Our Florida Tour Part 9: Home Again

Our Florida Tour Part 9: Home Again

In spite of our problems during the first of the trip and some noisy, crowded sites we had a great time during our trip. We're safely back home and getting ready to spend 10 days or so at Paynes Prairie for Christmas. The Barker tongue jack we ordered from Amazon to replace the Lipert jack that broke in Silver River arrived while we were gone, so we need to get it installed.  Rich opened the box last night and was going over the instructions so he could put it on today when he found that we had been shipped the wrong jack. He contacted Amazon and got a nearly immediate return call. Unfortunately, that was the best part of the episode. The customer service person who called us back did not seem to have a very good grasp of English and was unable tell Rich just what was supposed to happen, then he was cut off. We received a copy of the email she sent to the vendor about the problem and her email was garbled and made no sense. We'll have to call again and see if we can get someone we can actually communicate with. Happily, this is an unusual experience for us when we deal with Amazon.com -  normally they are wonderful to work with. Hopefully we'll get the replacement jack before we leave next week - it's a pain to raise and lower the tongue jack by hand!

In March, we'll be going on an extended trip - haven't decided exactly where yet, but we have a house sitter coming in so don't have to rush back home. I'm finding that deciding what clothes to take is tough. It seems that no matter how much or little I take, I've missed something. Since weight is a big factor in what we pack, and we can't just run home and get whatever we forgot, it's an important issue. I did a bit better this last trip than I have before, but still found I took more lightweight items than I needed and fewer medium weight shirts. I'm trying to be sure to take things that I can layer, thus do more with less. Keep your fingers crossed :)

The other part of the problem is food - specifically the staples: flour, sugar, and spices, etc. We do most of our meals at camp, and while we have a wonderful amount of storage space in the RV, and I'm determined not to take anything I can't fit into the RV, both space-wise and weight-wise. I've tried using the plastic pint and quart containers we used in the pop-up, but they don't work well. Right now, I have a couple of plastic lidded containers in which I put zip-lock bags of staples. That's a pain as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Since we'll be busy with Christmas, then getting the house ready for the sitter, we won't be back on the blog until March. In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones have a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays

Our Florida Tour Part 8: Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, FL; Wednesday, Dec. 5 to Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012

Our first day at the park, we got up early and drove to St. Simons to breakfast at Palmer’s Village Café – our favorite breakfast destination ever – then wandered over to the King and Prince to say hello to some of the folks who helped make my last several years of Sanibel meetings so much easier, and walked along the beach.  Then we made our way over to Sal’s Neighborhood Pizzeria where we had a wonderful pizza for lunch topped off with salted caramel gelato for dessert – yum! Sal Cenicola, who had boxed in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and other locations in the late 70’s and 80’s, was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in November and has his first fight in 25 years scheduled in February.  We wish him well in his fight. 

By the time we returned to the park, the temperature was 65 degrees and windy. We walked along the river’s edge and watched the birds and clouds speeding along. The temperature was still dropping so we headed back to the RV to change into warmer clothes.

This 1,427 acre park is named for the partially completed fort begun in 1847. It was built at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River to protect the natural, deep-water port of Fernandina – the eastern link of Florida’s only cross-state railroad. In spite of having never been fully completed, the fort served as a military post during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War II.  

St. Mary's River at the campground

Fort Clinch became one of the state’s first parks in 1935 and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began restoring the buildings at the fort in 1936. Today visitors can tour the fort and see how it may have looked in 1864 as it was being built by Army Engineers. The first weekend of every month, soldiers perform reenactments depicting relevant historic era’s everyday activities.  

Fort Clinch from the beach

The park is located on the northern tip of Amelia Island and surrounded on three sides by water, with the fort on the northern-most point of the island. The town of Fernandina Beach is built right up to the park entrance. The park is long and narrow and the entrance drive is about two miles long before branching off to the fishing pier, then the beach sites. Another mile or so along the drive is the river campground and fort. 

There are bicycle paths and hiking trails as well as birding trails. Willow Pond Trail winds around several freshwater ponds which offer prime habitat to alligators and turtles.  Egan’s Creek Marsh provides a saltwater estuary for an abundance of marine life and the salt marsh is home to many species of wading birds while the beaches abound with shorebirds and sea turtles.  The beach also offers excellent shark tooth hunting and shelling.  The park is home to gopher tortoises, deer, raccoons, bobcats as well as numerous species of birds and reptiles.  

Black Skimmers and a couple of gulls

An old lighthouse, right next to...

a paper mill

An exceptionally pretty church in Fernandina

We took one beautiful day and hiked to the fort and spent a couple of hours wandering around and talking to Frank, one of the historic rangers. Frank is a jewel – he visited the fort at 16, talked with one of the historic rangers and decided then and there he would like to be one as well. Frank went to college, majored in history, and upon graduation, got a job at Fort Clinch as a historic ranger, where he has been ever since (he’s now 44).  

The very uncomfortable looking bunks for enlisted personnel

Rich standing under the barrel of a cannon

Inside the fort from atop the perimeter walls

The tunnel that goes to the outside wall and the gun ports

Staircase to the top of the wall

More of the fort

While the fort has been garrisoned for a total of 98 years, it was fully manned only during the Civil and Spanish-American Wars, and World War II. It has a very interesting history – during the Civil War, the Confederacy held the fort during 1861, making it a safe haven for their blockade runners. In early 1862, the Union gained control and had responsibility for the citizens of Amelia Island but had no authority for trying or punishing them, since Florida was in the Confederacy. The Union soldiers could incarcerate lawbreakers but had to wait to hold a trial until lawyers and a judge with authority to practice In Florida arrived – sometimes taking a year or more.  

While hiking along St. Mary’s River to the fort, we saw a couple of tug boats, a barge, and a submarine on the way to the Atlantic. We were told later that the submarine was probably a foreign one that had come in for repairs. U.S. subs are escorted to sea until it is deep enough to submerge by 5 gunships and 4 helicopters, so this one had to be foreign.

The sub that was being escorted out to sea

The next day was rainy so we spent it inside reading and playing cards. The following morning we went fishing on the (very long) pier on the Atlantic side. We each caught a sea trout and a whiting. Since that was plenty for the two of us, we called it a day and went back to camp to fillet the fish, and had a wonderful dinner of fried fish, corn, and homemade cornbread.  Fish doesn’t come much fresher than that (but at least they didn’t twitch while I was cleaning them).

Rich, rigging our poles - notice how long the pier is (and we weren't all the way out)

Looks like he's got a fish!

A nice sea trout (and very yummy!)

A cute little sandpiper that was on the pier by us

Our Florida Tour Part 7: Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, FL; Thursday, Nov 29 to Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012

Our Florida Tour Part 7: Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, FL; Thursday, Nov 29 to Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012 

This is a park we’ve been to once before, several years ago and I brought Beth and Rick back in 1983 or 84.(Boy, did I have a time setting up the big, old tent with my only help Rick at 4 or 5 and Beth at 6 or 7!) In spite of having been here before, we’ve never “explored” the park, which is a shame since there is so much there.

From the dock at the camp store

Little Blue Heron

We took one day and learned a little about the area and several of the parks nearby. Tomoka is on the Intracoastal Waterway, and was inhabited more than 14,000 years ago by the Timucuan Indians. The Timucua consisted of various tribes which spoke related dialects and occupied most of Northern Florida. The Tomoka area also boasts of the ruins of Dummett Sugar Mill, the oldest sugar mill in Central Florida. Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park and Bulow Creek State Park are located just to the north of the campground. There are a total of eleven known plantation sites in Tomoka State Park.

Statue of Chief Tomokee

Path to the water

Bulow Creek State Park protects one of the largest remaining stands of southern life oak forest on Florida’s east coast. Here, you will see the cathedral-like Fairchild Oak – more than 2,000 years old with a spread of about 200’, and a trunk diameter of around 24’. It is huge, beautiful, and standing beneath its gnarly limbs is awe-inspiring.

Fairchild Oak

Fairchild Oak - the rest of the right side of it

Bulow Plantation Ruins is an interesting place, with the ruins of the sugar mill accessible by car or hiking trail. There are signs and audio information kiosks around the ruins as well as an interpretive center which tells the story of Bulow Plantation and the turbulent events that led to its destruction. (More of the Seminole War story, which has been a fairly constant theme at many of the parks we visited this trip.)

The one lane road back to the ruins

This area is full of salt marshes, hammocks of oaks, red cedars, and palmettos, and fishing abounds, with everything from catfish to drums being caught. We fished for an hour or so, but had no luck.  None-the-less, it was a beautiful day to be outside and we saw some interesting and gorgeous spots.

Daytona Beach is just south of here and one of Rich’s favorite breakfast/lunch spots, Mike’s Galley, is there along with my favorite spot here, Vittoria’s Italian Pastry Shop.  There are many other good places to eat and plenty of things to do in the Ormond Beach/Daytona Beach area, but Tomoka State Park can keep you busy for a couple of days.

Now it’s off to our last stop before we head home: Fort Clinch in Fernandina Beach.

Our Florida Tour Part 6: Lake Kissimmee State Park, Naples; Monday, Nov 26 to Thursday, Nov 29

Our Florida Tour Part 6: Lake Kissimmee State Park, Naples; Monday, Nov 26 to Thursday, Nov 29

This is as different from Collier Seminole as we could want – thank Heaven! The majority of the sites are fairly large, and well-shaded, most with generous buffer between.  We didn’t have anything planned to do outside the park, and since everything is about 15 miles away, we stayed in the park until time to go to our next stop.  Turns out, this is a great park to do just that.

The road in the campground

Our nice, quiet site

There is a marina (with wi-fi) just a short distance from the large Lake Kissimmee (54.6 square miles),  an overlook that allows you to view the prairie between the marina and lake, several trails, and canoes for rent. We took some walks, saw a gazillion armadillos, caught up on email, saw nine turkeys, three wood storks lurking around the marina, a female Florida Cooter (turtle) laying her eggs and a couple of sandhill cranes.  

One of the turkeys

Wood stork - he'll never win any beauty prize

Two of the three wood storks hanging around the marina

Sandhill Crane

Florida Cooter after she laid eggs

It was a delightfully quiet time – not too many other folks in the park and sites well separated –so  we just chilled out during our stay. We were thrilled with the low-key time, especially after the nightmare at Collier-Seminole! 

Our time at Lake Kissimmee was over all too soon, but we plan on returning. 

Our Florida Tour Part 5: Collier-Seminole State Park, Naples; Monday, Nov 19 to Monday, Nov 26

Our Florida Tour Part 5: Collier-Seminole State Park, Naples; Monday, Nov 19 to Monday, Nov 26

Collier-Seminole was a conundrum. The campground was awful but the rest of the park was delightful. The campground has a small loop (19 campsites) for tents and pop-ups only, which has nice buffer zones between large sites. The rest of the 101 sites are crammed together – two sites share water and electric hookups, causing 50% of the sites to have hookups on the wrong side if one is in an RV. The three restrooms are mediocre at best and the entire campground has a very dingy feel. Our site was only about two feet wider than our coach with the awning and slides out. The site next to us was even narrower than ours. There were only two sites in the place we would want – 120 and 102. 102 was a generous size but only about 25 yards or so off of the highway so there was considerable road noise.   

The mosquitoes were fairly bad – we should have had a hint when we saw a sign at the office when we checked in that gave the mosquito index.  “Moderate” was the lowest level, I don’t remember what the mid-level was, and the highest level was “Run”. Dickens was the most bothered by the mosquitoes and gnats – to the point that we drove about 10 miles back to buy a mosquito netting hat that I put on him. Believe it or not, I had no difficulty putting it on him and having him keep it on! 

The rest of the park is much better kept up – a blockhouse visitor center, a recreated Seminole chickee and dugout canoe, and the only remaining Bay City Walking Dredge (more on it later) are all easily accessible. 

The nature trail has one of the three remaining Royal Palm Hammocks in the US, which is more common to the Yucatan or Caribbean, and has a thick canopy of royal palm trees, gumbo limbo, Jamaican dogwood, satin leaf, and many varieties of ferns. There are two other trails, one is a 16 ½ mile  trek through an Everglades cypress habitat where panthers and bears are seen and the other 3 ½ miles Canoe rentals are available, and fishing, biking, and hiking are enjoyed at the park. The endangered Florida panther has been sighted within the park recently, along with the more common raccoons and other native wildlife.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the park by enjoying roasted chicken breasts, bread stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, the campground was very full and many of the folks had no idea of common courtesy – there were hoards of screaming children, yapping dogs, RC cars racing up and down the campground roads, loud adults, and blaring radios. A new one for us was the guy who brought his projection TV and showed a movie on the side of his RV. 

Friday, we drove the Tamiami Trail to Everglades City and Chokoloskee, where I’ve never been to before in spite of having lived in Fort Myers for more years than I would have liked. Chokoloskee was like taking a step back in time – very small, old-fashioned, and no fast-food places!.  Chokoloskee is the southern-most point you can drive to on the West coast of Florida. We talked to a good-looking young man at the Everglades National Park Visitor Center who is an Everglades City native. He likes the small town life and fishing for a living and plans to stay, although he could pass for a college student in any city. 

I remember the seemingly endless trips from Fort Myers to Miami back when I was a kid – the Trail had a few Seminole villages near the road, some air boat ride businesses, but mostly, endless Everglades and a two-lane highway. There was Ochopee, which I believe, had the smallest post office in the US – about the size of a porta-potti!  It’s not much different today – narrow two-lane highway, marshes and hammocks, Indian villages, and air boat rides. Much of the advertising is still in the 50’s style. The big difference are all the trails, boardwalks, paths, and visitor centers that have been added so passers-by can enjoy the Everglades close-up without much time.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, and The Marsh Trail in the 10,000 Island Preserve.  We were very lucky during our Big Cypress Bend walk where we viewed a big eagle’s nest, some huge, old cypress trees   (one larger in diameter than our 9’ diameter oak)  a big, old turtle sunning on a log, a blooming spider lily, and the highlight of the day, a black bear (the largest one we’ve ever seen). I even got a photo of it, although you need to use your imagination a bit. 

A strangler fig growing around a cypress tree

Our black bear in the upper left corner

The black bear cropped from the photo above

White ibis

Rich standing between two huge cypress trees

Some sort of lily - I was told a spider lily and an orchid lily...

The Marsh trail was 2.2 miles long and since it was getting hot and the trail was in full sun, we walked to the observation tower and spent some time there, then turned around and came back to camp. While on the trail, we saw white ibis, snowy egrets, some cute little duck-like birds that looked a lot like pied-billed grebes, some great blue herons, and a wood stork. From our vantage point on the observation tower, we were able to see a large number of fish in the water below, and the little grebe chasing the fish. The grebe would dive beneath the water and zoom after the fish. It was amazing how fast that little guy could swam!

The little grebe that was chasing (and catching) the fish in the pond

Wood stork

On the drive back to camp, we saw lots of different birds, most of which I couldn’t identify but am sure I saw a kingfisher sitting on a fence. First one of those I’ve seen in years. All-in-all, a very enjoyable day. 

The next day we went to the Naples Depot Museum. It was an interesting place, with some nice pieces and the admission was free.  There was a cool video along with sound, of a steam engine coming into a station that had been arranged to show on the windows of one of the waiting rooms – as though the train was actually outside.  

1955 Chevy Bel Aire

Two cars at theDepot Museum

1922 Ford Model T Depot Hack

One of the interesting things we saw at the campground was the Bay City Walking Dredge. The dredge is a huge piece of equipment – a framework 33 feet square with corner “shoes” 5 feet by 6 feet, two center “shoes” located on the left and right side of the framework which are 5 feet by 12 feet. It is on these center shoes that the entire dredge rests as the dredge then is swung forward, or walked. The shovel capacity was one yard – imagine! The machine could dig seven hundred cubic yards of material in a ten-hour period with an experienced operator. This amounted to seventy seconds per cycle of digging, swinging, dumping, and moving forward. It was with this dredge that a ten-mile portion of the Tamiami Trail was built between 1927-28.  The road had been begun in 1915, bur WW I diverted funding and interest from the project. Once construction began again, two men operated this machine six days a week, working ten-hour shifts each day. They worked in sweltering heat fighting swarms of mosquitoes and unlimited mud. The dredge crews lived on floating barges or trailers pulled by tractors. 

A quote from a communication to the Board of County Commissioners on August 1, 1926 gives us a better idea of how tedious all this must have been: “The Walking Bay City Dredge working on the cut off from Palm Hammock to the Marco-Ft. Myers road has made very good progress this month, making a total of 4,400 lineal feet of grade which equals a total of 20,103 cu. yds. handled.”  Presumably this was a report on work done in July – not even a mile!

Now it is on to Lake Kissimmee State Park near Lake Wales.