Koresham State Park and the Everglades National Park

Nestled in our new spot a Koresham State Park, we immediately started the two important things - catching up with former neighbors and sightseeing!

Mike and Connie have moved down here, settling in Ft Myers. We had a wonderful day with them - brunch, walking and biking on beautiful trails, relaxing in the spa pool, and dinner out.  I AM happy, apparently just a little tired~

The next day the boys went for more bike riding and about 3 hours of kayaking.  They took the kayaks down the river to the Manatee Park.  The warm water discharge from a nearby power plant attracts the manatees, lots of manatees! Luke says they were  within 10 feet of his kayak when they came up to breathe - tough to get a picture, holding a paddle, with manatees so close, maybe rocking the boat! Luke was a tired explorer.  Here is Mike taking a picture of Luke's kayak.

The girls had a girls day out!  We were joined by Ali, who also moved to Ft. Myers just a few years ago.  Off to historic Venice for a leisurely lunch and lottsa shopping.

Yesterday Connie and Mike joined us for a 2 hour drive to the Everglades.  SO glad they were open.  Our first stop was at the Shark Valley Visitor Center.  No, no sharks now.  Apparently early explorers found sharks that went upstream to have their babies.  Thank goodness, no sharks now.  But there are alligators....

The center offers a 2 1/2 hour narrated tram ride through the 15 mile trail.

Yup, we took it!

It was great; an informed guide and a driver who stopped for birds and alligators made the time fly by.

Oh, there are alligators everywhere.  They are beside the road, on the road, in the water, sleeping on the warm road. Everywhere.  And they are large.

Soooo glad we weren't walking the trail.  We estimated that we saw at least 75 gaters.

The  vast prairie that we drove through is flooded this time of year, making it look more like a shallow bog.  In the summer, this land is truly a dry prairie.

In the back of the above picture, you can see a "dome" - a raised area of trees, tallest trees in the center, gradually working out to shorter trees.  This raised area gives refuge to anything that doesn't really care to live full time in the water, as well as alligators.

When the government chose to displace the Native peoples, many of them hid in the domes, making a new life for themselves there.  It wasn't until the 1930's that they moved back to "dry" land, now living on a reservation in the Everglades.

There are also deeper water pools, now covered with beautiful water lilies.  There are alligator holes, dug out over time by dedicated digging by the alligators.  This is where they and many of the smaller water animals like turtles, otters, and fish wait out the dry summer. 

Luke and I both caught shots of this Great Blue Heron taking off.  Different cameras, different light settings, and different views.

Our tram ride included a 20 minute stop at a high overlook.

Luke, overlooking one side of the park.

The other side, the road out.

Our guide showed us a python skin from the Everglades.  This is a small one, the tip just about touching his waist.

Burmese Pythons are an invasive species that are wreaking havoc on the Everglades.  With no natural enemies (just man), they are rapidly taking over the ecosystem.  Virtually all deer, racoons, rabbits, and other small animals are no longer found in the Everglades.  They are working their way north, also, with the prediction that they will be as far north as New Jersey in 30 years. Happy note - cold seems to bother them.

A few more birds - a Red Shouldered Hawk

The anhingas are abundant.  This female (you can tell by her reddish chest and neck) is looking straight at us, a little silly looking from this angle.

The male anhinga is drying is beautiful feathers.  Both sexes have these markings.

On our way home, we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center.  This center has a long boardwalk that overlooks a wide creek.  FULL of alligators, turtles, and gars.

They were literally laying on top of each other in one area.  

We also saw lots of other birds - these are not my pictures.  wood storks

Roseat spoonbills

and Kingfishers.

Today is a "work" day - showers, blog, a little shopping, etc.

OH! And Luke took the garbage to the dumpster earlier.  Sitting in a far corner of the dumpster, very forlorn and a little afraid, sat a small raccoon.  Luke called the ranger who said they will put a board in the dumpster and the little guy will use it to climb out.  Not their first raccoon! LOL

Olscar Scherer, Tarpon Springs,Chihuly Museum, and Fort De Soto

First, I am REALLY glad this vacation wasn't scheduled around National Parks! I can't imagine the mess of discovering that your long awaited vacation plans and campsites are suddenly closed.  Sigh.

Settled down for the week in Oscar Scherer State Park, we walked some of the trails.  Alligators.  I hate alligators.  Signs all along the waterway reinforced my dislike.

The South River estuary running through the park is beautiful, full of old live oaks and their dripping Spanish Moss and other native plants.  And presumable, alligators.

Ice cream!  Happy Luke found ice cream cups available at the Nature Center.  We are ready to walk the trail around Lake Osprey.  (A 16 year old girl was killed here 2 years ago by an alligator - she made the unfortunate mistake of going swimming at dusk).

This Little Blue Heron isn't afraid of alligators.  He is happily fishing in the shallows of the lake. His give-away  markings are the beautiful blue feathers and his two-tone blue beak.

Smoke, ever a cat, discovered her new nest while we were gone.  A ray of sunshine and a fleece blanket are all it takes.

Friends Phyllis and Peter, from NC, stopped to visit for a few days on their  winter FL trip!  We took off for Tarpon Springs.  Tarpon Springs is the "sponge capital of the world".  The town was established by Greek sponge divers in the early 1900's.  About 15,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico has water depths of 50 to 100 ft with bottom suitable for growing sponges. Sponge diving is still a big business here.

Greek style fishing boats line the waterfront.

A memorial statue of a diver is also on the warf.

We visited the sponge museum, an interesting place full of sponges for sale, an informative video, and helpful salesladies.  Phyllis and Peter are in the diver's helmet

It was a bitter day for FL - about 45 degrees, very windy, and overcast.  Luke and Phyllis braved a walk to the beach at Honeymoon Key but not for long!  The white sand is beautiful.

Next, Phyllis and I had a girl's day of shopping while Luke and Peter headed out to look around Sarasota.

Our last day together, we all went back to St. Petersburg to visit the Chihuly Museum, the permanent home of some of his collection .  This glass artist has the most fantastic glass sculptures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly We loved the museum!  Here are a few pictures of his larger than life works.

A 20 ft high hanging work.

A close up of some of the work.

Orange flowers on the wall.

Clear bowls

A room size rowboat filled with colorful balls

A multi-colored hanging

The largest piece is a room sized landscape of plants sitting in water

The room itself was amazing.  The oval room with near parabolic ends allowed Luke to stand facing one end and I stood facing the far wall.  He could speak to me and it sounded as though he were standing just behind me.

Last, Fort De Soto.  Batteries and a military post were constructed in 1900 at the demand of the  Tampa residents.  Frightened by the Spanish-American war, they wanted better defense.  29 buildings were constructed.  The post had 8 twelve inch M 1890-M1 mortars, capable of reaching 1.25 - 6.8 miles with 700 lb shells designed to penetrate the steel decks of ships.   3 inch, 15 pound guns were also  placed to protect from fast moving boats in the 1.25 mile area that the large mortars could not reach.

The sea is slowly claiming one of the batteries.

About a dozen horseshoe crabs were stranded on the beach, awaiting the returning tide.

It was a great week at Oscar Scherer with Phyllis and Peter.

On Saturday we drove 65 miles south to Koreshan State Park, located in Estero.  Another nice old park in a great region to explore.  Former neighbors Connie and Mike plus Ali and Charlie have moved here.  We plan lots of time together.

Florida!

Florida!  Warm Florida!  Well, it's all relative, but it is warm for us!

We moved into the RV on Friday evening to enable us to close down the house, shut off water, drain plumbing etc, to give us an earlier start on Saturday for our 750 mile trip.  It was warm on Friday (60's!) but rained.  We moved in anyway.  Then the wind started and the cold front arrived.  The wind howled at +20 mph all night, making for restless and short sleep.  Smoke was nervous and we were concerned about driving the high profile RV in high winds.  Saturday morning arrived, too early and cold.  We stayed in bed an hour later than planned, checked the weather endlessly, and then decided to go.  First, we had to get propane.  That meant taking the RV and car separately to the propane fill place.  OK, got propane, but now we have to attach the car (a good 1/2 hr of physical attachment and then checking all attachments) in the brisk wind and 28 degree weather.  Finally we were off.

The wind gradually subsided as we headed south and the RV did well.  The late start got us about about 350 miles from home before the dusk.  We don't like to drive the RV after dark.  Old, what can I say :-)  A night at a safe Walmart, along with about 8 other snowbirds heading south. I-95 noise didn't help our sleep, but it was better than howling wind. We finished our last 450 miles about 5 p.m. on Sunday at our first stop of the winter, Oscar Scherer State Park, in Osprey Florida.

Oscar Scherer is a 1955 era FL state park that hosts about 130,000 folks per year. A daughter of Oscar Scherer donated the initial 450 acres of land to the state to create a park.  FL later added about 900 more acres to the park land.  Mr. Scherer  had developed a shoe dyeing process in 1872 - apparently very profitably! Here is a link to the park info

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Oscar-Scherer

This is a beautiful old park.  Roads are narrow (shutter - there is a narrow bridge that I had to navigate to get to the campsite). Old growth creates private sites, shaded by palmettos and live oaks.

Smokey stresses during our actual driving.  She hides behind the sofa, occasionally letting out a  howl of discontent.  BUT! As soon as we get into a park, she becomes my co-pilot.  She takes her position on the dashboard to make sure I get it right.  That is Luke in the red car in front of us, leading us to the campsite.  There is seldom room at the campsite to unhook the car and RV, so we usually disconnect at the ranger station. A serious consideration in a vegetation filled park like this is overhead clearance and high side clearance. We're moving a 12' 10" high vehicle, 8' 6" wide past overhanging tree branches etc.

At long last!  Our campsite for this week!  I love the Spanish moss, the old  trees, and the palm trees.

Yes, Luke has on a fleece jacket - it was a little cool by the time we got in our site, probably 55 or so!!! ahhhh....

Smoke immediately took up "small ground animals and birds" watch out the windows.  She definitely knows that small, rustling creatures live in campgrounds.  She is never disappointed.

At last, a peaceful night's sleep for all.  Today we did a few last jobs like putting up wall hangers for hats, jackets, etc.  A few more chores are still to be done, but at least we can enjoy 70 DEGREE FL while we do them.

We had dinner tonight with Luke's childhood buddy and his wife, Luc and Eileen.  It was great to see them again.

Tomorrow, some hiking on some of the many trails in the park.  And there are other places in the area to be explored and discovered!  We are already beginning to think that 5 days is not nearly enough for this stop.

BURR....OMG, BURR...

Over a week without breaking the freezing mark....lows as bitter as 4, with MUCH lower wind chills...this is NOT early January Roanoke weather...well, it didn't used to be.  sigh.

Luke has spent the last week or more tending the wood furnace in our basement.  Whoever lived here before was afraid of power outages. We have a fireplace in the living room, but the basement hosts a compliment of a wood stove and a large wood furnace that actually links into our duct system.  Wonderful! Well, it is if you're not the one stoking the fire day and night.

Smoke long ago discovered the heat ducts. Smart cat! That is one just behind her.

I braved the early morning chill and took off to run errands.  One was a stop by Nikki's - and some quality time with grand-dog Sniff.

Sun and a blistering high in the mid 20's gave us the bravery to go to the lot and get the RV.  First challenge, remove the cover.  It isn't as easy as it looks. 

But we managed, drove her to the house, and parked her in the driveway.  Here she sits, blocking the sun from the somewhat permanently frozen rhododendron leaves.  They haven't opened up from their frozen state for this long frozen spell.

 But!  It is supposed to hit the 50's later this week and we hope to be in FL soon.

"Spring has sprung, fall has fell, winter's here..."

And it's time to go south again!  Just a couple of busy weeks left, preparing the RV for our winter trip, and we'll be heading to warmer climates.  House sitter is arranged and we've just about recovered from Christmas.

Let's see - what have you missed since we got back from Maine ----

We came home to discover that the RV had been the victim of a vehicular hit and run in the lot where it's kept.  Not significant damage, but a miserable discovery.  Our insurance company came through wonderfully and with time and effort, she's back together again.  It took a few weeks.

Smoke could not be happier - home, sweet recliner.  This is the blissful sleep of a happy cat.

Heather and boyfriend Pete came up for a visit.  We drove to the Peaks of Otter - beautiful year round, but especially so in the early fall.

It's a rather harrowing bus ride to almost the top of the peaks.  Not for the faint of heart... Once you've departed the bus, there is still the last 1500 feet of a rocky, rugged strenuous hike to the top. 

OK, maybe  not for the 40-somethings, but I was sure glad to get to the top!

Thanksgiving was spent at Phyllis and Peter's home in NC.  I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of the festivities.  But, of course, we did get one of Smoke sleeping on their antique, handmade bed.

While in NC, we spent a couple of days with Bonnie and Pete.  The big adventure was going to the small town of Aurora, home of the Aurora Fossil Museum.  The world's largest phosphate mining and chemical plant is located here.  Deep - about 100 feet - below the surface are the deposits of a 15 million year old sea.  As the company digs up phosphate, they also dig up something else - fossils.  Mostly shark teeth fossils.  About every 2 weeks, the mine takes a huge load of the sandy rock that they have been digging into over to 2 large "sandboxes" in Aurora.  The boxes are free for digging  about in, looking for shark teeth and other fossils.  We collected a ziplock bag full of them - some teeth just sitting on the surface, others found using a sifter.  We are all standing in less than 1/4 of the sandbox.

This particular fossilized tooth is a from an extinct Tiger Shark.

Next, a trip in the other direction, Pittsburgh.  Luke spent a lot of his growing up years, plus collage, in Pittsburgh, so it's always nice to go back and visit.  Boating friends Wendy and Warwick live there.  We went with them to the Carnegie Mellow Natural History Museum.  Dinosaurs!  Over 115,000 sq feet large, the museum gained prominence in 1899. Today the dinosaur collection includes the worlds largest collection of Jurassic dinosaurs and the third largest collection of mounted, displayed dinosaurs in the US, including the worlds first specimen of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.    

We visited the church where Luke's dad was the organist for many years.

And down to The Strip, for a fish lunch at Wholeys seafood market and grocery. Founded in 1912, it's a "must-do".

And joy, oh joy, we came home to snow.  Light snow, but still the first snow of the season for us.

Smokey indulges herself in one of her favorite pastimes - helping me knit.  Of course, she'd like it a lot better if I didn't actually have knitting in my lap.

Early December, and it's tree time.  We use a small artificial tree, but Smokey doesn't care.  She's a cat... At least she doesn't try to climb up it!

And it's Christmas day and Christmas cheer!

Both of my daughters have taken up quilting this year.  Both have made several.  One of Heather's quilt tops, ready for finishing.

Nikki surprised Heather with a quilt for Christmas - again, just the topper, but ready for finishing!

A Christmas present for me came from an unlikely source....I did a couple of days of cat care for a neighbor.  The good kitties "gifted" me this when I went over to feed them....thank goodness it was well dead and licked completely slick by the time they brought it to me....I love living in the woods...

So now begins the preparing for winter in FL.  We look forward to going.  Friends from last year will be there again, plus there are several planned visits from our local friends.  It'll all be worth it once we get the RV packed and ready to go!