are ninety minute boat excursions from the marina into the bay and another into the back waters. I plan to take them during my week here.
I was up early this morning to get ready for travel. I should have slept a little longer. I was ready to travel by 9:30AM, but to time my arrival closer to the 3PM check in time I needed to leave close to the noon checkout time. Waiting around once you ready to go is very hard. I hooked up the car and moved to the dump station at 11AM and was on the road around 11:30AM.
My route took me down the main streets of Homestead Florida and Florida City. I think I could have avoided one or both with a little more study, but it worked out OK. It would have been better if the power wasn’t out at several intersections. Crossing four way intersections in heavy traffic when the traffic lights are dark is a little bit of a challenge. Luckily this is one time that being bigger than the average car seems to have a positive impact on the decision process the other drivers go through. When I was ready to proceed through the intersection everybody let me.
Osprey
The trip west across Everglades National Park on the main park road to the Flamingo area on the Florida Bay was interesting. It has been about twenty five years since I’ve been this deep into the park. I visited the eastern area about four years ago on my Rambling Road Trip. The combination of grass land, trees and water holes is not what I remember. It deserves some exploring over the next few days.
The Flamingo area of the park is still in a rebuilding phase after hurricane IRMA in 2017. The visitors center is in a temporary facility and the lodge is undergoing a complete re construction. The campground is also under repair, but not because of the long past hurricane. The T-Loop of the Flamingo campground that I’m staying in is getting repaved. My understanding is it started earlier in the week on the fifteenth and continues until June. The campground sent an email about three weeks ago warning people with reservations and attempting to scare them off. I don’t consider three weeks enough warning during Spring Break in Florida so I didn’t even attempt to change my reservations. Other people must have taken the warning. This section of the campground, which is the only one with electric hookups, is only about a third occupied. I don’t know what kind of torture the paving work will represent during my stay. So far it looks like they have just set up a lot orange cones. I live with it for the ten days I am here.
Site T-4 at the Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park
There is no Verizon cell service and Over the Air TV is non existent. I have satellite TV and the AT&T prepaid mobile hot spot I bought last week is working to get me on the internet. The big thing is there are plenty of trails and natures creatures to keep me entertained during the day.
It was a foggy morning. The overnight humidity and still conditions allowed all the moisture from the last couple of days of rain to produced a layer of ground fog that lasted until about 10AM. Under the bright sun the temperature reached the upper eighties, but the afternoon was dominated by clouds. All around the campground dark clouds arrived with some rumbling of thunder and an occasional flash of lightening. Somehow it never rained here at the campground, but the National Weather Service did issue a severe storm warning.
Another insect up close. Blossom of the day.
This is my last full day here at the Big Cypress Preserve Midway Campground. I’ll be back again for five night later in the month. Tomorrow I’m traveling to the Flamingo Campground in the Everglades National Park. It is located about fifty miles south of here, but you’d get stuck in the water, grass and muck of the glades if you tried to go straight there. The land route is over one hundred miles long. It is necessary to travel east into the Miami suburbs, south to Homestead and then back to the west through the National Park. Flamingo is really in the middle of nowhere. I know I will not have Verizon Cell service. Hopefully, I’ll have internet access via AT&T.
Wildlife pictures from my stops along the trail heading for Naples.
Supplies and services are fifty miles east of the Flamingo campground in Homestead. I don’t want to make that run if I don’t have to, so I set out to fill up on provisions today. My choice for shopping was the Walmart forty eight miles west in Naples. The Walmart to the east in Miami is nearer, but harder to access if I recall my visit a few years ago. I also wanted to stop at a few more of the roadside stops west of here on the Tamiami trail. There were a few alligators to check up on.
Clouds building to the south of the campground.
I’m all set with supplies and I have most of the outside preparation tasks complete. Checkout time here is noon and check in time at the Flamingo campground is 3PM. I’ve read that they enforce the check in time, so I’ll need to find a place along the park road in the Everglades to stop and see the sights. The trick will be finding a place with enough room to park.
Reflections on the pond at sunset.
Just a reminder. If I don’t have internet access this blog will be delayed. My intent is to continue to write my daily blog and take a set of pictures every day. Every couple of days I’ll drive back to the east side of the Everglades National Park and post the blog while in the area advertised to have Verizon access. There is plenty of trails to hike and things to see in that area as well.
Today started and ended sunny, humid and calm. In between it was rainy windy and wet. The rainy part of the day was the coolest part. The rest of the day was uncomfortably humid. The air conditioner in my RV home got turned on for the first time in a long time.
Insect picture of the day. Blossom of the day
My day began with another attempt at booking a Florida State Park reservation for next winter. This time my computer and Microsoft got in the way of success. They conspired to pick this morning to upgrade the Windows software. My very limited internet connection was quickly overwhelmed. By the time I detected the issue and commanded the beast to stop misbehaving, it was too late. I missed the 8AM race for a site selection. It’s not a catastrophe. I still have many more options, but I’m starting to look out of the box.
Calm morning weather at the campground.Slightly angry, but rapidly improving sky after the rain.
The rain got in the way of my activities today. I was getting ready to get in the car to head for one of the trail heads west on the Tamiami trail, when the sky opened with another tropical deluge. While I waited it out I prepared some lunch and had an early meal. The rain let up and I started to prepare to depart again, but mother nature had other ideas. The second wave of rain arrived. Between the two downpours the road in front of my RV and the grass across the road were flooded under a couple inches of water. It was late in the day for exploring by the time the sun returned.
The extent of my exercise for the day was several loops around the campground pond. It was an interesting exercise to see where the alligator was hiding out each time I ventured out. I now suspect there are two gators in the pond. I haven’t seen them both on the same loop, but one looks smaller than the other. The other thing that I find odd is the absence of other wildlife. There are no water birds or turtles present along the edge of the pond.
Today’s weather ranged from partly cloudy to semi tropical deluge. The first half of the day was dry with the potential for a change in the wet direction at any minute. From early afternoon on it was off and on rain with the biggest thunderstorm level downpour happening at the supper hour. The temperature maxed out in the upper seventies.
My RV Home across the pond in the campground.
Walking the campground loop around the pond this morning I had my first visit on this stay with the resident alligator. Just to be sure the tourists knew what he was, he was camped out under the alligator warning sign. This is a fairly big gator that I think has lived in this pond for several years. People are repeatedly warned not to walk their dogs close to the pond.
Campground resident alligator under the alligator warning sign. Close up of the alligator brings the question; “Is he sleeping?”
After lunch I set out in the car to explore the area along the Tamiami trail to the west of the campground. I went less than half way to Naples, but stopped at three areas with gator viewing. The first stop was the visitors center with a boardwalk along the roadside canal. The canal is very popular with the local alligator population. I counted about twenty gators, but there were likely more at the bottom of the canal. I got a couple of bird pictures as well.
Alligators and Egret at the visitors center.
My other long stop was at the Kirby Storter Roadside Park. It was a popular stop today. I met a number of people on the half mile boardwalk trail into the Cypress Strand. Given that this is the dry season, the water level was low. Most of the boardwalk passed over dry grassy ground. Along the tree line portion of the trail there are a lot of Orchids or Bromeliads growing high in the trees. Some are getting ready to blossom. At the end of the trail there is a “gator” hole. It is a deeper portion of the creek that passes through the cypress strand. I spotted several turtles and a few very young alligators. They were under two feet in length.
This moving day began a little chilly, but not nearly as cool as Sunday. The morning at Ortona South Campground as I packed up was sunny in the sixties. Later in the day as I reversed the process one hundred miles south at the Midway Campground on the Tamiami trail it was cloudy and warm around eighty degrees. This evening the cloud continued with a strong breeze out of the east. Rain is possible the next couple of days.
My travel day began a few minutes after the 11AM checkout time. I spent over half an hour waiting in line behind three other RVs at the dump station. By the time I departed there were still two behind me. Quite a few RVs departed this morning.
The first order of business was putting some gas in the motorhome. I arrived two weeks ago with only a quarter tank. Finding a station that I could get in and out of easily on my arrival day proved impossible. During my stay, I scouted out two or three easily accessible stations on my exit route. I put in almost 57 gallons of gas for $250. The tank was almost full, but I didn’t want to do a third credit card pass for only a few bucks. I plan need to fill more often to keep the dollar value from being so shocking.
Site 9 at the Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Around 1:30 I arrived at my destination. For the next four nights I’ll be staying in the Big Cypress National Preserve at the Midway Campground. I stayed here once before in 2019. The facility is about twenty five sites around a little pond formed from draining and filling the swamp to make the campground. The name Midway campground comes from its location halfway from Naples to Miami. In many ways it is in the middle of nowhere, but so far, I have internet access.
The temperature got down into the forties overnight. It was fifty one inside at 7:30 this morning. A strong northeast wind kept the overall temperature down all day. The mercury crossed the seventy mark briefly in the mid afternoon, but is in the process of returning to the fifties for the night time hours.
I don’t know if it was the time change or the cold weather, but the campground seemed much less active this morning. I didn’t see the usual complement of walkers and bicyclists. Unfortunately, I had to get up early to attempt to make another winter of 2023 campsite reservation. The odds were against me this morning. Only two sites were available at the state park I’m interested in booking. I hoped to get some more experience with the crappy reservation software if I didn’t have success with the booking. All I got was frustration. I still haven’t found an easy way to use the software and I didn’t get a site. It still takes me two or three mouse clicks once the booking window opens. That leaves me at the mercy of the response time from the server for each mouse click. Somehow other people are getting it done quicker. Tomorrow there are eight sites available. Maybe I’ll get lucky instead of frustrated.
I had long pants and a sweatshirt on for walks today. The birds seemed to be in hiding during my first walk in the morning. I didn’t see any birds in the usual locations. On my second circuit of the campground shortly after the noon hour I spotted a few of the usual birds in the creek, but the snowy egret was nowhere to be found. The time change and the need to eat confused the timing of my evening walk. I was back in my cozy RV home when the sun was setting.
This is my last full day at the Ortona South Campground. I’ve enjoyed my two weeks here. I got the outside travel preparation tasks completed this afternoon. The 11AM checkout time can come fast in the morning. I have about a little less than 100 miles south to travel tomorrow.
My next three stops are in poor cell phone service areas. I will be in the Big Cypress National Forest and Everglades National Park for the rest of the month. I will continue to write my daily blog, but it may not get published every day. Since my last visit to the area, I have added an external antenna for my Verizon hot spot device and today I invested in a prepaid AT&T mobile hot spot as a backup. It still remains an experiment in connectivity. Don’t be surprised if a new blog entry doesn’t show up every day between now and April 2nd.
The arrival of the cold front in this area made for a very weird weather day. The day began with scattered clouds and a constant wind out of the west southwest. It was very similar to yesterday. As the day progressed the clouds got heavier and the wind shifted to the west and increased to a steady twenty to twenty five miles an hour. Just walking was difficult with additional gusts to thirty or forty miles an hour. The temperature climbed to the mid eighties.
Some of the branches brought down by the heavy wind gusts.
The front arrived in the Fort Meyers area around noon. A water spot in the Gulf of Mexico moved on shore as a tornado in Fort Meyers Beach and a trampoline flew down a street in Cape Coral. At my location, forty miles east of Fort Meyers, the front arrived just before 1PM. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic. About fifteen minutes of horizontal rain and it was back to wind. As the wind direction quickly moved to the northwest and north the temperature dropped by more than twenty degrees. On my last walk of the day I had to add several layers to be comfortable.
My day began early today. I made another unsuccessful attempt to book a Florida state park reservation for next winter. The new web based booking software continues to frustrate me. With the old software I could watch the clock and click on one button to commit to a site. I haven’t found anything that simple with this program. Tomorrow morning there are fewer available sites, but I’ll try anyway. Maybe another attempt will point me to an easier method.
Waiting for the lock gate to open.Entering the lockGetting anchored to the side of the lock.
The Ortona lock was busy this morning before the storm arrived. The yacht club from Naples that went up river on Thursday was returning westbound today. I missed the first group of five boats going through the lock, but watched the second group from arrival to departure. This evening there is a big sailboat at anchor waiting for the lock to open in the morning. It arrived after the 4:30PM last lockage of the day.
On this evenings weather forecast the presenter spent five minutes explaining wind chill to the residents of southwest Florida. It is a rare occurrence in this area. The overnight temperatures are forecast to get into the low forties and the wind will continue to be strong out of northerly directions. The wind chill calculation comes out below freezing at 31 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 