To Ft Myers and the Everglades

Off for a couple of days to visit ex-neighbors Ali and Charlie.  They have given up the mountain for warm, sunny FL.  After being here and seeing their FL style home, I know why! It's a nice lifestyle.

It was warm, of course, when we arrived, so Luke and Charlie cooled off and relaxed in their "endless pool".  A current can be sent down the pool, swirling the water and creating a swimming exercise while almost staying in place.

A wonderful dinner and breakfast, and we set off for an Everglades National Park boat tour through the everglades.  It was great. A walk down a long boardwalk led us to our awaiting boat.

The boats hold 6, but there were only the 4 of us, so we had a private tour.  And we were off!

The boat actually zoomed ("Hold your hats!) for about 10 minutes to get us to our first viewing area.  Watching for the ever elusive manatees....

We did see a lot of bird life in the open areas of the Everglades.  This double-crested cormorant was not happy at our approach.

A blue heron fishing from the red mangroves

 We startled up a flock of herons and egrets.

There are a lot of Tri-colored herons here.

The boat ride took us into a mangrove area.  The entrance looked green and easy.

It got thicker...

And more narrow.  Dodging the hanging branches and mangrove roots became a game.

THIS is where the bad boys are.  Our captain said that there are over 200,000 invasive Burmese Pythons in the Everglades.  They can be 24 feet long and eat anything including deer and alligators.  They also have no natural enemies so they are quickly becoming a real problem.  We didn't see any, thank goodness!  Here is a National Park website about them  https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/burmesepythonsintro.htm

We DID see alligators.  Sleeping lazily in the edge of the water, blending in with the tannic water much too well.

This fellow was sunning

After the mangroves, we zipped back to shore.  Happy - and windblown. Just look at Ali's and my hair!  Mine REALLY looked good when I took my visor off LOL

Lunch of fresh fish and stone crabs at a local Everglades City fish shop.  YUM!

En route home we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center in the Big Cypress National park.  This center has a long boardwalk along the narrow drainage ditch against the highway.  Gators, gators, and more gators.  And they have big teeth.  A ranger told us that they are lazy and literally just wait until something crosses them or gets really close.  They can go 3 years without eating!!!

 Home last evening.  We stopped along the way to look at RV's.  There may someday be a newer one in our lives, but not quite yet.

I don't know how they do it, but cats and dogs are amazing.  Smoke pouted in the floorboard of the car for the entire trip home.  After we entered the RV park and approached our RV, she came to life, clambered in the narrow back window space and watched us back in.  Home, sweet home.  I will say, she did love Ali's big screened in lanai and was fascinated by the pool.  But there is no place like home, whatever it may be.