Chokoloskee day 2

ATTENTION BLOG READERS: We move tomorrow to Flamingo. It's in the Everglades at the extreme southern tip of the Florida Peninsula. Everything we have read tells us Verizon doesn't work there. Call the park if you need to get ahold of us.  Expect some SPOTS. We will leave there on the 5th of Feb. Today we yakked on the Turner River in the Everglades. It's just across the bay from the RV Park. We launched about 100 feet from our site. We had lunch at a tropical cafe, bought some groceries, did some laundry, flew into outer space with leg mounted retro-rockets. (That last one was an alternative fact). Jamie & Lindsay, I'm sitting in the rocker you gave me... It's nice.

Chokoloskee

This place is an island attached to the mainland by a causeway. We are on the western edge of The Everglades. Before we left our campsite this morning we did a short drive and stopped a few times to hike some trails. This afternoon we biked around the island. It was a short ride because there isn't much to this place. There were some fishermen cleaning their catch. That act attracted some pelicans.

Highlands Hammock State Park

I'm not exactly sure where this place is. One drawback of navigating with a GPS is that you don't have to look at a map. We got here too early to get into the campsite so we left the MP in the parking lot and drove into town in the Forester. The town is Sebring. Do you know where Sebring is? Me neither. It has a Mexican restaurant and a Walmart. We spent money at both places. After unloading the groceries I did a bike ride. Highlands Hammock was built by the CCC in the early 30s. It was Florida's 1st State Park. A Hammock is a forest of broadleaf trees surrounded by pinelands or marshes. A Hammock is occasionally inundated with water. Pine trees cannot survive that, so there are very few pine trees in a Hammock. Did you know that a Live Oak can survive with its roots under water for up to 4 months. It's true. Most trees in a Hammock are Live Oaks or Palms. We are only here for 1 night.

Myakka SP day 2

Did you know that 300,000 acres of Florida's interior was once Prairie? Really-you didnt? Geeze, you must have gone to public schools. This park was established to protect some of what's left. I did a ride this morning through some of it. After that we did a narrated tram ride through the park. Lunch was alligator stew and alligator nuggets. After that, we did a hike that included a walkway through the forest canopy. A scenic drive was our final event. There are a lot of birders here. They all have ginormous lenses on their cameras. I used my Samsung phone to get a pics of some sandhill cranes.

Myakka River State Park

This place is on the west coast near Sarasota. We are sort of killing time before our reservations begin in the Everglades and the Keys. We left on an exploratory bike ride when we got set up and didn't return for 3 hours. Part of that time we were directionally confused. The Myakka River is alligator infested. We were going to paddle it tomorrow but 2 people have told us it's too low and we would have to get out and drag the boats frequently. Good for the gators not so much for us.

Disney Springs and Hoop Dee Doo Revue

The Disney Springs area is a shopping area. Anyone can go there. No admission required. There are a lot of Disney themed stores but most are not. It's exactly what you'd expect from Disney, very clean, well laid out and fun. The Revue is in the campground. It was recommended by both Lindsay and Jamie. Jenny and I are sitting outside waiting for seating to begin. I had a small dust up with some storm troopers at the springs.

Animal Kingdom

This is one of the newer parts of Disney world. I'm thinking 25 years. It's got a zoo feel to it along with an amusement park. We did a safari ride and saw some animals. We ate lunch at the parks hoity toity restaurant. I had pan seared duck. (See pic) Yesterday, Jenny told me she wanted to see the Disney Chippendale Revue. Well turns out I misunderstood, she wanted to see Chip and Dale. They are a couple of goofy squirrel like creatures with squeaky voices. My bad! We were both impressed with the animal enclosures. They were well designed and natural looking. I was especially impressed with the stroller enclosure 

Disney World Fort Wilderness

We decided to spend a few days here because 1) We needed to stay someplace and 2) We had never camped here. Another possible reason might be that eventually we will be here with some of our grandchildren and we wanted to get a feel for things. We got here late enough that we really didn't feel comfortable spending  $200 for 1/2 a day of Disney Magic. We did ride a boat (free) to The Magic Kingdom and got on the monorail  (also free) and rode around for awhile. We were not paying close attention to our location and we missed our 'get off' stop and we were forced to do another lap. No one knew, but us, so we didn't feel to bad about it. I took a pic of the nose of the monorail for some reason. Tomorrow we will probably do the 'Animal Kingdom'.

Day 2, Clear Lake

The storm arrived as scheduled last night. The warnings from the media were so dire that we abandoned the MP and spent an hour in the campground bath house. The storm was moving 60 MPH so it wasn't overhead very long. Lightning, high winds, and 1/2 inch hail lasted maybe 20 minutes. This morning, Jenny drove me to the north end of the the trail that I rode on yesterday. I did a one way ride (11 miles) back to our camp. This afternoon we explored the Ocala NF in the Forester. There is a lot going on here. Hiking, biking, and kayaking opportunities abound. 

Clear Lake, Ocala National Forest

We stopped here because of a long mountain bike trail (22 miles) that one of our Habersham neighbors knew about. We got here early enough that I was able to do a 10 mile loop. This being Florida, the hills involved something like 5 feet of elevation change. There were no rocks to run into or cliffs to ride off of. The loose sand was challenging. Sometime around 8 tonight a storm that has caused quite a bit of carnage will be blowing over the MP. We are  in a tornado watch zone until 10 tonight. Our hatches are battened down. Hopefully there will be a blog post tomorrow. Ha Ha.

Rainbow Springs SP Florida

Rainbow spring puts out 500,000,000 gallons of water a day. It drains a 700 square mile area. As Trump would say "it's huuuuuge." Jenny spent most of today looking for, and booking, campsites for our future travels. We have sites reserved until 15 February. Tomorrow we are boon docking in a national forest campground that is supposed to be near some bike trails. No water or electrics.

Not much going on

There weren't too many blog worthy activities today. We moved from spot 45 to spot 44 this morning because 45 was reserved today. It's now 6:30, the sun is down and site 45 is still vacant. We went looking for a disc golf course that had some good reviews. Turns out the reviews were written in 2008. The disc golf course no longer exists. Just goes to show that you can't always trust the Internet. Fake news? We went to a Walmart that didn't sell wine or beer. They told me the store was too close to a baseball field. What? There was something going on with Trump in Washington DC today. That might have been blog worthy but we missed the entire spectacle. Sweet! We move tomorrow.

Yaking on 'The Little'

The central feature of this park is a lake. The lake gets its water from The Little River. We put in at the Dam and paddled up the lake and up the river. The current wasn't too bad. We turned around at a bridge at the 5 mile mark. A little trivia. The park is on both sides of the lake. Originally, there was no way across. Back in the '70s, the governor, Jimmy Carter, talked the Georgia legislature into paying for a bridge. He was a peanut farmer and a bridge builder.

Reed Binghamton St. Park

We are still in Georgia. We are bumping up against weekend camping by the locals. It's not easy to get a site on the weekend, especially if the park is near a population center. We are here for 3 nights. In order for us to get 3 nights here, we are going to have to move to another site after day 2. These pics we're taken on our exploratory bike ride. There was a really long board walk.

Savannah

We booked an architectural walking tour around historic downtown Savannah today. We linked up with Jonathan at Oglethorpe square in the center of the original settlement. This guy was unreal. He was a walking, talking encyclopedia of architectural facts and figures. He would take us to a building and talk about the brick that was used to build it. It was unbelievably interesting. His tour is the #1 rated walking tour in Savannah and there are a bunch of walking tours. After the tour we ate lunch at a restaurant Jonathan recommended and then did a tour of a mansion that Jonathan recommended. We were pretty impressed with Jonathan. We move tomorrow.

Tybee Island

It's embarrassing, but we have never been to Tybee Island. It's right next to Savanah which is only an hour or so from Beaufort. There is a really big fort with 8 foot thick walls on the way to Tybee. Fort Pulaski. It took 18 years to build, required 12 million bricks, (all transported by boat) and cost 1 million, 1863 dollars. It fell after 30 hours of bombardment by Union troops. The union cheated. They used artillery that left the barrel spinning and was thus more accurate and had a longer range. One of the pics shows some leftover damage done by the shelling. Tomorrow we are doing a walking tour in the historic part of downtown Savanah.

Skidaway SP Savanah Ga.

On the way here we looked at the map and realized we could pick up 3 more stamps in our SC state park book. If we get a stamp from every state park we become "ultimate outsiders". We have a ways to go. We will be here for 3 nights. These pics were taken at a couple of the parks we visited today. It's a shame, really, that we don't stop and explore, because all of these places have something to offer.

F.A.T.S. revisited

Yesterday, as I was stopped at the closed trailhead gate, I noted that there was a phone number to call for trail Information. I called that number this morning not expecting that there would be any change in the "Trails closed UFN" status. Well, I was wrong about that. They unlocked the gate at 9. I drove back out there and did some riding. It was great and certainly worthy of some more visits. After a huge lunch, Jenny and I biked around the park, visiting all of the closed campground loops. It took 2 hours. Tomorrow we backtrack to Savanah. We are going to do some tourist stuff. We live 45 minutes from Savanah and haven't spent any time there.

F.A.T.S.

That's the "Forks Area Trail System". I had wanted to ride some of those trails. That's why we are here. I drove to the trail head only to arrive at a locked gate. The trails were closed due to recent rains. Damn! I did get a good ride in near the campground. The weather was, again, spectacular, 20 degrees above normal. We launched the yaks and paddled in Strom's Lake for 2 hours. We are here 1 more day.

First day of our winter trip

We are still in SC. at Hamilton Branch St. Park. It is on Strom Thurmond Lake near Augusta Ga. Our most southern destination will be Dry Tortugas NP, which is a 70 mile boat ride out of Key West. We have 3 weeks to get down there so our route will be somewhat circuitous. This park is near some bike trails in a national forest that I have been interested in riding for a while. These pics were taken at our campsite. We are right on the lake.