Into the swamp and the Everglades - Feb. 24 - Mar. 9

It was a comfortable feeling driving into Flamingo Campground especially knowing that we would stay for 2 weeks. Last year a barn owl flew over a field each evening so we found a site with a front row seat and excellent shading for most of the day. Waiting in hope, there was no owl this year. A good part of the first week was unseasonable hot with bugs, bugs and more bugs. Harry learned the hard way that long pants and socks were a must along with bug spray and finally netted hoods. We absolutely loved our new screen house with an added plus that Nina could walk around free. 

We soon became friends with our neighbors, Doug and Anita from British Columbia who arrived the same day. Both Harry and Anita opted out of the 9 Mile Pond canoe trip so Doug and I partnered up. The water was higher than last year which meant more birds to see but less concentrated alligators. One canoe in our group flipped and was rescued by the designated “sweeps”.  They also had to get wet because the canoe and all the gear sank. Unfortunate but the folks who flipped had a good sense of humor – not so the sweeps! 

Taking a break from the heat and bugs, we ventured off to John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo for a day of snorkeling and soon realized there wasn't a shady spot to be found to leave Nina. We were able to get a vacate site for the night and discovered Doug and Anita also ended up in the same park.  Doug joined us for snorkeling in the morning while Anita took the glass bottom boat trip. The fish were beautiful but the coral was still recovering from storm damage. 

In the Everglades, there was lots of birding with the highlight of finally seeing the elusive Mango Cuckoo. Another highlight was renting a canoe and heading out into the bay and around to Snake Bight. Fishing for Harry and birds for Sally! 

We transferred our final night to Long Pine Campground which was 38 miles back towards the entrance of the park giving us a boost in the morning. I had been tipped off by Ranger Bob about good birding on the Old Ingram Highway with the probability of seeing a Snail Kite. Harry dropped me off with my bike, assorted optics, camera, bottle of water and 3 Fig Newtons at 9:30 in the morning. Once I got to the mound which was to be a good vantage point, I got spooked with the thought of snakes. Coming back down, I met a woman who asked what I saw. Confessing my fears, she said it was fine and encouraged me back up. We hiked and biked the area and then walked through a mystical cedar swamp. 

My guide, Maryanne Biggar, shared her knowledge of the everglades and snippets of her life with her husband, John Ogden. In the swamp, she identified many of the plants including the orchids that were not in bloom. She showed me a “princess crown” that was orchid plants circling a cypress tree. We talked of snakes and of how she and her husband would string hammocks in the swamp to hang out. Coming out of the swamp, we had an incredible sighting of a barred owl.  John died 2 years ago and quoting from his obituary, he was “one of the world's leading authorities on wading birds and a scientist who fought for and shaped Everglades restoration plans.” He came to the Everglades NP in the 60’s and spent “the next four decades in positions of increasing influence with Audubon, the park and water district. Audubon hired him back in 2007 as director of bird conservation.” 

Needless to say, this was a very special day for me and I totally lost track of time compounded by the loss of an hour w/daylight savings time. When I got back to the campground at 5 p.m. looking for Harry, there was a crowd asking if I was Sally including a security ranger. Harry had filed a missing person report and they had sent UTV’s out on the trails looking for me!!!! Ugh!!!

So many more stories but I have already rattled on too long!

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Coconut Grove - Feb. 21 - 23

This was a great time start to finish! We were able to park the van down at Dinner Key Marina where True South was birthed. We hung around the marina, caught up with laundry and I stumbled on shrimp boats that attracted different herons along with egrets and ibis. Very cool!

We had a wonderful time with Dan and Marcia, their friend Charles and Peter and Diane. Lobster dinner, cruise to a key with snorkeling and bbq, symphony (Cleveland Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Fifth), brunch with friends of D & M, another spectacular dinner finished by the final episode of Downton Abbey. Wow! The Everglades will pale! Monday we are headed out. Tuesday the Mahoney’s plan to cruise across to the Bahamas in True South.

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Longwood to Miami, FL - Feb. 19 - 20

Sometimes events happen like hearing about the loss of a friend from years past or passing through a neighborhood where someone once lived that trigger memories. All these things got Harry and I reminiscing about John, a friend from long ago that we had lost touch with. With a little help from the Internet, we realized last year we had traveled close to where John lived and near to where we would be on this trip so we reached out, connected and had a wonderful time meeting John’s wife Daintry and kids, Trent, Slade and Apollo.

Moving further south the next day, we settled at South Bay Campground on the southern end of Lake Okeechobee. This campground has access to the levy with very good sites and facilities. I dragged Nina out at sunrise to the top of the levy with my scope and spotted my first Limpkin for the season. Rumor had it Peter and Diane were headed to Miami with a cooler full of lobsters so off we went that morning.

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We are out of here - Feb. 15 - Feb. 18

Today really is March 12^th, a beautiful sunny day as we pull into Myakka River State Park. It is 50 degrees in Hull with yet another storm bringing a drop in temperature of 26+ degrees. Myakka is one of my favorite FL State Parks and it would be so wonderful to hop on a bike and go explore all there is to see but several of my friends back home have commented about seeing photos but no stories so it is time to catch up!

This first part of the trip “leaving Dodge” was all about getting out before the next storm crippled us. A 7 a.m. departure got us to NJ before getting into a little bit of snow but not enough to stop a 505 mile run to the Cracker Barrel in Waldorf, MD. Another 568 miles brought us to Savannah, GA for the second “cold” night with a 26 degree morning. Day 3 we finally felt as though we had arrived when we pulled into Huguenot Memorial City Park in Jacksonville, FL. Warm, sunny, beautiful beaches, dolphins, fishing and skimmers skimming. Although I don't understand why, we were definitely off season for this park as there were only 6 of us in a campground with 60+ sites. The first day was bliss. The second equally so except that there was quite a bit of helicopter activity coming from Mayport Naval Station across the St. John River.  Googling revealed a nationwide security exercise, Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield that was to last 10 days. For the remaining 24 hours, we felt very safe!

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Run Home - Dec. 16 - 18

Watching the weather module with the hope of slipping between storms, we are heading home on Rte. 81.

Monday the 16th - Tannehill Ironworks Historic SP in McCalla, AL - Time to fully winterize and perhaps take the last warm shower for a while.

Tuesday the 17th - A sign for the Ole Smokehouse caught our eye on the way out. With eyes bigger than our refrig, we left with an assortment of bacon, sausage, ribs and a hunk of venison loin to cram in. Walking in the shop with us was a hunter who brought deer meat for processing. The cover of the cooler was off and looking down at the quartered deer, I made a comment that I wasn't really sure about venison because I had only had stew meat. He offered up a loin and told Harry to cut off a piece. Hmm. Looks like we need to trade up from Cracker Barrel to a park tonight so we can barbecue! It was a day of gifts. Arriving at Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport, TN around 6:30, the ranger wished us a Merry Christmas and free night because we came late and were leaving early. The venison was excellent!

Wednesday the 18th - What's all this white stuff! Although not the longest run, 687 miles was enough for today. Tucked in with the big guys at the Welcome Center in Danbury CT puts us 185 miles from Hull. Should be home for lunch.

Thursday the 19th - Home!

New Orleans - Dec. 13 - 15

Fun time visiting my brother, Jay, touring the city, photo sessions, walking down Bourbon Street with a beer just because I can, people watching and eating crayfish etouffee, jambalaya, muffalettas, grilled oysters and spumoni. I will be rolling home to a diet.

My lips are sealed on the rest because what happens in NOLA stays in NOLA!.

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Anahauc - Dec. 11 - 12

There were all sorts of choices for camping around Anahauc. Some boondocking but there was quite a selection of county parks. It wasn’t clear how the park system worked and we were going to be late so I called the Commissioner’s Office. Turned out camping was free but you need to get a permit from their office. Camping is allowed for 3 days per park which is quite generous considering there were 5 parks in that one precinct.

Anahauc National Wildlife Refuge was big, beautiful and filled with birds. We spent a full day and Harry built up many “chits” taxiing me around. It was just too big to bike around in the time we had. To be there a week or more would be wonderful. Texas has turned out to be a surprise. The entire route we drove was beautiful and will be a trip by itself someday soon.

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South to the Border for Warmth - Dec. 9 - 10

Still turning south, we headed to Pancho Villa SP in Columbus, NM on the border. The cold pushed down with us and we woke to 19 degrees outside, 30 in with a slightly frozen waterline inside the van. The outside had been winterized and we were pretty toasty under all the down so who would have known. All was fine w/a little heat and temp. that rose 20 degrees in less than an hour once the sun came up.

We drove many miles along the border on Rte. 9 and it was an education. Most vehicles we passed were Border Patrol. We watched them “pulling the drag”. The drag was 3 tires chained together and towed by the patrol car at the beginning of each shift over the dirt road that runs along the barbed wire fence. This enabled them to easily see fresh footprints. I read a story dated back to 2003 when a patrol car fell into a sinkhole that turned out to be part of a tunnel system used for drugs.

Several inspection stops, another dip south on Rte. 90 and many miles through TX, we boondocked at a truck stop in Sanderson, TX. Texas is a state that allows overnight camping at rest areas. It’s just a question of finding one that you feel comfortable with. In this case, we wanted the company of lots of trucks.

Leaving well before dawn with the ravens cruising the trap line looking for last night’s road kill, we drove almost 600 miles to get through Houston and over to Anahauc.

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Whitewater Draw, McNeal, AZ - Dec. 7 - 8

Heading SE on Rte. 10 w/a dip further south to Tombstone and across the Sulphur Springs Valley to McNeal, Harry asked where the heck we were going and was it safe down by the border. I didn’t know but with a tip from a guide to what coincidently turned out to be a hotspot for Sandhill Cranes, it was worth checking out.

Whitewater Draw WLR was the destination. There were three parking lots that allow overnight parking but the main entrance was the only one that entered the refuge where hunting was not allowed. It was also where thousands of Sandhill Cranes come to roost for the night. In fact, about 2/3's of AZ’s wintering cranes roost here. We got there just in time to see them coming in at sunset.

The next morning at dawn w/a temp of 23, I was out there watching them leave. We decided to stay an extra night because it really was beautiful and gave us an opportunity to visit nearby Bisbee, a copper mine town on the side of a mountain with many artists, restaurants and interesting architecture.

We still haven't quite figured out that south doesn't necessarily mean warmth when the elevation is still high.

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Tucson, AZ - Dec. 4 - 6

Tucson was amazing. We stayed at the Gilbert Ray CP up in the Tucson Mountains which was really pretty and quiet this time of year. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was down the road. The museum, mostly outside, is a zoo, natural history museum, aquarium and botanical garden. The exhibits are exceptional and have every critter you might expect to find or avoid in the desert – snakes, scorpions, wasps, centipedes, gila monsters, coyotes, javelinas and even a pack rat, a tenant at will. More on the rat later! One highlight was the free flight raptor program that ran twice a day.

A trip to the AZ State Museum was a must. The current exhibits included The Pottery Project, Ancient Architecture of the SW, Path of Life of North American Indians, Basketry and Edwin S. Curtis’ photographed record of N. American Indians.

We met up with Bob Lansing, his son Greg and wife Robin for a Mexican meal where they ordered all sorts of dishes so we were able to try everything. Delish! We also heard about Greg and Robin's plans to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail next year. I am so jealous!

Our last day, we went back to the museum because they were hosting a Basketry and Native Food Festival. At the Apache food demo, the meal was grilled pack rat. Pack rat is something I have been accused of being from time to time and until now, didn’t really know much about them. They are desert rats that live in debris piles called middens that are used for 10s of 1000s of years. Archeologists study the middens for vegetation, climate change, bones and bits and pieces of human civilization. The Apache chef explained that this is a seasonal meal because pack rat is only hunted in the winter when they don’t have bugs and sores. I think a bird flew over and I turned when the samples were passed out but yes, Harry ate pack rat bones and all. Yuck!

On our way out of the area, we stopped by the San Xavier Mission where we met Joe Begay, a Navajo silversmith, actor and singer. Apparently he was there when the Fishers passed through. He is a character that you can’t help but buy something from!

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